#VenTESOL2015 Featured Speakers

http://www.ventesol.org | http://ventesol.ning.com

Featured Speakers

Evelin Ojeda Naveda is a Teacher Trainer and language teacher. Doctor of Education student. Master's degree of ARTS in TESOL from St Mark and St John University in Plymouth, UK and Master of Education in Reading and Writing from Carabobo University. Evelin has more than 15 year experience in ELT in UK and Venezuela. She is VenTESOL president 2013-2015.

Helena Guerrero is Ph.D and MA in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching, The University of Arizona. She holds an MA in Applied Linguistics, Universidad Distrital, Colombia. She is faculty in the MA program in Communication Education and is the main researcher of the research group “Critical studies on language and educational policies. She serves as the present president of ASOCOPI.

Elizabeth Ortiz is the General Director of COPEI in Guayaquil, leads the team that organizes the COPEI International Congress and ELT Conferences all over Ecuador, also coordinates the Training and Professional Development Department and manages the educational services development division. For the last 10 years she has focused her Professional attention to develop and implement training and Professional Development Programs and the design of social interest projects with national and international non-profit organizations. She is the current President of ECUATESOL, an Ecuadorian English Teachers Association.

Breaking Paradigms and Borders in ELT: The Andean Region Experience Sponsored by the U.S. Embassy – RELO Andes

It is well-known that many English teachers worldwide work in challenging and difficult contexts. Nowadays research in the field and experts state that the goal of teaching English should be to develop learners’ communication skills while enhancing their cultural awareness. However, in the circumstances in which many teachers work in Central/South American and the Andean Region (for example, extremely large classes, insufficient, non-existence or inappropriate didactic materials, exam-driven language sessions and the like) making the changes needed to achieve such broad aims in real classrooms often seem to be unfeasible, unattainable, almost beyond our reach, but is it really that way?

This colloquium will explore examples of how positive and enriching changes can be achieved in difficult teaching conditions as the ones encountered in Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia and Perú, and equally importantly will highlight and discuss some of the factors that have made them possible in these countries.

To a better understanding of the state-of-the-art situation of ELT, this session will examine the current status of English in these different education systems as well as the projects developed by VenTESOL, ASOCOPI, EcuaTESOL and RELO Andes in order to enhance education in the Andean Region.


Featured Speakers

Graham Stanley works for the British Council on a project teaching children English via videoconferencing in Uruguay. Author of ‘Language Learning with Technology’ (CUP, 2013), winner of the ESU HRH Duke of Edinburgh ELT book of the year; and co-author of ’Digital Play: Computer games and language aims’ (Delta, 2011).

Gamifying the ELT Course Book Online Session

Spice up your course book by integrating practice activities with computer games and by using gamification. Gamification is the application of game design thinking to non-game contexts to make them more fun and engaging. We’ll be looking at how you can effectively incorporate this in class to supplement any course book you are using, as well as ideas for adapting a variety of free-to-play online digital games to practise English.


Featured Speakers

Pete Sharma is a Director of Pete Sharma Associates Ltd, a consultancy and training organisation: www.psa.eu.com He lecturers in EAP (English for Academic Purposes) and has co-written many books on technology including Blended Learning, 400 Ideas for Interactive Whiteboards, Apptivities for business English and How to write for digital media.

Enhancing Language Learning Through Technology Sponsored by British Council

Can pedagogy keep up with the speed of technological change? While new technology continues to advance, disagreement exists as to what constitutes good practice in the teaching and learning of languages.

This plenary talk will take a ‘snap-shot’ of English language teaching in the 21st Century. Firstly, it will provide five statements which background this area. Secondly, the speaker will critically analyse key learning technologies, including the interactive whiteboard, Virtual Learning Environments and m-learning (mobile learning). Thirdly, we will focus on ‘innovation’ – what’s new? What is ‘cutting-edge technology’? What is ‘adaptive learning’ and why does it matter? There will be a short opportunity to discuss some of the controversies in the field. Finally, the speaker will conclude with some practical teaching ideas for use in the language classroom. In all these ideas, the technology has become ‘normalised’.

Participants will leave with fresh insights into one of the most exciting areas of language teaching today.


Featured Speakers

Dr. Doris Molero is an EFL Professor at Universidad Dr. Rafael Belloso Chacin, Maracaibo-Venezuela. Doctor in Sciences of Education specialized in curriculum and instruction. Holds a master degree on Educational Informatics (2002) and graduated from Modern Language School at Universidad del Zulia (1991). Dr. Molero is an E-learning Instructional Designer and tutor for Universidad Señor de Sipán, Peru. Her teaching and learning style is an eclectic approach that involves project based learning, multiliteracies, high order thinking skills, 21st century skills, connected knowledge, constructivism, collaborative learning, web 2.0, disruptive learning, augmented learning and communicative language.

ELT for Peace

When teaching another language, we teach about culture, food, music, people, the mechanics of the words and expressions, grammar, places, and so on. Most of the time, we focus our lessons on “the book contents”, program, syllabus, or on what we were told to teach. How can we do all that and at the same time teach about what unites all the cultures of the world? Teaching peace becomes an important and meaningful way to show our students how they can use all that they are learning to communicate with the world and help on what we need the most: empathy, love, peace, cooperation, forgiveness, tolerance. Join me and get to know some serious great little projects on how to use language learning and social media to build peace helping heal the world and ourselves. Have yourself and your students act big by starting small…Talk, Write, Call, Record, Tweet, Post, Blog, Host, Design, Build, or Compose… All For Peace.


Featured Speakers

Marina Majonica has been teaching English for 14 years. She holds a CELTA certificate, is a Teacher Trainer and Life Coach. Since 2006 she has been involved with her own academy and is co-founder of Carpe Diem Coaching. She has been Bolivar State Representative since 2011.

Miguel Perez is an EFL teacher graduated from Universidad de Carabobo with teaching experience in pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary level. His main area of interest is Learning Technologies in ELT. He has been an active VenTESOL member since 2010 working as a State Representative in Yaracuy state and Communications Coordinator.

Milagros Quijada is an EFL instructor and current VenTESOL Zulia State Representative. She holds a TEFL Certificate by Hunter College and she is the Resource and Research Center Coordinator at CEVAZ where she has organized ELT events, designed integrated activities for students and worked as a teacher trainer for over three years.

Johannes Rojas is the current Academic Director at CEVAC and VenTESOL Region 1 Coordinator. He has organized a range of ELT and ELL events nationwide as well as participated as speaker in national and international conferences. He has done some research in pronunciation teaching and technology use in EFL contexts.

José Zapata is a professor of English graduated in 2008 at UPEL Maturín. He has been teaching English to teenagers and adults since 2007. He started organizing Spelling Bee competitions in 2012 at the National High School “Luis Padrino” in Maturín. He is also Anzoategui State Representative.

I’m a Teacher! What’s your Superpower?

Teachers are heroes by nature and if they truly believe and love what they do, changes can be brought through and to education. This plenary aims to present teachers in Venezuela how regular teachers actively involved in VenTESOL through a Regional Convention Tour (RCT) went throughout the country for a year reviving in teachers their true-self and showing them how “it is possible” to make the difference despite all the issues in education we face daily in our country. Seven cities from different regions in Venezuela were visited and re-sparkled in order to give education one more chance as the best tool a country has to stand out. Experiences, reflections and results are shown as well as the impact RCT had during the 2014-2015 period. Some teachers’ personal impressions will be shown to present a general idea of what the RCT reached professionally and personally in individuals.


Featured Speakers

Russell Stannard is the founder of www.teachertrainingvideos.com which has received 3 major educational awards from the Times Higher, The British Council ELTons and the University of Westminster. His website offers free step by step videos to help teachers incorporate technology into their teaching and receives more than 300,000 visits a year. Russell is truly an international speaker, having presented in 26 countries around the world. His interest in technology includes feedback, developing student’s fluency, assessment, reflection and the Flipped Classroom. His feedback ideas generated widespread media interest including an appearance on TV and inclusion in a report submitted to the UK government. He was also an early adopter of the Flipped Classroom approach, flipping his courses while at the University of Westminster and winning funding from JISC in the process. Russell currently works part-time as a Principal Teaching Fellow at the University of Warwick and as a NILE (Norwich Institute of Language Education) associate trainer. He writes regular columns about technology in the English Teaching Professional and the Teacher Trainer.

What the Flipped Classroom Means to Language Teachers Online Session

The talk will focus on key tools that we can use to flip our teaching and learning. Russell will talk specifically about how the Flipped Classroom can be applied to language teaching and how it can help us to extend, differentiate and vary our teaching and learning. Russell will talk about the theory behind the flip classroom and focus on some of the key tools we can use. The tools Russell focuses on are easy to use, free and can have a real impact on all our classes, not only in a flipped classroom scenario. This will be a session full of practical ideas and examples. If you are looking to blend your learning, flip your learning, bring more collaboration into your classes and help develop your students speaking skills, then this talk will provide you with loads of practical ideas and simple technologies that you can use.


Featured Speakers

Helena Guerrero is Ph.D and MA in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching, The University of Arizona. She holds an MA in Applied Linguistics, Universidad Distrital, Colombia. She is faculty in the MA program in Communication Education and is the main researcher of the research group “Critical studies on language and educational policies. She serves as the present president of ASOCOPI.

Best Practices: Teachers Making Things Work Sponsored by the U.S. Embassy – RELO Andes

Traditional teacher education practices involve experts telling teachers what to do and how to do it. But research has shown that there are not ready made recipes that suits everyone needs and that teachers have developed very valuable experiential knowledge which is worth to be heard and shared. This workshop intends weave the results of a recent research study conducted in Colombia regarding teachers’ positioning in front of educational with participating teachers experiences in the workshop. The aim of this exchange is to bring to the surface knowledge, tips, techniques, strategies, and the like, that school teachers have and use to make things work. All and all, this workshop follows a bottom up approach in the understanding that teachers’ voices have been silenced for too long and there is time to listen to them.


Featured Speakers

Pete Sharma is a Director of Pete Sharma Associates Ltd, a consultancy and training organisation: www.psa.eu.com He lecturers in EAP (English for Academic Purposes) and has co-written many books on technology including Blended Learning, 400 Ideas for Interactive Whiteboards, Apptivities for business English and How to write for digital media.

40 Practical Ideas for Using Technology in ELT Sponsored by the British Council

While new technology has changed the teaching and learning of languages forever, using ICT remains a controversial area. Many teachers are enthusiastic about using new technology in their courses; some are less so. Whether teachers and students benefit from such digital approaches depends on a range of factors, including: the teachers' level of knowledge and skills; the support of the institution; the availability of hardware; and perhaps most importantly of all, the teachers' attitude towards new technology.

This highly practical session will complement the plenary talk. It has three parts. Firstly, it will provide a brief overview of what we mean by ‘new technology’ and will update participants on some new developments in hardware and software. Secondly, there will be an interactive presentation consisting of 40 practical ideas for teaching grammar and vocabulary, the four language skills (listening and speaking, reading and writing), phonology and language games. In all these ideas, good pedagogy is central. The ideas can be adapted, and are intended to inspire. Finally, there will be a short open forum for participants to share their own ideas, ask questions and engage in the current debate about the use of ICT in language teaching.


Featured Speakers

Marina Gonzalez is an Argentine primary school teacher, teacher trainer, editor and researcher. She coordinates the Language School at Universidad de Flores (UFLO) in Buenos Aires Argentina. She teaches Materials Design and ELT Management at the BA for English teachers at Universidad Caece. She has delivered teacher training workshops in Uruguay, Chile, Peru and coordinated TESOL EVOs on Mentoring and Management together with professionals form various parts of the world. Her research interests revolve around innovation, both in pedagogy and management. She has been doing research on the implementation of TBLT at university level, and she is currently writing about professional development from the perspective of Social Complex Systems.

A Road from Binary to Complex Thinking

Sponsored by Universal Text, Cengage Learning & National Geographic

Complexity in ELT is a rather recent endeavor. It is a tool for describing reality around us by focusing on the tension among the various social factors that create it, rather than providing a prescriptive centralized vision. It seeks to produce wider readings and understandings of the reality that surrounds us. If we consider our administrative and teaching practices, they have long been marked by dichotomies which have shaped our perception of the world into a quite binary system of understanding. Sometimes valid, others fake, these dichotomies strongly represent our first reaction to issues in our classes and organizations. In this session, we aim at reflecting on our learned styles by first identifying generally accepted opposing pairs. We will then flesh out the concepts behind the supposed oppositions and try to widen the scope and vision. Thirdly, we will look at the pedagogical implications of naturally incorporating binary pairs as the set path in our teaching and organizational management of ELT organizations. Last, we will suggest a way of incorporating complexity theory to enrich the shades of meaning and complementariness among concepts and strategies we can use in our settings to enhance 21st century students’ needs and hopes.


Featured Speakers

And many more well-know national and international speakers

and surprises to come…

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#VenTESOL2015 Featured Speakers

Education

Transcript of #VenTESOL2015 Featured Speakers