SHARE
An Electronic
Magazine by Omar Villarreal and Marina Kirac ©
Year
5
Number 131 July 15th 2004
6350
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,
In
my now long professional career I have attended quite a number of congresses,
conventions, seminars and other professional meetings of varying size, length
and importance. I cherish the memory of each one of them and, very often, for
very different ( and whimsical)
reasons. I attended many of these as a participant, I spoke at some of these and
I helped in the organization of quite a few, as well. Each one of them was, in
their own peculiar way, “special” to me. This week as Marina and I came back
from the Tenth National Congress of Teachers and Students of English and looked
back on it in retrospect, we said to ourselves “This Congress was certainly very
special!”. To the impeccable organization by the APIBB Committee, to the warmth
of each one of our colleagues: participants, speakers and organizers, we had to
add the enormous pride and satisfaction of seeing this Congress consolidated and
gaining a well-deserved place in the academic scene of our country (very often
against all odds and the formidable opposition of the self-appointed “owners” of
ELT in Argentina).
More
than 600 teachers and students from all over the country celebrated the tenth
birthday of this “young and energetic” Congress, more than 50 top lecturers
generously shared the fruit of their research, of their reading, of their
classroom experiences, of their ideas in an ideal atmosphere afforded us by the
Bahía Blanca Organizing Committee that worked eagerly and humbly and with a
sense of duty, dignity, responsibility and a common sense we do not very often
come across lately.
To
them our sincere gratitude for giving the future organizers an example to look
up to.
In
allied developments, as is now customary, the next seats of the National
Congress of Teachers and Students of English have been confirmed and a new one
added for 2007:
2005
– APRIR – Asociación de Profesores de Inglés de Rosario.
2006
– Universidad CAECE.- Buenos Aires.
2007
– APICOBO – Asociación de Profesores de Inglés del Conurbano
Bonaerense.
Love
Omar and Marina
______________________________________________________________________
In
SHARE
131
1.- Free
Voluntary Reading: Applications and Controversies.
2.-
Extensive Reading and the Acquisition of Vocabulary.
3.- Ken Wilson : Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Teacher.
4.-
The National Congress in Bahía Blanca: Alfred Hopkins tells the whole story.
5.- Jornadas Internacionales de Educación
Lingüística.
6.-
Segundas Jornadas de Capacitación Profesional para Traductores.
7.-
A Propos of the Tools for Teachers Winter Course.
8.-
A Spa for your soul.
9.-
Teaching English to Very Young Learners.
10.- Tercer
Encuentro de Profesores y Traductores de Inglés.
11.- English Immersion
Colonies.
12.- Oficina
de Teatro - "Expressão e Desinibição"
13.- APIBA SIG´s.
14.- Good News from E-Teaching on
line.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.- FREE VOLUNTARY READING: APPLICATIONS AND
CONTROVERSIES
Our dear SHARER, Stephen Krashen has sent
us this article that he presented
at PAC5 (Pan-Asian Conference), Vladivostok, Russia on June 24, 2004.
Free
Voluntary reading: New Research, Applications, and Controversies
Stephen
Krashen
Recreational
reading or reading for pleasure is the major source of our reading competence,
our vocabulary, and our ability to handle complex grammatical constructions The
evidence for FVR comes from correlational studies, showing that those who read
more show superior literacy development, case histories of those whose growth in
literacy and language is clearly attributable to free reading, and studies of
in-school recreational reading, such as sustained silent reading (SSR).
In
in-school studies, students who engage in free reading for a certain time each
day are compared to similar students who have only "regular instruction."
Reading has done well in these studies; in my survey (1), readers were at least
as good as those in traditional instruction in 51 out of 53 comparisons, and
when the study was long-term (longer than one school year), readers were nearly
always better and were never worse. The finding that in-school reading works
best in long term studies makes sense; it takes some time for children to find
reading material of interest.
The
efficacy of in-school free reading has been established with a variety of groups
including native speakers of English, second language acquirers in several
different countries, and students of different ages.
The
success of in-school free reading is also consistent with the more general
Comprehension Hypothesis, the hypothesis that we acquire language when we
understand messages (2). Recreational reading is, of course, comprehensible
input.
Issues
and Controversies
1. Do
they really read during in-school reading time?
It
has been claimed that many children do not actually read during sustained silent
reading sessions, but only pretend to read. Von Sprecken and Krashen (3)
examined the behavior of middle-school children in SSR classes in the middle of
the academic year, and reported that 90% of the children they observed were
reading, a result confirmed by Cohen (4), who made a special effort to make
observations unobtrusive.
Von
Sprecken and Krashen also concluded that children were more likely to be reading
during SSR when certain conditions were met: When there was access to
interesting reading in the classroom and students are not required to bring
their own reading material, when teachers read while students are reading, and
when teachers made efforts to promote and discuss certain books. Even in a class
in which none of these conditions were met, however, Von Sprecken and Krashen
found that 80% of the students were reading when observed.
2.
Will they stay with easy reading?
There
is a concern that students will always choose books that are too easy and will
never move on to more challenging reading material.
Easy
books, however, can provide the taste and background knowledge that will lead to
and facilitate reading other books. This appears to happen. Readers don't stick
to light and easy reading - their reading tastes gradually develop and broaden
(5). Finally, it has been argued that reading has to feel effortless for it to
result in language development; studies indicate that a text needs to be about
98% comprehensible in order for it to help the reader acquire new vocabulary
(6).
3.
Is reading enough?
The
concern here is that recreational reading is not enough to guarantee full
competence and the acquisition of "academic" language. One must agree.
Recreational reading, rather, is the bridge, the missing link that makes harder
reading and more demanding input more comprehensible.
Should
FVR be "supplemented"? Many think so, and the usual recipe is additional grammar
study and writing. There are good reasons to doubt that this is effective. The
study of grammar makes at best a small and peripheral contribution to
competence; There are severe limits to how much grammar can be consciously
learned and there are severe limits on its application (7). There is also no
evidence that requiring students to write more has a positive effect on writing
ability (8). Writing, however, makes a very different kind of contribution; it
helps us solve problems and contributes to cognitive development (9).
Mason
(10) confirmed this, finding no difference in gains when in-school free reading
was supplemented with writing summaries in the L1 (Japanese), writing summaries
in English, and writing summaries in English followed by correction and
rewriting. In fact, the group that wrote summaries in Japanese acquired just as
much English in a shorter total time devoted to English.
The
kind of supplementation that will help, it is predicted, encourages more reading
and makes reading more comprehensible. This includes the study of literature,
i.e. exposing students to the options available to them and providing some
background knowledge about books. Literature includes read- alouds, a powerful
means of motivating reading and providing growth in literate language (11).
4.
How will they do on tests?
In an
age of testing hysteria, it is a strong temptation to drop reading and devote
more time to test preparation, which in many people's minds is skill- building
activities, direct instruction in grammar, vocabulary, etc. The research cited
earlier, however, shows that those in in-school reading programs do better on
tests than those who follow the regular curriculum of direct instruction. They
do better on tests of reading, writing, listening, vocabulary, and even grammar.
I think readers do well on tests because they have no choice, because they have
acquired, not learned, grammar, vocabulary, and the conventions of writing.
5.
How robust is FVR?
We
know enough to state the optimal conditions for a good reading program: They
seem obvious but are rarely present: (1) A great deal of interesting,
comprehensible reading material; (2) A time (and comfortable place) to read. (3)
Minimum accountability (e.g. no required summaries or book reports). Also, to
show effects, a program should also last for more than a few months.
Is it
a waste of time to do free reading when conditions are not optimal? Lee (12)
reported on a program in which few of these conditions were met. The students
were not particularly motivated - they were second semester university students
in Taiwan taking a required English class. The first semester had been a
disaster, with students reporting that the teacher devoted most of the class-
time to movies. Reading was done for only 14 weeks, and students read graded
readers, which only 18.5% of the students found interesting. Students were also
required to write summaries of what they read. On the positive side, the class
included some explanation of the theory underlying free voluntary reading, along
with research findings.
But
the results were encouraging. The readers outperformed a traditional comparison
group on a cloze test and did somewhat better on a vocabulary test. A second
comparison group had intensive vocabulary instruction and students were
encouraged to do recreational reading. There was no difference between this
group and the readers on the cloze test, but the vocabulary study group did
better on a vocabulary test, especially on words at the 3000/5000 level, words
not present in many of the graded readers those in the reading group read.
This
result shows that free reading is "robust." Also, despite the lack of enthusiasm
for the graded readers, 2/3 the students said they would continue to read in
order to improve their English, and only 2% (one) said they would not (the
others were undecided). How many would look forward to more vocabulary
instruction?
Lee's
results suggest that we can still expect benefits when conditions are not
optimal. But there are limits. If conditions are truly dismal, if reading
material is dull and hard to understand, if reading is done in uncomfortable
surroundings, and/or if students are forced to report on everything they read, a
reading program may only succeed in discouraging reading. Because optimal
conditions are not always possible, it is important to determine not only
optimal but also acceptable conditions.
1.
Krashen, S. More smoke and mirrors: A critique of the National Reading Panel
report on fluency. Phi
Delta Kappan, 2001, 83: 119-123.
2.
Krashen, S. Explorations in Language Acquisition and Use: The Taipei Lectures.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2003.
3.
Von Sprecken, D. & Krashen, S. Do students read during sustained silent
reading? California Reader, 1998, 32(1): 11-13.
4.
Cohen, K. Reluctant eighth grade readers enjoy sustained silent reading.
California Reader, 1999, 33 (1): 22-25.
5.
LaBrant, L. An evaluation of free reading. Research in the Three R's. Ed. C.
Hunnicutt & W. Iverson. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1938, pp. 154-161.
6.
Hu, M. & Nation, I.S.P. Vocabulary density and reading comprehension.
Reading in a Foreign Language, 2000, 13(1): 403-430.
7.
Truscott, J. Noticing in second language acquisition: A critical review. Second
Language Research, 1998 14(2): 103-135; Krashen, 2003, op, cit.
8.
Lee, S.Y. What Makes It So Difficult to Write. Taipei: Crane Publishing Company,
2001; Krashen, 2003, op. cit.
9.
Elbow, P. Writing without Teachers. New York: Oxford University Press., 1975;
Krashen, 2003, op. cit.
10.
Mason, B. A Study of Extensive Reading and the Development of Grammatical
Accuracy by Japanese University Students Learning English. Ed.D. Dissertation,
Temple University, Osaka, Japan, 2003.
11.
Trelease, J. The read-aloud handbook. New York: Penguin. Fifth Edition, 2001.
Mason, B. Vocabulary acquisition through storytelling. Paper presented at PAC5
conference, Vladivostok, Russia, June, 2004.
12.
Lee, S.Y. How robust is in-class sustained silent reading. Paper presented at
PAC5 conference, Vladivostok, Russia, June, 2004.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.- EXTENSIVE READING AND
THE ACQUISITION OF VOCABULARY
Our dear SHARER Carole Whyman sends us this article
on how students read, and enjoy, and the vocabulary
takes care of itself (!):
How should teachers
incorporate vocabulary teaching into their classes?"
By Marc
Helgesen
A key
concept in vocabulary teaching is that students need to meet the words‚ in
context‚ several times.
A tool
that is often overlooked for this is mental review. Students can meet the new
vocabulary mentally as well as actually seeing the words on the page. Most pair-
and group work tasks involve some kind of a topic – even if the lesson is based
on grammar or a function, the learners are talking about something so there is a
lexical set related to the topic. After students have finished the main task,
have them close their books. Still in their pairs or groups, they work together
to see how many of words related to the topic they can remember. In the process,
the learners are still thinking about the context and are "mentally meeting the
words" again. Decide if you want them to write the words or just say them. If
you have them write the words, a good follow-up is to have groups compare their
results with other groups. To do it as a game, they get one point for each item
they wrote and one extra point for each item they wrote that the other team
didn't. You may want to repeat the mental review as a warm-up/review at the
beginning of the next class (and as a way for them to meet the words yet again).
Here's
another type of mental review. At the end of class, it's not at all unusual for
the chalkboard to be covered with words that have just come up during
activities. I sometimes ask each students to choose about three words that they
want to remember. They close their eyes and get a mental picture showing the
meaning. Next to the picture, they mentally write the word. In their minds, they
hear each letter as it is being written. They then hear the word being
pronounced. (If any students have difficulty visualizing the picture or the
word, have them write the word with their finger on the palm of their other
hand. Adding this physical element usually makes visualizing
easier.)
Once
they've done this for all three words, they decide on a time when they will
mentally review the words. It should be a time when they are alone or at least
not talking to anyone. They get a mental image of something specific that they
are doing (sitting in the bathtub, pouring a cup of coffee, etc.). Tell them to
think of that situation. Then, when it happens later in the day, they should
remind themselves to think of the three words and the images. Many students
prefer to close their eyes when they do this. They should do they everyday from
now to the next class. During the next class, spend a couple minutes reviewing
the activity.
If I had
to choose a single most effective way to help students develop their vocabulary,
it would be an easy choice: Extensive reading. Extensive Reading (ER) means just
that: learners read a lot. It is important that they are reading at a level that
is easy for them. This requirement, along with the obvious issue of student
interest, means that they usually choose the books they want to read. Note that
extensive reading is very different than the word-by-word grammar-translation
(yakudoku) reading that Japanese students are usually asked to do in school. ER
is reading for pleasure. Students usually don't need to use dictionaries. If
there are more than 2-3 words on a page they don't know, the book is too
difficult and they should choose a different one. They don't need to answer
comprehension questions after they read. (Yeah, there are often questions in the
back of the books or on worksheets available from the publishers. But they
aren't really for ER. They are there so the publishers can try to sell them to
teachers who don't understand what ER is and what it's
for).
To have
your students do ER, of course, you need books. Most teachers choose graded
readers which are available from the major ELT publishers. These are short,
often 40-80 page books written to be easy for learners to understand and of high
interest. And, because they are real stories, there tends to be natural
recycling of vocabulary. The same words often come up in context through out the
story. This is the "meeting words in context repeatedly" that leads to
vocabulary learning.
Even if
you are teaching conversation, you can often add ER as an outside of class
activity. If students get grades for the class, the number of books or pages
they read can be part of the course requirements. In a non-graded situation like
a conversation school, you can still encourage ER as a great way to build
vocabulary and come into contact with English out side of
class.
Teachers
interested in ER can check out the Extensive Reading Home Pages
at
------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.- KEN WILSON : PORTRAIT
OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN
Our
dear SHARER the celebrated author and ELT specialist Ken Wilson wants to SHARE
these recollections of his experience as a young teacher ( and a glorious
postscript on his world famous “Mr Monday”) with all of
us
6th August 1968
International House,
London
It was
the day after my 21st birthday. I had spent the previous night
sleeping on the floor of a friend’s flat in West London. There had been no
celebratory drink. I had spent the evening preparing my first ‘extended’
practice lesson on my TEFL training course. It was due to last for 20 minutes.
And now
it had started. There were four practice students sitting directly in front of
me. They weren’t just practice students, of course. They were real people with
real lives. Silvana and Massimo were an Italian couple on their honeymoon. Milan
was a muscular and handsome Czech, loved by trainees and students alike. He left
the school about a week later, arriving back in Prague the day before the
Russians invaded the city. The fourth person was a Japanese girl called Junko. I
don’t remember anything about her apart from her name. I don’t think I was ever
successful in getting her to say anything. My fault entirely, not
hers.
The
four students stared at me in silence. Behind them sat seven recent graduates
from British universities, my co-trainees, and next to them sat a dazzlingly
beautiful woman from Sierra Leone with a clipboard on her knee, looking at me
with a keen, supportive smile on her face.
It was
horribly, achingly, quiet in the room. I had just asked the newly-wed Italian
girl a complex opening question, which she didn’t have a hope of answering. I
don’t think the native speaker graduates of some of Britain’s finest
universities who were sitting behind her had a hope of answering it, either. It
was unanswerable. Silvana stared at me, my co-trainees stared at the floor and
Benetta, the trainer, smiled and nodded in encouragement.
I was
the third person to ‘teach’ that day. The first trainee, whose name was Alex,
had to present and practise ‘there are some …’; the second, Fiona, had to
present and practise ‘there aren’t any..’ and I drew the short straw with ‘are
there any …?’ The three of us had agreed to base our lesson material on London
itself.
Alex
drilled the students into the ground, getting them to chorus-repeat: ‘There are
some museums in London … there are some parks in London. … there are some pubs
in London …’ The lesson was definitely noisy and in a way the students were
involved all the time. They said a lot, they shouted in chorus and they had a
few laughs. The only problem was that they didn’t actually say anything of their
own choice.
The
second lesson was much more colourful. Fiona had found dozens of photographs
from magazines and stuck them on cardboard. There were pictures of camels,
elephants, palm trees, samba dancers and other exotic items – none of which you
could find on the streets of London.
Fiona
flashed the cards at high speed in front of the students’ faces. The students
were required to make a sentence beginning ‘There aren’t any … ‘ based on the
picture. Apart from the alarming Pavlovian nature of this exercise, there was
one small problem. None of the students knew the English words for camel,
elephant, palm tree, samba dancer or any of the other exotic items.
Massimo
was the most confident of the four and had a clever way of making the sentences
that Fiona demanded. If he didn’t know the English word for the exotic item, he
used the Italian word and let Fiona translate it for him.
Massimo: There aren’t any …
cammelli?…
Fiona: Camels.
Massimo:
Camel.
Fiona:
CamelZZZZZZ!
Massimo. CamelZZZZZZ!
Fiona:
Go on …
Massimo: … in London.
Fiona:
Very good!
And
then it was my turn. I had planned something completely different from my
energetic co-trainees. I think my opening question – the one which had stunned
Silvana into silence - went
something like this: ‘Are there any places in London that you’ve never been to
but would like to go to …er … if you ever get the
chance?’
What
upset me more than anything was the fact that I had spent two HOURS the previous
evening writing the lesson plan, and most of it had been spent thinking about
that first question.
Like so
many trainee teachers before and since, I had wandered into the never-never land
of TEFL-speak, where apparently intelligent native English speakers find
themselves when they start trying to teach the language they never had to learn.
It’s a dark and murky place, but for some of us, the start of a lifelong
interest in our own language.
From
the debris of these three lessons, Benetta found aspects that she was able to
praise, and offered us some thoughts about what to change. She praised us for
our energy and the rapport we created with the students (I don’t think she was
talking about me at this point). Best of all, by clever prompting, she helped us
make our own suggestions about how to improve. Alex realised that it might have
been useful to let the students give some of their own examples, and Fiona
expressed her horror at not thinking about pre-teaching the words for camel,
elephant, palm tree etc.
Benetta
thought my attempt to engage the students in a conversation was admirable. She
suggested keeping it simple. I somehow knew that would be her main
suggestion.
Despite
my appalling performance on that particular day, I didn’t actually do badly on
the course as a whole, and I was offered a job at the Instituto Británico in
Seville, Spain. I arrived there one beautiful autumn morning in October
1968.
By this
stage in my life, I had spent 18 years in Manchester and three years at
university in Reading. I was now to spend a year in one of the world’s most
beautiful cities. Every morning, I almost gasped with astonishment as I looked
at La Giralda, the half-Moorish, half-Gothic tower of Seville Cathedral. I
couldn’t understand how Sevillanos could pass this magnificent edifice on a
daily basis without themselves feeling the need to gasp with
astonishment.
I was
also amazed by how charming and trusting the students at the school were. They
really liked my lessons in spite of my lack of experience and my frankly dubious
teaching method. I talked too much, I told jokes at every opportunity and I
aimed my teaching at the best students in the class. The best students loved it
and blossomed. Everyone else put up with it but improved only slowly, if at all.
That
was the biggest lesson my year in Spain taught me. You have to work harder than
I did at involving ALL the students, with all their different levels and ways of
learning. I’m still working on this after more than 30 years in the
business.
I then
returned to London and worked at International House, a place which, like many
English teaching establishments in the 1970s, was buzzing with great people and
new ideas. People like Liz Soars, Jeremy Harmer, Doug Case, Roger Gower, Judy
Garton-Sprenger, Barry Tomalin and Sue Mohamed were all involved with the
organisation at that time. Ruth Gairns, Stuart Redman and the Cutting Edge
authors Sarah Cunningham and Peter Moor were in the next generation of IH
galacticos and galacticas.
At the
centre of it all were IH founders John and Brita Haycraft. John was always on
the look-out for new ideas and was tireless in promoting the interests of
teachers who showed the slightest talent in any particular direction. Soon after
my arrival, John did something which radically changed the direction of my
working life.
I had
an intermediate class of really great students. I was 22 years old, and most of
the students were the same age as me. We were together for 15 hours a week, so
there was plenty of time to experiment.
One
day, I brought my guitar into class. I wasn’t planning to play it, I just wanted
to have it with me for safe keeping. The students asked me to play it. I wasn’t
sure whether the school would think this was the best use of their time. I
hesitated, which made the class more insistent that I should play. I promised to
bring some song words the next day and we could learn a song together.
This
was the start of a long and happy association with music in language teaching.
Although I was still a bit worried that we were having too much ‘fun’, the class
clamoured for more songs, and we spent Friday mornings learning more and more
songs. The Beatles were a particular favourite. (I should say at this point that
I had the students for 10 hours a week, and they actually spent 15 hours in all
together – they really needed regular breaks from regular coursebook-based
learning)
When
this class finally disbanded, I was heart-broken. My next class were beginners
so I couldn’t use the Friday morning songs. However, by this time I was
convinced that using songs was useful as well as enjoyable. With no material
available that was easy enough for my beginners’ class to sing, I started to
write my own songs for them.
One
day, John Haycraft stopped me in the corridor.
‘I
understand that you’re writing songs for your class,’ he
said.
I
hesitated a moment before admitting it. Was he going to censure me for wasting
the students’ time? Not a bit of it!
‘I’m
going to see if I can get one of the publishers interested,’ said John.
And he
was as good as his word. I had an interview with a publisher a few weeks later.
The result was that before my 23rd birthday, I had signed a contract
to write, record and produce a collection of English teaching songs. The album
Mister Monday appeared the following year. At the time, I was the
youngest-ever published ELT author. I don’t know if I still hold this record.
Mister Monday was a huge international success and the start of my
parallel career as an ELT author. (See the end of the article for a PS about
Mister Monday)
Another
of John Haycraft’s initiatives led to the establishment of the English Teaching
Theatre, and because of my supposed prowess as a musician, I was offered the
chance to perform with the fledgling group. It was the start of a relationship
with drama and theatre which continues to this day. The ETT enjoyed
international success for more than 25 years, visiting more than 50 countries,
including Argentina.
Travelling first with the English Teaching
Theatre and more recently as an author, I have been fortunate enough to meet
lots of non-native speaker teachers, who of course represent the vast majority
of teachers worldwide. And as a
writer and a trainer, these are the teachers that I am most interested in
helping.
Most
learners of English all over the world start their education with a teacher who
speaks their own language and has learnt English as a foreign language.
Personally, I think this is the best thing that could happen. I have spent a lot
of my working life congratulating and supporting non-native speaker teachers in
the work they do.
I
believe very firmly that native speaker authors and trainers have to make the
working conditions of non-native speaker teachers a priority in their writing
and recommendations about methodology.
I find
the difference between the working lives of NESTs and non-NESTs very interesting
indeed. I often begin presentations to groups of non-NESTs with a description of
the working life of the average teacher in a private language school in the UK
(and indeed the working situation of that most of our leading coursebook authors
experienced).
Teachers at UK private language schools are
favoured with the following working conditions:
classes
of between 10 and 14 students
multilingual, highly-motivated
students
contact
time of up to 15 hours a week
well-equipped classroom with good
acoustics
the
world of English outside the classroom
No
non-NEST teachers working in their own countries have anything like these
working circumstances. And the implications for material, suggestions for pair
work, group work, projects etc are enormous. Non-NESTs benefit greatly when
authors and trainers take their classroom and working realities into
consideration.
My
final thought, however, is for the generations of native-speaker teachers who
have worked hard at their trade all over the world. One of the problems we face
is that our non-teaching friends think that teaching your native language must
be easy.
Lots of
non-TELFer native speakers think this. To make matters worse, there are English
backpackers all over the world who make outrageous claims about their competence
to teach English (‘I’ve got an arts degree and I’ve worked with foreign students
on a summer camp’) and then go through the motions of dispensing information
about English and actually teaching nothing at all.
Thankfully, work opportunities for untrained
native speakers like these are getting rarer. Those of us who train to do the work
usually discover that – like most interesting work – it gets harder rather than
easier. And I’m definitely in that camp.
Post-script about Mister
Monday.
In
1992, 21 years after the publication of Mister Monday, I attended a very
enjoyable music workshop given by Dave Allen at the IATEFL conference in Lille,
France. It was about using
authentic songs in class. At one point, one of the participants, a native
speaker teacher from the UK, asked Dave what he thought about specially-written
songs like Mister Monday. Dave was non-committal, saying that he was
there to talk about authentic material.
The teacher persisted and offered his opinion: he thought
specially-written songs were absolutely ridiculous.
When I
told the man later that I was the author of Mister Monday, the teacher
was astonished and apologised for his earlier criticism. ‘The thing is,’ he
said, ‘Mister Monday is so old I thought that whoever wrote it must be
dead by now!’
I think
I’ll have that as my epitaph!
Ken
Wilson
------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.- THE
NATIONAL CONGRESS IN BAHÍA BLANCA: ALFRED HOPKINS TELLS THE WHOLE
STORY.
Our
dear SHARER and friend Alfred Hopkins has written his hillarious account of the
Tenth National Congress of Teachers and Students of English that took place in
Bahía Blanca last Friday and Saturday.
Says
Alfred,”I am attaching a little piece I put
together, tongue-in-cheek, no intention to be serious and just with
everyone--something rather impossible in view of the large number of
participants and speakers”
The Tenth English
Congress: “It´s about sharing…”
July 9, 2004. It’s near freezing in Bahía
Blanca, the alarm clock is ringing and there is a cloud of mist covering your
hotel window. “Gotta get up,” you chide yourself. “¡Vamos che! ‘El 10º Congreso
nacional de profesores y estudiantes de inglès’ is about to begin and here you
are complaining about the weather!” O.K.! O.K.! Don’t get hot under the
collar!
You mutter to yourself softly as
you inhale the dry Patagonia smelling air that wafts gently towards your
nostrils. Actually it’s not that cold, I mean once you get used to it, still a
bit dark but…and off you prance, setting your sails for the Colegio María
Auxiliadora. Dodging past the friendly looking police officer at the entrance
door, you scamper across the colonial style patio and race up the stairs,
bumping your way to the registration office. Around 500 souls—mostly neatly
dressed youngish looking women—are
eagerly chatting and sticking their noses into the Congress program to
decide which of the 50 odd workshops to sign up for. Noticing your state of
morbid confusion—why is it so difficult to make up your mind?—a young lady from the Asociación de
profesores de ingles de Bahía Blanca appears out of nowhere to give you a
helping hand. It’s Soledad García Luna, of the APIBB.
“There’s hot coffee and tea
waiting for you in the ‘speaker’s room,’” she announces
gaily.
Now
with a clear goal in mind you cautiously dodge and edge your way down the
hallway, by-passing the book stands and taking special care not to cause a
shivering participant to spill her coffee on the freshly polished school floors.
(What’s this about not crying over spilled milk?) Hey! There’s María Laura!
“What
do you think about all this?” Your question comes out unrestrained but with just
a touch of quixotic humour. (Where oh where are the
windmills?)
“Great! I’m really enjoying it…yes, indeed, I’m enjoying it so far.”
That’s what she says, but she doesn’t have to practice her nearly perfect
English diction because the answer is painted on her face. She has a face like
those you can see on a renaissance painting, the ones that stare at you as if
they knew you.
“What’s the Congress about?” you ask, at a bit of a loss for words due to
the Rembrandt that is still flashing in your mind.
The
answer comes out a bit dazed, delayed, suggestive of a hatching baby chicken:
“Sharing, meeting people with other experiences and sharing. That’s what it’s
about, it’s about sharing.” That seems to be the word on everyone’s lips. You
want to explore the subject further, but you glance at your watch and
say:
“Sharing! Thanks! I’m off to
listen to Omar.”
Lic. Omar Villarreal is one of the
brains behind the Congress. He’s proud that this 10th congress
continues to be for both teachers and students. You open the door to the oblong
shaped auditorium and spot him,
readying things for his plenary session: “A chicken without bones or the use of
magic in ELT.” Wow! That’s weird. A
chicken without bones. Then in a flash everything comes clear. The bones keep
the poor animal from collapsing into an amorphous pile of flesh. The bones are
the chicken’s structure! It’s like saying grammar constitutes the bones of
language. Look at Omar now! He’s moving about as if to graphically illustrate
his ideas on grammar! What calls your attention are his hands: big, expressive,
active, as if they had a life of their own, as if he were thinking with his
hands. By the way, that’s another idea you hear a lot about during the
congress—that teachers should employ their whole bodies and integrate the
learning process in the muscles, bones, memories and experiences of the
learners.
Omar is talking about grammar: “We
have been told once and again that ‘while we focus on communication, grammar
will take care of itself’ But will it?” The question rebounds from ear to ear,
mouth to mouth. Meanwhile, there’s a coffee break so…
“You
notice the enthusiasm,” says Cynthia outside the speaker’s room, a cup of coffee
balanced gingerly in her delicate left hand, “and it’s important to see teachers
as well as students participating and learning
together.”
“Have
you learned anything special?” The question is served with a quivering
wink.
“You
would ask that!”
“Well?”
“In
one of the workshops I attended I learned how to use DVD in the classroom…” You
wonder what she might have added but interrupt her to greet Caroline Gwatkin, a
quite English looking lady who in fact was born in Britain. She is returning
from her workshop on teaching business English.
“Tell
us the truth! The whole truth and nothing but the truth!”
“The
truth about what?” Caroline is not the kind of person you can take off
balance.
“The
truth about the Congress.”
“Well, I could say that the audience for my workshop was really receptive
but... my hotel is freezing.”
“So…?”
“So...I had to improvise a bit because nobody had any experience with
business English.”
“With
what kind of business?”
“Business English.”
“Oh!
Is that your business?”
“Well, I try to make it my business!”
A
voice suddenly interrupts the speakers. It’s Dr. Alicia Ramasco, specialized in
ELT writing.
“Are
you all write?” you ask her, with your own confused
diction.
“You
mean all right?”
“Yes,
do you write all right?”
“That’s what I’ve come her for: to do a workshop so people can learn to
‘write all right.’”
“Oh,
that sounds refreshing.”
“Indeed. The experience in Bahìa Blanca was wonderful, persons with great
professional backgrounds sharing their knowledge with students…and, well, the
human warmth neutralized the icy weather. Didn’t it?”
You nod your head in agreement,
wondering at the same time why there are so few men at the Congress—an often
observed phenomenon. In the midst of that philosophic thought, you spot one, a
man, returning from a workshop, his eyes gleaming as if to say: “coffee please!”
It’s Pablo Labandeira, whose subject was: “Refining our strategies for
testing.”
“Pablo! Long time, no
see!”
“Do
you think congresses of this sort are useful?” Interviewers are supposed to ask
biting questions now and then to get more truthful answers. That’s what they
used to say at journalism schools. But that was when journalism was called
journalism and not communications.
Pablo
reacts as if he were about to reverse the situation and test the interviewer. A
dog catcher’s smile puckers at the edges of his lips.
“It
not only is an opportunity to share things with old and new friends, but it
likewise allows us to learn from our colleagues as well.” After a pause and a
deep intake of air, he adds: “I feel that the stress on cultural awareness to be
of special importance.”
“What’s that?”
“Well, it is knowledge about the level of interference that one receives
from one’s surroundings while inside a language class.” Something like the
difference between doing your homework with an English style tea at hand or
doing those drills on irregular verbs while drink “mate,” Argentine style
mate.
“That
sounds interesting. Would you care to make an additional
observation?”
“Not
right now…it’s a bit too cold.”
“Could it be that speaking English helps one deal with cold
weather?”
“Pardon me? Oh, yes it does because it gets you into hot
water!”
It
was time to get a student’s opinion. Patricia, a member of the APIBB,
volunteered.
“Where are you from?”
“I’m
from Bahía Blanca.”
“From
San Francisco Bay?”
“No, from Bahía
Blanca.”
“You mean from
White Bay?”
“Yes,
of course. From Bahía Blanca.
You’ve tricked me.
Anyway, we are very happy with the way things are
going.”
Back
to the plenary. Judy Kievsky, M.A., is talking about “James and the giant peach:
a magic trip through writing and reading.” One thing she says really rings a
bell: “The best way to learn something is to teach something to someone else.”
Maybe that explains why congresses of this sort are so
successful.
Back
to the speaker’s room for another coffee (or tea, or just plain mineral
water...). Your head is reeling with data of all sorts, information, comments,
ideas…questions.
“Hello Sir! What’s your name, may I ask?”
“Town.”
“What
town?”
“No,
not a town. My name is town, Douglas Town.”
“If
you’re Town, you must be from some town.”
“Not
from a town: I am a citizen of the world!”
“Isn’t it a bit difficult to be from a non-town?”
“Ha!
Ha! I suppose so. Sometimes I feel like a stateless
person.”
“Well, well! Are you stateless or estate-less?”
“Well, actually I left my estate at home.”
“I
see. What have you learned at the Congress?”
“I’ve
learned that Bahía Blanca is a bloody cold city but its people have very warm
hearts,” says Lic. Town, faster on the draw than John Wayne. Hot and cold gusts of laughter accompany
his observation. He has just given his workshop on “Promoting self-directed
learning: A strategic approach.” He effectively banters the interviewer’s
question with these words: “If you give me an hour and a half, perhaps I can
answer that. What I might say is that attending congresses like this gives us
the feeling that we are not alone. It has something to do with a phrase once
uttered by T.S. Eliot: ‘we read so as not to be alone and we come to congresses
to know that others share our ideas.”
Finally the time had come to talk to Soledad García Luna of the
APIBB.
“Could you please tell us something about the
APIBB?”
“Yes,
of course. The APIBB is a group of about 100 teachers who have come together to
provide training materials and other resources to English teachers. We also edit
a bulletin and send out e-mails containing the latest information and data
useful to all those involved in the teaching of English in the
area.”
“How
long has it been in existence?”
“For
27 years.”
“Wow!”
“Yes
and we have been very active indeed. In 1998 we organized an event similar to
this with plenary sessions, lectures and workshops. It wasn’t as big but was a
success. And three years ago we organized the FAPPI
congress.”
“So I
imagine you are quite happy.”
“Yes,
we certainly are…in spite of some mistakes and organizational problems. That
always happens. I mean it is not easy to accommodate things for more than 600
participants.”
“What
is the importance of events of this sort in the context of the adventure of
education in general?”
“This congress is about sharing and that
is of great importance for the ongoing discussion about education in general. It
is an opportunity for teachers and students to share and discuss the great ideas
carefully prepared by speakers or subject to debate in the workshops. This
positive exchange of ideas is of vital importance in the process of
learning.”
The
end. Now back home. Back to work. Back to “normality.” But with a wonderful
bundle of new ideas to share with students and fellow teachers. That was what
seemed to pour through the minds of participants as each drifted back home.
While staring out the bus window at the under populated pampas, at least one of
them might have pondered A. Kojeve’s celebrated statement: “Twenty five
centuries ago in Greece the start of the phrase was pronounced.” Will the phrase
ever end?
--------------------------------------------------------------------
5.- JORNADAS
INTERNACIONALES DE EDUCACIÓN LINGÜÍSTICA.
Our
dear SHARERS from Universidad Nacional de Entre Ríos
announce:
Primeras
Jornadas Internacionales de Educación Lingüística: "La identidad y las
lenguas"
Durante
los días 12, 13 y 14 de agosto de 2004 se llevarán a cabo las Primeras Jornadas
Internacionales de Educación Lingüística "La identidad y las lenguas", en la
Facultad de Ciencias de la Administración de Concordia de la UNER (Monseñor
Tavella 1424 - Concordia - Entre Ríos). Las mismas están destinadas a Profesores
de español lengua materna y lengua extranjera, profesores de lenguas extranjeras
(portugués, inglés, francés, alemán, italiano, etc.), alumnos de profesorados,
Traductores, Lic. en Comunicación Social, Lic. en Ciencias Sociales y Prof. en
Ciencias Sociales.
Objetivos:
Los
principales objetivos de las Jornadas son los
siguientes:
-
Institucionalizar un espacio de reflexión y discusión sobre temas vinculados con
las Políticas Lingüísticas y la Pedagogía de Lenguas Extranjeras y
Segundas.
-
Estimular la creación de instancias de producción de conocimiento en el campo de
las diferentes disciplinas que integran el currículo de la formación de docentes
de lenguas extranjeras, así como los canales de intercambio entre los
investigadores.
-
Difundir experiencias pedagógicas significativas por sus aportes al campo de la
Didáctica de las Lenguas Extranjeras.
-
Fomentar el uso de nuevas tecnologías en el aula de LE.
-
Realizar acciones glotopolíticas que promuevan un reposicionamiento de las
lenguas extranjeras en los diferentes niveles y modalidades del sistema
educativo argentino.
Ejes
temáticos:
-
Políticas Lingüísticas.
-
Pedagogía de las lenguas
- Uso de nuevas
tecnologías en el aula de LE
- Estrategias
didácticas innovadoras
-
Evaluación
- Investigación
Lingüística y realidad educativa: Nexo entre ciencia y práctica de la lengua en el aula.
-
Estudios teóricos e investigaciones en el campo de las ciencias del lenguaje y
de las culturas (estudios literarios, antropológicos, sociológicos, pedagógicos,
etc.).
Modalidad:
-
Conferencias, a cargo de especialistas nacionales e
internacionales.
-
Paneles, a cargo de especialistas en los temas respectivos conformados por tres
o cuatro ponencias relacionadas con cada una de las áreas temáticas. El tiempo
previsto para cada ponencia será de 15 minutos, para dar lugar a debates
posteriores de alrededor de 30 minutos.
-
Comunicaciones, sobre temas de la especialidad de los participantes, con un
tiempo previsto de 15 minutos para la exposición y 10 minutos para responder
preguntas.
-
Talleres, a cargo de profesores en las diversas lenguas.
-
Posters, reservados par la presentación de propuestas didácticas y experiencias
áulicas.
Fecha
y condiciones para la presentación de trabajos:
Los
trabajos, en sus diferentes modelos de presentación, serán analizados por el
comité académico de las Jornadas.
La
fecha para la presentación de Resúmenes de los trabajos es hasta el 15 de julio
de 2004, y para la presentación de los trabajos hasta el 31 de julio de 2004.-
Los
trabajos tendrán una extensión de 2000 palabras incluidos los gráficos, notas y
bibliografía. Se deberán presentar en lengua española, en tamaño A4 con letras
Times New Roman, cuerpo 12, interlineado 1,5. El título debe ir centrado y con
mayúscula. Debajo del título se deberá consignar el nombre del/los autores
(alineación izquierda y en minúscula), Lugar o dependencia académica donde se
desarrollan las actividades, teléfonos o e-mail para consultas sobre el
trabajo.
Si
se trata de trabajos de investigación deberán contener objetivos, metodología,
corpus y conclusiones.
Las
notas irán numeradas correlativamente, colocadas al pie de página. El nombre de
los autores, citados en el texto, así como el año de publicación y la mención de
la página, irán entre paréntesis.
La
bibliografía se consignará por orden alfabético, respetando el orden
cronológico.
Los
trabajos se presentarán en dos copias impresas junto con un diskette rotulado
con el nombre del autor/es y el título de la misma.
Los
trabajos se pueden presentar personalmente, o enviar por correo o correo
electrónico. El documento deberá identificarse con el nombre del trabajo y
apellido de los autores del resumen.
El
tiempo previsto para la presentación será de 15 minutos con el fin de dar lugar
a debates posteriores de alrededor de 30 minutos.
Las
ponencias podrán ser leídas y, si se trata de paneles a cargo de profesores de
distintos idiomas, serán en español. En caso de que el panel fuera a cargo de
especialistas en una sola lengua, puede ser en dicha
lengua.
Posters
La
sesión de pósters será de dos horas en los días y horarios que se fijarán
oportunamente.
El/los
autores deberán estar presentes para responder a preguntas, explicar el
contenido, etc.
Se
presentarán paneles de 1,00 x 0,70 metros que incluyan el título, nombre
completo, institución de origen de los participantes y un texto breve con
gráficos, fotos, dibujos, etc.
Los
trabajos serán remitidos a:
Primeras
Jornadas de Educación Lingüística
Secretaría
de Extensión Universitaria
Facultad
de Ciencias de la Administración de Concordia (UNER)
Monseñor
Tavella 1424 - CP 3200 - Concordia - Entre Ríos.
Teléfono:
0345-4231415 - E-mail: extuni@ai.fcad.uner.edu.ar
Donde
puede también recabarse mayor información e inscribirse.
------------------------------------------------------------
6.- SEGUNDAS
JORNADAS DE CAPACITACIÓN PROFESIONAL PARA TRADUCTORES
Our
dear SHARER Sylvia Falchu from Torre de Papel has an invitation to
make:
Segundas Jornadas de Capacitación Profesional
“Torre de Papel”
Sábado
7 de agosto de 2004
Hotel
El Conquistador - Salón América, 10 º Piso
Suipacha
948 - Buenos Aires, Argentina
Sábado
7 de agosto por la mañana
Taller
de redacción jurídica
Dirigido
a traductores, intérpretes, abogados, escribanos y estudiantes de carreras
afines interesados en mejor la redacción en
español.
Toda
la bibliografía reciente acerca del lenguaje jurídico coincide en que sus
características principales deben ser la claridad, la sencillez y la concisión.
Sin embargo, para un abogado, lo más común es decir 'satisfacción del canon
locativo', en lugar de 'pago del alquiler'; 'imprimir dañosidad', por 'dañar'; y
'período gestal', para referirse al 'embarazo'. La propuesta de este taller se
orienta a simplificar el lenguaje jurídico, con la convicción de que entender
los escritos jurídicos es un derecho de todo ciudadano. La claridad del lenguaje
ayuda a la transparencia de los actos.
Programa
*
El lenguaje jurídico. Características. Clases de escritos * Cómo simplificar el
estilo. Lenguaje claro en español * Organización de los textos * Párrafos y
oraciones * Puntuación * La oración: el actor, la acción y el objeto. Extensión
* Los incisos * Voz activa y voz pasiva * Economía de palabras * Empleo de
sustantivos y adjetivos * La nominalización * El empleo del gerundio * Los
conectores * Locuciones prepositivas y adverbiales * El léxico. Cada uno de los
puntos del programa se explicará de manera práctica, por medio de ejercicios.
Los textos en que se basan los ejercicios fueron redactados por
abogados.
Docentes
Pedro
Mairal nació en Buenos Aires en 1970. Cursó la carrera de Letras en la
Universidad del Salvador, donde fue profesor adjunto de Literatura inglesa. En
1998, el jurado integrado por Adolfo Bioy Casares, Augusto Roa Bastos y
Guillermo Cabrera Infante le otorgó el Premio Clarín de Novela por Una noche con
Sabrina Love. Ha publicado Hoy temprano (cuentos, 2001) y dos libros de poesía:
Tigre como los pájaros (1996) y Consumidor final (2003). Desde 1997, diseña y
dicta cursos de redacción para abogados.
Mariana
Bozetti es profesora en Letras, egresada de la Universidad Católica Argentina.
En la Universidad Torcuato Di Tella dicta Teoría y práctica de la escritura y
Comprensión de textos y escritura. Como becaria de la Real Academia Española, en
la Academia Argentina de Letras, colabora con la revisión de la Gramática de la
RAE. Desde 1998, diseña y dicta cursos de redacción para
abogados.
Horario
de acreditación: de 8:30 a 9:00 - Taller: de 9:00 a 10:30 y de 11:00 a
13:00 - Pausa: 10:30 a
11:00
Sábado
7 de agosto por la tarde
Taller
Intensivo de Traducción Jurídica de Derecho Procesal
Español-Inglés
Dirigido
a traductores, intérpretes, abogados, docentes y estudiantes del último año de
dichas carreras.
Objetivo:
se traducirán al inglés distintos textos en español sobre Derecho Procesal Civil
y Comercial argentino (diferentes tipos de escritos judiciales, peticiones,
sentencias, apelaciones, etc.)
Patricia
Mazzucco es Traductora Pública Nacional inglés-español y español-inglés,
egresada de la Universidad de Buenos Aires. Tiene 24 años de experiencia en el
área legal, comercial, financiera y contable. También he realizado trabajos de
traducción sobre temas técnicos: petróleo, minería, agricultura, ganadería,
ingeniería y electricidad, entre otros para los más importantes estudios
jurídicos y empresas nacionales e internacionales. Actualmente está a cargo del
Departamento de Traducciones del Estudio Baker & McKenzie como traductora
in-house, y también trabaja como traductora free-lance, intérprete y perito
judicial. Fue titular de cátedra en la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de
Buenos Aires y en la Universidad Católica Argentina, en la carrera de Traductor
Público Nacional. Es autora del "Diccionario Bilingüe de Terminología Jurídica",
que fue el primer diccionario jurídico bilingüe publicado en el país en 1988.
Este Diccionario fue el primer diccionario que se editó en CD-ROM en el año 1996
y recibió el Primer Premio de Lexicografía Bilingüe del Área Jurídica otorgado
por la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras - Cátedra de Filología Inglesa de la
Universidad de Extremadura, España, en 1996.
Colaboró
en la redacción y corrección de la traducción al español del "Black's Law
Dictionary" con el grupo de trabajo, en los Estados Unidos de
América.
En
el marco de nuestras Jornadas se presentará la Cuarta Edición del Diccionario
Bilingüe de Terminología Jurídica inglés-español; español-inglés con CD-ROM, de
Patricia O. Mazzucco y Alejandra H. Maranghello.
Horario
de acreditación: de 14:00 a 14:30 - Taller: de 14:30 a 16:00 y de 16:30 a 18:30
- Pausa: 16:00 a 16:30
Informes
e Inscripción: Torre de Papel - jornadas@torredepapel.com.ar
www.torredepapel.com.ar - Tel./Fax: 00-54-11-
47752198
Vacantes
limitadas. El pago deberá realizarse antes del evento para garantizar la
vacante.
Los
aranceles incluyen el servicio de cafetería de la mañana y de la tarde y los
apuntes.
Formas
de pago: efectivo, cheque personal, depósito o transferencia bancaria y tarjetas
de crédito Mastercard, Visa o Amex.
Se
entregarán certificados de asistencia.
Descuento
por inscripciones grupales (mínimo diez personas).
Habrá
sorteo de revistas y bibliografía.
Agencia
de Viajes - Para asistentes del interior y del
exterior
Planeta
Tierra - Contacto: Sra. Virna o
Sra. Victoria
Tel./Fax:
00-54-11-4325-2232
Auspician:
Círculo
de Traductores Públicos de Zona Norte - http://www.traductoreszonanorte.org
Fundación
Litterae - http://www.fundlitterae.org.ar
Icon
-
http://www.icontrad.com.ar/capacitacion.htm
Instituto
Superior de Letras Eduardo Mallea -
www.institutomallea.com.ar
Planeta
Tierra Outdoors - www.planetatierra.com.ar
Planeta
Tierra Viajes y Turismo -
http://www.planetatierra.com.ar/outdoors
Círculo
de Traductores Públicos e Intérpretes de Zona Oeste - www.cirtrad.com.ar
Asociación
Interamericana de Ceremonial - www.aiceremonial.com.ar
------------------------------------------------------------------------
7-
A PROPOS OF THE TOOLS FOR
TEACHERS WINTER COURSE
Readers of SHARE will by now have read in
the previous issue, about the Winter Course to be held in Buenos Aires on July
19 and 20 and the session on personal growth (MINDING THE BODY, MINDING THE
SOUL) on the previous day, July 18.
A propos of the whole day session on July
18, I have been asked questions such as whether any previous yoga experience is
needed, or what is meant by touching as a way of healing.
The answer to the first question is that
no previous yoga experience is necessary. The yoga asanas, which are only
a part of the course, will be offered at different levels of difficulty, and in
agreement with the yoga philosophy, each participant will go only as far as
he/she is able to go.
The second question requires a more
elaborate answer, which, I'm afraid may exceed the limits of this message.
Still, in what follows I will do my best.
Practically all of us are surely
familiar with the experience of touching or being touched to give or receive
comfort, when we are in pain or when we want to express love or affection
towards someone. This way of touching is spontaneous and requires no training.
However, over and above the innate gift of touch that we all have, there are
some simple
techniques that can be used by most people to bring
about relaxation, and at least some relief from pain in the receiver. It is some
of these techniques that we will begin to explore on Sunday 18,
as a learning
experience, and as a small step in our journey. Nevertheless, I would like to
make it clear that technique is not enough, and that our workshop is not
about massage. We want to go beyond the technique and explore new territories,
becoming fully aware that we have a body, but we are not a body.
We are
much more than that, but on this earthly existence we want to honour our body,
since this is the means used by our soul to manifest itself! Touching from that
perspective is something sacred and beautiful, which does not mean it cannot be
lighthearted and fun. In fact, it had better be, so that it can bring joy to the
giver and receiver and thus make him/her whole--the true meaning of
healing.
I have been exploring the field of body
work (different kinds of massage) for some time now, and am constantly reminding
myself of the parallelism between learning and teaching a foreign
language. I still remember my first experience touching a body and how I had no
idea how to raise a leg, how to stretch an arm, how to rock a body, to give but
a few examples. It really was like learning an entirely new
language. I could point out the similarities, I
could talk about perception of wholes, about chunking, drilling (they
call it getting it in the muscle)and most of all making sense of
it. I learned from some brilliant teachers, and
others that were rather inept, and I wondered in which category
as a language teacher I fell into. Oh yes, being a learner of the
language of the body is a wonderful experience, and precisely because
it seems to be so remote from the concerns of the foreign language teacher, I
would strongly recommend it.
I hope I have now given you at least a
glimpse of what is meant by touching as a way of healing.
As for the academic part of the WINTER
COURSE, there have been a few changes, and I would like to bring them to
your attention: we will be starting at 10:30 both on Monday and Tuesday rather
than at 10:00, to give time to those who live outside Capital Federal to arrive
on time.
The topics to be covered will
be:
Monday, July 19
10:30 to 13:00 Correcting Errors: A
different perspective
14:00 TO 17:00 Visualize to
Learn
Tuesday, July 20
10:30 to 13:00 Empowering students to
become better learners
14:00 to 17:00 Colloquial English as heard
on TV sitcoms
I am delighted to report that English
& Fun will be joining us on Monday afternoon during our coffee break and
will be offering a thirty minute session on games.
On
Tuesday afternoon, at the end of the academic session, AQA (Assessment and
Qualifications Alliance) will be joining us for a short session on
international exams.
July 18
MINDING THE BODY, MINDING THE SOUL, 10:00
to 17:00
All sessions are given by
Oriel E. Villagarcia,
M.A.
in Linguistics for English Language Teaching, University of
Lancaster, Master Practitioner of NLP, Certificate of Completion, NLP
University, Santa Cruz, California, Certified Administrator of the MBTI,
Florida, Certified Practitioner of Breema, Oakland, California, Fulbright and
British Council Scholar. Oriel has taught at the Catholic University of Salta,
National University of Rio Cuarto and National University of Santiago del Estero
and is co-founder of ASPI (Asocociación Salteña de
Profesores de Inglés) and FAAPI (Federación Argentina de Asociaciones de
Profesores de Inglés).
Venues:
For the academic sessions on July 19 and
20: SBS Palermo, Coronel Diaz 1747, Capital Federal.
For the personal growth session on July 18:
Gascón 1681, Capital Federal
Fees:
Each academic session is $20, any three $50 and all four
$60. The personal growth session is $30 and no discounts
apply.
To ensure a seat, register in advance
personally at any of the SBS bookshops (addresses at www.sbs.com.ar).
Please note
that given that vacancies are limited we cannot reserve your seat unless you
have paid for it.
If for any
reasons you missed the issue of SHARE previous to this one where the whole
program was presented email newtoolsforteachers@yahoo.com.ar
to get a brief abstract of the subjects to be covered.
Lastly, I take this opportunity to thank
SHARE for spreading the news about this innovative event, and look forward to
seeing a number of you during the TOOLS FOR TEACHERS WINTER
COURSE.
------------------------------------------------------------
8.- A
SPA FOR YOUR SOUL
Our dear SHARER Laura Szmuch writes to us:
" I work in a company, and my students
are so stressed that I can hardly teach them English."
"The manager I teach
on Fridays works from 7 am to 9 pm almost everyday. I feel terrible
because it is impossible for me to do my job. When I get to his office,
the last thing she wants to do is learn English."
"The kids in the school I
work for are so lazy....well, I guess they are tired..I don't know....I don't
seem to be able to find a way to reach them, to do something which is worth both
my and their time."
"Managing discipline, marking, evaluations, the
housework, my family........ is too much. I wish I could find a way
to get energy from....I don't know where...."
These are typical comments
we hear from teachers these days. Fuelled by a great sense of
responsibility, most teachers don't allow themselves to stop and reflect about
their own lives and professions. They complain about overworked students
who literally live for their jobs and nothing else than that, and most of them
don't notice that , in fact, they are speaking about themselves.
As we
always say, ours is a profession of giving. What do we get in exchange for
the job we do? We receive a salary, it's true. Whether it is high or
low is not important. The important thing is how we feel about the fact
that sometimes we can't see the results of what we do, or we have so many blocks
on the road that teaching becomes "Mission Impossible". We have been
trained to teach, not to solve other people's problems or work as
therapists. The great frustration stems from the fact that sometimes we
are not doing what we really want to be doing. Reality is different from
the ideal situations we imagined in Teacher Training College.
As we know
from NLP presuppositions, the only thing we can change or influence directly is
ourselves. What happens in our jobs will continue to happen. And the
decision here is ours: shall we continue to feel that suffocating sensation that
we are merely surviving or shall we start to do things in the direction of
thriving? For things to change, we must change. There are so many
things we can do to "sharpen our tools", to reduce our own
anxiety, to break
and breathe, to relax, to enjoy our lives and our jobs a lot more, to establish
meaningful contact with our students, to become aware that we are important and
the best thing we can do is to look after ourselves properly. Before
Mother Teresa (at that time, Sister Teresa) started her Mission of
Charity, she worked so much for the poor that she became very ill. The
nurse that helped her taught her a very important lesson: "To be useful to
others, first you must learn to take care of yourself. You need a lot of
discipline: at least three good meals a day, plenty of rest and one free day a
week. If you are not in a good physical, mental and spiritual condition,
you can't help anyone else."
When I read the nurse's wise words several
years ago, I realized that I myself needed to learn all that. Of
what use could I be for my students if I was tired all the time, or with a
strong desire to be somewhere else? I discovered that a good teacher needs
high quality time for herself, and both her body and soul have to be nurtured,
as well as the mind. The point is that sometimes we think we are only a mind and
we tend to forget about the other two........If you have ever felt that there is
more to life than what you can perceive now, stop, breathe and do something
about it. Change your level of awareness. Open your
perspective. Smile an inner smile. Learn to shine. Change the
idea of surviving for the amazingly beautiful notion of thriving. Enjoy
life. Share. Meditate. Express your love. Flow. Connect. Radiate.
Shine. Stretch. Look up.
Give your soul a Spa.
A Spa for your Soul
This 3-day NLP course is
designed to provide participants with:
Ideas to organise their time and
activities in a functional way
Close examination to their beliefs and values
in connection with their personal and professional life
Special techniques
for goal setting
How to deal with stress (their own stress
and their students')
Visualisation and relaxation techniques
Small changes
in behaviour that foster good communication
Energisers
Suggestions on how
to capitalise from the positive aspects of their
experience.
Biodata:
Laura Szmuch is a graduate of INSP
"JVGonzález", and Master Practitioner and Trainer in NLP. She applies NLP
to her English teaching in her studio in Capital Federal. She is the
co-founder of Resourceful Teaching and together with Jamie Duncan, produces a
fortnightly e-zine called RTNews. She has written "Aprendiendo Inglés, y
disfrutando el proceso", and co-authored "Really Thriving" of forthcoming
publication.
This special course will take place in Gallardo 719,
Ciudad de Buenos Aires (not Angel
Gallardo)
Date: July 29, 30 and 31
Time: Morning: from 10 to 13 -
Afternoon: from 14:30 to 17:30
Very Limited Vacancies (Small group
policy)
For registration contact : Laura Szmuch - Resourceful Teaching -
4641-9068
Gallardo 719 (1408) Ciudad de Buenos Aires.
------------------------------------------------------------
9.- TEACHING ENGLISH TO
VERY YOUNG LEARNERS
Our
dear SHARERS from Leeds School of English have sent us this
invitation:
The
A to Z of English Teaching in Kindergarten and the First Three
Forms
by
Laura Campagnoli
Specially
designed for teachers in kindergarten and the first
forms.
August
21 (9 a.m. to 14 p.m.)
Fee:
$ 50 / $ 45 for Students from
College and teachers from state-run Schools.
Contents:
Second
Language Acquisition. How to deal with phonological and structural
problems.
Routines, Activities for the development of the oral skills: songs, rhymes,
chants,
dramatization, games, riddles and story-telling. The use of verbs. How to
develop
reading and writing. Testing at this level. How to make the most of the English
lesson through practice in the multimedia lab.
For
further information contact
Leeds
School of English
Zabala
1686, Capital Federal - Tel: 4783 4414 / 4788 5052 –
------------------------------------------------------------------------
10.-
TERCER ENCUENTRO DE PROFESORES Y TRADUCTORES DE
INGLÉS
Our dear SHARER Patricia Tanke Paz has sent us this
announcement:
El
Departamento de Lenguas de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la Universidad
Católica Argentina y el Centro de
Graduados en Lenguas Vivas anuncian la realización del Tercer Encuentro de
Profesores y Traductores de Inglés, bajo el lema "Dimensiones actuales de los
profesionales de la Lengua Inglesa".
Lugar
y Fecha: Auditorio Santa Cecilia,
Edificio San Alberto
Magno. (Alicia M. de
Justo 1500. Puerto Madero- Capital.
21
de agosto (Encuentro para profesores)
28
de agosto (Encuentro para traductores)
Sábado
21 de agosto: Encuentro de Profesores
Acreditación:
8.30 hs.
Inicio:
9:00 hs.
Apertura:
Breves palabras a cargo de la Directora del Departamento y de la Presidente del Centro de
Graduados
9.15
a 10.15: Exposición:
"Effective
role-play activities for adult learners"
Lic.
Ana María Bozzi de Bergel
10.15
a 10.30: Preguntas
10.30
a 11: Pausa / Café
11 a
11.50: Exposición:
" Are
games a serious matter?"
Prof.
Fernando Armesto
11.50
a 12: Preguntas
12 a
12.50: Exposición:
"Creativity:
Painting with all the colours of the wind"
Lic.Omar
Villarreal
12.50
a 13: Preguntas
Cierre
y Entrega de Certificados.
28
de agosto: Encuentro de Traductores
Acreditación:
8.30 hs.
Inicio:
9 hs.
Apertura:
Breves palabras a cargo de la Directora del Departamento y de la Presidente del Centro de
Graduados
9.15
a 10.15: Exposición:
"Traducción
y Tecnología: la dupla perfecta para un trabajo más eficaz y
fiable"
T.P.
Gabriela Alejandra Gonzalez
10.15
a 10.30: Preguntas
10.30
a 11: Pausa / Café
11
a 11.50: Exposición:
"
Mercado Internacional de la Traducción"
T.P. Aurora Matilde
Humarán
11.50
a 12: Preguntas
12
a 12.50: Exposición:
"Normas
y Valores de los Fundamentos de la Traducción"
Dra.
Silvia Kenny de Cavanagh
12.50
a 13: Preguntas
Cierre-
Entrega de Certificados.
La
entrada para cada jornada tendrá un costo de $ 10.
Informes e
Inscripción
Facultad de Filosofía y Letras – Contacto: Prof. María Magdalena
Castro Nevares
Edificio San Alberto Magno, Puerto Madero - Avda. Alicia
Moreau de Justo 1500, PB
Tel. (54 11) 4349-0200 int. 822 - Fax (54 11)
4349-0200 int. 444
Atención de Lunes a Viernes de 10 a 13 y de 17 a 19 hs.
E-mail: maria_castronevares@uca.edu.ar
--------------------------------------------------------------
11- ENGLISH IMMERSION
COLONIES
Our dear SHARER Pierre Stapley has
sent us this message:
Stapley Educational Services organises
3-day English Immersion Colonies for schools and institutes in the Hills of
Cordoba near the town of Mina Clavero. All colonies have a native speaker,
either from the UK or from the USA, depending on your choice. We organise
everything: transport from Buenos Aires, accommodation, food and the colony
itself.
The cabin resort has fully equipped cabins and boasts a swimming
pool with a fantastic view over the valley. Transport from Buenos Aires is with
Chevallier's "coche-cama" service to ensure a higher standard of safety.
If you're a head of an institute or school and are interested in
organising your own colony, then please feel free to call Pierre on
011-4259-6632 or send an e-mail to colony@stapley.com.ar I'd be more than
happy to meet you personally to explain about the colonies and answer any
questions you may have. Further information about the colonies and previous
events can be seen at www.stapley.com.ar/colony
--------------------------------------------------------------------
12.-
OFICINA
DE TEATRO - "EXPRESSÃO E DESINIBIÇÃO"
Our dear SHARER and friend Joicede Brito e
Cunha wants to SHARE this piece of information:
Oficina
de Teatro - "Expressão e Desinibição"
com
Joice de Brito e Cunha
Com
o apoio do Instituto Cultural Brasileiro
Norte-Americano, Companheiros Das Américas, e VSA Indiana,
*
Oficina direcionada a pessoas portadoras de deficiência visual.
*
Objetivos - oportunizar crescimento pessoal e desenvolvimento da expressão
artística através do teatro, desenvolvendo também a capacidade de interação em
grupo, expressão verbal e corporal, projeção vocal e dicção, favorecendo a
capacidade de falar em público, a
auto-estima e a desinibição.
*
Serão desenvolvidos exercícios de sensibilização, improvisação, expressão
corporal, projeção vocal e articulação, técnicas de interpretação e criação de
personagem.
*
A oficina terá a duração de 24 horas, que serão desenvolvidas às sextas feiras
(3 horas diárias) de 20 de agosto a 8 de outubro/2004.
*
Horário: das 17:00 às 20:00 hs.
*
Local: Auditório do Instituto Cultural Brasileiro Norte-Americano - Rua Riachuelo 1257,
Centro, Porto Alegre.
*
Inscrições no local mediante uma contribuição de R$ 50,00 (todos os recursos
recolhidos serão utilizados para custos de produção).
*
Vagas limitadas - 16 participantes.
*
Informações: Cultural: 3225-2255 -
Joice: 3333-7086
BIODATA
Joice
de Brito e Cunha graduou-se como professora de inglês pela PUCRS em 1972 e
leciona no Instituto Cultural Brasileiro Norte-Americano desde 1974. Fundou o
DRAMA CLUB em 1989 e o coordena desde então. É também atriz e diretora teatral,
tendo participado profissionalmente de mais de 20 peças teatrais. Tem ministrado
"workshops" sobre o Uso de Técnicas de Teatro no Ensino de Inglês em diversos
seminários no Brasil e também na
Argentina e Uruguai.
Recebeu
dois prêmios: um de poesia em 1978 "Apesul Revelação Literária" e outro, o
troféu "Tibicuera" como melhor atriz de teatro infantil de
1980.
É
também "bonequeira" e trabalhou em programas infantis em duas estações de TV
locais (TV Guaíba e TV Educativa).
Em
1997, a convite do Cultural, fez um curso em Cambridge, Inglaterra sobre
"Programação Neurolingüística e o Cérebro Criativo". É também "Practitioner" em
Programação Neurolingüística pelo "Centro Sul-Brasileiro de Programação
Neurolingüística", coordenado pelo Dr. Nelson Spritzer, onde cursa atualmente o
nível "Master Practitioner".
Em
janeiro/fevereiro de 2004, esteve 3
semanas em quatro diferentes cidades em Indiana (USA), onde, por ocasião do seu
projeto: "DRAMA IN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND AS A TOOL FOR PERSONAL GROWTH",
proferiu palestras e aulas em várias instituições educacionais, ligadas ao
ensino de Artes para o desenvolvimento de pessoas com necessidades especiais.
Este projeto é parte do programa "Teacher in residence" patrocinado pelos Companheiros Das
Américas e pelo Instituto Cultural Brasileiro Norte-Americano.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
13- APIBA
SIGS
Asociación de
Profesores de Inglés de Buenos Aires announces their forthcoming Special
Interest Groups Meetings:
|
Name
of SIG |
Date
& Time
|
Venue |
|
Applied
Linguistics |
Saturday
July 3rd – 10.00 -
12.00 |
Liceo
Cultural Británico
Av.
Corrientes 5305 |
|
Computers |
Forum
plus
Face-to-face meeting
Saturday August 28th
2.00 pm - 5.00
pm |
Instituto Polimodal “Arzobispo Jorge
Matulaitis" Brasil 835 -
Avellaneda. |
|
Critical
Theory & Literature (La Plata) |
Saturday
July 3rd
9.00
- 12.00
(2 sessions of 1 hour 15’, with a 30’
break) |
Centro
Cultural “Islas Malvinas “ Calle 50 entre 19 y 20 – La
Plata |
|
Language |
Saturday
July 3rd –11.15 -
12.45 |
Cultural
Inglesa de Buenos Aires (CIBA). Viamonte 1475.
|
|
Literature
& Cultural Studies |
Saturday
August 14th
10.30 - 12.30 |
To
be confirmed |
|
Phonology |
Saturday
July 3rd
9.30 –
11.00 |
Cultural Inglesa de Buenos Aires (CIBA).
Viamonte 1475. |
|
Second
Language Teaching (Bernal) |
Saturday
July 3rd
10.00 - 12.00 |
ISFD
Nro 24 Avellaneda 177,
Bernal, Prov. of B.A |
|
Second
Language Teaching (Lomas de Zamora) |
Saturday
August 28th
10.00 -
12.00 |
ISP
"Pbro Dr.Antonio Saenz", Calle Saenz 740, Lomas de Zamora, Prov. of
B.A. |
For
more information, contact: APIBA SIGs apibasigs@apiba.org.ar
Office
Hours: Mondays 10.30 to 12.30 pm (Librería Rodriguez- Sarmiento 835,
Bs.As.)
Wednesdays 10.30 to 12.30 (Librería KEL- M.T. de Alvear 1369,
Bs.As.)
Tel / Fax: (+54 11) 4326-3927
--------------------------------------------------------------------
14- GOOD NEWS FROM
E-TEACHING ON LINE
Our
dear SHARER Alicia López Oyhenart writes to us:
ww.e-teachingonline.com.ar --Issue #19-- 70,000!
We
are proud to announce that we have not only reached that impressive number of
people with our magonline but also permanently increased the amount of
subscribers to whom we remain sincerely grateful.
Issue
# 19 contains the usual mid-year EXAM ZONE with tests for all level classes and
mock exam practice. FILM ZONE has cool activities based on Shrek, Spider-man2,
The Firm and Richard III.
There
is a FRIENDS UNIT with activities, crafts & songs and Guest Writer James
Archer, creator of TPR, tells it as it is.
The
usual teacher Survival Corner with helpful tips and an outdated account of ELT
events and Training Courses.
E-teachingonline
announces its Winter Training Courses:
July
22 9:30 am"How to teach TOEFL and
help your students get top scores": the computer adaptive format will be
analysed and successful procedures examined. Attendants will be able to see a
Power Prep to evaluate exam material. A three-hour workshop Fees: $30= deposit Banco Rio Cta Cte:
187-370/2 ( See Venue below)
July
23: 9 to 11 - 11:30 to 1:30 ? THE LANGUAGE TEACHER 2004 CLINIC
a
four-hour language update. The course will explore :
Using
humour to teach language. A lively workshop with loads of activities to help
your students understand sit coms, movies, songs, etc.
The
English teacher as a professional. What is it exactly?
Teacher
training & teacher development. Why the distinction?
Teaching
Resources of Y2003: How to use all the modern technological tools in the English
class: CDRoms, Word Processors, Internet, e-mail, Cable TV, newspapers on line
to help you motivate and teach.
In
the computer class. Presentation of great activities.
Media
Literacy: why is it an essential life skill for today's young people.
Some
language reviews and updates. We will deal with some of those current colourful
idioms and everyday expressions that brighten up your
class.
Fees:
$ 40= Form of payment: deposit Banco Rio Cta Cte: 187-370/2
Certificates of Attendance
Venue
: The New England School of English
Santa Fe 5130 Capital
Contact:
4782-2582 alilopez@ciudad.com.ar. If you want
Alicia to visit your institution/city with these and/or other courses, contact
her and make arrangements.
Lecturer:
Alicia López Oyhenart. A
graduate of the ISN Joaquín V. González, she specialized in English for Special
Purposes at Columbia University, New York. Co-author with Mabel Uranga of How?1
& 2 -Co- author with Celia Zubiri of Bessland Parts A & B-Kel Ediciones,
Co-Editor of E-teachingonline, the first activity magonline for E. teachers in
Argentina. A regular contributor to The Buenos Aires Herald (Education) since
1999 among a wide variety of teaching activities at Secondary and University
level.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
We would like
to finish this issue of SHARE with this quotation that Mariela Starc from
Universidad
Nacional del Sur sent us:
“If
there’s righteousness in the heart, there will be beauty in the character. If
there’s beauty in the character, there will be harmony in the home. If there is
harmony in the home, there will be order in the nation. When there is order in
each nation, there will be peace in the world.”
Beautiful,
isn´t it? But...who wrote it? Maybe we will have an answer for our next
SHARE.
HAPPY
WINTER HOLIDAYS!
Omar and Marina.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
-