From March 12-15, three faculty from Nebraska’s Programs in English as a Second Language (PIESL) presented at the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) International Convention in Atlanta, Georgia.
TESOL is an international association of professionals advancing the quality of English language teaching through professional development, research, standards, and advocacy. The yearly convention draws more than 6,500 attendees from around the world. Crystal Bock-Thiessen, Patrick T. Randolph and Takako Smith gave multiple presentations throughout the four-day conference on various ESL topics.
Bock-Thiessen held a poster session highlighting her experience in developing the English for Campus and Community Engagement class for the Intensive English Program at Nebraska. This class is an elective for upper-level students that promotes critical thinking and the development of social and leadership skills through working with native English speakers on campus and in the greater community. She also presented on how to teach research and presentation skills to students in lower level proficiency levels, arguing that early introduction of these skills increases academic success and reduces instances of plagiarism.
Randolph had three solo presentations accepted for the convention, as well as two additional sessions where he co-presented. Highlights of Mr. Randolph’s talks included helping students improve vocabulary learning and retention through “verbpathy” and embodied semantics. His co-presentation topics included using exercise to improve attention and memory, and a guide to developing low-cost professional development conferences through collaboration with other institutions.
Smith gave two presentations, one of which covered how to make listening and speaking classes more interesting and engaging for students through the use of authentic materials with mass appeal. Her second presentation looked at how to enhance cultural literacy and skimming skills for non-native speakers of English.
PIESL faculty are making a difference in the lives of international students here at the University and exchanging best practices, ideas and innovative methods with other professionals in the field of ESL. We applaud them for their outstanding contributions.
To learn more about the programs and curriculum PIESL offers, visit their website.