Jayme Adelson-Goldstein
"Fostering learner agency - the key to adult growth, learning, and development"
"Fostering learner agency - the key to adult growth, learning, and development"
While we want to do everything in our power to support our learners, it’s important to recognize that our learners’ ability to persist in the struggle to learn does not reside in our power, but in theirs. One of the most meaningful outcomes of an the adult English language class is the agency that learners can reclaim as they stand at the center of rigorous and relevant instruction. This session addresses several ways to highlight learner agency at every stage of our integrated language and content instruction.
Jan Frodesen
“Developing Language Awareness and Proficiency in Content-Based Instruction”
“Developing Language Awareness and Proficiency in Content-Based Instruction”
Research on content-based instruction (CBI) in language teaching has identified two issues that repeatedly arise regarding its implementation: 1) lack of attention to form and 2) the balancing of attention to form and attention to content (Brinton & Snow, 2017). In this presentation, I will first provide an overview of the principles of content-based instruction and discuss teacher preparation for focusing on language in CBI. I will then demonstrate how language teachers can “mine” oral and written texts for vocabulary and grammatical structures to create noticing and production tasks for learners. Sample texts and tasks are drawn from classwork in English for Academic Purposes; however, the strategies and tasks can be adapted for use in other instructional contexts.
Bahiyyih Hardacre
"Monitoring Affect and Minimizing Second Language Learners’ Language Anxiety to Foster Growth, Learning, and Development in the ESL Classroom"
"Monitoring Affect and Minimizing Second Language Learners’ Language Anxiety to Foster Growth, Learning, and Development in the ESL Classroom"
Learning a second language involves one important challenge: dealing with a certain amount of anxiety and stress caused by external and internal pressures to process input and produce output. Some of the major contributors to second/foreign language anxiety are learners’ perceived competence, language learning difficulties, command in the target language, interpersonal motivation, self-confidence, personality characteristics, willingness to communicate in the target language, and communication apprehension, among several others.
In the process of acquiring a second language, learners engage a psychophysiological mechanism linked to their autonomic nervous system that has the potential to trigger but also control anxiety. This biological mechanism has an important role in the language learning experience. For this reason, to better serve language learners with second language anxiety, it is important to know how to identify behavioral characteristics, monitor the levels of stress in their educational contexts using heart monitors, and teach them self-soothing techniques along with targeted motivational counseling.
In this presentation I will suggest a few tools and techniques that teachers can use to monitor and minimize their students’ language anxiety and foster their growth, learning, and development.
In the process of acquiring a second language, learners engage a psychophysiological mechanism linked to their autonomic nervous system that has the potential to trigger but also control anxiety. This biological mechanism has an important role in the language learning experience. For this reason, to better serve language learners with second language anxiety, it is important to know how to identify behavioral characteristics, monitor the levels of stress in their educational contexts using heart monitors, and teach them self-soothing techniques along with targeted motivational counseling.
In this presentation I will suggest a few tools and techniques that teachers can use to monitor and minimize their students’ language anxiety and foster their growth, learning, and development.
Anna Valentin Osipova
“Nature or Nurture?”: Identifying and Supporting ELLs with Learning Disabilities"
“Nature or Nurture?”: Identifying and Supporting ELLs with Learning Disabilities"
The featured talk addresses the much deliberated challenge of identifying ELLs who struggle with English acquisition and the overall academics as students who experience significant learning difficulties due some contextual factors and those who have learning disabilities (LD). The talk takes a look at the contextual factors that possibly lead to persistent ELLs’ underachievement and ways to ensure that this vulnerable and yet resilient population of students and their teachers have resources to counteract the obstacles. Once the influence of contextual factors is identified, within-the-student learning characteristics are examined. The presentation features and contrasts sample distinct learning profiles of ELLs, illuminating patterns of difficulties in language and literacy tasks that are indicative of having a Learning Disability. The audience will be introduced to formal and informal academic assessment methods that allow for the sound-base hypothesis that a student might have a LD. The talk also covers a number of evidence-based instructional strategies that can be used to support ELLs with LD in academic settings.
Two exciting features of the LA Regional CATESOL Conference, March 2, 2019
We will have a Novice Teachers’ Panel, with administrators and teachers working at different levels.
We will be hosting an app village, where you will be able to learn and share information about your favorite apps. The app village will also host a panel of technology experts. If you are interested in presenting in the app village, contact Martha Clayton at [email protected]
We hope you will join us for an exciting day of professional development!
We will be hosting an app village, where you will be able to learn and share information about your favorite apps. The app village will also host a panel of technology experts. If you are interested in presenting in the app village, contact Martha Clayton at [email protected]
We hope you will join us for an exciting day of professional development!