excitELT

Challenging Assumptions
Namyejong International Office

March 19th 2016

We would like to give a special

thank you to the following people:

excit ELT
Contents
Introduction
Getting to excitELT
Where to Eat
Schedule
Featured Speakers
Schedule by Time
10:2511:00
11:1011:50
12:0012:40
12:451:20
2:202:50
3:003:40
3:504:30
4:405:10
5:206:00
6:106:40

Michael Griffin who was always on

call for advice
Innovate ELT For all their help
early on

page 2
page 3
page 4
page 5
page 7
page 13
page 13
page 14
page 15
page 16
page 17
page 18
page 20
page 22
page 23
page 24

We couldnt have organised this

conference without the help of
many people. We are blessed to be
a part of a community of teachers
who are so giving of their time
and advice. We want to thank all
attendees for making this possible
and anyone involved for their help.
1

Josette LeBlanc and Chuck Sandy

for the inspiration

Scott Thornbury and Dr. Tamara

Swenson for jetting in
The partners of the excitELT team
who can finally have us back after
the conference
Our volunteers
for all their time
Alan Cromlish, Sean Gwansoo
Shin, and Haneul Myeong of
Namyejong International Office
for all their help and support
Heidi Nam
for recruiting her students
Magan Glidewell for jumping
in and lending a hand wherever
needed
Jeroen Chop Root and Luke
Jones for helping spread the word
Namyejong International Office
for so kindly sponsoring us

An Experiment in ELT
Conferencing

Tim Hampson
This conference was born from a
desire to experiment with what
ELT conferences look like. Weve
tried out lots of different things.
We hope youll like what weve
done, but even if you dont find
everything to your liking, were sure
everyone will learn a lot finding out
what works and what doesnt. Here
are four things weve aimed for:
1. Diversity
If you only read the books that
everyone else is reading, you can
only think what everyone else is
thinking, A diverse conference
means a wide range of experiences are shared. Weve worked hard
to build a day where you can learn
from people of different genders,
native languages, races and ages.

2. Hands on sessions
I have a story I tell a lot of being
stuck in a presentation about the
importance of reducing teacher
talk time. The presenter didnt let
anyone else speak for the full hour
of his talk! To avoid this plenaries
have been trimmed down to ten
minutes: enough time to get a message across, but not enough time
for waffle. Weve selected workshops that are practical, hands on,
and audience centered.
3. Demo classes
Most teachers want more opportunities to see other teachers teach.
Our demo classes give you the opportunity to see fantastic teachers
at work, and discuss their process
with them. Theyll be showing you
innovative techniques for you to
adapt to your own classroom
4. Networking
Lots of the best things that happen
at conference occur in the gaps.
Meeting other teachers, sharing a
coffee, and answering questions
can be some of the most memorable conference moments. Weve
made a lounge space you can use
to relax and get a drink. There will
also be special times for networking and asking questions.
2

Getting to excitELT

excitELT is being hosted by Namyejeong() University near

Sinseoldong Station().
Its in the central Dongdaemun
area of Seoul and very easy to get to
from all over the city.
The address is:
Namyejong Art Hall, 12 Hanbit-ro,
Sinseol-dong, Dongdaemun-gu,
Seoul, ROK.

By subway: Take line 9 for fifteen

stops to Noryangjin and transfer
to line 1 towards Soyosan. Go ten
stops and get off at Sinseol-dong
Station. Walk straight out of exit
1 for five minutes, away from the
main intersection. When the road
forks, stay left. You will pass Hangar Coffee on your left. Namyejong
Art Hall will be on your right.

From Seoul Station

Take subway line 1 towards Soyosan for 7 stops (about 12 minutes).
73-3
Get of at Sinseol-dong Station.
From Inchon International Ai- Walk straight out of exit 1 for five
minutes, away from the main interport
section. When the road forks, stay
By train/subway: Take the airport left. You will pass Hangar Coffee on
express railway to Seoul Station your left. Namyejong Art Hall will
and transfer to subway line 1. Fol- be on your right.
low directions from Seoul Station.
From Express Bus Terminal
By bus: Take airport bus #6002. (Gosok Terminal)
Get off at Sinseol-dong Station. Take subway line 3 towards DaeGo left at the crosswalk and make hwa for ten stops (approx 19 mina right to bring you to the closest utes). Transfer to line 1 towards
corner. Make two lefts. Namyejong Soyosan. Go four stops and get
off at Sinseol-dong Station. Walk
will be on the left side.
straight out of exit 1 for five minFrom Gimpo International Air- utes, away from the main intersection. When the road forks, stay
port
By train/subway: Take the airport left. You will pass Hangar Coffee on
express railway to Seoul Station your left. Namyejong Art Hall will
and transfer to subway line 1. Fol- be on your right.
low directions from Seoul Station.
3

Where to Eat

Chamchi Gongbang*
Attendees are welcome to bring a
brown bag lunch (or doshirak, if 139-1 Bomundong 7(chil)-ga,
you prefer) to eat in the lounge next Seongbuk-gu
to the theatre. There are also many
restaurants and coffee shops within Unlimited tuna sashimi from
walking distance from Namyejong. 25,000 won. They also offer dishWhile we have no official recom- es such as hwoe deopbab (sashimi
over rice) and albab (roe over rice)
mendations, rumor has it the placfor a decent price.
es below offer some decent eats.
Warning: If you cannot read Korean, it is recommended that you tag
along to lunch with other attendees
who can or, even better, take out
one of our hard-working volunteers.
Cheongnyeon Kimbab*

53-1 Hajeong-ro, Dongdaemun-gu

Offers a decent selection of kimbab
(Korean style rice wrapped in seaweed with a range of fillings) along
with spicy seafood ramyeon.

Marushabu

61 Wangsan-ro Dondaemun-gu
Shabu shabu (beef and other goodies cooked in a savory broth at the
table) and salad bar. The beef shabu set runs around 18,500 won on
weekends.
Coffee:
Hangar Coffee is located across the
street from Namyejong Art Hall.
You will also find Starbucks and
Ediya Coffee around the corner
between Namyejong Art Hall and
Sinseoldong Station exit 3.

Tramia

Shinan Building, 17 Jongro 66-gil, *These resturants have Korean only

signage. Look out for their names
Jongro-gu
in Hangul or go with someone who
Brick oven pizzas and burgers. Piz- can read Korean.
zas run from 13,000 to 16,000 won
and burgers start at just 4,500 won. Lunch is from 1:20 till 2:20.
4

The Theatre
10:00

10:25
10:25

11:00
11:10

11:50
12:00

12:40
12:45

1:20
1:20

2:20
2:20

2:50
3:00

3:40
3:50

4:30
4:40

5:10
5:20

6:00
6:10

6:40
5

The Lounge

Room 303

Coffee and
registration
Elizabeth May &
Michael Griffin
Plenary Sessions
Brandon Payne
Demo Lesson
Scott Thornbury
Workshop

Brandon Payne
Demo Lesson

Christopher
Garland,
Rhett Burton &
Tamara Swenson
Plenary Sessions
Lunch
Mikyoung Kim &
Josette LeBlanc
Plenary Sessions
Anna Loseva
Demo Lesson
Michael Griffin
Workshop

Brandon Payne
Demo Lesson

Ki Young Kang &

Scott Thornbury
Plenary Sessions
Networking
Session
Q&A Session with
Invited Speakers

Stewart Grey
Demo Lesson

10:00

10:25
10:25

11:00
11:10

11:40
12:00

12:40

Room 302

Room 308

Josette LeBlanc
Workshop

Rhett Burton
Workshop

Room 309

Daniel Svoboda
Workshop

12:45

1:20
1:20

2:20
2:20

2:50
3:00

3:40
3:50

4:30
4:40

5:10
5:20

6:00

Lunch

Tamara Swenson
Workshop pt. 1
(Bring a MacBook)
Tamara Swenson
Workshop pt. 2
(Bring a MacBook)

Ki Young Kang
Workshop

Mikyoung Kim
Workshop

Heidi Nam
Workshop

Gordon West
Workshop

Rhett Burton
Workshop

Sean Gwansoo
Shin
Special Lecture

6:10

6:40
6

Featured Speakers

the form of bite-sized chunks (also

known as grammar macnuggets!)
In this talk Id like to challenge this
and one or two other assumptions,
explore why they are so persistent,
and suggest ways that they might
be counteracted or, ifnecessary,
subverted.

Workshop
The Joy of (Short) Texts
To see a world in a grain of sand
wrote Blake - and all language in a
Scott Thornbury
short text. In this workshop Ill try
Scott Thornbury lives in Spain and
to show how even very short texts,
teaches on the MA TESOL prolike jokes, tea bag wrappers, and
gram at The New School in New
short poems, can be exploited for
York. His previous experience inthe huge variety of language feacludes teaching and teacher traintures that they embed, not to mening in Egypt, UK, Spain, and in his
tion their pure pleasure.
native New Zealand. His writing
credits include several award-winning books for teachers on language and methodology, including
Teaching Unplugged (co-authored
with Luke Meddings) and An A to
Z of ELT. His website is: www.scottthornbury.com
Plenary session
Challenging Assumptions
The current approach (inasmuch
as there is one) to second language
teaching, and of English in particular, rests on a number of assumptions. One of these is that language
is best learned incrementally in
7

Josette LeBlanc
Josette LeBlanc is a teacher, teacher-trainer, and learner. Her interests include finding ways to inspire
others to find their superpowers,

and exploring her own journey of

growth and development. She has
taught, presented, and written on
the topics of reflection, compassion, and personal and professional
transformation
Plenary session
The Inevitable Reality of Teacher
Burnout
Burnout is a possibility, or if not
an inevitable reality, for teachers
around the world. Considering
how some education systems are
organized, it seems that this is a
plausible assumption. I challenge
this because I believe teacher burnout not only harms teachers, but
also students, and in essence, the
larger community. I believe there
is a connection between emotionally healthy teachers and emotionally healthy communities. One way
to contribute to this form of teacher development is to provide them
with the tools needed to increase
their emotional awareness in order
to strengthen their emotional resilience. These tools include the practice of emotional literacy and the
participation in teacher support
groups. In this talk I will share my
experience in offering these tools
to a small group of Korean teachers
of English, and the positive results
that emerged. Presentation attend-

ees can expect to leave this talk

with a new lens on how to bypass
the path to burnout.
Workshop
Emotional Literacy and Community
in ELT
Teaching can be a lonely profession.
Although people surround you all
day, ultimately its only you at the
front of the class. During challenging moments, this can leave
teachers feeling doubtful, upset,
and confused. It doesnt have to be
this way. By being part of a teachers community that is prepared to
support its members, you may regain the courage to step back into
the classroom you dread; you most
likely will receive insight into a nagging problem; but most important
of all, youll probably finally feel
understood. Getting to this degree
of understanding, however, isnt
always easy. It requires listening
skills that go beyond what is usually taught English language lessons.
In this workshop, participants will
learn how to deepen their listening
skills by exploring common teaching challenges via the language of
emotions. It is my hope that by
doing this, participants will gain
insight into what it takes to build a
teachers community committed to
positive transformation.
8

the upside of quitting, the pull

of tradition, and the role of the
three most powerful words in the
English language in an attempt to
help EFL teachers see how thinking like a Freak might be beneficial to those working in the ELT
field in Korea and beyond.

Michael Griffin
Michael Griffin has been teaching
for around 15 years. He is currently based in Seoul where he teaches
(mostly) English at Chung-Ang
University. Currently, teacher
training and development is both
a hobby and passion. Mike is also
involved with #KELTchat, #iTDi,
and the New School MATESOL
program.
Plenary Session
Teach Like a Freak
Perhaps Steven Dubner and Steven
Levitt, authors of Think Like a
Freak (as well as Freakonomics
and SuperFreakonimics), can
offer insights into teaching not
commonly found in methodology
textbooks or plenary talks.
In this talk the presenter will explore the importance of incentives,
the power of thinking like a child,
9

Workshop
Examining Assumptions About
Good and Bad Teaching Techniques
There is no shortage of received
wisdom about what constitutes
good and bad teaching practices in EFL. Training courses,
conferences, and colleagues are
common sources to learn what is
good and bad but chances to
consider why this is so might be
lacking .
In this interactive workshop participants will be asked to consider
both the positives and negatives
of widely-known teaching activities. Ideas and assumptions about
what constitutes good and bad
teaching will be challenged and
participants can expect to walk
away with a clearer idea of their
own beliefs on common and commonly mentioned techniques.

Ki Young Kang
Kiyoung Kang has challenged
many assumptions during her career as an EFL conversation teacher for the deaf and hard of hearing.
She actively researches phonetic
acquisition and is currently serving as the director of AUD Social
Cooperative, a group that provides
technology and assistance for
sustainable communication and
sharing with the hearing impaired.
Plenary session
Teaching English as Foreign Language to Students with Hearing
Loss
Despite the increasing necessity
and desire to learn English among
individuals with hearing loss, research on deaf and hard of hearing
L2 learners or interventions with
deaf and hard of hearing EFL
learners is hard to find. English
teachers often face difficulty in

teaching students with hearing loss

due to inter-individual variability
among learners, in addition to
a lack of teaching materials and
teacher training programs. Given
this reality, the purpose of this
presentation is to raise issues and
share ideas regarding teaching
English as a foreign language to
students with hearing loss.
In this workshop, we will take a
look at general information about
learners with hearing loss before discussing the key points to
consider when teaching English as
a foreign language. Based on the
understanding of the challenge the
students with hearing loss face, we
willexplore ways to support the
students such as using visual aids.
Participants will have a chance to
practice employing lip-reading,
using cued speech and articulation
intervention in listening/speaking
lessons, and adopting symbols in
grammar lessons.
Workshop
Considerations and strategies for
teaching EFL students with hearing
loss
In this workshop, we will take a
look at general information about
learners with hearing loss before discussing the key points to
consider when teaching English as
10

a foreign language. Based on the

understanding of the challenge the
students with hearing loss face, we
willexplore ways to support the
students such as using visual aids.
Participants will have a chance to
practice employing lip-reading,
using cued speech and articulation
intervention in listening/speaking
lessons, and adopting symbols in
grammar lessons.

Dr. Tamara Swenson

Tamara Swensons (Ph. D., Communication, U. Colorado-Boulder)
research focuses on the integration of technology in language
education, with emphasis on
content-based materials for digital
environments. She is a professor
at Osaka Jogakuin University and
has led the universitys move from
paper-based texts to interactive
eBooks for iPads since 2012.
11

Plenary session
Use the Tech, Keep the Connect
Technology is not a panacea. It
is also not a demon. Just as good
English language teaching practices have always required learners
to make connections with each
other and their instructors, good
technology practices in ELT classrooms encourage these same connections. The goal is keeping the
connect while using the tech.
Workshop
Creating iBooks for your Students
This workshop will cover the basics of creating interactive iBooks
using the iBooksAuthor program
that take advantage of the features of iPads (or iPhones). The
presenter has authored or edited
18 iBooks and will provide the
materials needed to quickly create an interactive iBook for ELT
classrooms and the tools needed
to create iBooks for your students.
Attendees are encouraged bring
their MacBook computers will get
the full experience, but even those
who are not Mac users will take
away ideas for effective materials
for tablet computers.
N.b. This workshop runs over two
workshop sessions. Please plan your
day accordingly.

students to experience team building and problem solving activities

in English. The purpose was developing reflective skills according
to the Experiential Learning Cycle
(ELC). Students who took part in
the program challenged these assumptions and proved that Korean
high school students are ready to
be reflective students.
Mikyoung Kim
Mikyoung Kim is a high English
school teacher and teacher-trainer
in Daegu. Through her teacher
training experiences, she recognizes the importance of reflection
skills to facilitate better learning.
She is interested in helping her
students develop reflection skills.
Plenary session
Reflective Classes for Korean High
School Students
Many teachers would assume that
it is impossible to teach reflective skills to Korean high school
students. Students are always busy
studying for K-SATs and they are
not cognitively mature enough to
practice reflective skills, so they
would not be motivated to take
part in reflective classes. 30 Korean high school students participated in a program designed to allow

Workshop
Relective Classes for Korean High
School Students
Mikyoung will bring experiences
from her high school classroom
into this workshop. Participants
will experience a few problem-solving activities from her
reflective program and then be
facilitated to follow the Experiential Learning Cycle(ELC) through
a series of questions.
Through this experience, participants will be aware of how the
reflective program for high school
students was designed and how it
was delivered to motivate them.
They will also brainstorm about
how they will adapt their experience in the workshop to their EFL
classes.

12

Sessions
Sorted by time

10:25-11:00

The Theatre Plenary Sessions

Timothy Hampson
Opening comments
Elizabeth May
Challenge yourself:
Utilizing Online Resources to
Conduct Exit Surveys to Challenge
Educator Assumptions in Class
Looking across a classroom it is
easy to form assumptions about
student attitudes and understanding. It is also rare for educators to
have the time to check these assumptions one on one. With student satisfaction and evaluations
playing increasingly crucial roles
in the commercialized education
sector and often being a factor in
an educators job security, it is becoming more important to ensure
we check these assumptions.

This plenary will discuss the rationale behind such exit surveys,
how to set up and conduct them,
and how to look at the results.
Attendees may find it beneficial
to bring a device (cell phone, tablet, laptop etc.) that can connect to
the internet as a demonstration of
Socrative, as an example resource
will be conducted.
Michael Griffin
Teach Like a Freak:
How Freakonomics Might Inform
EFL Teaching

Perhaps Steven Dubner and Steven Levitt, authors of Think Like a

Freak (as well as Freakonomics and
SuperFreakonimics), can offer insights into teaching not commonly
found in methodology textbooks
or plenary talks. In this talk the
presenter will explore the importance of incentives, the power of
thinking like a child, the upside of
quitting, the pull of tradition, and
the role of the three most powerful
But how can we have the time to words in the English language in
individually check student satis- an attempt to help EFL teachers see
faction? By using online resources, how thinking like a Freak might
educators can easily conduct exit be beneficial to those working in
surveys each class. The results are the ELT field in Korea and beyond.
formulated online allowing the educator to look at class wide trends
and individual responses.
13

11:10-11:50

Room 303 Teaching Demo

Brandon Payne
Teaching Active Reading Strategies

Room 302 Workshop

Josette LeBlanc
Emotional Literacy and Community in ELT

Teaching can be a lonely profession. Although people surround

you all day, ultimately its only
you at the front of the class. During challenging moments, this can
leave teachers feeling doubtful, upset, and confused. It doesnt have
to be this way. By being part of a
teachers community that is prepared to support its members, you
may regain the courage to step back
into the classroom you dread; you
most likely will receive insight into
The goal of this demonstration is a nagging problem; but most imto introduce students to habits of portant of all, youll probably finaleffective readers and model the ap- ly feel understood.
plication through active reading.
The class will read a short story to- Getting to this degree of undergether, and practice a variety of re- standing, however, isnt always
actions to the text. Closure will in- easy. It requires listening skills that
volve sharing individual reactions, go beyond what is usually taught
English language lessons. In this
and application to other texts.
workshop, participants will learn
how to deepen their listening skills
by exploring common teaching
challenges via the language of emotions. It is my hope that by doing
this, participants will gain insight
into what it takes to build a teachers community committed to positive transformation.
Often reading instruction is carried
out with students comprehension
of a particular text as the primary
objective. In a way, however, this
is not instruction in reading so
much as instruction of the text itself. This can be useful to students
in the short term, but broader instruction in the act of reading itself,
and the cultivation of sound reading habits can be said to have more
lasting value.

14

Room 308 Workshop

Rhett Burton
Hagwon Start Up:
A Practical Approach to Starting
Your School
This workshop is for anyone who
wants to start up their own brand
of teaching as the owner of a study
room, kyosupso, or hagwon. We
will start the workshop by talking
about the 5 things you should do
before starting and some typical
assumptions teachers have. Next,
we will discuss some of the dos and
donts of Starting Up. Then, we will
discuss some of the systems well
need to help build a program and
a brand. Participants will receive
a checklist to help them formulate
a plan to successfully launch their
business.

12:00-12:40

The Theatre Workshop

Scott Thornbury
The Joy of (Short) Texts!
To see a world in a grain of sand
wrote Blakeand all language in a
short text. In this workshop Ill try
to show how even very short texts,
like jokes, tea bag wrappers, and
short poems, can be exploited for
the huge variety of language features that they embed, not to mention their pure pleasure.
15

Room 303 Demo Lesson

Brandon Payne
Using Twitter in Active Grammar
Instruction
One of the greatest resources an
English teacher has at her or his
disposal is many students fascination with English speaking celebrities. This fascination can be used to
create grammar instruction that is
critically engaging. The goal of this
lesson is to model using the twitter
accounts of English speaking celebrities to teach grammar concepts.
Direct instruction will involve ppt
based discussion of dos and donts
for the target grammar. Then preselected tweets that use the target
grammar correctly will be used as
models for students own example
sentences. Lastly, student examples
will be chosen randomly and anonymously for classroom discussion,
and retweet to source celebrities.

Room 302
Workshop
Daniel Svoboda
Sing me a Song
Student presentation centered instruction using music/Modern
music, especially pop music, has
always been a popular and engaging way of learning a new language.
The selection of a song, however, is
only the first of many steps on the
long and sometimes complicated
journey of integrating music magic into the language learning classroom. In this interactive presentation, a tried-and-tested approach
to integrating student presentation
centered instruction using music
will be examined.
Diverse music genres, lyric selection, as well as pedagogical objectives and expected outcomes will
be analyzed. The focus will be on
areas where EFL students stand to
gain the most from using songs in
the classroom. The presentation
will culminate with a micro lesson where participants may create
a student presentation utilizing
the skills outlined during the presentation based on a song of their
choice.

12:45-1:20

The Theatre Plenary Sessions

Christopher Garland
A Meta-analysis of Gamification
in Education with Implications for
Second Language Education
Gamification is a newer concept
that involves using game elements
in non-game contexts. It has been
shown that gamification can increase motivation and learning,
but there have been conflicting results, with some studies reporting
opposite findings. Because of these
benefits that have been reported,
many researchers have attempted
to use gamification in educational
settings. Again, these studies have
shown mixed results. However, as a
large number of studies have shown
benefits from using gamification in
educational settings, it is important
to know exactly what aspects of
gamification are beneficial so that
it can be properly used in second
language education. A meta-analysis of gamification of education
research was conducted in order to
determine what aspects of gamification are important in educational
settings, and how this information
can be used to successfully apply
gamification in second language
education.
16

Overall, it was found that gamification typically had a positive effect.

Additionally, several moderator
variables were of importance, including the length of instruction,
inclusion of competitive aspects,
and usage of time on task elements.
Specifically, gamification works
best on short courses when competitive aspects are included. Additionally, gamification applications
that focused on increasing time on
task showed a strong correlation
with success.

Technology is not a panacea. It

is also not a demon. Just as good
English language teaching practices have always required learners to
make connections with each other
and their instructors, good technology practices in ELT classrooms
encourage these same connections.
The goal is keeping the connect
while using the tech.

Rhett Burton
Challenging My Assumptions:
I Can Create a Play Program

1:20-2:20
Lunch

Have you ever had a dream? Have

you ever had a dream that hides
itself in the world of possibilities
but is never given the opportunity
to see the light? I did. I dreamed
of having a program that lets children learn through play instead of
course books. I stopped bringing
my student book and started bringing toys, games and story books
instead. I had more fun than my
students, but sadly, the dream extinguished shortly after the contract
finished. In this plenary, I will talk
about how my dream was born, extinguished and then revived again.
I will walk you through a roadmap
that will help you challenge your
assumptions one-by-one to achieve
your top goal.
17

Dr. Tamara Swenson

Use the Tech, Keep the Connect

See page 4 for lunch options.

2:20-2:50

The Theatre Plenary Sessions

Mikyoung Kim
Reflective Classes for Korean High
School Students
Many teachers would assume that
it is impossible to teach reflective
skills to Korean high school students. Students are always busy
studying for K-SATs and they are
not cognitively mature enough to
practice reflective skills, so they
would not be motivated to take
part in reflective classes.

30 Korean high school students

participated in a program designed to allow students to experience team building and problem
solving activities in English. The
purpose was developing reflective
skills according to the Experiential
Learning Cycle (ELC). Students
who took part in the program
challenged these assumptions and
proved that Korean high school
students are ready to be reflective
students.
Josette LeBlanc
The Inevitable Reality of Teacher
Burnout
Burnout is a possibility, or if not
an inevitable reality, for teachers
around the world. Considering
how some education systems are
organized, it seems that this is a
plausible assumption. I challenge
this because I believe teacher burnout not only harms teachers, but
also students, and in essence, the
larger community. I believe there
is a connection between emotionally healthy teachers and emotionally healthy communities.

One way to contribute to this form

of teacher development is to provide them with the tools needed
to increase their emotional awareness in order to strengthen their
emotional resilience. These tools
include the practice of emotional literacy and the participation in
teacher support groups. In this talk
I will share my experience in offering these tools to a small group
of Korean teachers of English, and
the positive results that emerged.
Presentation attendees can expect
to leave this talk with a new lens on
how to bypass the path to burnout.

3:00-3:40

Room 303 Demo Lesson

Anna Loseva
Once upon a time in a reading class...
Probably few teenagers and even
fewer grown-ups return to reading
folk tales past their childhood age,
yet folklore in different cultures offers a simple way of learning about
the world. Reading such a story
may surprise or disappoint you,
but it will never leave you indifferent. In this light, it makes sense
for a teacher to use folk tales for an
authentic reading experience in a
reading class.
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The main purpose of this demo lesson is to engage the audience in a

story, as well as create a space for
an exchange of emotions and opinions that any story naturally brings
about. The presenter will read a
folk tale from her own native culture in English translation and give
the participants the opportunity to
engage with the text on their own
during discussion time. In the second part of the lesson the learners will be invited to read the story
out loud to each other in pairs, in
this way connecting with it on a
deeper level. Finally, the audience
will share their impressions of the
tale with each other, much like any
reader would do in the world outside of a language class.
Room 302 Workshop
Dr. Tamara Swenson
Creating iBooks for Your Students

The presenter has authored or edited 18 iBooks and will provide the
materials needed to quickly create an interactive iBook for ELT
classrooms and the tools needed
to create iBooks for your students.
Attendees are encouraged to bring
their MacBook computers will get
the full experience, but even those
who are not Mac users will take
away ideas for effective materials
for tablet computers.
Room 308 Workshop
Mikyoung Kim
A Workshop on Reflective Classes
for Korean High School Students
Mikyoung will bring experiences
from her high school classroom into
this workshop. Participants will experience a few problem-solving activities from her reflective program
and then be facilitated to follow the
Experiential Learning Cycle(ELC)
through a series of questions.

n.b. This workshop will run over two

sessions. Bringing a MacBook com- Through this experience, participuter to the session is encouraged, pants will be aware of how the rebut not mandatory.
flective program for high school
students was designed and how it
This workshop will cover the ba- was delivered to motivate them.
sics of creating interactive iBooks They will also brainstorm about
using the iBooksAuthor program how they will adapt their experithat take advantage of the features ence in the workshop to their EFL
of iPads (or iPhones).
classes.
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Room 309 Workshop

Heidi Nam
Using Student Observers to
Enhance Speaking Activities

After experiencing several types

of observation, workshop participants will reflect on the experience
by comparing self-observation with
peer-observation, commenting on
Teachers cannot give feedback the cognitive load for observers,
everywhere at once; however, if discussing the effect of observation
on subsequent speaking perforstudents give feedback to each
mances, and proposing an obserother, the amount of feedback in vation task for a speaking activity.
a speaking class could increase a
great deal. Although some students
3:50-4:30
may feel reluctant to comment on
The
Theatre
Workshop
their peers performances, teachMichael Griffin
ers can help students become more
Examining Assumptions About
comfortable with peer feedback by
Good and Bad Teaching
giving clear guidelines and modeTechniques
ling. Student feedback will be most
productive if observers are encour- There is no shortage of received
aged to notice specific features of wisdom about what constitutes
their partners production and if good and bad teaching practicthe feedback focuses on successes es in EFL. Training courses, conferrather than errors.
ences, and colleagues are common
sources to learn what is good and
Participants in the workshop will bad but chances to consider why
be asked to take the roles of speak- this is so might be lacking. In this
ers and/or observers. In each task, interactive workshop participants
the observers will be required to will be asked to consider both the
record some aspect of the speak- positives and negatives of wideers performances, such as number ly-known teaching activities. Ideas
and assumptions about what conof clauses, number of [target funcstitutes good and bad teaching
tion], or number of [target gram- will be challenged and participants
matical form].
can expect to walk away with a
clearer idea of their own beliefs
on common and commonly mentioned techniques.
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Room 303 Demo Lesson

Brandon Payne
Classroom structures for
maximum engagement
Direct instruction can only take
students so far in their language acquisition. The goal of this demo is
to offer a template for maximizing
student engagement that teachers
can adapt to a variety of learning objectives. The specific learning objective is bargaining and
purchasing interactions, but the
structure can be adapted to suit individual teachers needs. Direct instruction involves the introduction
of target language, and a brief clip
of Antiques Road Show as a setting for the activity. Each student
receives an antique and uses
the target language to trade with
and purchase from other students.
Actual values for each antique are
then revealed, and the student with
the highest total value is declared
the winner.

Room 308 Workshop

Gordon West
I cant believe he said that!
Dealing with Controversial Topics
in Class
Instructors often use controversial
topics in EFL classes. These have
multiple pedagogical purposes.
They encourage communicative
language use in the classroom and
stimulate critical thinking. For instructors with a critical perspective, which takes a more expansive
view of language teaching, controversial topics may be used as a
way of helping students examine
their own beliefs and perspectives
(Crookes, 2013). Other times, topics or materials that instructors use
in class may become unexpectedly
controversial or provoke surprising
emotional reactions from students.

One of the difficulties that instructors often face is how to effectively

mediate when class discussions or
debates become more emotionally
charged than they anticipated. This
Room 302 Workshop
workshop uses frameworks laid
Dr. Tamara Swenson
out by Benesch (2012) on teachers
Creating iBooks for Your Students as emotion workers, and Kubota
(2014) on using a poststructuralThis is a continuation of Dr. Tama- ist versus an empathy building apra Swensons earlier workshop ses- proach to structuring discussions
sion. See above for details.
around controversial topics in EFL
classes.
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The facilitator will first use examples from his own teaching and
research to illustrate ways to apply these frameworks in reflection.
Then participants will share their
own examples and work with sample situations to construct their
own mediation plans with the goal
of having creating safe spaces for
discussion in classes where controversial topics can still be vigorously
debated.
Room 309 Workshop
Rhett Burton
Playing with Stories
This workshop will provide storytelling strategies for young learners
of all levels. I will provide different constructive strategies starting from chants and songs and
progressing to creative storytelling skills. We will first discuss the
importance of characters, settings,
item and themes used in basic
stories, songs and chants. Then,
we will move into emergent storytelling skills by adding context
through story plots. Lastly, we discuss how these constructive strategies enable students to construct
their own stories. Participants will
learn how to implement these constructive strategies by creating their
own story using stories.

4:40-5:10

The Theatre Plenary Sessions

Ki Young Kang
Teaching English as a Foreign
Language to Students With
Hearing Loss
Despite the increasing necessity
and desire to learn English among
individuals with hearing loss, research on deaf and hard of hearing L2 learners or interventions
with deaf and hard of hearing EFL
learners is hard to find.
English teachers often face difficulty in teaching students with hearing loss due to inter-individual variability among learners, in addition
to a lack of teaching materials and
teacher training programs. Given
this reality, the purpose of this presentation is to raise issues and share
ideas regarding teaching English as
a foreign language to students with
hearing loss.
Scott Thornbury
Challenging Assumptions
The current approach (inasmuch
as there is one) to second language
teaching, and of English in particular, rests on a number of assumptions. One of these is that language
is best learned incrementally in
the form of bite-sized chunks (also
known as Grammar McNuggets!)
22

In this talk Id like to challenge this

and one or two other assumptions,
explore why they are so persistent,
and suggest ways that they might
be counteracted or, if necessary,
subverted.

complete all of the activities in the

class time, tackling them in the
order of their choosing, collaborating and supporting each other,
and working at their own pace and
level. Meanwhile, the teacher is on
hand to assist, as a facilitator rather
than a task-master, and little direct
5:20-6:00
teacher intervention is required,
The Lounge Networking Session allowing for students to take reThis is a session for teachers who sponsibility for their own learning.
are interested in meeting other This approach is an alternative to a
teachers. There will be some ice- linear, teacher-led class design, and
breaker activities and a chance to is particularly appropriate for review of content covered in previous
reflect communally on the day.
classes.
Room 303 Demo Lesson
Stewart Grey
A Montessori-Inspired Activity
Design for Student-Centered,
Collaborative English Practice
This demonstration is of an activity design inspired by the Montessori method, a method emphasizing students freedom to guide
and manage their own in-school
studies. Using this design, a teacher
prepares a varied series of activities
(including anything, from games to
debate) each with its own clear set
of instructions and goals included,
and distributes them around the
classroom before class.
Students, working in groups, then
23

Room 302 Workshop

Ki Young Kang
Considerations and strategies for
teaching EFL students with
hearing loss
In this workshop, we will take a
look at general information about
learners with hearing loss before
discussing the key points to consider when teaching English as a
foreign language. Based on the understanding of the challenge the
students with hearing loss face, we
will explore ways to support the
students such as using visual aids.

Participants will have a chance to

6:10-6:40
practice employing lip-reading,
The Theatre Special Session
using cued speech and articulation
Q&A session with our invited
intervention in listening/speaking
speakers
lessons, and adopting symbols in
grammar lessons.
This is your opportunity to ask
questions you might have to a panel
Room 308 Special Lecture
of our featured speakers. ThroughSean Gwansoo Shin
out the day, well be taking your
Trends and Characteristics of
questions and then asking them to
Korean Higher Educations
a panel of our invited speakers at
International and English
the end of the day.
Education
International education and English education are continuously hot
topics among Korean educators.
Regarding advancing comprehensive internationalization, Korean
universities and colleges are making efforts to build up a firm base.
In addition, English education has
been one of the top priorities for
excitELT was organised by:
the university curriculum. ThereGeorgeanna Hall,
fore, understanding the trends and
Timothy Hampson &
characteristics of Korean higher
Crystal Hecht
educations international education
and English education is essential Find out more about excitELT at
for international teachers in Korea. www.excitelt.com
If you have any comments about
the conference, wed love to hear
from you.
Our email is: info@excitelt.com
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