expectations high school presentations public policy testing TOEFL
by sendaiben
6 comments
More on the TOEFL test
I attended a very comprehensive workshop on the TOEFL test yesterday, conducted by Ron Campbell and organized by MEESA (Miyagi English Education Support Association).
I came away with a much better idea of what the TOEFL iBT is, and what it isn’t. I had been under the impression that it was an adaptive test (ie the questions changed based on whether you got the previous question right or wrong) but this is not the case.
Apparently the TOEFL will be part of the civil service examinations from 2015, which is very interesting.
I also learned that the government is planning to make all public school English teachers take the TOEFL. I think this is a good idea, as it will hopefully motivate less proficient teachers to work on their language skills. I have always been surprised at how little time and effort many English teachers put into their own language study. This is a big contrast to the language teachers I know in the UK.
However, after learning about the structure of the test and doing some practice exercises, I am more convinced than ever that using the test in its current form to test all high school students is an awful idea. It is simply way too hard and focuses on academic English, an area most students who are not planning to study abroad do not need to prioritize.
I am planning to take the TOEFL myself at some point in order to understand it better, but the very high cost is a stumbling block.
You can see my previous post on using TOEFL for university entrance selection here.
conference curriculum expectations extensive reading graded readers language courses presentations school management university
by sendaiben
5 comments
Student Reactions to Extensive Reading (Pan-SIG 2013)
I was at the Pan-SIG conference this weekend, held in Nagoya (the excellent Nanzan University hosted the event). This is the video of my presentation (a little shorter than usual):
Thanks to everyone who attended.
JALT Pan-SIG 2013 @ Nanzan University in Nagoya: May 18-19
I’ll be attending and presenting at one of my favourite conferences, the JALT Pan-SIG, this weekend.
I love the pan-SIG because it is a gathering of teachers that belong to special-interest groups (the SIGs) that focus on things they are passionate about. The quality of the presentations and interactions at pan-SIG is always very high, and I always come away with new information, techniques, and memories.
I’ll be presenting on Saturday at 14:30, on student reactions to extensive reading classes.
Hope to see a lot of you there!
conference evaluation expectations presentations public policy teaching TED
by sendaiben
leave a comment
Ken Robinson’s latest talk
Ken Robinson, the most popular speaker on the TED website, and someone who talks about education to boot. I’m guessing many of my readers have seen this talk already, but just in case I’m putting it on here.
Ken Robinson is one of my favourite speakers. He is incredibly skilled. Notice how he speaks for 20 minutes in the video above, with no notes, no slides, nothing to support him, and still manages to be compelling and stay on track. I can only imagine the hours of practice that went into that one off-the-cuff seeming talk.
This particular talk struck a chord because it seems to go against everything I’m working on at the moment in terms of setting standards and expectations at my university. However, once I thought about it, our programs involve setting expectations but then giving students a lot of leeway as to how they meet them (which books they choose to read, how they talk about articles, which websites they choose to use). We don’t expect the same from all students, but we expect all students to put in similar amounts of time and effort (or understand the consequences of not doing so).
Having watched the talk, do you see any connection to your own teaching practice?
conference curriculum extensive reading Language learning presentations slides teaching
by sendaiben
leave a comment
SLIDES: Extensive Reading Explained (ACLL, 28th April 2013)
It’s a beautiful day in Osaka, and I am sitting in Itami Airport waiting for my flight home to Sendai.
I was fortunate enough to have the chance to present at the Asian Conference on Language Learning today, on the topic of extensive reading. Here are my slides, in .pdf format:
1304 ACLL Extensive Reading Explained
I enjoyed the conference, especially the chance to meet teachers from all over the world. Thanks to the ER SIG for helping me attend, and Cheryl D. for hanging out and talking shop for a couple of days.