Fall 2004 Conference Schedule

Note: CL = Cathedral of Learning
Schedule is subject to change. Changes will be updated on the website, so please check before the day of the conference.

Title: A Vocabulary Primer: Facts, Processes, and Tasks
Room: CL 306
Presenters: Susan Braidi and Maria Teresa das Neves Seesink, West Virginia University

This workshop is for teachers who are new to the issues of vocabulary learning and teaching. We begin with an overview of vocabulary "facts." Participants then work through a series of tasks highlighting aspects of vocabulary knowledge and learning processes. Finally, we explore activities designed to enhance L2 vocabulary learning.

Title: Foreign Language and Cultural Anxiety
Room: CL 304
Presenter: Yi-Wen Huang, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

This paper reports the three sets of factors, self, fear, and relationships to target community, which affect foreign language and cultural anxiety, and how instructors benefit from being aware of the impact of these three factors on foreign/second language learners.

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Title: Starting from Scratch: Developing an EFL Course in Cambodia
Room: CL 313
Presenter: Jaime Horst, University of Pittsburgh

The presenter will discuss her recent experiences teaching EFL to Cambodian university students, for whom English is a key to future educational and employment opportunities. Issues to be discussed include developing a curriculum from a limited selection of materials, training inexperienced teachers, and meeting the needs of students at a wide variety of levels.

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Title: A Study of Chinese ESL Students’ Knowledge and Perceptions of Writing and Learning to Co-Write Strategies
Room: CL 342
Presenter: Liang-Yi Chung, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

This paper reports on explanatory classroom-based research to gain some insights into Chinese college ESL writers’ knowledge and perceptions of writing and learning-to-write strategies. The presenter will compare and contrast perceptions of prior knowledge and L2 writing strategies, and discuss pedagogical implications for instruction according to the results.

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Title: Recasts as Feedback in the Classroom
Room: CL 352
Presenter: Tia Robinson, University of Pittsburgh

This presentation will answer the questions: “What are recasts?” “Why are they important as classroom feedback?” and “What can I do to make my feedback more effective?”

Title: Motivation and Other Issues: The Immersion of L2 Learners into Post-secondary English courses
Room: CL 304
Presenter: Kimberly Thomas, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
This paper discusses aspects of motivation theory (Gardner, 1985) and examines current theoretical approaches to L2 learners in regard to factors affecting cognitive development and learning. The presenter will discuss task motivation (Dörnyei, 2003) and its correlation with the process-orientated approach to L2 motivation and learning. The presenter will also present a pedagogical framework which instructors can implement to provide a context for learning that develops self-efficacy and cognitive development for the L2 learner.

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Title: Teaching English in Tonga
Room: CL 313
Presenter: Christine Tapu, Pittsburgh Public Schools

Tonga is a small island nation in the Pacific. Based on recent experience in Peace Corps Tonga, I will share cultural impressions and reflect upon implications for the classroom both in the U.S. and abroad. The session might be pertinent for individuals with an interest in teaching overseas or domestically in Salt Lake City and points West of there due to the concentration of Tongan immigrants there.

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Title: The Use of Think Aloud Protocols to Investigate the Writing Habits of Saudi Students
Room: CL 342
Presenter: Mubarak AlKhatnai, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

This presentation will be about investigating the writing process of a bilingual Saudi person, by means of using think-aloud protocols. I want to understand the writing habits of Saudi EFL/ESL learners and what happens when they compose in another language. I will describe how non-native Saudi speakers of English write a topic in English. My basic question for this investigation is: “How do EFL/ESL Saudi learners write in English?” My goal is to find out some useful suggestions that may help in teaching English as a foreign or second language to Arabic-speaking learners in general and to Saudi learners in particular in the field of writing.

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Title: Increasing Students’ use of Listening Comprehension Strategies
Room: CL 352
Presenters: Christine O’Neill, University of Pittsburgh, Dawn McCormick, University of Pittsburgh & Jeff Johnson, Educational Testing Services

The purpose of this paper is to report on a project to increase student listening strategy use. The presenters share the “how-to” of the project, provide examples of student responses, and report on the overall effectiveness of the project.

Title: The Next Generation TOEFL
Room: CL G-24
Presenter: Lois Wilson, University of Pittsburgh

In September, 2005, a revised TOEFL with significant changes will become available. The goal of this new test is to emphasize authentic academic tasks and communicative competence. Changes in the test include new tasks which require test-takers to integrate language skills,. There is a new writing section and a speaking section. In addition, the test will be administered via the Internet, and there will be a new scoring system. ETS also hopes the score reports will be more useful for both students and institutions.

Title: Expressing Emotions in a Second Language: National Culture and Emotion Expression
Room: CL 304
Presenters: Nashwa Badr and Pamela DiIulio, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Expressing emotions is an essential part of human life. The purpose of this paper is to identify the importance of “emotional scripts” and the difficulties associated with translating and expressing these scripts in a second language. The paper advances several recommendations for teaching emotional expressions to foreign language students.

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Title: How Might an L1 Writing System for Sign Language Facilitate L2 Literacy for Deaf Learners?
Room: CL 306
Presenter: Tamar Bernfeld, University of Pittsburgh

It is well established that deaf students struggle learning to read and write oral-based languages such as English. Despite the various methods educators have used in an attempt to help deaf students master reading and writing, no one method has proven successful. A number of notation systems have been proposed to record signed languages. I will review two of these systems and propose that learning to read such a notation system might help facilitate L2 literacy in an oral-based language.

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Title: Cultural, Political, and Ethical Implications of the Teaching of English as a Missionary Language as Presented in the Popular and Academic Press
Room: CL 313
Presenter: Tom McLaren, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

This paper examines the presentation of Teaching English as Missionary Language (recently publicized by Pennycook and Coutand-Marin) in the popular and academic press. Examines the cultural, political, and ethical implications of these practices.

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Title: English through Music: Suggestions on Leading an ESL Choir
Room: CL 342
Presenter: Patti Spinner, University of Pittsburgh

Singing in English provides a unique way for ESL learners to improve their pronunciation and develop natural rhythm in speech. In this talk I’ll discuss some techniques for developing and leading an ESL singing group, based on over three years leading the “ELI Choir” at the University of Pittsburgh.

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Title: I’m Sorry! – Teaching Pragmatics in the ESL Classroom
Room: CL 352
Presenter: Kristi Melinchuk, University of Pittsburgh

The purpose of this presentation is to examine the speech act of apologies as produced by non-native students learning English. Ideas for teaching pragmatics will be suggested, as well as activities for instructors to include in the classroom.

Title: Appreciating Cultural Difference in Elementary Students
Room: CL 304
Presenter: Karen Gaul

Children who have grown up in cultures different that our American culture have grown up with different social expectations. Although this statement seems obvious, an appreciation of these differences is important to the success of an ESOL student both socially and academically. I am proposing an open discussion to encourage educators explore these cultural differences and related ways to accommodate their ESOL students.

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Poster Session
Room: CL 306

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Title: Using home culture in ESL to reduce cognitive load and connect with mainstream classes
Room: CL 313
Presenter: Pam Burrett, Allegheny Intermediate Unit 3
Beginning with a reference to research on the need for teachers to reduce the cognitive load, the cultural load, and the language load, this session will move to how K-12 ESL teachers can participate in this effort. I will present ideas on how ESL teachers can reduce the cultural load by creating a bridge from the home language/culture to the American experience. The ESL teacher is in a unique position to influence adaptations in the mainstream classroom by acting as a liaison and modeling best practices of second language instruction.

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Title: The Use of Music in the ESL Classroom
Room: CL 342
Presenter: Weena Gaulin, West Virginia University

Music can be a unique tool in the English as a Second Language Classroom. Music is powerful at developing listening comprehension, speaking, reading and writing skills, at increasing vocabulary, and at expanding cultural knowledge. This workshop presents lesson plans based on various music samples and strategies related to the use of music in the ESL classroom.

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Title: Do they get it?: Five-Minute Methods to Check Reading Comprehension
Room: CL 352
Presenter: Susan Kanter, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

The presenter will describe several activities that assess comprehension of informational texts. These activities are easy to organize, quick to present and implement, and communicative in nature. Students can practice these techniques on their own to monitor their comprehension and “know what they know” before completing homework, writing a paper, or discussing an academic reading in class.

Title: From Subject Content Text to Language Learning Task: A Workshop on Activity Construction within a Content-Based Curriculum
Room: CL 304
Presenter: Teresa Pica, University of Pennsylvania

2:25-2:55

Title: Constructions of the Authentic: A Double-Edged Sword for ESL and EFL Students
Room: CL 306
Presenter: Timothy Pelletreau, University of Pittsburgh

I will focus on my recent experience as an EFL teacher in Japan to explore different notions of “the authentic” and their effects on the linguistic performance of ESL and EFL language learners. Flowerdew’s and Miller’s scholarship, as well as Walker and Percy’s writings, will inform my analysis of authenticity.

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Title: Voice in Chinese Students’ Second Language Writing
Room: CL 313
Presenter: Jiajia He, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

This presentation shares the results of a study of two Chinese ESL graduate students’ writing in English at an American university. The presenter will identify and compare two individual voices through analyzing both academic and personal writing samples of these two students, and discuss implications for instruction based on the results.

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Title: Persistence of Chinese ‘Topicalization’ Properties in the L2 Grammars of Chinese Speakers
Room: CL 342
Presenter: Hua Yu, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Chinese speakers have no problems unlearning null subjects, but persistently use null objects in L2 English. This paper discusses the persistence of Chinese parameter settings involving topicalization in L2 English, and will aim to identify in a more differentiated way those areas which remain problematic for Chinese speakers.

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Title: Teaching Together
Room: CL 352
Presenters: Ikuko Fujiwara and Yukiko Matsuoka, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

This collaborative presentation will 1) discuss the effectiveness of team-teaching and 2) allow audiences to rethink their teaching beliefs, recharge their energies, and explore their future teaching approaches. The two presenters will draw from their own teaching experience as well as current second language teaching research.

Title: Author's Session: Words for Students of English, Volume 8
Room: CL 306
Presenters: Dawn McCormick, University of Pittsburgh; Lionel Menasche, University of Pittsburgh, Judy Yogman, University of Pittsburgh & Duquesne University & Missy Slaathaug, The Right Turn, Inc., Pierre SD

This volume in the Pitt Series in ESL was published in 2004. The author(s) will describe how it fits into and extends the series. It is different from the earlier volumes in that it includes a section on collocations in each unit and in its modular organization. There is a companion website with additional units and topic-related quotations for discussion. The goal of the book is to teach generally useful words that are of particular use to college students.

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Title: Effective PowerPoint Lessons and Activities for K-12 and Adult Students
Room: CL 313
Presenters: Elda Miller, Nancy Poole and Paul Wengerter, Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia

This presentation will cover ways in which PowerPoint can be used in the classroom as an effective teaching tool for both K-12 and adult students. Example lessons and activities in the areas of reading, math and grammar will be shown, and specific benefits such as focusing students’ attention and maximizing the visual aspect of PowerPoint for effective instruction will be discussed. In addition, the presenters will provide guidelines on how to determine when not to use PowerPoint as a teaching tool. A handout covering the basics of creating PowerPoint lessons will also be provided.

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Title: Rubrics for Success in the L2 Classroom
Room: CL 342
Presenter: Pamela DiIulio, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

This paper illustrates the experience of using teacher-designed rubrics as a guide toward improved performance in specific L2 writing and project-based assignments. Participants were EFL learners in an American school in the Middle East. A variety of rubrics and sample student work will be displayed.

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Title: Language Learning for Language Teaching
Room: CL 352
Presenters: Helen Huntley, Sandy Miller and Tracy Dingess, West Virginia University

This session will present the experiences of three English language teachers who participated in a faculty exchange program with a Mexican university. Drawing on studies in adult language acquisition, the participants will compare their experiences learning Spanish to previous language learning experiences, discuss challenges they experienced in and out of the classroom, and consider the overall value of the program.

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Title: Sociocultural Theory, Multiple Intelligences and ESL Instruction
Room: CL 358
Presenter: Janet Pierce, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
“Sociocultural Theory, Multiple Intelligences and ESL Instruction” shows how culture impacts language learning strategies used in the ESL classroom. Theorists Lantolf, Gardener, and a case study of four Asian and four US American graduate students and eight undergraduate Asian ELLs provide information on how each culture views these ways of learning.

Title: Where’s the “L” in ESL?
Room: CL 306
Presenter: Lilia Savova, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

This discussion encourages participants to reflect on the actual and desired state of language education in TESOL. How are teachers/programs handling the shift away from linguistics and towards cultural, sociological, psychological, political and global issues? Are there more effective solutions to these interdisciplinary challenges? Are learners getting the best language education?

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Title: Participating in the Culture of the Internet
Room: CL 313
Presenter: Claire Bradin Siskin, University of Pittsburgh

The Internet has brought is unprecedented access to authentic text, to native speakers, and to people in other countries. However, the Internet itself is a special culture that we must learn to deal with. ESL educators should also give students guidance on how to participate effectively in this environment. This session will have two purposes: 1) to describe some of the opportunities that the Internet offers for language learners to communicate, and 2) to provide guidance for participating effectively in the international virtual community.

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Title: A Native English Speaker Acquired Chinese Effectively
Room: CL 342
Presenter: Ai-Hwa Chen, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

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Title: ESL Staff Development for Mainstream Content Area Teachers from a Post-Process Pedagogy
Room: CL 352
Presenter: Holly Niemi, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

This session will provide an overview of an ESL Staff Development series that is based on the Kumaravadivelu’s (2001) ideas of post-method pedagogy. The lecture will highlight a sequenced group of three sessions; consisting of basic foundational knowledge of second language acquisition, an exploration of prejudices explanation of BICS and CALP, a language sensitivity lesson, as well as appropriate modifications and accommodations for the mainstream classroom. The lecture will conclude with a brief discussion of the parameters of particularity, practicality, and possibility.

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Title: The Backward Design Process: 101
Room: CL 358
Presenter: Lisa Minetti, University of Pennsylvania

The presenter describes the three basic stages in the backward design process and discusses how practitioners can use this process to inform their teaching and assessment practices.