LESSON PLANS ON APEC WIKI

Lesson plans I submitted are now on APEC's wiki,
Cross Cultural Communication,
http://hrd.apec.org/index.php/What%27s_in_a_Name:_A_Cross-Cultural_Communication_Project

Gender Roles in Advertising, http://hrd.apec.org/index.php/Gender_Roles_in_Advertising

Public Service Announcements, http://hrd.apec.org/index.php/Public_Service_Announcements

Other lessons from TESOL submitters are found here http://hrd.apec.org/index.php/Tips_for_Teaching_21st_Century_Workplace_Skills

Am very pleased :-)

Aiden
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Subject: APEC Wiki
Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2010 19:00:07 +0000

Greetings to all (there are 6 of you in this email…),

Remember a while back… I was bugging you about creating teaching tips for a contract for APEC? Well, here it is: http://hrd.apec.org/index.php/International_Education_Week_2010

All of our wonderful teaching tips are found at Tips for Teaching 21st Century Workplace Skills.

I cannot even begin to share my thanks and gratitude for all of your contributions. Thank you, thank you, thank you! If you had time, look around a bit. The Skills for Success in Multinational Business was developed by the Center of Applied Linguistics. The Business Language for a Global Economy was developed by Synergy. And the Learning About Each Other pages were developed by the US Department of Education.

Cheers-

Sarah
Professional Development Manager
Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.
A Global Education Association
http://www.tesol.org/

Christmas Carol Learning Materials

I'm sharing on this blog post a message posted by Kieran on IATEFL's YG list. On the link provided you can find learning materials on Christmas Carols, which should be just in time since Christmas is around the corner.

http://christmascarol.esolebooks.com/

Visit Kieran's site at http://younglearners.eslreading.org/ for more learning materials.

Sneak Peek at Charice on 'Glee' Season 2: An EFL Lesson (Cross-cultural communication)

I came across this sneak peek video on Facebook, and after watching it I thought it can be used as a great material for an EFL lesson or cross-cultural communication course activity.

I'm a Charice fan. Like Susan Boyle, Charice was a product of the you-tube phenomenon. From Ellen to Oprah, to David Foster- they saw a potential (money and talent wise) in Charice. And now she's in Glee (season 2). Her life is an amazing story, but that is not what I had in mind for an EFL lesson. It's really about the sneak peek video that GLEE producers published/shared on Facebook.

Before you show the video in class, do a pre-video discussion as a warm-up activity. Ask your EFL students about their experiences  when talking to native speakers of English. Were they treated badly simply because of their Asian appearance or because of their accent? This can be a sensitive topic- so be careful with what you say and be cautious of how your students will react.

Ask students if they have heard of Glee (TV series) and what they think of the program. Do they like the cast members? Who among the cast do they like the most? Why? What do they think of the lead cast, Rachel?

If they have not heard of Glee, you may want to show them a clip from Youtube to help them understand what this Glee is about.

Now, tell your students that you're going to show them a sneak peek video for one of the series for Season 2.

http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/09/21/exclusive-get-a-sneak-peek-at-charice-on-glee-season-2-video/

After watching it for the first time, ask them:
1) how do they feel about the clip/scene
2) did it change their opinion about Rachel (the lead character in Glee)
3) what do they think of Charice's performnce, and how she was portrayed in that scene?

Now, tell your students that you're going to watch the same video again. But this time, they should pay attention to the ff:

1) what made Rachel talk to Charice that way?
2) Were Rachel's assumptions valid? how so?
3) How do you feel about Charice's reactions? Could she have done more?

We sometimes judge people based on the way they look. Appearance can tell us something about a person, but we can't summarize a person's ability, intelligence, personality, etc. simply based on the way she/he looks.

We also sometimes judge a person's ability based on his/her accent? Does accent really represent one's intelligence?

Consider the consequences of that particular scene to Charice's character 'Sunshine'- how do you think it would affect her? Can a similar situation affect your EFL students and their attitude towards themselves as EFL learners? ...their perception about their ethnicity and how it affects status symbol? For teenagers, image is everything. Being 'IN' is what matters the most. But how can EFL students be 'in' in an environment where there's little tolerance to ethnic/accent differences?

TOLERANCE. Big word- what does it really mean? How can EFL studens/teachers practice it?

The issues raised in this lesson are valuable to teaching cross-cultural communications, and yes, world Englishes.

I hope you'd able to use this piece in your class, and share with us/me how it went.

Aiden

If Facebook was created years ago: EFL task-based activity

I got this link from a colleague in TESOL on my FB network,
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=14520790&id=739070012&ref=fbx_album

One of his followers asked who created it- so anyone who would pass it forward could give the right attributes/reference.

Google didn't help, but I found the same graphics with better quality.
http://www.funnymail.co.za/images/if-facebook-was-created-years-ago
and
http://www.systemwars.com/forums/showthread.php?80218-If-facebook-existed-years-ago

This is how you could turn this piece into a creative and fun EFL activity. I think it would be better if you 'localize' the characters/known personalities so students could easily relate to them. This is a great piece for ESP i.e. History, Social Studies, etc.

First, show students the same Facebook messages above. Choose one that does not contain profanity/vulgar words (most of them contain words that you may not want your students to use. Please edit as you wish)

Ask students if they know Abraham Lincoln, Galileo, etc.
Do a little text analysis i.e. what word in the message that connects it to the famous person involved?
For example: Abraham Lincoln: what does 'theater' and/or 'private box seats' got to do with him? What happened to him? Dig real facts here. Get your resources ready.

What about Charles Darwin? What about living creatures evolving from basic forms? And why is the Church so angry at him asking him to shut up?

Source: http://www.systemwars.com/forums/showthread.php?80218-If-facebook-existed-years-ago

Once you've gone through the materials, ask students to do some brainstorming.

Brainstorming: Ask students to name famous local people they've encountered in history books or people who have made an impact on their history and culture. Are they considered 'heroes'? What did they do in the past that made them famous?

Write/list the names on the board (wiki or whatever you're using in the classroom). For each historical figure named, write down what their personality/character was like.

Once you've got enough information regarding your list of famous people, ask students to write/compose messages or Facebook updates that they think these people would use. Ask them to look at the given sample for help/inspiration.

Ask them to write/publish their work online i.e. Wiki/blog and share with the Webheads and we'll comment on them!

Have fun!

Aiden
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BELOW ARE THE COMMENTS I RECEIVED FROM WEBHEADS RE. THIS LESSON

"Thanks, Aiden. That just brightened my day:-)"
"I quite like this one which explains World War 2. A few inappropriate posts along the way though. http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1802364"
"Great idea and lesson! Thanks for sharing."
"I loved the idea! My students are big fans of Facebook and I'm sure they'll see "language contextualized" !!! thanks for sharing "