Random Quote
Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.
---- Abigail Adams (1744 - 1818)
I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.
---- Isaac Asimov
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
---- Sheik Abd-al-Kadir
Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.
---- Robert Frost
Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
---- Arnold Lobel
As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls.
---- M. Cartmill
Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.
---- Leonardo DaVinci (1452-1519)
This may be the most interesting blog theme I've ever seen. http://eflgeek.com/index.php Definitely in my top 5 at least.
---- Steve Dembo
To have another language is to possess a second soul.
---- Charlemagne
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
---- Albert Einstein
Arguments over grammar and style are often as fierce as those over IBM versus Mac, and as fruitless as Coke versus Pepsi and boxers versus briefs.
---- Jack Lynch
To get something done, a committee should consist of no more than three men, two of whom are absent.
---- Robert Copeland
Don't knock the weather. If it didn't change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn't start a conversation.
---- Kin Hubbard
If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.
---- Doug Larson
Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar.
---- Edward R. Murrow
America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
---- Evan Esar
One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain't nothin' can beat teamwork.
---- Edward Abbey
it's probably not a good idea to underestimate my ability to make an ass out of myself—just when I seem to have it under control, I'll turn around and surprise you.
---- Tenser said the Tensor
We don't know a millionth of one percent about anything.
---- Thomas A. Edison
Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
---- Malcom Forbes
Those who know nothing of foreign languages, knows nothing of their own.”
---- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749 -1832)
Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.
---- Terry Pratchett
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
---- Thomas A. Edison
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
---- Lily Tomlin
Presentation on ER
I just received an email indicating that I will be presenting later this year at the KOTESOL 2008 International Conference. I’ll be presenting in an Extensive Reading Colloquium and my topic will be: Supplementing a general English course with graded readers.
I first mentioned this last month when I was invited to participate - it’s good to hear it’s been confirmed. Now looking forward to October.
Extensive Reading Colloquim
I’ve been invited to participate in an extensive reading colloquim at the KOTESOL international conference in October. This is a room with 5-6 different presenters at their own individual stations where they speak and answer questions for about 20 minutes three or four times. attendees move from one station to the next and thus get several different points of view and experiences with Extensive reading in an intensive and personal manner.
Coincidentally March is Reading Month, at least in North America. My next column for the Korea Herald will be an introduction to Extensive Reading.
Additionally KOTESOL has started an Extensive Reading SIG. I’ve copied and pasted the information below including contact information for Scott Miles (he’s in charge). I’m not sure why there isn’t a spot on the KOTESOL web page for the SIG. I guess it’s coming soon.
We are very happy to announce the formation of the Extensive Reading Special Interest Group (ERSIG). Extensive reading is a great way to develop reading and overall language skills, and we’d like to do what we can to promote in further in Korea. Some of the purposes of ERSIG are as follows:
1. Promote extensive reading as a viable approach to reading and general language development in Korea.
2. Share ideas on how to apply extensive reading in the language classroom in Korea
3. Promote and disseminate research related to extensive reading practices
This spring we hope to recruit a number of people to join as officers and members and then hold our first meeting to define ERSIG’s structure, policies and goals. We will also try to get some time to speak in local KOTESOL chapter meetings to drum up some interest. Finally, to get ERSIG started off with a big bang, we plan to hold a symposium focused on extensive reading in the early fall. We hope to draw in some of the bigger names in the field of extensive reading.
We encourage anyone interested in joining ERSIG or just getting more information to contact us:
Scott Miles:
Aaron Jolly:
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Sunday Mar 9, 2008 at 09:24 AM
Public_Service_Announcement | KOTESOL |
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Korean NS teacher preference - myth or reality?
Korean mothers only want a White Native-Speaker English teacher for their children: Myth or reality?
In blogs and break rooms alike, you may have heard that Korean mothers prefer native speakers to teach their children English. But who counts as a native speaker? Do Korean parents of hagwon kids want anyone who has spoken English from early childhood? Those of us who have taught here for a while have looked around and noticed that, in Korea, not all native speakers are created equal. If this is true, then what kind of native speaker do they prefer? Are Korean and other non-White teachers unilaterally seen as less preferable, or are there factors that might increase their appeal? Does gender matter? Do mothers prefer female teachers, as we’ve heard? We know age is important in Korea, but how important is it for choosing an English teacher? Or perhaps we’re assigning blame where none is due. Is it the hagwon owners who are to blame for hiring on the basis of race, age, native-speaker status, and plain old good looks?
We were curious about what Korean moms really look for when shopping for an English teacher for their child. As part of our research into the issue, we have been asking Korean mothers from a variety of social and economic backgrounds what they want in an English teacher for their child and why. Our research aims to heighten the understanding of the issue and to better address non-native English speaking teacher (NNEST) inequality in Korea. There have been only a few studies on this subject (Chang, 2005) and our study serves as an investigation into the factors that influence perceptions and preferences for English teachers.
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kmacd inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Jan 24, 2008 at 09:43 PM
general_linguistic_study | Teaching | KOTESOL | Guest Author | (3)
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KOTESOL 2007 - day two
On day two of the conference I ended up seeing a lot less presentations. The first presentation that I saw was on Extending Speaking Opportunities in the EFL context. This presentation focused on a Japanese universities use of something similar to an English Club, but with NS facilitators with the meetings set up at lunch time. It was interesting but not something that I would want to try. I saw the same speaker in the next hour talking about Book Report Forms for Graded Readers. This was a much more interesting presentation and I will be taking some of the ideas away and using them this semester with my Advanced class as they are about due to be finished their novels (not graded readers but the principle is still the same) During the discussion time I was asked by the OUP rep for my email and it looks like he’s interested in something I do with graded readers (regular freshmen and moodle). I also talked to him about the possibility of materials review and development - hope that pans out.
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KOTESOL 2007 - day one
I just got back from the KOTESOL conference today. I had a good run of presentations with no technical problems as has been this case in years past. However I did talk to one presenter who had loads of trouble so clearly KOTESOL still hasn’t ironed out all thier tech issues yet.
I started off the day by attending an Extensive Reading Colloquim with six speakers. I had time to listen to two of them; Marc Helgelson (who just happens to be one of the best presenters I have ever seen and always enjoy his presentations) and Tracy Waring. One other presenter I am friends with and didn’t need to see his presentation though it would have been worth going to. Hegelson gave an overview of extensive reading (ER) and various approaches to using graded readers in the EFL classroom. This was a good presentation especially if you are new to ER. Even though I know some I came away enriched. I then listened to Tracy Waring talk about how to choose extensive readers for your class. This was an interesting discussion and I especialy liked the chart that he provided that listed all the publishers and the how many books available and at what headword level they are available.
Both ER presentations gave some ideas of how to confirm that students have read the books. These ranged from the traditional book report to drawing a picture of a scene in the book, to how would you change the book if you were the author. Everything was excellent. One thing that I found interesting is that for extensive reading it is best for students to be reading at or below their current ability. I always thought it was best to be on target. But it was suggested that rather than Krashen’s approach of i+1 with extensive reading it should actually be i-1. The best part of the colloquim though were the tons of free samples available. participants were asked several times to go to the books and take copies. I walked away with six more graded readers for my personal library that I make available to students to borrow. I would have gotten more but the majority of the readers were for young learners.
There is more in the extended entry.
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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Saturday Oct 27, 2007 at 09:15 PM
Teaching | KOTESOL | Conferences |
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KOTESOL 2007 - pre-registration extended
KOTESOL has extended the pre-registration period to October 4th for the international conference on October 27/28. Details in the extended entry
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KOTESOL 2007 - national conference
The KOTESOL national conference is coming up and early registration is almost over. For some reason I haven’t been recieving the KOTESOL emails lately so I forgot about the deadline. Anyhow if you are planning on going, you might want to register early in order to save a little money.
Plenary Speakers: Jeremy Harmer (The Practice of English Language Teaching)
Dr. Jun Liu (TESOL President, 2006-07)
Featured Speakers: Dr. Thomas S.C. Farrell, Dr. Mike Levy,
Dr. Tim Murphey, Dr. Neil Anderson,
Dr. Elka Todeva, Dr. Rob Waring,
Dr. Bill Snyder, Steven Gershon, Gary C. Rector
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Sep 20, 2007 at 06:10 AM
Public_Service_Announcement | Conferences | KOTESOL |
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Seoul Annual Conference-2007
The Seoul Chapter of KOTESOL is having an annual conference on March 31. I found out yesterday when I receievd a postcard in the mail. I’ve scanned it and removed my address in order to post it here. The direct link to the conference without much information is here. The postcard I received has more info including a map. click image for bigger size.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Friday Mar 9, 2007 at 09:48 AM
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KOTESOL 2007 - call for papers
48% (12)
28% (7)
24% (6)I recieved an email yesterday calling for papers to present at the 2007 KOTESOL conference. While I’m positive that I’ll be attending, I can’t quite plan that far ahead to have a presentation abstract ready. The deadline has moved from June to March 2nd. I’ve added a poll to this entry, please vote. The email and details are in the extended entry.
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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Thursday Jan 25, 2007 at 03:16 PM
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KOTESOL 2006 - day two
Today was the second and final day of the annual KOTESOL conference. I got there early to see a presentation only find out that it had moved to another room. Once I got to that room I found out that I had the wrong info, went back to the information booth where they then told me that in addition to the room change the time had changed as well. I ended up attending a presentation on CBI (content based instruction) which included alot of information I was aware from several years of having taught CBI. THere was some new information as well and it was well worth attending.
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KOTESOL 2006 - day one
Day one is over. I got there very early Saturday morning to avoid line ups and to have enough time to look through the program guide in order to choose my first presentation. This year I was watching the presentations with more of a critical eye since I am teaching a presentation skills class. It was interesting to note that the first presentation I saw was a textbook example of what not to do. The final one I attended, on the other hand, was a textbook example of how to conduct a presentation. Wish I had a camcorder available during both of those so my students could see them.
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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Saturday Oct 28, 2006 at 06:49 PM
KOTESOL | Conferences |
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KOTESOL 2006 - are you going?
47% (8)
0% (0)
6% (1)
47% (8)So are you going to the KOTESOL conference this coming weekend? I’ll be there and am looking forward to several of the presentations. ATTN: RSS readers - there’s a poll, you can vote and tell the world if you are coming or not.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Sunday Oct 22, 2006 at 01:49 PM
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KOTESOL spring 2006 conference
I checked my mailbox this morning and had a postcard from KOTESOL informing me about the upcoming Spring 2006 Conference on May 13. The conference has mostly local speakers but there are a number of published authors that I am unfamiliar with giving presentations including David Paul, Dr. Caroline Linse, & Tomas Santos.
There are two keynote speakers, Professor Sei-Kyung Cho and Dr. Paul Nation, whom I have seen speak before and enjoyed thoroughly. I’ll probably go just to see Nation.
Interestingly the postcard tells me that early registration is from April 10-21, but today is April 19. I looked at the postmark and saw that it wasn’t even sent until April 14 - Way to be on top of things KOTESOL. But KOTESOL has a history of incompetence so I’m not surprised.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Apr 19, 2006 at 11:06 AM
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KOTESOL 2005 - Sunday!
Our Presentation
Myself and Tim talked about all the tech problems we noticed on Saturday and decided that most presenters had spent too much time doing nothing while they waited for problems to be resolved. As mentioned in the the post about Saturday we were feeling confident as the room we were booked for had the projector working, but just to be sure we arrived at the conference site thirty minutes early. And of course we found that there was no internet access nor was the projector working.
We never did get the tech working and ended up adlibbing 50% of our presentation - though we did start on time rather than looking around and wondering when tech would do their jobs. More details about this in the next post: shame on Korea. For 9am on Sunday morning I think we did pretty good to have 12 people show up. Everyone seemed really interested and there were several questions which I feel that we answered well. Overall, considering the lack of required tech we pulled it off. If you are interested you can see our handout (pdf) or powerpoint presentation.
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KOTESOL 2005 - Saturday!
I’m back from the KOTESOL 2005 conference and have a lot to write about; most of it good, but some of it bad. First the fun stuff, then the serious things. My overall impression is that I enjoyed myself and found several informative presentations to attend - though many of the featured speakers were not as good as they have been in the past. The commercial tables were the same as they always are, Cambridge, Oxford, Longman-Pearson and other ELT and Linguistics publishers were present. Most publishers gave away free samples either at their table or in the commercial presentations. Cambridge in particular was very generous as they gave away four resource books with audio CD to supplement the New Interchange third edition books. It wasn’t even necessary to attend one of their presentations, just visit their table and they gave it to you. The package that was provided for conference attendees was the same as usual -l a red bag, some promotional material, a pen, and this time around a really nice travel coffee mug. I also purchased one book: Exploring Second Language Reading.
I also met Gord Sellar and his friend Jason for Chicken Kalbi on Saturday night. He is as interesting in person as he is in person. It was a real treat to meet him since he rarely comes to Seoul and I’m glad I took advantage of the opportunity. I also ran into a couple of readers, ex-colleagues, and other people I have met over the years in Korea. I also saw one woman or rather she saw me and remarked that she remembered the presentation I gave on goal setting in February and how much she enjoyed it - that was really nice. continued in the extended entry…
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KOTESOL 2005 - report
I went to the KOTESOL conference this weekend and will be providing a report in three parts.
part 1: Saturday
part 2: Sunday
part 3: Shame on KOTESOL
You may also want to read about Nathan’s experience at the conference. He attended a couple of sessions that I wanted to, but I instead went to others. Also be sure to read Gords piece At What Price English?, a session that I skipped as the abstract did not look interesting. I’ve heard from several others that it was a good session and I now regret leaving.
KOTESOL 2005: See you there
The KOTESOL conference starts today and I’m heading out the door in about 5 minutes. Don’t forget to check the technotard presentation Sunday at 9am - that’ll be me talking at the front of the room.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Saturday Oct 15, 2005 at 08:02 AM
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KOTESOL 2005 - are you going?
28% (7)
4% (1)
24% (6)
44% (11)So are you going to the KOTESOL conference this coming weekend? I’ll be there and presenting on Sunday morning. Vote on the poll and let me know.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Oct 11, 2005 at 11:47 AM
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KOTESOL 2005 early registration
The annual KOTESOL conference is rapidly approaching. PreRegistration ends on September 23 - it’s not terribly important as it only saves you 10,000 won. But if you know you’ll be going it might be worth registering early and avoiding the line-ups at the door.
The Plenary and Featured Speaker list is now online, but I am only familiar with one name - David Hall - who was the professor in charge of one the units I took at Macquarie University. One other name sounds familiar, but I can’t exactly remember where I heard it before - Amy B.M. Tsui. If any readers are familiar with the other speakers I would like to hear what you have to say.
One last thing, just in case you have forgotton, yours truly will be presenting on Web Sites for Students. I look forward to seeing you there.
Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Wednesday Sep 7, 2005 at 07:28 PM
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Presentation Proposal
I just submitted a proposal for a presentation at the October 2005 KOTESOL National Conference. If accepted I will be co-presenting with my freind Timothy Allen. In the extended text you can read our abstract.
Submissions for presentations are being accepted until June 30 so you still have time to put one together if you are interested. I hope to see you there.
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Sean. inscribed these words of wisdom on Tuesday Jun 14, 2005 at 08:20 PM
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