Emily Wright – Christy Pan – Irene Lee – Liane Wang

 USC TESOL Program
Sheraton  Bondi

 This presentation explores how, by applying theories of teaching and learning, a student organization can better connect students to each other, their professors, and their community, and aid in students’ academic, professional, and social development.  The presenters will describe their own student-run organization, USC TESOL/TEFL Society, share what they have learned from their experiences in the organization, and suggest a model for an effective student organization.

Arlene Simmons – Jean Owensby

 Division of Adult and Career Education  LAUSD

 11:00 – 11:30 am

Hyatt Regency D

Hear an overview of Classrooms Without Walls, a downloadable 243 page teacher-created publication and receive sample units and a Classrooms Without Walls CD containing projects that teach students to access resources and become active community participants. Projects contain implementation steps and activities for all ESL levels.

Gwendolyn Williams, University of Nevada, Reno
Paper: C/U
Sheraton Compagno
4:15 – 5:00 p.m.
The presentation explores what international teaching assistants (ITAs) view as the most effective forms of departmental mentoring. After a description of this narrative study, the participants can share their ideas for mentoring cross-cultural teachers. The session would benefit ITA practitioners and international educators.

Jeff Mattison - Jennifer Uhler, La Paz Middle School, University of Tartu
Paper: S
Sheraton Bondi
4:15 – 5:00 p.m.
How do new teachers engage in a community of practice and reflective teaching while juggling demanding workloads? Three teachers in Japan, Estonia, and California discovered community and a motivating outlet for reflection through online journaling. The presenter analyzes the impact of the project on their professional growth and classroom teaching.

Sadaf Rauf, COMSATS Lahore, Pakistan; Fulbright, UC Davis
Paper: S
Convention Center 318
3:15 – 4:00 p.m.
This paper focuses on psychological and linguistic problems and the identity crises Pakistani students face in American high schools because of their Iack of proficiency in spoken English. These challenges become a source of motivation for English language learning as students start to fight back in this new linguistic and educational context.

Sally Wu, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Paper: E
Convention Center 204
3:15 – 4:00 p.m.
This study examines the impact of ESL methods courses and field experience on pre-service elementary school teachers’ beliefs and practices. The significance of this study contributes to finding ways to enhance preservice elementary English teachers’ knowledge and class instruction of ELLs that may lead to increased ELLs academic achievement.

Beth Kusar, Wesleyan College
Paper: E
Sheraton Compagno
3:15 – 4:00 p.m.
The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between fluency and oral reading activities such as choral reading and paired reading through poetry and reader’s theatre. Poetry through choral and paired reading was used to measure fluency in third grade students. Reader’s theatre was also used to measure fluency in the same group of students. Fluency often gets pushed to the side with reading curriculum in today’s classroom and this study shows the effects fluency has on all other elements of reading. This study focuses on accuracy, reading rate, and expression all being essential parts of reading fluency. The findings conclude that with the implementation of these reading activities in the classroom, fluency does increase.

Allyson Joye, American River College, Sacramento
Paper: CC
Sheraton Bataglieri
3:15 – 4:00 p.m.
This presentation will provide ideas about using graded ESL readers in novice-high to intermediate-mid community college reading classes. The presenter has used graded readers for several years and will share tips on choosing readers, the logistics of using class novels vs. group novels, and different types of classroom activities.

Cindy Wislofsky - Donna Price, San Diego Community College District - Cont. Ed.
Paper: A
Hyatt Carmel A
10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Have you ever wanted to make lines on a student worksheet, but don’t want to spend 15 minutes doing it? Do you want to put a sentence in all caps, but don’t want to retype it? This hands-on workshop will give you 25 keyboard shortcuts for the PC and Mac.

Tamara Collins-Parks - Natalie Kuhlman, San Diego State University
Paper: E
Convention Center 317
8:00 a.m. – 8:45 a.m.
This paper will discuss how language use is very sensitive to institutional and social norms. Students in the study were followed in the same two-way bilingual cohort from grades 1-5. Data will be presented from what was observed on the playground and from classroom journals.