Instructors' VATESOL presentation could help ESL teachers in Pakistan

Instructors Mary Freday and Becky Etzler present at the VATESOL Conference.

Several instructors from the Language and Culture Institute gave presentations at the VATESOL Conference on Oct. 19 in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Caitlin Capone discussed "Using PowerPoint to Inculcate Complex Grammatical Structures and Engage Students." Pinar Gurdal facilitated a discussion regarding "How Well Do Truly Multilevel English as a Second Language Classes Work?" Shelly Stoddard introduced "Guided Reading and Comprehension Strategies in the Adult ELL Classroom." Inge McKenney, from Northern Virginia, presented on "How a Stroll Through History Influences U.S. Academic Culture Today." And Mary Freday and Becky Etzler presented ideas for encouraging "Extended Oral Discourse in the ESL Classroom."

Freday and Etzler's presentation was one of a series selected to be livestreamed, and the video has also been proposed for use in a Teaching Excellence Achievement grant project in Pakistan.

Neelo Fer Anwar, an ESL teacher from Pakistan who had previously attended teacher training at the LCI through a TEA scholarship, is proposing to transfer skills learned at the LCI to teachers in the semirural Gujar Khan region.

If Anwar's grant proposal is accepted, this video will be shared with an audience that has "no exposure to activity-based learning and use of technology in the classroom."

Faculty head to VATESOL annual conference

On Oct. 10-11, members of the Virginia Tech Language and Culture Institute faculty attended the annual conference of the Virginia Association of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (VATESOL).

This year's conference, whose theme was "Shifting Paradigms: Uniting Technology and Methodology," was held at Longwood University in Farmville, Va.

"The conference was fantastic," says professor Shelly Stoddard. "I left with a variety of concrete strategies and ideas to make my teaching more effective for our students. It was an opportunity to collaborate with like-minded peers, build networks, and invigorate my instruction."

Photos courtesy of Shelly Stoddard and VATESOL.