TESOL Greece Big SIG Day

Print this article

Participants had the opportunity to attend a range of concurrent talks and workshops on Young Learners, Multimedia and Computer Assisted Language Learning, English for Academic Purposes and English for Specific Purposes and Drama and Literature.

The Young Learners SIG (Special Interest Group) started off with Vassilis Hartzoulakis’ presentation entitled ‘Web 2.0.Tools and Applications for Teachers’.

He spoke on the changing face of the Internet whereby ‘publication’ has given its place to ‘participation’ and demonstrated how teachers can use and access all the possibilities of a wide range of search engines.

The second speaker, Antigone Bratsoli, focused on Songs and Games in the Young Learner Classroom.

She said that rather than basing their choices on intuition, teachers can apply a number of specific criteria for selecting and designing games or songs.

She also provided participants with some first-hand experience in the design of such material. Finally, Paul Bouniol presented ‘Goal Setting Theory’: A promising Motivation Theory for EFL and YLs?’

He argued that goal setting theory can significantly increase EFL students’ levels of motivation.

For example, designing the lesson around meaningful and carefully graded tasks, helping students see the rationale behind the activities they are given and providing them with appropriate feedback and opportunities for self-assessment can have a direct impact on the effort they put into language learning and their persistence with it.

The M/M CALL SIG also captivated the audience’s interest. Eleni Argyriou asked participants ‘Ready to liven up your EFL class with web 2.0 tools?’

Her talk focused on the three basic 2.0 tools, i.e., those of blogs, wikis and rings and demonstrated how they can be used as pedagogical tools to shape the EFL classroom into a learning environment of shared knowledge, experienced learning and learner autonomy.

Then, Dida Papalexiou spoke on ‘Using a blended e-learning scheme in an EFL classroom in Korinthos, Greece’.

She described how blended e-learning was integrated into the curriculum of an English language school in Korinthos with a group of adult learners at the enhancement of students’ linguistic performance.

Next, Marianna Katsaounou and Alexandra Tsakogianni gave a talk entitled ‘Technology as a motivational force in the classroom’.

They demonstrated how teachers can use technology to create a variety of enjoyable tasks and activities that integrate the four skills and promote learner autonomy.

The next talk ‘Teaching Teenagers’ by Nick Michelioudakis focused on how to approach a topic of particular interest to teenagers – sex!

He said that teachers need to be prepared to take some risks when teaching this age group and dealing with sex will inevitably be one of them.

Then, Peter Beech gave an overview of ‘Web 2.0 in ELT’, the so called ‘social technologies’.

He suggested that these technologies ranging from instant messaging to voice-based technologies and from wikis and blogs to Youtube and Teachertube can be used to help learners practice all four skills in collaborative and creative ways.

He also discussed the possibilities of social sharing and bookmarking facilities as well as the implementation of virtual learning environments.

The next speaker, Dimitris Tolis, talked on how to ‘Blend it like Beckham’: Blending F2F, e-Learning and Social Learning (Web 2.0)’.

He described blended learning as an educational methodology that combines traditional teaching with new technologies and social networking and showed ways of incorporating it into our teaching.

Finally, George Corbas addressed the topic ‘Why use a wiki?’ and introduced the audience into the basic concepts of using a wiki in the EFL classroom. Attendees also had the opportunity to create their own wiki!

Equally interesting was the EAP/ESP SIG. Maria Hioni’s presentation was entitled ‘Operating Using Technology: Teaching Medical English terminology and Communication Skills to Doctors’.

She said that adult ESP learners find language learning supported by technology both helpful and extremely motivating and she suggested ways of using tools such as Youtube, CD-ROMS, interactive board games and even text messages with 5-6 terms presented in contextualized sentences.

A panel discussion on EAP/ESP related issues followed the presentation.

Lastly, the Drama and Literature SIG started off with Stelios Pelasgos’ presentation entitled ‘Beyond communication: Learning language as a fairy tale/Storytelling, oral literature and the multiple intelligence in the classroom’.

Stelios Pelasgos pointed out that storytelling provides useful insight into the subtle qualities of a language as well as the mentality of the people of a specific culture.

This kind of cultural knowledge is that makes language learning meaningful. He went on to narrate a fairy tale accompanied by music while the audience was sitting in a circle.

Finally, Iro Potamousi and Maria Salliari focused on ‘Drama as a Tool for more effective EFL Teaching’ and gave participants a wide range of tips on using drama at all levels of tutoring.

All in all, the TESOL Greece Big SIG event was a huge success. All participants left with a wealth of new ideas to take back to the classroom and help them adapt their teaching to the needs of a rapidly changing world.

<< Back