The
standard protocol for presenting at TESL conferences in Canada is that the
presenter receives an honorarium and a card expressing thanks from the
organizing committee. It’s a nice gesture and I always appreciate
it.
Recently
I received a unique gift for presenting at the TEAM conference in Winnipeg,
Manitoba. It was a beautiful bag,
handmade by Angela of the One Nation Exchange (O.N.E.). I was moved to learn more about O.N.E. and
how this bag came to be.
On November 5, 2019,
the #CdnELTchat team was happy to welcome Sandhya Ghai (@GhaiSandhya) of Mosaic BC (@mosaicbc) as our guest moderator for a
discussion of Intercultural Fluency in the LINC Classroom. This chat was
a follow-up to Sandhya’s Tutela webinar on the same topic. (Tutela members can
log in to view the recorded webinar.) Thanks to Diane Ramanathan (@ramdiane), Tutela Community Coordinator, for facilitating this partnership
between Tutela and #CdnELTchat.
Image Source: Patrice Palmer Palmer, second from left, with staff of Addis Ababa Chamber of Commerce Training Centre, 2017.
Do
you remember having to write about your summer vacation on your first day back
to school? It doesn’t seem like a very original topic, but I want to
share my experience as a volunteer in Honduras, Ethiopia, and Guyana with Canadian Executive
Services Organization (CESO). You are probably wondering how this
happened since I’m an ESL teacher, not an executive. Let me explain.
I came to Canada as an immigrant from Bosnia – a war-torn country – which, to this day, is difficult to return to when I want to visit family. Not only do I remember things no child should, but physical remnants remain at every corner of the country itself. My family was one of those that escaped with a random truck driver in hopes of getting out and not being denied entry into Croatia, which was safe.
Bringing the L1 into the
EFL classroom does not need to be an overhaul of current practice in the
classroom, nor does it need to be applied to each and every classroom activity.
It is something that can be applied strategically and with intent at the
teacher’s discretion. The point is not to create a new method, but to
understand that cross-linguistic awareness is one of many useful teaching/learning
techniques that are available to us as language teachers.
A few years ago, I asked my students to do oral presentations about the geography of their native countries as a speaking test for LINC level 6-7. It seemed like a good idea, one that was more focused on English rather than research. The students prepared their PowerPoint presentations and when the presentation day finally arrived, the first up was Aisha from Pakistan.
She showed us several slides of Pakistan, pausing on the last one that clearly outlined the territory of the country. As Aisha explained the boundaries and its position relative to other countries, another student, Aryo, who was in the back row, jumped to his feet and pointed at the bottom border and said, “That’s wrong, that’s in Afghanistan!” I was still looking at the slide when he rushed up to the slide and traced the boundary he was referring to with his finger. “This is in Afghanistan, not Pakistan!” He kept repeating ever more loudly and stabbing his finger on the slide. I didn’t know it then, but there was a disputed border between the two countries where both were claiming the same land.
This year at the TESL ON conference, Asmaa Cober, Sanctuary Refugee Health Centre, will be one of our Keynote Speakers. The following blog post was written by Asmaa. Here she gives you a synopsis of her keynote address:
Learning never happens in a vacuum — people bring all of their experiences with them to the classroom. Newcomers (and refugees in particular) have a life history — experiences that greatly affect their ability to learn. We will explore some of the types of experiences that refugees bring with them to the classroom. Continue reading →
My husband and I laugh together a lot. I cannot imagine being with someone who does not share a sense of humour. However, I know many couples who do not have the same sense of humour. One of my mother-in-law’s first dates with her future husband involved seeing a Laurel and Hardy movie during which he laughed loudly. She thought he was an idiot but went on to marry him. Obviously, we don’t always laugh at the same things. This becomes quite apparent when you teach a second language class. Continue reading →
“The real voyage of discovery consists, not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” M. Proust
Travel is not new to me. Travel as a newly minted ESL teacher is.
I am in the middle of a month-long TESL internship in Poland, arranged through Algonquin College, as an optional extension to the TESL Program. Though culturally quite similar to Canada, I am plunked in a community where I do not speak or read the language. Continue reading →
