International Teachers of English Conference Abstracts

Kazakhstan

Communicative Fluency Activities
Marina Novozhilova, Irina Loshkova – Taraz State University

The aim of our workshop “Communicative Fluency Activities” is to present different kinds of exercises to complement traditional foreign language lessons and make them more interesting and lively. Since foreign language teaching should help students achieve some kind of communicative skills in the foreign language, all situations in which real communication occurs naturally have to be taken advantage of and many more suitable ones have to be created.

We would like to offer you two devices that help the teacher in making up communicative activities: information gap and opinion gap. Information-gap exercises will be presented through guessing games, jigsaw tasks and problem-solving activities. Opinion-gap exercises will be organized by letting the participants share their feelings about an experience they have in common, ranking exercises, values clarification, discussion games are also included. In most cases, activities are suitable for a variety of levels, from elementary to advanced. All activities demand the minimum of preparation before the lesson. Teachers may find them helpful to make the students read, write, and talk in the foreign language as well as let them play. As many of the activities focus on the participants’ personalities they help build an atmosphere of mutual understanding. In these types of communicative activities the teacher has to decide whether to join in the activity as an equal member or remain in the background to help and observe.

Using Toulmin’s Analysis to Structure Evaluation Arguments for a Speaking Activity
Anthony Samuel – Almaty, Kazakhstan

This interdisciplinary workshop will analyze one form of classical argument, the evaluation argument, after which time teachers will be invited to participate in a task-based activity involving evaluation. Toulmin’s analysis is a systematic procedure for evaluating an object, a person, or some other phenomenon. Toulmin’s analysis uses the following terminology: claims with reason, grounds, warrants, backing, conditions of rebuttal, qualifier. Given a systematic (analytical as opposed to holistic or “gut”) procedure, learners would be expected in both speaking and writing to produce longer responses, to delve deeper into the content of what they are evaluating, and generally get a better grasp of English rhetorical conventions.

Evaluation arguments involve what we call a criteria-match process, whereby, first, the writer or speaker must establish criteria; secondly, the writer or speaker must show how well a subject matches the criteria. Criteria are based on the purpose of the class to which the thing (that you are evaluating) belongs. For example, if your pupil/student asked you to write him or her an evaluation, you would need to know what he/she was applying for (what class he or she wants to be a member of, e.g., participation in a study-abroad program. Deciding the purpose often requires first knowing the context. If context in an evaluation of automobiles equates to place of use, then a lower middle-class car buyer from the “heartland” in the U.S. might buy for different reasons than say a Muscovite.

Teachers will complete a task-based speaking/writing activity entitled, choosing a candidate, from Ur’s Discussions That Work. In this activity, a University Appointments Committee which has been entrusted with the task of awarding a Law Scholarship to one of five students of the law school who have attained similar marks in the entrance exam and who have all applied for the scholarship. The activity leaves generous scope for role-play—in the setting of the committee meeting. Thus, given such tasks, even marginalized members in a language learning setting have an opportunity to assume a role and participate.

Motivation of Students for Extra-Curricular Projects
Artem N. Yermilov – al-Farabi Kazakh National University

The proposed demonstration discusses the possibilities for encouraging and motivation of students for extra-curricular projects where they can develop their own projects of presentations on topics of their interest. There is presented a format for such presentation and effective approaches that can be used.

Teaching of foreign language at upper-intermediate and higher levels naturally follows the purpose to provide learners with skills enough for everyday and professional communication. Actually, there are two levels of such communication: first, speaking on general topics and general presentation of home country, culture, etc.; and second, professional communication and presentation of some work, scientific/business project or product, professional presentation of a school or a company.

Digital Storytelling in English Language Learning: Photo Story 3 for
Windows
Damira Jantassova – Buketov Karaganda State University

Digital imaging technology is rapidly becoming famous in education because it helps students learn content in ways that would have been difficult or impossible without this technology. Most teachers used to practice one of the innovative teaching methods, using digital images, called digital storytelling. Images provides ways for ESL students to engage with both visual and printed texts that can help students envision a text, offer a unique bridge to writing as well as allow students to communicate meaning visually. Students can capture what they see, often acquiring large libraries of images that are then filtered and narrowed as they work to refine their thinking and meet the specific requirements of the task at hand.

With the aim of sharing my experience I’d love to show the ways we make English lessons efficient using the program Photo Story 3 for Windows to develop reading and writing skills and to enlarge English vocabulary. Mostly I would say storytelling is a very useful student’s toolkit of reading strategies, but in the process of making a movie students work much in the collaborative groups where they share ideas, collecting pictures, and communicate in-class time activities under the supervision of a teacher who develops their speaking skills too. What my American colleagues and I have discovered in the short time we have been working with digital images in the language learning classroom is that effective teaching practices paired with powerful technologies provide student readers and writers with unique authentic experiences that can transform their understanding of text, words, and images.

Methods of Teaching English
Gulmira Yemkulova – Kazakhstan

The presenter will share the experience of introducing learner-centered approach in the course that she reads “Methods of Teaching English” and new forms of alternative assessment of students. She speaks about the changes that happened in teaching and student approaches to learning after her using active, cooperative, and inquiry learning strategies. Increasing the decisions students can make about assignments and activities more fully engages them in the course and its content .The role of the teacher in a learner-centered classroom changes from sage on stage to guide on the side, trying to create a climate that promotes interaction, autonomy, and responsibility. . The function of content in a learner-centered course changes from covering content to using content. It is connected to the learning skills, time-management skills, and other strategies and approaches. Students experience the content of the course by applying it. She provides a variety of activities and assignments that move students to new skill levels, motivate engagement in the course content: writing-to-learn activities, cooperative and group learning, case studies, and short projects and activities.

Debates in the Lesson: Motivate and Involve!
Vera Alexandrovna Krepysheva – Kostanai Oblast, Kazakhstan

Nowadays, debates are wide-spread in Kazakhstan and include English-speaking leagues. In fact, at the November Kostanai Oblast Competition, eight teams competed in the English-language league. Debates have a firm methodological grounding in communicative approach and critical thinking, but teachers tend to only view their strict format and think that they are too complicated for everyday use. This couldn’t be more false!

This workshop seeks to explain debate structure and theory to teachers in such a way that both they and their students can benefit from this wonderful teaching technique. Attending this workshop does not mean that teachers must create debate leagues and teams within their regions (they already exist throughout Kazakhstan and are likely enjoyed in other countries as well), but that they can use this fascinating technique to make classroom time more enjoyable, motivate students, and to involve ALL of their students. Nothing is more rewarding than seeing a previously silent and disinterested student, suddenly be unable to restrain himself from participating in the English-language fun!

A Gentle Approach for Complete Beginners
Natalya Penner – Aktobe, Kazakhstan

Working with young language learners in the primary classroom can be both a rewarding and a demanding experience. To make the most of that experience for both learners and teachers we need to be very clear what it is we are trying to do. We must try to identify what learning a language in school demands from young children and what it can offer them. We should also acknowledge what the implications of those demands and needs are for the teachers. This article deals with the learners themselves. It shows how they bring with them to the classroom existing skills and instincts which help them to learn a new language. It also discusses how those skills and instincts form the foundation for our priorities with young learners. After having discussed the main problematic points of teaching English to young language learners we may conclude that in order to bridge the gap between what the courses demand and what young children who are complete beginners are capable of we should take into consideration all the points being studied in the article.

Innovations in EFL Classroom: Understanding, Implementing, Accepting
Olga Samofalova – Shymkent, Kazakhstan

Education policies, technologies, methodology and surroundings are changing dramatically at every level, thereby having a tremendous impact on the dynamics of English language teaching.

Teaching nowadays means dealing with the world of technology, cultural and ethnic diversity, new requirements to strategy, planning and assessment. Students’ needs are diverse and are directly connected to the economical, political, cultural and educational changes in their countries. Term “innovation” – meaning new, fresh, unusual look at some point or matter – is very popular and unites educators all over the world in many aspects and at many angles. With high levels of communicative competence and critical thinking as an expected goal for EFL school, college or university students, questions focusing on innovative curricula and creative co-curricula emerge and need to be presented, discussed and reflected in target groups of teachers.

Every skill can be viewed in a new way – speaking, writing, reading, and listening. Every step can get a fresh meaning – time or space management in the classroom, effective ways of presenting or consolidating material, testing process and skills, socio-psychological environment and community space both for the students and for the teachers. Innovation blooms inside us. Teacher-training practice of several creative teams working in the countries of Central Asia is an invaluable experience showing how much creativity, innovation, and inspiration leaders in education can bring to the community, thus helping to understand new trends, to incorporate them into their educational process and to accept them after a thorough analysis and evaluation. Teaching ESP to medical students is a good example of the broad range of opportunities in linking special professional knowledge to innovative approaches in EFL teaching.

The Role of Microteaching in Teaching a Foreign Language
Rosa Bobesh - Kazakhstan

Although microteaching has long been used as a professional development tool in in-service teacher training programs, teacher trainees seldom take this training seriously. At least this is the situation in Egypt. This attitude greatly diminishes the usefulness of microteaching, which can be beneficial.

Microteaching helps teachers to understand better the processes of teaching and learning. It provides teachers with ample opportunities to explore and reflect on their own and others? teaching styles and to acquire new teaching techniques.

Microteaching, as a training technique, began at Stanford University in the early 1970s. It was first applied to teaching science, but later it was introduced to language teaching. The theoretical basis for the Stanford approach was initially related to the psychological theory of behaviorism. However, it is more valid to see microteaching as a technique for professional reflection than as a technique for shaping behavior.

Meeting Students’ Academic Needs through Self-Study
Saule Abdygaparova – Kazakh-British Technical University

The workshop acquaints with organizing self-study activities designed for students of Economics in the frame of ESP course. Self-study is students' independent work supervised by the instructor and aimed at instilling skills of lifelong learning. Self-study is organized in the format of a two-semester group project work and sets the following objectives: combine the conceptual and experimental aspects of the ESP course; seek new ideas on effective education from outside the field of foreign language; help students acquire the cognitive and behavioural skills that will facilitate effective action in professional situations upon graduation; develop students’ critical thinking ability and master observational and analytical skills; encourage team building and group work; assist students in learning how to handle diverse background resources (textbooks, video, photo, mass media, software, Internet, etc.); practice the display of appropriate verbal and non-verbal foreign language-related communication techniques.

Get the Best out of Group Learning
Sulushash Kerimkulova – Kazakh British Technical University

In modern education and training, group learning has a very important role to play. Research on group learning suggests that it produces higher achievement, increases retention, and develops interpersonal skills. It has also been shown to promote higher self-esteem and foster responsibility, encourage creativity and teach students to negotiate meaning. It provides vehicle for teaching students to process skills that are needed to work effectively within a group.

In this workshop the presenter will demonstrate a number of creative techniques for organizing and managing effective group learning. Participants will be encouraged to engage in interactive activities designed to address and explore techniques related to effective group learning.

An introduction to group dynamics will be provided, looking at how students behave in groups and teams, showing how the dynamics of a group depend on such things as the number of students in a group and the way in which it is organized, and examining the different roles that people play in groups and teams, with particular emphasis on the role of the leader. Then some of the general characteristics of group learning, discussing its main educational advantages and disadvantages and examining the role of the teacher in facilitating its use will be discussed with the participants. A detailed look at the main group-learning techniques, ways of organizing discussion groups with the focus on strategies that make group learning trouble- free and profitable will be taken. Finally, main educational contexts within which group learning can be used will be examined.