Year 4
Number
97
February 8th 2003
More than 4400 SHARERS are reading this issue of SHARE this
week
__________________________________________________________
Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single
candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never
decreases by being SHARED
__________________________________________________________
Dear SHARERS,
All good things
come to end and our summer holidays could be no exception. Next Monday will, for
many of us, mark the end of the summer holidays 2002. In Colleges of Education
within Provincia de Buenos Aires, the dreaded (both by students and teachers
alike) make-up period starts. Yes, we have a make-up period in Higher Education
round here. Many others, especially, but not exclusively, at private schools
start their “duty” (guardias) and the endless (and tiring!) series of teachers´
meetings for planning, choosing coursebooks, decorating classrooms and corridors
and , of course, there´s always the make-ups ( and the make-ups of the
make-ups), exams and the like.
On Thursday Marina
underwent a minor surgical procedure and in two weeks doctors will tell us
whether she´s got to be operated upon or not. It has kept her kind of (notice I
said “kind of”) quiet ( and silent!) over the last two days. She´s feeling
better now but she´s not still her old and very dynamic self, yet. She´ll be
much better on Monday to start her duty at school.
This is going to
be a long issue of SHARE with plenty of offers for courses and publishers´
seminars and presentations. So it´s goodbye for now and as my good friend
Bernieh says
“Enjoy!!!”
Love
Omar and
Marina
In SHARE
97
1.-
The Benefits of Extensive Reading (Part One).
2.-
Are you looking? The Importance of eye contact.
3.-
Licentiate Diploma in Applied Drama.
4.-
News from Oxford University Press.
5.-
Words of the Year 2002.
6.-
News from Pearson Education.
7.-
Scholarships Announced.
8.-
First Annual Symposium in Cali, Colombia.
9.-
News from Cambridge University Press.
10-
Advice Summer Seminar.
11-
Seminar on Motivation and Rapport.
12-
News from Macmillan.
13-
Programa de Metodología Innovadora.
14-
Conference on Applied Drama: An update.
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1.- THE BENEFITS OF EXTENSIVE READING
(PART ONE)
Our dear SHARER Mary Ryan from Montevideo, Uruguay, wants to SHARE this
article with all of us. Part Two of this interesting article (together with
bibliographical references) will be published in our next issue.
The Language Learning Benefits of Extensive
Reading
Paul Nation
Victoria University of Wellington
The idea that learners can develop their language knowledge through
extensive reading is attractive for several reasons. First, reading is
essentially an individual activity and therefore learners of different
proficiency levels could be learning at their own level without being locked
into an inflexible class program. Second, it allows learners to follow their
interests in choosing what to read and thus increase their motivation for
learning. Third, it provides the opportunity for learning to occur outside the
classroom.
However, before investing time and money in an extensive reading program,
it is necessary to be sure that the learning that occurs from it is not
restricted solely to the improvement of reading fluency, even though this in
itself is a useful goal. This article looks at the language learning benefits
from extensive reading, looking both at extensive reading of texts prepared for
native speakers and those prepared for non-native
speakers.
An important issue considered in this article is the vocabulary load of
the texts that learners should read in extensive reading. Laufer's (1989)
research suggests that learners need to be familiar with at least 95% of the
running words in a text if they want to comprehend and thus perhaps learn from
the text. In the following section we will see if texts for native speakers can
meet these requirements.
Extensive Reading by Non-native Speakers of Texts Written for Young
Native Speakers
The "book flood" studies reviewed by Elley (1991) show striking increases
made on measures of language use, language knowledge, and academic performance.
The studies of extensive reading that Elley was involved in are the most
substantial in terms of length (12-36 months) and number of students (from over
a hundred to several thousand). The book flood studies involved learners
spending the greater part of their class time reading books that interested
them.
The measures of language use in Elley, and Elley and Mangubhai's studies
included measures of oral language, reading comprehension, and writing. An
interesting finding in some of the studies was the improvement made in writing,
which appeared most dramatically in the tests given two years after the
beginning of the book flood. Elley and Mangubhai (1981b, p. 23) comment
that:
It is tempting to conclude that the Book Flood pupils had reached a
threshold level in their language growth which enabled them to exploit their
passive vocabulary and to produce more fluent interesting language of their own,
an accomplishment which the Control group pupils were not ready
for.
The improvements in reading, listening, and oral language were equally
striking but not so unexpected, because the "shared book" approach used in one
of the groups of classes involved learners in listening, reading, and orally
joining in with the reading of a story.
The language knowledge measures included word recognition where learners
have to read aloud a list of words, vocabulary knowledge, and grammar. The
vocabulary knowledge measures did not measure total vocabulary size or
vocabulary growth.
The measures of academic success involved the examinations used across
the school system. Learners in the book flood groups had a greater than normal
success rate in these examinations. Although there were no formal measures of
learners' attitudes to reading, informal observation and teacher reports
indicated that book flood learners enjoyed
reading.
These studies present compelling evidence of the improvements in second
language acquisition that can be brought about by such programs. Elley (1991,
pp. 378-379) attributes the success to five
factors.
1. Extensive input of meaningful print.
2. Incidental learning.
3. The integration of oral and written activity.
4. Focus on meaning rather than form.
5. High intrinsic motivation.
The control groups in the studies were classes following a syllabus of
language items that were presented one by one with substantial amounts of form
focused activity.
The books that were used in the experiments were generally
"well-illustrated, and used only common-sense controls over the presentation of
vocabulary and structures" (Elley & Mangubhai, 1981a, p. 26). There was
language control only to the extent that "appropriateness of difficulty and
interest were the guiding principles of book selection" (Elley, 1991, p. 402).
The books used were not graded readers but were ones that young native speakers
of English would read. The children in the book flood studies were aged from 6
to 12 years old, and so the content matter of such books was appropriate.
Extensive Reading with Graded Readers
In two experiments, one conducted with second language learners in
England for a maximum of 60 hours (Tudor & Hafiz, 1989; Hafiz & Tudor,
1989), and one with learners in Pakistan for a maximum of 90 hours (Hafiz &
Tudor, 1990), Hafiz and Tudor looked at the effect of extensive reading of
graded readers on learners´ language use. The study in England used standardised
reading and writing measures and analyses of the students´ writing, while the
study in Pakistan used only analyses of students' writing. Even with these
limited and indirect measures, improvement was seen particularly in writing.
There was no significant change in the vocabulary used in writing for the group
in England, but this is not surprising as the vocabulary of the graded readers
was probably far below the learners' vocabulary level (Hafiz & Tudor, 1990,
p. 36). There were some indications that the simplified syntax of the graded
readers seemed to encourage the learners to simplify the syntax in their own
writing. All of Hafiz and Tudor's measures were of language use. It is likely if
they included more direct measures of vocabulary size, word recognition, and
English structures as Elley and Mangubhai did, then there would be even more
signs of improvement. Tsang (1996) also found very positive effects of
simplified reading on learners´ writing
performance.
(c) Copyright 1997
Paul Nation
Due to restrictions in the format of SHARE we regret to inform that we
had to delete a number of tables that were included in the original article as
submitted by Ms Ryan. Please find the complete article in: http://langue.hyper.chubu.ac.jp/jalt/pub/tlt/97/may/extensive.html
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2.- ARE YOU LOOKING? THE IMPORTANCE OF
EYE CONTACT
Our
dear SHARER Marcela Castillo Buñol from Mendoza, Argentina has sent us this
article and an encouraging message. Thank you ,Marcela for your cooperation and
support!
Eye contact findings may change new-age
technology
Eye contact shown to affect conversation patterns, group problem-solving
ability
Noting that the eyes have long been described as mirrors of the soul, a
Queen's computer scientist is studying the effect of eye gaze on conversation
and the implications for new-age technologies, ranging from video conferencing
to speech recognition systems.
Dr. Roel Vertegaal, who is presenting a paper on eye gaze at an international conference in New Orleans
this week, has found evidence to
suggest a strong link between the amount of eye contact people receive
and their degree of participation in group communications. Eye contact is known
to increase the number of turns a
person will take when part of a group conversation. The goal of this study was
to determine what type of "gaze"
(looking at a person's eyes and face) is required to have this
effect.
Two conditions were studied: synchronized (where eye contact is made
while the subject is speaking) and random contact, received at any time in
the conversation. The Queen's study
showed that the total amount of gaze received during a group conversation is
more important than when the eye contact
occurs.
The findings have important implications for the design of future
communication devices, including more user-friendly and sensitive video
conferencing systems - a technology increasingly chosen in business for economic
and time-saving reasons - and Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) which
support communication between people and machines. Dr. Vertegaal's group is also implementing these
findings to facilitate user interactions with large groups of computers such as
personal digital assistants and cellular
phones.
The eye contact experiment used computer-generated images from actors
who conveyed different levels of
attention (gazing at the subject, gazing at the other actor, looking away, and
looking down). These images were presented to the subjects, who believed they
were in an actual three-way video conferencing situation, attempting to solve language
puzzles. The researchers concluded that
people in group discussions will speak up more if they receive a greater
amount
of eye contact from other group members. There was no relationship
between the impact of the eye contact and when it
occurred.
“The effect of eye gaze has
literally fascinated people throughout the ages," says Dr. Vertegaal, whose
paper, Explaining Effects of Eye Gaze on Mediated Group Conversations: Amount or
Synchronization? was presented this
week at the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Conference on
Computer Supported Cooperative Work.
"Sumerian clay tablets dating back to 3000 BC already tell the story of
Ereshkigal, goddess of the underworld, who had the power to kill Inanna, goddess
of love, with a deadly eye," says Dr. Vertegaal. "Now that we are attempting to build more sophisticated
conversational interfaces that mirror
the communicative capabilities of their users, it has become clear we
need to
learn more about communicative functions of gaze
behaviours."
© Copyright 2002, Queen's News & Media
Services
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3.- LICENTIATE
DIPLOMA IN APPLIED DRAMA
Our dear SHARER Ana María Rossi de Bergel sends us this message:
----- Original Message -----
From: Ana María Rozzi de Bergel
To: Share
Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2003 1:20 PM
Subject: Applied Drama
Dear Omar,
Marina seems to be the opposite kind of person from me: I throw
everything away. I haven't kept reviews or photos of my theatre career, despite
the fact that it has been quite successful. The result is that people don't
believe I have one. And I couldn't care less! My husband and daughters hide away
from me things they want to keep. Why is it that I don't have a connection with
objects or records of my past? I wonder. It's most amazing. Spring cleaning at
home is a very conflicting time, with me throwing everything away and my family
going to the garbage every ten minutes to retrieve some cherished - useless, to
my way of thinking - property which will otherwise be
lost.
Anyway, this is not what I wanted to communicate. The real message is
below and it is not only meant to advertise my Applied Drama course but also to
remind our colleagues of the fact that their crave for Applied Drama courses has
already been catered for, at least partially. Two years ago, nobody was even
using the label "Applied Drama", do you remember? It was difficult for us, at
CENTUM, to enroll students because they did not understand what we were offering
and thought it was "a theatre workshop". Now, Applied Drama even has a
conference. I'm delighted.
All the best,
Ana María
APPLIED DRAMA FOR TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
CENTUM Servicios de Idiomas, a pioneer in teacher education and the first
Trinity College London authorised teacher-training centre in Argentina,
announces that enrolment is open for its 3rd Licentiate Diploma in Applied Drama
(for TEFL) course, moderated by Trinity College London, (Drama, Speech, Music
and Dance Department).
This is a unique, internationally-valid, full teaching qualification for
experienced or graduate teachers. CENTUM created this course in 2000 in response
to teachers' needs and interest in the field of Applied Drama and in the hope of
developing an awareness of the importance of the discipline both for teaching
EFL and for teacher education.
The course integrates drama, the study of cognitive processes, syllabus
and materials design and methodology while at the same time training teachers in
the basic skills of acting, storytelling, mime and puppetry.
Lessons for the LTCL in Applied Drama (for TEFL) are on Saturdays, from
8:00 AM to 12:30 PM. Only experienced or graduate teachers are admitted and to
pass the course students have to complete a portfolio of classwork; teach,
video-tape, self-evaluate and discuss a lesson based on Applied Drama principles
and write a 5,000-word dissertation on a practical application of drama for
TEFL.
CENTUM's Applied Drama tutors, are:
Lic.Ana María R. de Bergel: Course director, programme designer and
Applied Drama
for TEFL tutor.
Lic. Alberto Ivern: Mime and Body Expression tutor.
Prof. Angélica Violante: Puppetry
Alfred Hopkins, B.A.: Acting and Storytelling.
For
further information, contact: CENTUM
Servicios de Idiomas
Bartolomé
Mitre 811 - 4º T: 4328-2385 / 15-5110-4988 - e-mail: centum@velocom.com.ar
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4.- NEWS FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY
PRESS
Our dear SHARER
Paula Coudannes Landa, ELT Sales Co-ordinator for Oxford University Press,
announces:
2nd OUP BACK-TO-SCHOOL SEMINAR
Saturday 22 February, from 9:00 to
13:00.
Venue: Museo Social Argentino, Av. Corrientes 1723, Ciudad de Buenos
Aires.
In this seminar, you will have the opportunity of attending two different
sessions:
On Board across the Curriculum by Fernando
Armesto
Everyone on board! Let's start an exciting journey across the curriculum!
Let's sail the friendly waters of subject-content areas like Science,
History, Art, Geography and Maths. Let's explore innovative and creative ways to
implement an integrated curriculum model. Let's discover how to teach much more
than English at the same time that
we teach much more English.
In this session, we will share ideas on Disciplinary and
Interdisciplinary Models, Cummins' Model: Language and Cognition, the Project
Approach, the Topic Approach and the Integrated Language Teaching
Model.
Testing between the Lines by Susan
Hillyard
SBS, 27 de abril 227,
0351-4236448, cordoba@sbs.com.ar
Rosario
Saturday, 22 February - 9:00 to 16:00 hs
Venue: Colegio Parque España (Secundario), Av. del Huerto
1198
Same Programme of Academic talks and Workshop/ Presentations as in Córdoba (see above)
Enrolment: Librería Ameghino, 0341-4471147, 0341-4498906, bookshop@ameghino.com.ar
SBS,
0341-4261276, rosario@sbs.com.ar
Mendoza
Monday, 24 February - 9:00
to 16:00 hs
Venue: Universidad Aconcagua, Lavalle
393
Same Programme of Academic talks and Workshop/ Presentations as in
Córdoba (see above)
Enrolment: Centro Internacional del Libro, 0261-4205049, cilventas@ciudad.com.ar
Bio-data of Presenters
Sagrario
Salaberri
Lecturer at the University of Almería (Spain) and teacher trainer. She
has worked as Primary School teacher and inspector. She has been involved in the
development of curriculum design and curricular material for English as a
foreign language in Andalusia. Author of
"Classroom language", "Story telling", "English Club" , "Teamwork
Starter" and course consultant of "Big Red Bus". Her most recent publication for
Macmillan is "Galaxy."
Charlie López
Charlie holds an MA in Teaching English as a Foreign Language, University
of Reading, UK.
Director of Studies of Big Ben Institute, Bs As. Author of "Whizz Kids" Resource Pack. Produer and
presenter of "Yes" TV programme.
Alejandra Ottolina
Alejandra is an Educational Consultant for different schools in
Argentina. She is also a COTE RSA Lecturer of the University of
Cambridge.
Marcela
Marianelli and Gabriel Mohr are
currently Macmillan Academic Consultants and they are
also experienced teachers of English.
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13.- PROGRAMA DE
METODOLOGÍA INNOVADORA
Our dear SHARER Lic. Oscar Molina, Director Difusión de Acuarell
Consultores, has an announcement to make.
PMI - Programa de Metodología Innovadora
PMI es un programa desarrollado por Acuarell Consultores junto a
Profesionales de reconocida trayectoria en materia de investigación docente.
Comprende en una primera etapa dos módulos, orientadas a: Directores de
Instituciones Educativas, Coordinadores ELT; Profesores y
Docentes.
Módulo A: Didáctica a
través del Juego- Programacion
Neuro-lingüística
Facilitador: Lic. Patricia
Wilensky - Lic. En Ciencias de la Educación, Master en PNL, ha diseñado juegos
didácticos para Anteojito, Billiken,
Juegos de entretenimientos para Canal 11; dicta seminarios de
capacitación docente en metodología.
Objetivos y Contenidos: Enseñanza-aprendizaje a través de juegos con
contenidos curriculares. Técnicas a partir de las cuales se podrá concebir
juegos como medio educativo. Implementación de tecnologías lúdicas adecuadas a
las necesidades del aula. Desarrollar nuevos juegos con los alumnos como
elemento motivador, aplicando en todos los casos conceptos y herramientas de
Programación Neuro-linguistica.
20 y 21 de febrero - 16 a 20 hs - (ambos
días)
Módulo B: Inteligencia Emocional - La inteligencia del Siglo XXI aplicada
a la Educación
Facilitador: Lic. Abel Cortere - Investigador, Director de cursos sobre
Inteligencia Emocional, ha dictado seminarios en el exterior sobre IE en la Educación
(Colombia, Puerto Rico, Ecuador)
Objetivos y Contenidos: Aprender sobre la Inteligencia Emocional y sus cinco
habilidades.
Examinar la importancia de los factores afectivos en el proceso de
aprendizaje y enseñanza y descubrir
que estrategias puede usar el docente para estimular el desarrollo emocional
como parte de la formación humana integral. Favorecer el proceso de la
comunicación entre maestro y alumno.Fomentar la correcta expresión de las
emociones y sentimientos- Adquirir herramientas para el manejo de los
conflictos.Desarrollar todos los recursos de auto-motivación y motivación para
estudiar y aprender.-
15 Y 22 de Marzo - 10 a 14.00 hs. (ambos
días)
Incripciones : Módulos A Y B: $100 (por una sola persona)
$80 (por más de dos o por
persona si es suscriptor de Share)
Módulo A: $ 60 (una sola
persona) - $50 (mas de dos o por persona si es suscriptor de Share) Módulo B:
$ 65 (una sola persona) -
$55 (mas de dos o por persona si es suscriptor de
Share)
Informes e Inscripción: ACUARELL Consultores - acuarellinfo@ciudad.com.ar /acuarell@yahoo.com.ar o por telefax al: 4823-9315
(líneas rotativas)
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14.- THE CONFERENCE ON APPLIED DRAMA: AN
UPDATE
Our
dear friend and SHARER Celia Zubiri has sent us this addition to the long list
of renowned lectures that will speak at her First Annual Conference on Applied
Drama to be held on Thursday
27th & Friday 28th February and Saturday 1st March at Teatro
Santamaría, Montevideo 842 Downtown. Says Celia:
Les comunicamos que se han confirmado dos charlas
más:
-Caracterización,
un recurso más
(la importancia de la caracterización con maquillaje de niños en vivo)-Por
Eugenia Tyroller.
-Estilos
Coreográficos
(tipo taller, optativo, en donde van a tener un acercamiento a las coreografías
de los musicales más conocidos). Por Josse Muñoz, Director Coreográfico de The
Bs. As. Players.
Nota:
para mayor información sobre la programación diaria y C.V. de los disertantes y
condiciones de inscripción, remitirse a www.thebsasplayers.com
o The Bs. As. Players:
Montevideo 850, Monday to Friday 10 am to 5 pm. o(54-11) 4812-5307 /
4814-5455
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Time
to say goodbye again. This time with a joke that our dear SHARER and neighbour
Alicia Fraguiero sent to us. Of course Omar loved it! Hope you like it too:
Two women came before wise King Solomon, dragging
between them a young man in a three-piece suit.
"This young lawyer agreed to
marry my daughter," said one.
"No! He agreed to marry MY daughter," said the
other.
And so they haggled before the King until he called for silence.
"Bring me my biggest sword," said Solomon, "and I shall hew the young attorney
in half. Each of you shall receive a half."
"Sounds good to me," said the
first lady.
But the other woman said, "Oh Sire, do not spill innocent blood.
Let the other woman's daughter marry him."
The wise king did not hesitate a
moment. He proclaimed, "The attorney must marry the first lady's daughter."
"But she was willing to hew him in two!" exclaimed the king's court.
"Indeed," said wise King Solomon. "That shows she is the TRUE mother-
in-law."
HAVE
A WONDERFUL WEEKEND!
Omar
and Marina.
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SHARE
is distributed free of charge. All announcements in this electronic magazine are
also absolutely free of charge. We do not endorse any of the services announced
or the views expressed by the contributors. For
more information about the characteristics and
readership
of SHARE visit:
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ShareMagazine
VISIT OUR WEBSITE
: http://www.shareeducation.com.ar
There you can read all past issues
of SHARE in the section SHARE ARCHIVES.
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