About the courses of Yakut TESOL.
This summer from the 16 th untill the26 th of June in Yakutsk more than 50 English teachers from different regions of Yakutia attended the courses organised by Yakut TESOL and Teachers’ Training Institute. The most exciting moment of these courses was that the teachers enjoyed listening to the lecturers from the USA. Canada and Filippines. These courses were very useful and necessary not only from the point of handing over information about new teaching technologies to teachers but also it was a very good chance for them to communicate with native speakers since not every teacher who comes from far remote places is able to do it very often. I was one of these teachers who was enjoying challenging lectures about new technologies teaching English, social and cultural concepts in English speaking countries. First of all I’d like to give some information about our lecturers. The first one was Dr. Luciana C de Oliveira from the USA., she is an associate professor of TESOL and Applied Linguistics at Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York City. Her career has concentrated on language teaching at the K- level, mainly within the realm of content area instruction and teacher preparation for English language learners. Her numerous publications include most recently L2 writing in secondary classrooms: Academic issues, student experiences and teacher education (Routledge, 2013) and Teacher education for social justice: Perspectives and lessons learned. Doctor de Oliveira has earned many distinguished awards for her community leadership such as the Faculty Engagement Scholarship Award from Purdue University, the Early Career Award by the Bilingual Education Research SIG of the American Educational Research Association, and the David E. Eskey Award for Curriculum Innovation by California TESOL. She is currently serving on the TESOL International Association Board of Directors (2013-2016) Her first plenary was called “Nonnative English speaking teachers teaching writing at all levels”. This plenary addressed the teaching writing at all levels of language proficiency by nonnative English – speaking teachers. Dr. de Oliveira discussed what teachers need to know about writing instruction and provided tips for teaching at all levels. The next lecturer was Alice S. Lee, in 2013 she was appointed as Associate Director of the University of Macau’s English Language Centre, where she has been teaching English to multilingual students since 2004. She has held a number of different positions at the University, including Coordinator of the writing Centre, Head Teacher, Subject Convener, and Chief Examiner (English). Alice has a Master’s degree in TESOL from California State University, Los Angeles and is a doctoral candidate (ABD) in the Composition and TESOL Program at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Alice’s research interests include second language writing and writing center administration, international sociolinguistics. Her lectures focused teachers on developing new techniques and methods in writing and I think that her lectures have a great practical value. We couldn’t help admiring the lectures of Dae B. Kim, a career member of the U.S foreign Service. He currently serves as Public Affairs Officer at U.S Consulate General in Vladivostok. He has a great ability to attract his listeners’ attraction by his manner of speaking and songs in different languages playing the guitar. He told many interesting facts about the countries where he lived and worked. It was somewhat funny to learn that in Lebanon when people come to a new place are expected to kiss everyone, it is considered to be rude if they don’t kiss them at the first meeting. And it also seems to be impolite to come at the right time when you are invited to the party. He told us about one case happened to him in Lebanon. When he arrived in Lebanon the first time as a consulate officer he was invited to the place of an important Lebanese person. Being an accurate man he came at the right time but there was nobody there, a half an hour passed, an hour passed but still there was nobody there even the host of the party. Dae began to hesitate that he had come to the wrong place, but only about two hours later the host
finally arrived and his face expressed such a surprise about his” early “ arrival. The next day Dae asked his colleagues about this event and learned that it was indecent to come to the party at the appointed time, one should be late at least for two hours in order not to make the hosts get in a hurry. ( to give them more time to get prepared). In Argentina Dae found out a very strange habit of people to stand very close to each other when they are talking. When you step back to keep a normal distance they move forward as it seems you are standing nearly touching the nose of your partner. Besides these stories Dae impressed us by his songs in different languages, he is fluent in English, Korean, Japanese and speaks some Russian and Arabic. According to his words songs are the main helpers for him to master foreign languages. When he came to Vladivostok for the first time he was asked to make a speech at the Consulate General , he wrote his speech in English and asked his assistant to translate it into Russian. Then he managed to learn his speech in a couple of days thanks to singing, in other words he composed a melody for his speech that made it easier to learn. I would like to write some words about a brilliant teacher from Canada, Sima Nezhadi. She holds a Master’s in Education and a TESOL Certificate and has been teaching ESL for more than 20 years. She has taught in the private at the college level with George Brown College, Seneca college and Centennial College all in Toronto. She has taught a variety of ages from 15 to 50 and has taught a variety of different levels from beginner to Advanced, including Business English and English for academic purposes (EAP). She recently taught a 5 week program in Shanghai, China where she was invited for the second time to teach English to Shanghai Urban Management students for George Brown College. Sima also has a lot of experience in teacher training as well as mentoring teachers in their practicum in different colleges. Whole year round a great number of children from different countries come to Toronto to study English. There are different kinds of courses depending on their duration, 2- week, 40-week, 2- month and etc. During their studying they are “submerged” into English-speaking sphere, staying at school they are not allowed to speak any other languages but English, even when they are in the canteen or toilet. Of course this approach of teaching foreign languages seems to be fruitful since at the end of these courses children become very motivated in teaching English. Dr. Rob Danin is a returning Senior English Language Fellow based in Vladivostok. Rob was a faculty member at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS) College of Education. He worked directly in the development of Daegu Gyeongbuk English Village in South Korea, An English language and western cultures experimental learning environment, and served as its first Lead Coordinator. Rob has been involved in project development and international consultation regarding English language educational programs. Dr. Danin has also worked extensively in educational curriculum and program development along with teacher preparation and training, both in the USA and abroad. Rob’s position as a senior Fellow throughout the Russian Far East has been a wonderfully intriguing experience in having the opportunity to work with educators and students at all levels of learning Jobel Tombado is a very nice lady from Philippines, her manner of speaking and gestures made her lectures very attractive. Her workshops were devoted to definite aspects of teaching English. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Research from the University of the Philippines. She is currently a teacher trainer for Steppe Learning LLC Mongolia where she is primarily involved in curriculum design. She has developed curriculum ESP (English for Special Purpose) courses for a wide range of language learners including medical technologists, air traffic controllers, and human resource managers. At the end I’like to say these courses were very fruitful and important not only from the point of view of methodology and also we were given a very good chance to communicate with native speakers ,to learn very many interesting facts about socio- cultural life of different countries.
By Galina Zhendrinskaya Republic of Sakha