From the chalkboard to the Net

This Pre Convention Institute offered by the BRAZ-TESOL Pronunciation SIG sets out to look at teachers ´ expectations and concerns about their own speech development and pronunciation pedagogical skills. We will also focus on the resources available from the chalkboard to the Net. Participants will be involved in hands-on suggestions and examine their underlying principles.

With the advent of ICTs, we are increasingly exposed to information in the target language and start operating in different contexts and situations in our personal and professional life, which are no longer limited to our geographical location, classes, occasional workshops or professional development programs. We can acquire and learn much of the language online. The use of social media tools and platforms on the open Web can accelerate the learning process by giving us access to information, communities of practice and networks and by enabling us to create and participate at our own time, in our own space and with whom we choose to communicate and collaborate.

What is the Art of Teaching with ICTs? Has our role as teachers changed? What main benefits, issues and challenges have you been faced with?

During the first part of this full- day PCI, we will meet our international guests and "open space" to discuss the issues and opportunities we deem essential. We will also examine how this digital immersion challenges us, EFL teachers, to review, expand and modify our ways of teaching and learning. The second part will be devoted to a number of short presentations and workshops.

For more information click here.

1. What is Critical Literacy: a discussion chaired by Sara Walker

2. Critical Literacy around South America: a report on activities in Peru, Chile, Colomoba and Argentina by Nella de la Fuente [Peru]

3. Hands on: sharing experience: CL, ESP and Broadway Lyrics: A Harmonious Combination by Thelma de Oliveira [UNICAMP]

4. Roundup and forward planning [chaired by Sara Walker or Chris Lima]

The presentation will be on the theme of intercultural language education. Participants will be invited to consider the challenge of intercultural communication in the 21st century, in the context of global communications. We will look at activities to encourage students to 'defamiliarise' their own culture and systematically observe the cultures of others. We will focus on topics such as the rules of everyday conversation, the layout of family homes, how online corpora can be used to explore language and culture, and how the internet can be used to establish multicultural online communities of learners and teachers.