Teacher training, ESL & EFL
I am collecting evaluations of various teacher training programs for this section of my site. If you'd like to share your expereince in a teacher training program, please email jtrotta@gmail.com.
I've completed two teacher training programs, my CELTA in 2001 and my Master of Applied Linguistics in 2004. While I learned something during each program, I was not satisfied with either. Currently, I am a teacher trainer in the TESOL certificate program at Sookmyung Women's University.
I hope to collect articles in this section of my site to help teachers make informed decisions about enrolling in teacher training programs and to help teacher trainers improve their programs.
Since I hate saying only a little, why not see if the latest entries on my Teaching English in Korea blog are of any interest to you?
Informal English vocabulary in the context of public speaking adviceThis is authentic language from an English message board. It was a football message board for New York Giants fans. Chances are good that all posters were American males. Original poster: Have to do a 30 min presentation for work...Teaching English in English online?I recently got an email from myoxfordenglish.es, an online English Course for Spanish speakers offered by Oxford University. I got the impression that the course relies heavily on Spanish to teach English although the virtual tour didn't work for me...Gotta be a discussion class idea in here somewhere: things you don't say to your wife music videoLyrics: Hey honey have you gained some weight in your rear-end? That dress you wear reminds me of my old girlfriend And where'd you get those shoes? I think they're pretty lame Would you stop talking 'cause I'm trying...@ examples of a conversational tone in public speaking / debate: Sarah Palin & Joe Biden vice presidential debateNow how good of an example are these two? Good article here. What 2 styles are represented?"They both sound conversational in totally different styles," Goman tells WebMD. "Palin's style says, 'I'm just like you.' Her colloquialisms, such as 'doggone-it,'...Another sopranos scene to use in advanced conversationThis scene contains lots of curses but the idea is for students to watch without sound. First they describe what's happening and then they create their own dialogue (3 characters = Chris the angry guy, Gino the guy who almost...Teacher picking on a 4th grader unfairly?I think it's kind of funny, but then again, it's not my 4th grade kid that cried after getting made fun of in school because the teacher made him turn his shirt inside out. Students in my high school had...3 hours less to chill with friends after school? Ouch!Interesting article here on Obama's desire to add hours to the school day. One issue that's not addressed here is how this would impact school sports. When I was in high school, we finished school around 2:30 and then had...ESL listening exercise - cultural differences found by exchange students in AmericaHere's a little listening / conversation activity I designed. Student 1 (boy from Spain) Student 2 (boy from Germany) Student 3 (girl from New Zealand) Student 4 (boy from Norway) Student 2 again (boy from Germany) There's a lot of...Cultural differences roleplay: An American eating in JapanHere's a good scene from Mr. Baseball to introduce the topic of cultural differences: Students can describe the cultural differences evident in this scene from the movie Mr. Basbeball and can then move on to other activities like listing more...Tough to get fired in US schoolsWe have a California teacher who accidentally sent a sex tape to 5th graders and their parents. We have NYC school teachers being paid to do nothing. What else have we got?...Raiders of the Lost Ark opening action sequenceHere's the video that goes with this lesson: Raiders of the Lost Ark passive voice They cut out the first few minutes and you miss the donkey being tied up and Indy whipping the gun out of the guy's hand....Slowmo shopping in Home DepotSlow motion shopping in Home Depot (in Manhattan). Kind of funny but I want to show my students what these big DIY stores look like because they don't exist in Korea: Just a little extra just in case... Tony beats...Link to Friends video for discourse activityThis is the middle 7 minutes from the season 3 episode, "The One Where No One's Ready". I use the phone conversation that starts at around 5:00 to about 6:50. There's nothing wrong with playing from the beginning to give...Very tough questions on racism in AmericaIn this article the author complains that the "Empowerment Experiment" - in which black Americans give all their business to other blacks - is being applauded while if whites decided to go only to white businesses they would be branded...How far behind are US schools?There are some interesting points in this article. The author argues that the US is not as far behind as we have been led to believe and points out several ways the public has been misled. However, the author also...
