Seminar: 'It's not about language, it's about people': Do ESOL learners benefit from engagement with museums?

Date: Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Time: 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM (BST)

Venue: Marriott Hotel, 4 Trevelyan Square, Boar Lane, LS1 6ET, UK

Program: British Council

Speaker: Julie Carr

Julie Carr is a museum educator, and has recently finished an MA looking at how people learn in museums. She has also served time teaching secondary History. Currently, she is the Programme Manager for adult learning at the Museum of London, where she is responsible for the ESOL provision.

Leeds + LIVE ONLINE

This seminar will focus on the results of the presenter’s MA dissertation, which tested the hypothesis that visits to museums do benefit ESOL learners. The results show that trips to museums are about improving the life skills of the learners as well as their language skills. They embolden the learners to step outside the confines of their communities and neighbourhoods to explore London and its museums, as well as improving relationships with each other and their families.

Aims

To demonstrate how visits to museums can support language learning, knowledge about life in UK and self-esteem.

Programme

1730 – 1800 Welcome and refreshments

1800 – 1855 'It's not about language, it's about people': Do ESOL learners benefit from engagement with museums with Julie Carr

1855 – 1905 Short break

1905 – 2000 Creative ESOL: The power of participatory arts in English language learning with Eleanor Cocks and Theah Dix

2000 – 2030 Networking reception

Register

39th ELT Blog Carnival

             As I have been delighted to find out this great ELT community - ELT Blog Carnival, I'm grateful that I can contribute to it in a way and share some of my ideas regarding this month's theme: Blogging with students.

             Nowadays,  many foreign language instructors do their best not only to inspire and teach in the classroom, but also to prepare students for learning outside the classroom. One of the ways is using a relatively new learning platform, the blog. A wide range of its possibilities provide learners with numerous methods to practise the language, by commenting, questioning, answering, reflecting, reviewing, etc. Thus, blogs represent a valuable pedagogical tool in all its authentic, interesting and communicative nature.

              It is of considerable importance for teachers to organize the content on the blog as best they can so that they have a real insight into learners' works and assess their abilities properly. Let's see what various reasons for blogging with students are:

• motivating and getting students ready for class

• encouraging student independence

• placing lessons and different assignments online

• promoting the idea of sharing

• developing student self-confidence

• enabling learners broader access to relevant material by incorporating links

• challenging students by posting tests and quizzes

• improving upon class interaction via online chats, discussions or debates

• facilitating communication with absent students

• getting parents more involved by allowing them access to their children's work

• fostering out-of-class learning

• dealing with a subject in a digital environment

              Blogging for educational purposes, including language teaching and learning, is becoming increasingly popular every day, and its popularity seems only to grow in the near future due to the blog's limitless benefits. As a medium to reflect on material, inquire into matters, and interact with others, blogs represent a rich and easy-to-use resource for both students and teachers. Nevertheless, in order to determine to what extent blogs do further many aspects of learning, more research needs to be done. In the meantime, the focus ought to be on exploring the world of blogging more so as to take full advantage of it in the context of innovations in pedagogy.



ELT Blog Carnival colleagues, keep up the good work!



Photo source: http://www.eflclassroom.com
                    http://www.flickr.com/photos/barnett/2836828090/