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This presentation will examine the history of our language policies and their current impact to provide the context for teaching today’s students. While Oregonians successfully defeated the recent English-only measure, educators must not become complacent. Rather, this opportunity should be used to reexamine our policies, programs, and best practices in teaching. Using anecdotes that are sometimes humorous and sometimes heartwrenching from the presenters’ former students in the Bilingual Teacher Pathway Program, the audience will be reminded of the reasons they became teachers of ELL students. Lastly, the presenter’s own poems will be shared that describe the educational journey of one person of color.

Julie Esparza Brown, Assistant Professor in Special Education at PSU teaches and researches the fields of bilingual and special education. Until recently, she directed PSU’s Bilingual Teacher Pathway Program. (back)

Ventures: Building Community in the Adult Education Classroom
Asplin, Wendy

SUMMARY:
In this exhibitor’s session, the presenter will lead participants through Cambridge’s new 5-level series, Ventures. The standards-based series takes students from Beginning ESL Literacy through High-Intermediate levels using a 4-skills integrated, engaging, and motivating syllabus. Participants will learn how the series articulates seamlessly from Beginning ESL Literacy to the High-intermediate level through its wide-range of components, including the innovative AddVentures, reproducible multilevel worksheets, addressing multilevel challenges and learner persistence. Topics across the 5-levels allow for more depth and task complexity as students move along the program’s continuum.

Examples from the textbook and its ancillary materials across the levels will be demonstrated. Participants will receive samples of the textbook which will help them as they follow the presentation. (back)

Coming Home to Salmon Nation: Bioregional Learning for ESL Students
Rogers Gessert, Kate

SUMMARY:
Because so many immigrants come to the U.S. each year, it's essential that they take care of the environment here. And they are unlikely to do this unless they feel connected and at home in this place. Bioregional curriculum about Salmon Nation - all the watersheds in the Northwest where salmon historically have come home to spawn - can build this connection while students strengthen their English language skills

Components of a bioregional ESL class can include learning about northwestern animals, plants, native people, and immigrants, through
• reading articles, personal narratives, short stories, and poems
• watching videos/DVDs and listening to music
• writing place-based legends, short research papers, and reading-response journals
• sharing emotions and responses to readings in small groups
• talking with visiting experts
• going on field trips.

In a class based on bioregional content, students learn quickly because they get involved with the subject matter. They learn vocabulary they can use in the future to understand environmental issues in conversations and media. They begin to feel more at home here, which makes them happier and also eager to protect the environment. A class like this is also a joyful experience for teachers, because the process of learning and sharing bioregional information with students makes you feel more at home here yourself! (back)

What a Novel Idea: Reading Practice for Advanced Students
Bess, Michael W.

One of the ultimate tests of second language proficiency is reading an unsimplified novel in the second language. What can a teacher do with a novel-based reading class for highly-advanced learners? There are all sorts of engaging activities for such a course, many of which would not be possible in a literature class full of native speakers. But because of the unique assets of cross-cultural perspectives and experiences ESL students have, the teacher has many unusual options for reading and interacting with the text of a novel. During the presentation, the presenter outlines the basics of novel-based classes and makes recommendations of novels that work well. The presenter walks participants through a sampling of actual in-class activities designed to explore characters, setting, plot, conflict, metaphor, symbolism, themes, and other aspects of literature, as applied to a specific novel. The presenter assists participants in recognizing how these elements work together to create the central message of a novel. In examining video, posters, writing samples, and other materials from actual novel reading classes taught by the presenter, participants discover how to draw out cross-cultural contrasts and comparisons when tapping their students' own cultures. Participants have time to brainstorm, share, and begin to construct their own plans for a novel-based class. (back)

English class anywhere, anytime: new online software
Green, Laura

SUMMARY:
You can have English class anywhere, or anytime with our new online software. The use of technology in the language classroom has increased rapidly in the past few years therefore there is a growing need for access-anywhere CALL software. The presenter will focus on two new internet-based programs, Longman English Online and Focus on Grammar Interactive and demonstrate the principled instruction and ease of use of this program.

Questions to be discussed are: 1) what conditions are needed for second language acquisition; 2) what key design features enhance and promote acquisition; 3) how important are classrooms for language learning; 4) what is the role of the teacher in CALL?; 5) how does the teacher balance autonomous learning with instructor-led activities? In addition to presenting practical examples and ideas from Longman English Online, the presenter will facilitate an interactive discussion with the participants to explore these issues and how they’re addressed in this new and innovative internet-based program.

Creating Authentic Environments
Rogers, Robin

SUMMARY:
In an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom, it is a struggle to get students to speak English inside the classroom because of the shared language. EFL students depend on in-class time for English practice because outside there is little to no chance to hear or speak English. With the wealth of resources and opportunities surrounding the English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom, teachers should strive to take advantage of what is available.

Non-native English speakers sometimes find it a challenge to approach native speakers outside the classroom. Invite native speakers to the classroom once a week or twice a month. This is a great confidence building activity. By doing this, students are more prepared for interaction with native speakers outside the classroom. Send students outside the classroom with specific tasks such as scavenger hunts or surveys for an icebreaker and see what happens. Discussion boards and Internet pages for journaling or blogs are also good ways to improve students writing and grammar. By doing these kinds of activities, students will be much more prepared to interact with native speakers with confidence. These ideas and more will be presented and discussed at this table presentation. Handouts are provided. Bring your ideas to share! (back)

New Twists on Music in the ESL Classroom
Stenseth, Jenny

SUMMARY:
While music has long been used as an authentic language source to enliven the classroom and engage students, it also functions effectively as a platform for cultural exploration. This presentation offers teachers of adult learners ideas to infuse traditional music-related activities with intercultural investigation. By moving beyond cloze exercises or class sing-a-longs, the presenter shares methods to teach integrated skills through music with the parallel goal of enhancing students’ cultural awareness.

This demonstration includes activities drawing on various musical genres, from rock to folk to rap, which may be incorporated into thematic lessons. In touching upon cultural issues embedded within particular genres of music, such as gender and rap, globalization and world music, or war and the “protest song”, the lessons encourage student exploration of American culture as well comparison across cultures.

Specific activities presented also highlight the potential for technology in a music-oriented class. The presenter introduces current music websites with suggested classroom applications, such as student participation in a music social-networking site. In addition to websites, ideas for various projects are given, including the development of a class podcast in which each student acts as a “DJ” introducing a chosen song from their home country. Also provided are ideas on how to use student-generated podcasts as listening material for future classes. (back)

My Students’ Space: Social Networking
Mitchell, Kathleen

SUMMARY:
A large percentage of college students use social networking sites everyday. They read updates about their friends, write messages, upload and comment on pictures, and chat. Engagement in online social networks has become a critical social action in college. And it is often one that immigrants and exchange students aren’t active in. It is time for ESL teachers to utilize social networking sites in the classroom, if only to situate reading and writing lessons in a socially relevant context.

Social networking sites provide rich material that can be used in ESL reading, writing and culture classes. In this workshop, teachers will explore two social networking sites: Facebook and Del.icio.us. Facebook is a social networking site where individuals can meet people in their community and Del.icio.us is a place for people to share web resources and links. Teachers can employ these sites effectively only after understanding how they function. Then, they can begin to situate common reading and writing activities in a highly relevant context and/or teach about these sites in culture classes. Students, in turn, are more interested in learning concepts introduced in these contexts. (back)

Cooperative Language Learning Communities: Teaching Critical Thinking
Holland, Laura G. and Tibbitts, Bonny

Learning a new language includes understanding a new culture and its ways of thinking. It is essential for US university-bound English language learners to understand the patterns of critical thinking typical of their new cultural environment. This requires not only thinking skills, but also learning the language to give expression to thoughts. By creating a community of inquiry, the presenters contend that language classrooms provide an ideal place for students to practice critical thinking and language skills together, and that it is never too early in the language learning process to introduce critical thinking.

A rich environment full of recycled vocabulary and ideas created through “narrow reading” and other media provides the scaffolding students need to increase the language skills necessary to develop critical thinking (Schmitt, Krashen). The presenters show how to encourage different aspects of successful critical thinking such as analyzing, inferring, interpreting, evaluating, synthesizing and explaining (Bloom) by creating a “community of inquiry” among the students (Lipman, Paul). Through the use of unsimplified, authentic materials (written and audio), students delve deeper into a topic through activities centered on the areas of questioning, discussion, and presentation. Each of these areas represents a constellation of language exercises used to build critical thinking strategies.

The presenters demonstrate a series of activities guiding students through aspects of critical thinking. They will use an experiential learning model to allow participants to develop a community of inquiry within the workshop format. They will provide examples of materials in various formats (e.g. digital audio and visual files, written text, etc.) for use in group work.

Participants will discuss and explore:
• Basic principles of cooperative learning and community building in a language-learning classroom.
• How to facilitate critical thinking while dealing with a variety of individual student learning styles.
• Practices that are mainly student-centered so that students discover meaning (from basic comprehension to higher levels of understanding) together.
• Assessment strategies for critical thinking within a cooperative learning environment.
• Ways to adapt this approach to their specific teaching situations. (back)

Thinkfinity Literacy Network: Free Online Resources for Professional Development
Strom, Nancy

SUMMARY:
Thinkfinity Literacy Network (TLN) is part of Thinkfinity.org, the Verizon Foundation’s signature education and literacy platform. TLN features content specific to the adult and family literacy communities. It offers teachers, volunteers, parents, community groups, adult students, and program administrators free online courses, best practices, program assessment tools, teaching and learning tools, model programs that demystify technology for parents, and abundant research highlighting the importance of literacy development across the life span. All TLN content is free and is developed and approved by leading literacy experts like ProLiteracy Worldwide, the National Center for Family Literacy, and the American Library Association. In this workshop, participants will identify professional development needs. Then, as participants tour TLN, they will identify strategies for incorporating online courses and resources into existing training and professional development initiatives. (back)

Learn to Make Listening Lessons
Wittenberg Hillyard, Lisa

This workshop is designed to provide language teaching professionals with the skills to write and record original listening exercises. With just a few electronic tools, listening exercises are now easy. Language professionals can create specific, targeted listening tasks without a lot of time or electronic support.

A review of learning objectives will show participants how easy a differentiated delivery can be using listening exercises. Differentiated worksheets can also be used to support repetitive listening tasks. Discussion of audio release will be reviewed and an example of a Release Form will be provided.

Seats are limited due to the capacity of the computer lab, so come early to learn how to provide students with listening exercises tailored to your instructional needs.

This process was developed with funds received from the Oregon Technology Adult Basic Skills Advisory Group and the Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development. Funding was provided through the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA), Title II Adult Education and Family Literacy – CFDA 84.002A. (back)

Critical Friends Groups: Developing a Professional Learning Community
Moser, Sue and del Val, Edward

SUMMARY:
English language educators can develop a sustainable professional learning community by forming a Critical Friends Group (CFG). Meeting once per month for two hours, CFG members can connect with one another and build a foundation of collaboration and trust as they help each other to work through professional dilemmas. Group facilitators follow various time-managed protocols that provide a structure for examining instructor practices, student work, and relationships among peers, leading to improved communications and better understandings of ESOL teaching and learning. In this session, the presenters share their experiences with CFGs and offer a brief demonstration of how a CFG can provide the opportunity for reflection, collaboration, and support among peers. (back)

Using Visual Images to Enrich Class Activities and Promote Communication
Phelps, Patricia

SUMMARY:
Visual images such as pictures, illustrations, maps, or cartoons, are a readily available resource to stimulate and enrich speaking, listening, writing, vocabulary, and grammar activities. The power of the image is its ability to communicate without the need of spoken language. In the classroom, visual images provide students with a user friendly, hands on tool to help overcome obstacles that impede learning. Because an image kindles both imagination and memory, students feel an immediate, recognizable connection. This connection inspires a fearless desire to communicate or in some cases, blurt out a response. Using an image as a prompt, students can communicate and share information by pointing, laughing, smiling, speaking or writing. Activities that use images help reduce anxiety associated with learning disabilities, fear of making mistakes, reluctance to participate, or shyness. A picture placed in the hands of a shy language learner reduces inhibition by diverting attention away from overly insecure self-monitoring. Images that spark the imagination help students to overcome classroom inhibitions. A stimulating image fosters a student's imagination to communicate without worry and, thus, helps to build confidence and encourage active participation.

Visual images promote language learning because they provide a tool to stimulate communication. With a visual vocabulary, a student can fill in language gaps and begin to overcome barriers, which often hold back participation. Position a map in front of students from different countries and watch as they take turns pointing excitedly at their country. Images also spark the imagination by inspiring the creative process. Compelling images may fill us with a sense of adventure, tear at our heartstrings, make us laugh out loud, or capture our attention. Images are a versatile tool which makes them an essential resource for the language classroom. Simple to use, they can: inspire speaking activities, stimulate writing tasks, enrich listening comprehension, build vocabulary, and reinforce grammatical structures. (back)

Teacher to Teacher: Colleagues are Your Best Untapped Resource
Johnston, Catherine

SUMMARY:
Communication among teaching colleagues about curricula, learning standards (federal, state, institutional, or programmatic), outcomes, and day-to-day classroom happenings is essential to our professional awareness. However, in reality, there are typically few opportunities for teachers to establish and maintain such communication. Part-time instructors, who outnumber full-time instructors in most teaching settings, must often limit their time on-site because of additional teaching assignments elsewhere; full-time instructors generally have institutional duties that may inhibit their availability outside the classroom.

What do ESL instructors need and want to discuss with their colleagues? What obstructs that communication? What is the best way to open communication? This panel discussion will draw on anecdotal evidence as well as current educational research regarding the importance and most effective forms of inter-colleague communication. Participants can collaborate to examine options such as websites, electronic bulletin boards, peer evaluations and feedback sessions, staff meetings, social events, surveys, and notebooks—as well as sharing their own ideas and experiences, for we are one another’s best untapped resource. (back)

English Learners’ First Language: An Asset for High School Graduation
Chavez, Xavier

In 2007-2008, Portland Public Schools awarded over 400 World Language credits through Credit by Exam (CBE) to over 200 students in Chinese, German, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, and other languages. Almost all of the examinees were English Learners at one time or another. English Learners already have what Oregon’s mostly monolingual students spend years studying to attain: proficiency in a language other than English. This demonstration covers the rationale, assessments, and implementation of a World Language CBE program.

This demonstration shows the rationale for using an ACTFL (American Council of Teacher of Foreign Languages) aligned proficiency-based CBE as a tool of encouragement for English learners. This demonstration also provides specifics about assessments used in World Language Credit by Exam, and will examine the advantages and disadvantages of 3 types of proficiency tests used by Portland Public Schools. Finally, I will also cover the nuts and bolts of implementation of a World Language CBE program as a way to create high level world language courses to support biliteracy and achievement. (back)

Using Interactive Whiteboard Technology
Drummond Sardell, Rachel

SUMMARY:
Incorporating technology into curriculum is a best practice that sparks the interest of all English language learners, regardless of age or language proficiency. Whether they are completely at ease with technology or just learning the basics, all students benefit from understanding and working with content that is delivered using technological means. Language learning requires repetition, review, visual aids, and opportunities to communicate. Interactive whiteboard technology provides teachers with the ability to meet the aforementioned needs of their students and deliver curriculum in a way that allows students to access and practice using the content digitally with their peers in a collaborative learning environment.

In this demonstration, teachers will learn the basics of how to use interactive whiteboard technology. Some skills that will be covered include how teachers can digitally save notes of explained concepts, find and display visual aids, and adapt familiar pedagogical techniques for use with interactive whiteboard technology. Participants will also have the opportunity to collaborate and brainstorm ideas for new lesson ideas using interactive whiteboard technology. (back)

An Information Session about the English Language Fellow Program
Asplin, Wendy and Granger, Jennifer

This is a 50 minute informational session designed to provide information about the English Language Fellow Program. The English Language Fellow Program promotes English language learning around the world, and fosters mutual understanding between people of the US and people of other countries. The program is administered by Georgetown University under the sponsorship of the Department of State. In this information session, the presenters (the Program Manager of the Regional Recruiting Center at the University of Washington along with a former English Language Fellow) will give an overview of the program and the application process. They will allow ample time for questions. (back)

Language Games Students and Teachers Love!
Paxton-Williams, Katherine A.

SUMMARY:
Students love to play games and teachers love happy, engaged students who are learning English! Games in a classroom allow students to learn or practice vocabulary, interact with peers despite sometimes limited oral vocabularies, gauge their own comprehension, and remind students just how much progress they have made.

As professionals, we attend ORTESOL conferences for a variety of reasons: to find out the latest research, network with colleagues, or pick up ideas for our own classes. The goal of this demonstration is to provide teachers with surefire games and activities that both they and their students will love.

This demonstration itself will feature several types of games:
1. Kinesthetic: Do You Love Your Neighbor?
2. Vocabulary and grammar drill: Battleship (on paper)
3. Verbal-Linguistic: Letter by Letter
4. Teamwork: Team Tic-Tac-Toe, Jeopardy!
5. Individual: Julia’s Categories
In addition, the presenter will provide a packet with the instructions for these and other games, and additional resources, such as websites or books.

In this day and age of “No Child Left Behind,” constant testing, and pressure from administrators who stress reading and writing above all else, teachers need to know that playing games is a sound instructional practice, a “best practice” backed up by research. For a few examples, see:
• Lewis, Michael and Hill, Jimmie. (1985). Practical techniques for language teaching. Hove, England: Language Teaching Publications.
• Olliphant, Jo Ann. (1991). Total physical fun. Tacoma: Sahmarsh Publishing.
• Schultz, Matthew and Fisher, Alan. (1988). Games for all reasons: Interacting in the language classroom. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
• Steinberg, Jerry. (1992). Games language people play. Ontario, Canada: Dominie Press Limited.

Games in the classroom accomplish several goals: they motivate, lower the students’ affective filter, provide an instrument for drill and review of previously learned vocabulary and/or grammatical structures, address different learning styles, foster teamwork, leave students feeling more confident and excited about their skills in English, and provide a method for teachers to assess students’ progress in the language. Come on, let’s play! (back)

Focused Vocabulary Acquisition and Essay Writing
Young-Davy, Belinda

SUMMARY:
Acquisition and use of appropriate vocabulary in essay and research paper writing is one of the most daunting challenges international students face in their university classes. Too often their only tool is frustrating and time-consuming attempts at rote memorization of word lists. Although each student must ultimately acquire a unique set of personalized vocabulary acquisition strategies, efficient and creative attention to vocabulary learning is a worthwhile investment of class time for both students and educators. Focused vocabulary learning activities which incorporate both cooperative/collaborative and individual efforts combined with attention to different learning styles (i.e., visual, auditory and kinesthetic) can help to make the goals of vocabulary expansion, accurate vocabulary use and greater writing competency an attainable and empowering reality for learners. Use of combined and graduated activities such as attention to collocations, vocabulary webs, paraphrasing, and vocabulary-based role plays allow students to manipulate target vocabulary in different ways and contexts to improve both retention and accuracy. (back)

Choosing and Using a Picture Dictionary
Johnson, Jenefer

SUMMARY:
This demonstration will focus on the strategies of building active vocabulary with picture dictionary programs. These programs develop vocabulary with four-skills integration and reinforcement appropriate for every age group.

An overview of different dictionaries will be given and teaching strategies will be discussed. Each workshop participant will be given sample teaching materials and a dictionary of their choice:
• The Oxford Picture Dictionary, targeted to meet the vocabulary needs of young adults and adults with monolingual and bilingual editions.
• The Oxford Picture Dictionary for the Content Areas, designed to focus on content areas for elementary and middle school students.
• The Oxford Picture Dictionary for Kids, designed for elementary students with over 700 words presented with colorful pictures.
• The Basic Oxford Picture Dictionary, designed to meet the needs of low-beginning level young adult and adult students by emphasizing life skills and everyday vocabulary.

Come learn which program is right for your students! (back)

Turning long tales into short ones: Mini sagas for writing and reading lesson
Bunk, Aylin and Bunk, David

Mini Sagas are stories that are exactly 50 words in length and offer an excellent way to spice up a short writing lesson or a post reading activity. They are challenging to write and fun to read, and can be tailored to a variety of learning objectives. They focus on grammatical accuracy while promoting creativity. Mini sagas have to be a complete story with a beginning, middle and end. They can tell a folkloric tale, or a fable from a student’s own culture, as well as a personal experience. They can be used to encourage students to express themselves using different grammatical structures. They also can be used as a post reading activity to summarize key points of a reading text (within 50 words). In this session, participants will have the opportunity to learn how to use mini sagas, examine examples created by students, and be actively involved in writing a mini saga in small groups. (back)

Student Messages: a Conversation about Culture
Marks, Sharon; Susan Hall; 1-2 ESL or ENL students (TBA)

Prior to a college-wide cultural diversity event, students in a High-beginning and an Intermediate Integrated ESL class were asked the question “What would you like to teach Americans about your culture?” They were given a format for the answer but allowed to present whatever they wished about their countries or their cultures. The result was 4 colorful display boards and two scrapbooks that were displayed together with an invitation for viewers to add comments about their cultures.

The display boards and books that were created for the culture fair will be shown at the table presentation along with information about how the instructors guided the students in the creation of the materials, how the materials were shared with the college community, and lessons learned from the activity. (back)

Students Want Speaking Test Success
Canton, Tori and Bliss Calderón, Amber

SUMMARY:
Most college bound English learners plan to take the TOEFL, and more and more students are choosing to take the Internet based (iBT) TOEFL exam instead of the paper based test of the past. On the paper based TOEFL, students could rely on their rote learning of grammar to help them achieve high marks. In contrast, on the iBT students need to display integrated skills. Therefore, students are not assessed merely on their ability to “fill in the blank”, but on their overall English skills. One of the most dramatic differences is that, on the iBT, students are scored on their ability to speak within an academic environment. Whether it be students listening to a portion of an academic lecture and then orally responding or reading a short passage and then voicing an opinion, students are assessed based on their ability to express their thoughts clearly, grammatically, and academically.

Surely one of the quickest ways to garner students’ attention is to tell them an activity is practice for the TOEFL. Students want to improve their TOEFL scores. As instructors, we can help students achieve this goal by integrating various speaking activities into the classroom that will help prepare them for the iBT TOEFL exam. All students need to improve their speaking in one way or another whether it be using clearer pronunciation, increasing grammatical correctness, or developing and presenting a topic in an appropriate academic way. We need to use the allure of the iBT to our advantage not just so students can pass this test but so that they can succeed in the academic environment of university life. (back)

Planning for your future: Retention efforts at Clackamas Community College
Goldstein, Alice and Williams, Molly

Oregon’s Adult ESL Programs are guided by Indicators of Program Quality (IPQs). One IPQ is a retention plan along with evaluation of the plan. This session will detail a retention plan at Clackamas Community College which includes development of a pre-enrollment orientation DVD, contacting students who stop attending, student attendance awards, level movement certificates, a new student guide, and ongoing orientation workshops. Challenges and successes of the plan will be included. (back)

Teaching Citizenship: What you Need to Know
Cunningham, Eunice; Sale, Ed and Scowcroft, Geoffrey

ESL instructors are often pulled into teach citizenship classes. They are unprepared. Of course they can readily learn the history and government material required of those seeking naturalization. Of course they are prepared to help the students improve their English skills to be able to pass the crucial interview. However, the laws, the rules, and the regulations and procedures surrounding the process of naturalization are not easy to master. Indeed, immigration lawyers study them for a lifetime.

An immigration attorney from Catholic Charities Immigration Legal Services, and a representative of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services will detail the most important things for instructors to know, and then open the floor to a moderated question and answer period.

You will learn, for example, when you should refer a student to a lawyer, where to find low-cost legal assistance, when you should and shouldn’t advise a student yourself, how much you can help with the N-400, where to seek further assistance, and where to find resources. Presenters will distribute handouts. (back)

Five activities for using Reading to improve Communication
Gallagher, Kellie N. and McKinney, Lisa

Teachers and students today find themselves in diverse multicultural classrooms with students from a variety of educational backgrounds that often clash in the segregated skill classroom. At all levels, students need to be guided towards resources that can help them improve their language skills in ways that reinforce their strengths and challenge their weaknesses. As a result, the presenters have been experimenting with using traditional reading texts to bridge the gap between objective academic literacy skills and more subjective aural and critical thinking skills. The aim of integrating all skills around a reading text is to help foster self-corrections, pronunciation, language chunks, idiomatic expressions, aural automaticity and grammatical form and function. Integrating the skills allows students with stronger literacy skills to improve their aural communication skills, and also allows students with stronger aural skills to foster their literacy skills and improve their grammatical form and accuracy. By grouping students from different educational backgrounds, they are able to utilize each other’s strengths to help improve each other’s weaknesses. The presenters will provide five activities to help students from all backgrounds to use reading to improve their communicative skills. The lesson plans will be appropriate for a range of skill level from introductory to advanced. (back)

A Foundations First Approach to Fluent Reading
Walker, Bill

The premise behind a foundations-first approach to reading is that for fluency to develop, students need a period of intensive language learning from reading and studying short texts which are somewhat above their language level. After a sufficient amount of language proficiency has been acquired, fluency emerges, especially when the students have opportunities to read extensively, and especially if the extensive reading is not challenging, but is at or slightly above their proficiency level. Intensive reading focuses primarily on bottom-up reading skills, such as word recognition, spelling and phonological processing, morphosyntactic parsing, and lexical recognition and accessing. In addition, intensive reading includes such activities as finding the main idea, finding major and minor supporting details, finding pronoun referents, inferencing, interpreting graphics, recognizing discourse patterns (i.e., definition, listing, exemplification), and recognizing cohesive devices. While grammar knowledge is important, more vital to bottom-up reading is lexical competency. This is because language is grammaticalized lexis, not lexicalized grammar. It is primarily through intensive reading that the deliberate build-up of lexical competence occurs. Vocabulary is especially important for university-bound students because, in order to successfully comprehend academic materials, the L2 reader needs to know about 5,000 word families. After having acquired proficiency in the “bottom-up” fundamentals, the reader is ready for top-down processing, which some researchers see in relation to bottom-up processing as being additive or compensatory.

As a firm foundation in language proficiency is being established, the student is starting to become fluent. However, it is during extensive reading that the conditions for faster reading and a higher level of comprehension occur. This, of course, assumes that the reader is a rapid decoder and has a vocabulary so well-developed that she can read quickly and with the pleasure that comes with being able to engage in the ideas in the text and is thus able to evaluate and synthesize information. (back)

Speaking, Listening, and oh yes Thinking
Alboszta, Agnieszka

Once students have reached the intermediate to advanced stages in their language development, classroom discussions can become fertile soil for sharpening reasoning skills. As instructors, we should challenge students to develop thinking skills that they will need to apply in their academic and personal lives. By unpacking some components of critical thinking, for example; concepts, information, and assumptions, and focusing on them during class, any discussion can be elevated to a higher cognitive level. Furthermore, introducing intellectual standards, such as clarity, logic, and relevance, and holding students accountable for the quality of their questions, comments, and responses to one another makes for richer conversations.

This presentation will outline the instructional techniques used in the Advanced Discussion elective at the American English Institute. The presentation will offer specific steps and concrete tools for making students better listeners, speakers, and thinkers.

In the Advanced Discussion elective, students are guided through the process of formulating meaningful questions, are introduced to critical thinking elements, and after initial modeling by the instructor, are given substantial class time to practice leading and actively participating in classroom discussions. The discussions are recorded, transcribed, and relevant portions are evaluated during the next class meeting. The transcripts are an invaluable tool that mirrors back to students the word choice, grammar, and pronunciation errors they still make, as well as how well they listen, what moves of thinking they habitually make, and where there is room for improvement in terms of leading and participating in a discussion. This process has been effective in raising students' awareness and in motivating them to strive for more accuracy, fluency, and clearer, deeper thinking. (back)

Student Strategies of Success for the Internet-based TOEFL
Metzler, Ron and Sapp, Elena

SUMMARY:
It is common knowledge among TOEFL instructors that students want to take the TOEFL iBT as soon as they enter a language program. In spite of their eagerness, most students are not prepared for the rigors of the test, nor are they aware of the multiple tasks required on the iBT. This session will discuss research on strategies students use to be successful on the iBT.

In the last few years, TOEFL testing has evolved so fast that teachers could focus their courses only around textbook strategies; however, this has not been enough to help students achieve the desired results. It is also important to understand which strategies students have actually employed to achieve a desired score on the TOEFL iBT.

The researchers interviewed many students from their TOEFL courses to find out which specific strategies they were using outside of class. In addition, a general survey was administered to all of the students in the course for several terms. The presenters will highlight the most important strategies that successful students used in achieving desired scores on the TOEFL.
Teachers in this session will learn the implications of this study and gain ideas about how to restructure their classes to accommodate these student strategies. (back)

Student-Generated Materials: Personalizing Content, Community, and Culture
Gill, Annae

Most teachers strive for a learner-centered classroom in which students are actively engaged in their own education. As many educational philosophies agree, students learn best when they construct and build their own knowledge. By utilizing student-generated materials, teachers can tap into students’ knowledge and interests to help them learn faster, have greater retention, and enjoy the journey of language learning.

Student-created materials are appropriate for all aspects of English learning. Grammar, reading, writing, listening, and speaking activities produced by students often have a greater impact than those prepared by the teacher. From student-selected readings with accompanying questions, to board games designed by classmates based on a given grammar point, these projects encourage learners to internalize content through work that resonates with each individual. Moreover, most learner-created materials require a group effort in which all members are contributing and negotiating. Culture is also easy to emphasize in such activities, for in the multicultural classrooms that many Oregon teachers lead, students are eager to share their backgrounds while exploring those of their classmates.

Giving control of activities over to the students allows learners to select the themes that matter to them while naturally integrating culture and community. Incorporating student-generated materials into the ESOL classroom will create a meaningful, personal experience in which learning can thrive. (back)