Reflections Following International TESOL Conference
From Ellen Lewin, MinneTESOL Grant Recipient:

I'm fresh back from TESOL in Tampa and it was so exhilarating! I could validate that what I do is often the 'best' in practice, I could share and compare ideas and teaching techniques with others, and I could learn new information to help me as a teacher. Some of my favorite sessions included ones about how to identify learning disabilities, service learning projects, writing portfolios, writing across the curriculum, tips for working with World English users, extensive reading programming, assessment testing caveats, and of course my poster presentation about tips to try in writing when other grammar remedies fail. I also got a taste of volunteering at a national event, plus an invitation to an awards dinner for earning a convention registration scholarship this year. Even though I swore this year would be my second and 'last' national TESOL event, I am hooked on it and hope to attend many more conventions in the future.

Ellen Lewin
MinneTESOL Member and 2006 Grant Recipient

Reflections Following International TESOL Conference
From Marilyn Gjerde, Secondary Interest Section Co-Chair:

The TESOL 2006 Conference was of value in many ways. First of all, it was great networking with old and new friends from all over the world, as well as with people from Minnesota. Thank you MinneTESOL for an excellent networking dinner at an Indian restaurant. I am delighted to have made a connection with Sally Harris, who is intending to write a writing book with the purpose of preparing high school students for college writing. I have offered to have my students at Volunteers of America High School pilot her new book. Very exciting to think of participation in Sally's book writing. Secondly, I was also able to make contacts for colleagues unable to attend the conference.
I had the good fortune to go through the Publisher's Exhibition at just the right moment. Heinle and Heinle, now Thomson Learning, was packing up to leave. They were more than happy to give me books, so they didn't have to take them home with them. I was given all the supplementary books written for the Stand Out series, which we are using at Volunteers of America High School. I also got a reading/grammar book, which has just been published, which I will use in the Basic Work Program at the Hubbs Center. Finding a suitable reading book makes me very happy and the grammar portion of the book will make my students very happy.
There were too many good presentation to choose from, making it very difficult to decide which one to go to. Some of the highlights were: Tips and Techniques for Student Self Assessment by Lisa Barlow of the UAE University, K-12 Academic Word List: an update by Eric Dwyer and colleagues from Florida International University, Making Peer Review Successful and just for fun Write Your Own Jazz Chants, by Carolyn Graham. My advice to myself for next year is to spend more time making decisions about what presentations to attend before arriving. It is a very time consuming process, for there are so many. Pre-planning will enable me to see more next year.
Though the conference was very expensive and the size of it overwhelming, I feel it was a very worthwhile expenditure of time and resources for the amount of professional development I received. My thanks to Volunteers of America High School and MinneTESOL for their contributions to my professional development.

Submitted by Marilyn Gjerde,
Secondary Interest Section Co-Chair

International TESOL: Daring to Lead

March 2006
Tampa, Florida

The TESOL Convention and Exhibit celebrated its fortieth anniversary this year with a conference titled "Daring to Lead." One of the conference session panels, "TESOL's most daring ideas," boasted a big name line-up and drew a good crowd. Panelists spoke about a variety of topics relevant to TESOL members.

David Nunan (University of Hong Kong) spoke about technology as a tool for meeting the English language training needs worldwide. He described technology as a supplement to classroom activities, a means to manage learning, and a means for retooling learning.

Denise Murray (Macquarie University, Ryde, Australia) argued against the myth of the native English speaker as model, the native speaker of British or American English, that is. But with the growing number of speakers of English as an additional language, emphasis would more rightly be placed on communicative competence, she said. She states that our goal as professionals is to focus on and educate others about the benefits of a bi- and multi-lingual world.

Julian Edge's (University of Manchester, UK) daring idea was non-judgmental discourse. He challenged teachers to refuse to evaluate and thereby encourage learning, borrowing ideas from schools of thought such as community language learning and counseling learning.

Kathleen Bailey (Monterey Institute, Monterey, California) described the benefits of classroom research. Classroom research takes time, may require specials training, and may lead to uncomfortable awareness about our teaching and our student's learning, she said. Though it may not be rewarded in the systems in which teachers work, she dared us to try it. Classroom research offers a rich source of professional development and may even help stave burnout, she said. She named the TESOL series Teachers Develop, Teachers Research as a resource.

Michael McCarthy (University of Nottingham, UK) discussed corpora, especially spoken ones, as a means to observe how people communicate. Teachers should engage in this study, he believes, in order to help our learners become successful users of English (SUE). He highlighted recent developments in corpora study including an emphasis on variation, the use of smaller corpora, a focus on collocations—or language chunks as they may informally be called—and a study of pragmatics.

Neil Anderson (Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah) described The International Research Foundation (TIRF), a relatively new TESOL grant program. TIRF encourages multi-site, multi-method collaborative research with a goal of sustained dialogue among researchers, educators, policy-makers, and citizens on different continents. TIRF's website provides more about this foundation: http://www.tirfonline.org/. Anderson encouraged ESL professionals to take advantage of this grant opportunity or to consider contributing to the fund.

This conference snapshot may not do justice to the wealth of perspectives one may hear at TESOL's national conference, but perhaps it gives us hints toward future trends in the profession. What will the next forty years hold? In what ways will we be involved in shaping that future?

Anita Dualeh, MinneTESOL Board Member
LEP assessment specialist
Minnesota Department of Education

JOBS
Teaching English in China

Position: English Instructor

Date of appointment: Sep. 1, 2006

Responsibilities: The successful candidate's primary assignment will be to teach Listening and Speaking English in the universities, colleges or high schools for one semester (fall or spring) or a whole academic year. Duties include lecturing, tutoring, advising, monitoring student progress and developing curricular materials.

Qualifications:
· B.A Degree or equivalent is required. ESL or English major preferred.
· American native speaker.
· Strong communication and organizational skill.
· Ability to live and flourish in a Chinese environment.
· Knowledge of Chinese language is not required.
· Teaching experience is preferred, but not required

Benefits:
· Monthly salary - RMB 2200 – 6000 ($300 - $750), depends on your degree and experiences. This amount is equivalent to a Chinese instructor's salary – very comfortable salary for China.
· Free lodging, free airfare (one round trip a year).
· Providing transportation and some travels.

Contact: Ningsheng Huang
CSCI/MATH Division Instructor
Minneapolis C&T College
1501 Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55403

Submit resume by email:
Ningsheng.huang@minneapolis.edu

For more information, go to:
http://home.minneapolis.edu/~huangni/Chinaindex.htm

* * *

NEEDED SUMMER 06
ACCENT REDUCTION/PRONUNCIATION INSTRUCTOR
ROCHESTER, MN

CAL Culture and Language, an intercultural communication consulting company, seeks Accent Reduction/Pronunciation Instructor to conduct on-site training at IBM in Rochester, MN. Classes are 3 hours once a week for 9 weeks (27 hours instruction)

Class meets Thurs. 9:00 am – 12:00 pm on the following dates, 2006:
5/25, 6/1, 6/8, 6/15, 6/22, 6/29, (skip 7/6) 7/13, 7/20, 7/27.

Requirements:
3+ years experience teaching Pronunciation/Accent Reduction to adults
MA TESOL or related field
Able to create dynamic, student-centered, interactive lessons customized to the needs of the trainees
Able to handle the demands of advanced-level language learners
Business background/experience preferred

Pay Rate: $70/hr

Interested candidates should email resume with names and contact info for 3 references to Lauren Supraner at lsupraner@callearning.com or fax to 845.469.4038. To learn more about our company, visit CAL Culture and Language at www.callearning.com.

Twin Cities Area Host Families Needed!

Thirty middle school teachers from India and Bangladesh will be participating in the work-shadow piece of the India-Bangladesh EFL Institute program that is taking place at Hamline University this April and May, 2006. The Institute is supported by a U.S. State Department grant and facilitated by Hamline University and Relief International.
Help out by hosting a teacher during the 3-week work-shadow part of the institute.

Dates: April 28-May 21.
Provide: Regular meals, private sleeping area, and an interest in other cultures.
Host individuals and families receive a $200 stipend and an amazing educational experience.

We are still looking for host families who live and/or work in Plymouth, Champlin, St. Paul, Golden Valley, Mahtomedi,and Chaska areas!

Please contact Amanda Koehler at 612-816-3865 or akoehler02@hamline.edu for more information.

Find general program info and homestay application link at www.hamline.edu/gse/efl_institute. Note the applicaiton deadline has been extended.

Current Email Addresses Needed

Do we have your current email address? Does your Interest Section leader? Email is the number one way we keep in touch with our membership. Every month, emails to the membership bounce back to us, and membership forms come in with illegible or incomplete email addresses.

Help us keep in touch with you!
Be sure and let MinneTESOL know if your email address changes. You should also inform your Interest Section chair, whose contact info is in the front of the directory or available at the website, www.minnetesol.org.

If your email has changed or will change soon, please let us know: admin@minnetesol.org