"My 1st Infographic: The History of ESL Methods/Approaches" by Mustafa Polat

My 1st Infographic: The History of ESL Methods/Approaches | i'MustafaPolat

Presenting vocabulary

Presenting vocabulary issue of the iTDi blog with practical suggestions and tips from three of our most regular and renowned bloggers Chuck Sandy, Steven Herder, and Vladimira Chalyova. In addition, we can find a video which demonstrates some activity content from the module on presenting vocabulary from the iTDi Teaching Skills Development course.
Click on: Presenting vocabulary

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Teaching EFL in a Peruvian public school

According to the OTP de Inglés from the Peruvian Ministry of Education, the Area of English (EFL) aims to help strengthen the communicative competence of secondary students through learning English as a foreign language. The competences describe the performance that students must achieve at the end of the EBR (K12), and are sequenced and graduated considering the complexity of grades of study. 
In addition, there are three macro skills that are developed through the English subject: 1) Oral comprehension amd production (Listening & Speaking), 2) Written text comprehension (Reading), and 3) Written text production (Writing); which are strengthened through interactive activities.
Sara Meza, a Peruvian English teacher, works in a public secondary school where the OTP is applied. She has wisely recorded an inspiring video in order to show her outstanding daily work. Expressing advice using should and shouldn't is the aim of the lesson.  
At watching it brings back lots of memories from those days teaching English at school and, even more importantly, training pre- and in-service English teachers. I am so proud of her. She is showing us her passion for excellence, constant innovation, commitment to developing her teaching, and satisfying Peruvian students needs, expectations, and much more.
I am looking forward to watching other similar videos from Peruvian colleagues.

Virtual Round Table Web Conference 2013, at sight.

This post is to express my appreciation for the brilliant work done by Heike Philp and the co-organizers of the 6th Round Table Web Conference on language learning technologies. I should like to extend my sincere thanks for the challenging opportunity to be part of so outstanding event as well as for such rewarding words mentioned on its website:

May we thank the fabulous presenters, keynotes and plenary speakers, musical performers and the many volunteer helpers: Adam Simpson, Arjana Blazic, Asli Saglam, Aydan Yarvuz, David Dodgson, Eva Buyuksimkesyan, Gülnur Sahin, Márcia Lima, Marisa Constantinides, Miguel Mendoza and Victor Hugo Rojas B. for their hard work in providing the finest in language learning technologies.

For those who missed it and would like to recap the program, below is a digital conference program brochure (which takes a little to load, perhaps click on link).

iTDi Global Webinar: More Breaking Rules Live with John F. Fanselow

A live online course over 5 Sundays

Los Angeles 05:00, New York 08:00 London noon, Athens/Istanbul 15:00, Dubai 16:00, Jakarta 19:00, Tokyo 21:00, World time converter.

June   2 — Free to all via iTDi Global Webinar* (120 minutes)
June   9 — course participants only (90 minutes)
June 16 — course participants only (90 minutes)
June 23 — course participants only (90 minutes)
June 30 — course participants only (90 minutes)

The Global Webinar on June 2nd is FREE. Spaces are limited. Please register to receive the link to our virtual classroom at http://itdi.pro/itdihome/breakRules.php

Enroll in the entire More Breaking Rules course for only US $49.95. Enrolling in the course guarantees a place in the global webinar.

*More Breaking Rules follows up on John’s successful first course in November/December 2012. If you missed the first course you’re welcome to join the current course after joining the iTDi Global Webinar on June 2nd, 2013.

New post on "The Connections and Influences Issue" at http://iTDi.pro/blog

The iTDiBlog Connections & Influences Issue http://itdi.pro/blog/2013/04/29/connections-and-influences/ — with James Taylor, Malu Sciamarelli, Tamas Lorincz, Michael Griffin, Josette LeBlanc and Barry Jameson.

Connect with iTDi Mentors by joining the  iTDi Community. Sign up for a free iTDI account to create your profile and get immediate access to our social Forums as well as trial lessons from our English for Teachers and Teacher Development Courses.

Two Year Anniversary

Two years ago I launched PETsNet that stands for Peruvian English Teachers Network. This name was chosen in the spirit of NING Platform that empowers educators to create academic and social networks.

PETsNet is engaged in Language Teacher Education, Teacher Training, Professional Development, Personal Learning Network, ICT in Education, and aims to inspire, innovate, empower, & transform the professional development of English teachers nationwide and worldwide.  

Over two years, hundreds of English teachers visited and/or joined PETsNet, and I have gladly met colleagues from all over Peru and abroad. A great deal of their professional experiences and contributions are published on PETsNet Ning. I think that most of PETsNeters have reached the conclusion that working together for the common good is a must.

The Two Year Anniversary of PETsNet marks a significant point in my PD’s improving, and provides a testament to the success of the purposes of PETsNet. Up to now, PETsNet has grown to 550 members including novice and experienced English teachers from different schools, language centers, institutes, universities, etc.    

I always had dreams for PETsNet, but I never realized what could actually happen in a relatively short period of time. I try to do my best, but I couldn't do it alone. Finally, I am truly grateful for all the solidarity and support from all users of PETsNet.

P.S. Please leave your greeting messages here.

IT'S OUR 1-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

I would like to share this post with you. It was published on PETsNet in February, 2012 to celebrate the 1st anniversary of this academic and social network. Enjoy it:

PETsNet which stands for Peruvian English Teachers Network was born in February 2011. This was out of the recognition that challenges in the teaching and learning of English in Peru and worldwide.

In an effort to realize our objective of inspiring, innovating, empowering, & transforming English teachers professional development.

In celebrating our 1st Anniversary I wish to extend our gratitude to all active Members, Peruvians and foreigners, for their commitment and support. Likewise, I wish to extend further our gratitude to our Featured Members for their collaborative contributions.

On behalf of PETsNet, I salute you all PETsNeters for the commitment, resilience , and friendship rendered.

Big hugs!

Victor Hugo Rojas B.

Founder & creator of PETsNet

P.S. Please leave your greeting messages here.

Needs Analysis Survey on Critical Thinking

This post reports my replies to a Needs analysis survey that was carried out before starting the ELT Upgrade Workshop: Critical and Creative Thinking. The survey was conducted to find out teacher educators’ background knowledge, experiences and perceptions about Critical thinking.

1. What are the 5 key words that describe your understanding of critical thinking (CT)? Reflect, inspire, innovate, empower, & transform
2. What is the state of inclusion of critical thinking in English language teaching in your country? According to the Peruvian National Curriculum, English teachers should develop in the students specific communicative competences that imply to enhance a great amount of CT activities that are suggested in that official document:
   Further information at page 359 of: http://ebr.minedu.gob.pe/des/pdfs/dcbsecundaria.pdf
3. Is CT a necessity or a luxury in ELT in your country? It is a must, but a “luxury” for those teachers that have not developed their own CT yet. I think that if teachers are not trained by critical thinker trainers, it would be complicated to develop CT in their students.
4. How is it used?  (what types of approaches, strategies, activities are used to enhance critical thinking, for example) English teachers must do communicative activities that are most related to developing CT, such as: Infer information from media related to their personal interests; Analize oral texts from media taking into account the pitch, tone, intonation; Utilize verbal and non-verbal language and specific expressions to start and keep a conversation.
5. Is this general state similar or different from that of the program in which you provide Teacher Training/teacher development? What is referred in the Curriculum differs a lot from what teachers do in the classrooms. I mean the majority of them in public schools. I insist teachers must be trained in developing critical, creative, and problem solving thinking during the course of the initial teacher programs. Stop lecturing. 
6. What critical thinking is already in place in your program, ie, how do you/your colleagues/your teacher trainees use CT? I think that Initial teachers programs should achieve specific objectives, at least. I stated these specific objectives:
   At the end of the course of Didactics of TEFL the trainees should be able to:
   
   • Distinguish the different approaches and methods in TEFL.
   • Apply the theoretical foundations in real teaching situations.
   • Elaborate lesson plans.
   • Manage teaching skills and techniques.
   • Select and utilize a variety of techniques of evaluation and testing.
   • Demonstrate effective practice in the use of ICT
7. Are there gaps in CT in your program (in CT in ELT classrooms that your colleagues are likely to experience)? The main gap is: Most teacher students had not being trained in developing their CT in previous course before pursing Didactics of TEFL
   
   Looking forward to reading your answers, comments, etc.
   
   
   Taken from: Deanna G. Hochstein. 2012. ELT Upgrade Workshop: Critical and Creative Thinking. RELO Andes - US Embassy. Lima, Peru
   
   

Voices from the iTDi Community 2 – Victor Hugo

The International Teacher Development Institute is putting together a series of iTDi Blogposts highlighting the work of some great educators around the world. I was kindly invited to answer a questionnaire of challenging questions. It was a great occasion for expressing my thoughts related to my ELT professional career. Hope it may serve as reference framework for novice and experienced EFL teachers.

[...] I am really an ambitious and critical educator who tries to be outstanding. I think that a well-prepared English teacher must be aware of the principles, theories, approaches, methods, techniques and strategies in language teaching and learning. For this reason, I am extremely passionate about teaching pre- and in-service teachers how to discover, create, plan, utilize, and integrate teaching methodologies and strategies in their EFL lessons. English teachers must acquire an array of strategies to address and meet the students’ learning styles, expectations, and [...]

Further reading at Voices from the iTDi Community 2 – Victor Hugo