ELC (283)
The English Language Center at UTAS-Ibri has always been at the forefront in providing opportunities to the teaching fraternity at regular intervals to exchange its know-how on ELT Dynamics. As part of the ELT events hosted by the PDC committee, Ms Amal Ashour Ebid gave an informative presentation titled Helping Students Become Better Writers on 27.04.2021 at UTAS-Ibri.
The painstaking effort exerted to teach academic writing skills to EFL/L2 students is gratifying when learners are cognizant of the need to improve their English language skills and gain the mastery of the skill that is a pre-requisite for their academic and professional life.
Ms Amal Ashour highlighted the significant challenges of teaching writing and shared her views on facilitating students to improve their writing skills. She skillfully integrated Bloom's Taxonomy as part of planning instructions to teach writing skills. She further added that it could train students to use higher-order thinking skills to evaluate their writing. Her suggestion to use Bloom's taxonomy to enhance vocabulary in formal language was noteworthy.
She promoted using writing rubrics as a ready reckoner to help students plan and organize their ideas accordingly while writing.
The presentation had rich takeaways for writing teachers, and the tips shared were tailor-made and were worth adding to the teachers' activity repertoire.
Ms Amal Ashour Ebid holds a bachelor's degree in Education from the Suez Canal University, CELTA and a master's degree in English from the Annammali University. Her 14 years of teaching career is replete with exciting observations and her experiences are enriching.
With learning-centered instruction in vogue, instructors facilitate and share information with their students to find solutions to various academic issues. It has become obligatory for teachers as well as learners to understand learner's autonomy to fit in online learning environments. The instructors have to adapt to a range of interactive methodologies and focus on the instructional design of their courses.
With this backdrop, the presenter Rob Howard on 21.4. 2021 at UTAS-Ibri shared his experiences through a webinar that centered on the advantage of being online is working on fine-tuning learners' abilities. He spoke at length on usingthe online teaching mode to break fossilized habits in students' speaking, pronunciation, and accuracy by improving and building students' confidence utilizing methods that make working online a more effective and productive tool.
Rob concluded the session with a hopeful note that a prudent approach to using online tools would enhance the quality, quantity, and patterns of communication students practice during learninig language skills.
Rob Howard is an Owner of Online Language Center and managing partner of Business Language Training Institute. Joint Coordinator for the IATEFL BESIG( Business English Special Group), Online and Video Coordinator for the Visual Arts Circle, has authored and co-authored several books for EFL, co-founder of the Independent Authors & Publishers.
On 28.4.2021, Ms Claire Bradin Siskin gave an elaborate presentation on Demystifying Digital Literacy and Autonomous Learning
Digital literacy is fundamental in helping students become lifelong learners. It is an effective medium to have master essential life skills and academic skills. A fine blend of digital literacy and autonomous learning paves the way to critical thinking skills, which helps students communicate better.
Ms Claire suggested that interesting tips and techniques facilitate students to become effective autonomous learners and use online resources to enhance their academic and critical thinking skills as it has become more critical than ever to have an edge with a stronghold on digital literacy skills.
The presentation was quite informative and proved to be relevant and valuable in the current scenario.
Claire Bradin Siskin is a consultant, teacher trainer, and practitioner of computer-assisted language learning (CALL). She has 20 years of classroom experience as an instructor of ESL/EFL. She has a strong interest in international education and has given presentations and workshops in 24 countries.
Language Learning games for the classroom are one of the best ways to promote language learning.
Ms Hind engaged the ELC staff on 25 April 2021 by introducing teachers to an innovative and free learning platform where they can create their own jeopardy games for online or in-person classrooms.
Ms Hind justified her endorsement as interesting features of Factile facilitate teachers to use user-friendly game -board templates and play Factile in four different ways: Jeopardy-style, multiple-choice, memory, or flashcards. She also recommends it as its multiple features make the lessons interactive and engaging. Some features that were listed were buzzer mode, images, sound effects, and many others. Ms Hind describes Factile as an effective tool to check students’ understanding of new topics and review the previous lessons.
Ms Hind concluded the session by reiterating that language learning games can generate immense interest and effectively gain students’ attention.
Hind Al_Mahrouqi is an EFL lecturer at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences_Ibri. She has a Master of Education in TESOL from the University of Sydney, Australia. She has been teaching English for over four years. She is interested in autonomous learning and technology use in the classroom.
As part of the professional development training series, the English Language center at UTAS- Ibri hosted ELT event on Tuesday 20 April with three guest speakers: Ms Amber Naveed from Pakistan, MsIsra Othman from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and MsNourein Al Shaer from Egypt.
Due to the accelerated pace with which developments in information and communications technology are taking place, digital society and the digital economy have become real and generate specific challenges
Ms Amber, in her presentation, highlighted various aspects of digitalization in the education sector and its impact on young minds. She also made her audience ponder how treating the child's cognitive development is a question. The dynamics of digitalization have brought in new challenges for the teaching community.
Ms Amber also shed light on how is digitalization in education taking the role of teacher. She also focussed on how children's minds work in this digital world and how their cognitive skills can be enhanced digitally.
There was an exchange of know-how on the role of the teacher and the benefits of digital tools in the era of digitalization. She concluded her talk with Covid 19 crisis and the changes it has brought in the education sector.
Amber Naveed is an educationist and has worked in the field of education in different roles for the last 23 years; she holds a degree in HR and a Certified Trainer from Cambridge university with 13 years of hands-on experience as a Master Trainer, being trained in leadership skills from Valparaiso University USA, IYLC and does leadership course from Institute of Education IOE London.
Ms Israa Othman presented an informative presentation on conduct effective online assessments for university students. She came up with three unique perspectives on assessment: assessment as learning, assessment of learning, and assessment for learning. She also talked about summative and formative assessments.
Another significant point was how to understand opportunities and concerns about online assessment.MsIsraa pointed out that accessibility and flexibility, detailed feedback and collaborative learning can be treated as opportunities and can be exploited to raise the standards of online assessments. She also threw light on specific concerns one needs to look into while implementing online assessment and listed academic integrity, high workload, student isolation, technical issues, equity and fairness, differing technical abilities and less opportunity to clarify assignment guidelines.
Ms Isrra used a wide range of infographics and diagrams to make her audience understand the difference between various types of assessments and prevent plagiarism. She also introduced innovative ideas to substitute traditional exams as a means of assessment and showcased some tools for online assessment. She concluded her presentation with a step-by-step guide to create e-portfolios.
Israa Othman is the founder of Teach-O-Gen for educational transformation with an MA in Educational Leadership from UoM. With over 13 years of teaching experience, Israa is a certified Cambridge trainer for Teaching with Digital Technologies, holds a TEFL and a Diploma in teacher training, CELTA (IH London), and CET from Cambridge. With years of extensive teacher training and teaching at PNU in KSA, she has developed her empathetic approach to training and writing to support teachers worldwide.
A crisp description of classroom management includes the wide variety of skills and techniques that teachers use to keep students methodical, focused, attentive, on task, and academically productive during a class. When classroom-management strategies are executed commendably, teachers minimize the behaviors that impede learning for both individual students and groups of students while maximizing the behaviors that facilitate or enhance learning.
MsNourien Al Shaer captured this essence of classroom management in her presentation. She shared many interesting tips and strategies to make classes interactive and rewarding to generate interest in students in online learning.
This session focused on the challenges of virtual classroom management, traditional management strategies and approaches that can be implemented in the virtual classroom to work for both group and individual tasks.
Ms Nourein Al Shaer is an Academic English instructor at the Nile University, Egypt. She has been working as an English university-level lecturer since 2009. She is CELTA-certified and holds Masters in Applied linguistics. Her research is on computer-mediated communication that underlines combining Synchronous CMC tools, as online written chat, in EFL teaching and learning.
With his rich expertise and experience, Roy Anderson enlightened the teachers on the art of critical thinking at the English Language Center, UTAS, Ibri, on 22 April 2021.
Critical thinking is the new byword in education, but what does it mean and is it being taught effectively? In this discussion, Roy explicitly presented his perspectives on why we generally fail to improve the ability of our students to think critically and what we could otherwise do to improve this skill. He stressed the need to know why the design of school has a purpose of preventing the development of this skill in being able to reason better. Roy also introduced his audience to another dimension of improving student learning. He titled itas the art of sensitivity in awareness.
A common understanding is that a student is born with a genetic ability to learn, which can be improved through the environment they live through. The design of the school and all teaching and learning methodologies are based upon this. His explicit explanation on why this understanding of intelligence is not correct and why school learning has nothing to do with intelligence was quite convincing and impressive. He further Academic success depends on how the mind of the student, and not their brain, gain stability in the home and the class environment. If parents and teachers understood what this means, all students would get better grades in school, a better job, and control the factors in their lives.
The views shared were highly appreciated by the elite audience and the takeaways of the presentation were immensely rich. The head of ELC lauded the efforts of the professional development committee for introducing an amazing ELT professional who provided convincing solutions to the intriguing questions.
Roy Andersen is the Principal of Kingston College, Lahore and a recognised global educational expert with nearly 40 years in the development of the school system. He has a personal following of 40,000 educationalists around the world, and is much appraised for his many years of scientific research into what intelligence is, how to improve the operation of the school and how teachers can teach better.
Roy is an expert in intelligence, a specialist in Petro’s Conductive Education for disabled children and a trained Deaf and Blind teacher. He is the inventor of “The Brain Environment Complex Theory,” which presents a new concept to what intelligence is and how children learn.
The guest speaker Dr Jagan Mohan Rao shared an impressive presentation titled Behavior and Online Interaction with students on 22 April 2021. He focused more on motivating teachers to adapt to new techniques used in online teaching to ignite the young minds. He emphasizes upgrading digital teaching skills as all educators are left with the only teaching option online.
He observes that many a time, lack of availability of suitable teaching materials, failing to complete the syllabus in time, disappointed students make teaching online more stressful for the teacher and the taught.
Dr Jagan confessed that Online teaching is challenging and he listed several factors. Some of them that found a mention was heavy usage of screen time and class management issues. He strongly endorses that the factors mentioned played a dominant role.
DrJagan’s presentation centered around a detailed discussion of online learning and two approaches to online learning: synchronous and asynchronous learning methods. He also introduced the audience to the list of software programs that are now available to develop an online course. His observations on teaching online, learning and the challenges of teaching online were noteworthy. He also stated that Structuring an Online Course needed Course Planning, Course Organization and Communication.
Dr Jagan captured the essence of good teaching through the following quote:
“Good teaching is good teaching” (Ragan 1998). Experienced online instructors stress that teaching online is less about the mechanics of distance education and “more about what makes for an effective educational experience, regardless of where or when it is delivered” (Ragan 1998).
Another exciting aspect of the webinar was Evaluating Student Performance for Grading Purposes. According to the speaker evaluating the student performance for grading purposes is a responsible task. To maintain the sanctity, the teachers need to communicate expectations keep track of student performance, give prompt feedback, design tests, encourage active learning, evaluate participation in threaded discussions
Dr Jagan concluded with a suggestion that teachers need to be adept at troubleshooting technical issues which surface during online teaching as this makes the teacher and the students confident of the online teaching and learning process.
Dr Jagan Mohan Rao, Asst. Professor of English working in Shaqra University, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, holds a PhD in English Language Teaching from Kakatiya University, Warangal, Telangana State, India. He has rich experience in teaching in various colleges in India and abroad(Saudi Arabia).
Currently, he is teaching Sociolinguistics, Teaching Methods, and Basic Language Skills at Shaqra University. His research interests include Speaking and Listening Skills, Forensic Linguistics, Educational Psychology, Educational Technology, Learning Disability, etc.
The professional development committee of ELC, UTAS-IBRI, has been striving hard and is at its best to meet the training needs of the ELC staff by hosting series of webinars on a wide range of topics to facilitate and update the faculty members with the dynamics of ELT and other related areas.
Assessment for General Foundation Programme is distinctive as the assessment is designed to determine whether the student meets the learning outcome standards defined by the courses offered. The four skills (LSRW) are assessed through various modes and methods based on the learning outcomes identified.
The speakers Dr Miriam Villaroman-Cordova and Ms Sharon Ruth Devaneson shared a well-tailored and customized in-house presentation titled GFP Exam Writing on 18.4.2021 with the ELC staff. The sole objective of this presentation was to create a general awareness of procedures that are followed to conduct the GFP writing exam. The session was moderated by Dr Mohammed Amir.
Dr Miriam Villaroman-Cordova has been teaching English for the past 16 years. She has a master's degree in Education Major in English. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy Major in Educational Management in 2013. She believes that teaching is an art and considers her classroom as her stage.
Ms. Sharon Ruth Devaneson has 17 years of tertiary-level English teaching experience in Oman. She has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature from the University of Madras in Chennai, India. She completed her CELTA from the British Council, Oman, in 2007. She enjoys creating material to suit her learner's varied needs and styles.
The presentation made the audience conversant with the various stages of exam writing and how it is administered at the English Language center, UTAS-Ibri, based on the instructions given by the ministry.
Dr Miriam introduced the ELC staff to the members of the Exam Writing Committee and gave a detailed account of Exam specifications, learning outcomes, delivery plan and GFP moderation procedure. She also explained various stages of the exam writing process and the strategies followed to design LSRW question papers and shared the pattern of the exam and justified the way they are sequenced.
Ms Sharon focused on the application part and allowed the teachers to experience the process of exam writing through various activities. Her discussion also centered around different types of questions asked in LSRW exams. She also mentioned that the most challenging to write is reading passages and Listening section 3 and the easiest to moderate is writing.
Another significant aspect of the discussion was the examination platform that is used to conduct LEE exams. Ms Sharon exchanged the know-how of conducting exams through Moodle, which included the nitty-gritty of the examination process to have adhered during the exams.The presenters were committed to sharing videos on how to upload questions on Moodle.
The presentation was highly interactive and informative and the teachers' participation was commendable.