Yesterday was the first day of the KOTESOL 2008 International Conference. I can’t link directly to the conference site as the KOTESOL site is down and I can’t navigate to the conference section. The problem here being that KOTESOL relies on donated server space rather than spending the $100 to $150 a year to get hosting that they should. I heard a rumor that this might change - I guess when your web site is down on the most important event of the year it’s pretty good motivation to spend the money that you should’ve done years ago.

Day One

One thing that KOTESOL definitely needs to be given credit for this year is the introduction of the brown bag presentation. Immediately following the plenary address attendees were able to pick up a free lunch (western or Korean) and either scarf it down quickly or bring into the next session and eat. Everyone that I talked to thought this was a big improvement on previous years where you had to go off site to get a lunch and this inevitably resulted in many people walking into presentations late. I definitely want to see this continue in the future.

Back to the topic at hand - the conference. This year the presentations so far have not been as good as they have been in the past. I’m not sure if this is due to lack of topics of interest, poor presenters, or that I’ve been attending conferences for several years and have seen it all before. In any case there was 2 hours that I skipped yesterday due to lack of interesting presentations and one presentation that I quietly & discretely walked out on after 20 minutes.

The presentations I did see felt like I could have been the presenter except for the plenary address by David Graddol, which was excellent. Didn’t take notes and it’s 5:30am right now so my memory isn’t particularly great - no summary, sorry. I was, however, surprised and extremely annoyed by all the people in the balconey who noisily left with 20 minutes to go.

The presentation by Merton Bland on the Ten Commandments for Teaching English in a Changing World was rather entertaining. A little google search found a 2001 article with the complete list and notes. I don’t agree with them all, but it was definitely entertaining to listen to him.

(1)  Do not teach English.  Teach something, anything, IN English, using English as a vehicle of communication rather than an object of study.  This is sometimes called the content-based curriculum.

(2)  Do not teach grammar.  Ingesting rules can be counterproductive:  We are all familiar with students who are unable to apply rules learned through rote memorization.  Instead, the grammar of English is best acquired inductively by the students formulating their own hypotheses.  (This reflects Krashen’s acquisition vs. learning.)

(3)  Do not teach vocabulary.  The schema, the concept pods which constitute the lexigraphical units of language, vary from language to language, even from person to person.  No language is a direct translation of any other.  Thus, vocabulary must be forged within the target language itself in a manner not unlike that of first language acquisition.  To do otherwise is to risk forging the chains which prevent the bifurcation of the native and target languages and forever making your students translate in their heads word for word.

(4)  Do not teach pronunciation.  There is no longer any standard English.  Well over two-thirds of the world’s 1.5 billion English speakers are non-native speakers.  Their English is certainly as acceptable as the Received Pronunciation (RP) of a tiny fraction of the British or the Broad Midwestern of Hollywood—as long as their English is comprehensible to the greatest number of persons who do not share that particular accent.

(5)  Do not give tests.  While testing is well embedded in many parts of the world, scaling is to be preferred to testing.  Usually tests only require the regurgitation of knowledge.  Scaling, placing people on a scale from beginner to educated native, has much more validity.

(6)  Do not use lesson plans.  Teach students, not lesson plans.  Many teachers come away from their teacher training institutions with a mandated compulsion to spend hours writing lesson plans.  Such planning is quite counterproductive since in an actual teaching situation the teacher must be alert to the reactions of the students—stressing pragmatic considerations, putting more time and effort where the lesson needs it and shortening or eliminating parts where the students seem to be in command of the concept being stressed.  Yes, the teacher should have a general idea of the objectives of the lesson.  Certainly the teacher should have available any materials which will be needed.  Most importantly the teacher should leave time after the lesson to reflect on it and evaluate its strengths and weaknesses.  But the focus of any teaching should be on the students, not on the constraints imposed by any preconceived lesson plan.

(7)  Do not use the native language in the classroom: Never, never, never!  If our aim is the successful bifurcation of the native and target languages, any use of the native language is by definition counterproductive.  Draw a chalkline on the doorsill and proudly use the native language outside the classroom, but create an immersion situation inside.

(8)  Do not use textbooks.  You know your own students better than any textbook author. Authentic materials are all around you.  For example:  Record the news from the VOA or the BBC.  Videotape CNN or Australian TV.  Bring in any expatriate Anglophone in town and have him chat with the students.  Have your school subscribe to the “International Herald Tribune” or “Time” or “Newsweek.”  Borrow English language videos.  If they have subtitles put a book in front of the bottom of the monitor to cover up those subtitles.  Buy, with your own money if necessary, paperbacks.  After you read them they can be the nucleus of an individualized reading program (each student reads his own book and then reports on it to the class).  Have your class keep journals in English, and write their own English to English vocabulary lists.  Have the class write their own book.

(9)  Do not teach the microskills: reading, writing, speaking, listening.  English is one language, indivisible.  And English is a living language; one only dissects the dead.

(10)  Do not teach.  Empower your students to take responsibility for their own learning.  This reflects a general trend, especially in North American education, to deemphasize the role of the teacher as the font of all knowledge and provide the students with the means to further their own educative process beyond the classroom.  This is called the student-centered classroom (as opposed to the teacher-centered classroom).

I may or may not post more about the conference after I return home this evening.

Dinner

After the presentations I went out to On The Border for dinner with a couple of friends.

Day 2

Day 2 summary in the extended entry.

On Sunday, today, I presented at 9 am as part of the Extensive Reading Colloquium. Last year I was merely an attendee of this same colloquium. The colloquium was even more successful than last year due to Scott Miles’ promotion and this year there were about 70 people attending compared to last years 25. I did my 20 minute presentation three times and it seemed to be recieved with interest each time as I recieved many good questions and two friends attended and gave me positive feedback.

The next presentation was about podcasts. This presentation was somewhat interesting as the presenter had prepared a rubric to judge what podcasts are worthy of using with learners in much the same way that one would assess a textbook to use with your classes. The only downside was that it felt like an advertisement for itunes, software that I would never install on my computer due to it’s ties to the evilness that is quicktime.

At this point it was time to head to the Plenary address by Scott Thursbury. This was quite interesting due to Thursbury being a good speaker, however nothing revolutionary or outstanding to learn.

Bloggers

During the conference I had the pleasure of meeting several people for the first time including Brian Dean, Joe Seoul Man, and Daniel Craig (not James Bond). I actually had the time to sit for coffee with Daniel for an hour or so and he was very interesting and personable. I would have enjoyed the opportunity to get to know both Brian and Joe a little more, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.

I also met several other teachers, who as far as I know do not have blogs, and hope to keep in touch with them as well.