2012 EFLIS Primary InterSection Session With CALLIS & ICIS
Friday, 30 March 2012
1 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
Room: Franklin 9, at the Marriott

How can technology foster cultural awareness among EFL students and enhance language intelligibility across cultures and language varieties? This session addresses the supportive role of CALL in bridging the gap between language and culture to promote excellence in the EFL classroom.

Moderator: Ke Xu

CULTURAL EXPEDITIONS IN THE CLASSROOM GONE DIGITAL

Carla Arena

In this session, we’ll explore some ways in which educators can guide learners through the wonders of cultural richness by exploring exciting digital possibilities. Besides learning about the array of digital resources available nowadays for cultural immersion, participants will have the chance to get some practical ideas for the classroom.

Carla Arena is a Brazilian EFL educator and explorer of the potential of technology integration into language learning. She is a teacher trainer, ed tech supervisor, and English teacher at Casa Thomas Jefferson, Brazil. She blogs at http://collablogatorium.blogspot.com.

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Claudio Fleury

This session will present some technological tools that help students learn about their culture and raise awareness of other cultures. In addition, learning about specific features of pronunciation can enhance understanding and communication with speakers of different varieties of English.

Claudio Fleury is an EFL teacher, part of the Educational Technology Team, at the Casa Thomas Jefferson, Brazil, and involved in online teaching and technology in the classroom.

VIEWS, REVIEWS, AND INTERVIEWS: DEPLOYING TED TALKS, THIS I BELIEVE, AND MOCK JOB INTERVIEWS IN CLASS, ONLINE, AND ACROSS BORDERS

Eric Roth

English language learners often possess exceptional curiosity and knowledge, but often need to be cajoled into sharing their experiences, perceptions, and insights in English. Authentic CALL materials can channel student curiosity, encourage class discussions, and acknowledge the range of accents. Student reviews of TED talks and This I Believe provide compelling topics that cause reflection in class, online, and across borders.

Eric H. Roth teaches international graduate students the pleasures and perils of speaking English at the University of Southern California. This session is based on a Course Continuity During a Crisis grant from the USC Center for Scholarly Technology in the fall of 2011 and experiences teaching in an international high school in Vietnam in 2009. The grant required instructors to replace classroom assignments with online and off-campus computer-based activities. Roth lives in Los Angeles, California; has taught in France, Spain, and Vietnam; and is the coauthor of Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics.

Nellie Deutsch, EdD

The International Writing Exchange (IWE) is an online intercultural learning program set on a Moodle Web site called Integrating Technology for Active Lifelong Learning (IT4ALL). IWE was started by Ruth Vilmi in 1993 with her own students at Helsinki University of Technology (TKK) together with undergraduates around the world. The courses ran on the Moodle course management system (CMS) in 6-week courses or rounds with weekly deadlines, throughout the year until 2005, when Ruth retired from her post at TKK. In June 2006, IWE celebrated its 50th round and started an intercultural counterpart, the ICE. In the fall of 2010, IT4ALL took on the challenge and started hosting IWE. In 2011 and 2012, over 200 students from colleges in France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Russia, the Ukraine, and the United States took part in the IWE project.

What is IWE about?

The courses at IWE are completely online. The audience is international, with students and teachers from higher education from around the world. The teachers bring the students onboard by introducing them to the Moodle learning environment. The students introduce themselves and discuss various topics such as

• Current events
• Cultural differences
• Daily lives
• Substance abuse
• Future careers
• Marriage

The students work in teams with a study buddy and peer review their writings. After they edit each other’s work, they share the writings with the rest of the class and discuss the topics. The students find the cultural exchange very rewarding as they learn about one another.

Nellie Deutsch teaches English in college and high school, organizes and facilitates professional development workshops on Moodle, and presents at online and face-to-face conferences on educational leadership and technology around the world.

BACK TO BASICS

Claire Bradin

This session will address the more traditional and lower-tech possibilities in using CALL to promote cultural awareness in the EFL setting.

Claire Bradin Siskin directs the ESL Writing Online Workshop (ESL-WOW) Project at Excelsior College in Albany, New York. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and she works in cyberspace.