ARTESOL

• PLOUGH, India

Creating communicative activities to build grammar

(Workshop)

Consensus-reaching tasks are ideal for promoting authentic, purposeful interaction between students. In this workshop, we will review the communicative functions, grammatical structures, and vocabulary that can be built into these task types for students at different proficiency levels. We will also discuss possible rubrics to assess student performance, depending on the pedagogical focus. Teachers will create several tasks and leave the workshop with a template for creating additional consensus-reaching tasks.

• MONTÉ, Nylia

Games Galore to Spice up your Classes!

Workshop

Having fun in class is a serious thing! Come to this workshop and learn simple ways to spice up your lessons with lots of games. Learn the benefits of using them in class and take home a new collection of games to use with students of different ages and levels.

• VAZQUEZ, Esther

How to boost deep learning through brain-compatible teaching

(Workshop)

The brain is the organ of learning. No one doubts it. Yet, it has just been over the last years that some key information about “brain- compatible teaching” has shed light on how to promote better teaching-learning experiences. In this workshop the presenter and attendees will share some of these latest findings and move on to classify familiar classroom practices as brain-compatible or brain-antagonistic in accordance with existing data. Last, they will join in a discussion on how to introduce methodologies that help to create resonant learning environments that facilitate and promote lifelong learning.

Semi Plenaries

RICHTER, Repertory grids: Creating an inventory of teacher beliefs

WILLIAMS, Preparing students for success in the 21st century

• BERARDO, Eliana

Direct vs. indirect feedback in EFL writing

(Research paper)

Is it necessary that writing instructors provide solutions for their students’ mistakes, or should they point them out and let students find a solution on their own? The presenter will begin by summarizing recent research on the matter and she will continue to present the results of her own study on the effectiveness of direct and indirect feedback in helping first and third-year EFL college students improve their compositions in academic writing courses. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the first and second draft of their assignments was carried out to draw conclusions and propose plans to improve feedback practice.

• PISTORIO, María Inés

Explicit and implicit listening strategy instruction in EFL 

(Research paper)

This study presents a model of listening strategy based instruction applied to secondary school students in Córdoba with an elementary level of English. A Background Questionnaire and a Strategy Questionnaire were used in order to collect information at the beginning and at the end of the study. The listening strategy training involved explicit and implicit instruction in cognitive, compensation, metacognitive and social affective strategies used in listening comprehension. It is concluded that explicit instruction improved students’ listening competence more than implicit instruction. This work also reveals that motivation positively influences the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language.

• CASTIÑEIRA, Beatriz;  MUCCI, María Rosa

Too academic to play games? Jeopardy at university

(Demonstration) 

Many popular games are usually included in ESL/EFL classrooms with the intention of transforming a learning activity into an engaging experience. For example, Jeopardy is a classic game in different fields such as accounting, chemistry or health care. In this demonstration the presenters will show how this game can be used not only as an ice breaker but also as an evaluation tool. They will also share the benefits that the game provides following an experience with students in higher education.