Presenter
Joan Kang Shin
When?
10:30 am–12:00 pm ET
Find the program start time in your local area. Who Should Attend?
EFL teachers, teacher trainers, and administrators of ELT programs for young learners
Registration
Deadline: 19 April 2013
Cost: Free for members; US$45 for nonmembers
Register Online Register by Fax or Email (PDF) Registering After the Deadline Please review this important information: About Your Registration Accessing Your Virtual Seminar TESOL is grateful to its strategic partner, National Geographic Learning, for their support of this virtual seminar.
More About This Seminar
English education is increasingly beginning at the primary level, but starting earlier does not necessarily produce better English speakers. This virtual seminar shows how EFL teachers can take advantage of the flexibility of young minds and the malleability of young tongues to grow better speakers of English. The presenter will explain the keys to success for teaching young learners English as an international language that includes taking a developmentally appropriate approach and building 21st century skills to prepare children for the world they live in.
What Will I Learn?
Participants will
- explore the rationale behind starting English at earlier ages in foreign language contexts
- discover how to utilize the characteristics of young learners for effective classroom practice
- develop an approach for teaching English to young learners appropriate for their context
- learn how to incorporate 21st century skills in the EFL classroom for young learners
Discussion Questions
- Why does the age for beginning compulsory English education keep getting lower around the world?
- Is starting English instruction earlier really better?
- What are similarities and differences between teaching young learners EFL vs. ESL?
- What approaches are the most effective for teaching children a foreign language and why?
- What approaches are needed for teaching English as an international (rather than foreign) language?
About the Presenter
Dr. Joan Kang Shin is the Director of TESOL Professional Training at the University of Maryland, Baltimore Country (UMBC). In this position she administers numerous online professional development programs for EFL teachers in over 100 countries, including her own online courses "Teaching English to Young Learners" and "Teaching English to Teens."
Dr. Shin is also Project Director of the U.S. Department of Education’s Secondary Teacher Education and Professional Training for English Language Learners (STEP T for ELLs) Program, an in-service professional development program for secondary math, science, and social studies teachers.
As an English Language Specialist for the U.S. Department of State, she conducts numerous face-to-face EFL teacher training programs every year in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East as well as large-scale online teacher training events through webinars and digital videoconferencing to hundreds of English teaching professionals worldwide.
Dr. Shin is co-author of a new professional development textbook titled
Teaching Young Learners English and is a series editor for a groundbreaking six-level primary English series for National Geographic Learning called
Our World, which will be launched in 2013.