02/2018
newsletter
Ideas to inspire ELT and Education Promoting Inclusion in groups with visually impaired students, by Rodrigo Fagundes
Learning and understanding the brain, by Mirela Ramacciotti
Interview with Neil Bullock about Aviation English
Personal Best
Do your personal best with English! CEFR
Series Editor Jim Scrivener
A1-C1
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT! Get the best out of your students with Richmond’s new series for young adults
Learn more at
http://www.richmondelt.com/personalbest Visit the Richmond stand at the Braz-Tesol International Conference (building H).
www.richmond.com.br
Letter from the editor page 4
BRAZ-TESOL NEWSLETTER is a quartely publication of BRAZ-TESOL, the professional organization of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages in Brazil. It is distributed free of charge to individual and institutional members of BRAZ-TESOL. ISSN 1516-182X
Letter from the president page 5 Promoting inclusion in groups with visually impaired students Article 1
page 6
Learning and understanding the brain Article 2 page 10 Sobre os investimentos na educação e suas falácias Article 3 page 14 News from the BT Chapters Article 4 page 16
BRAZ-TESOL GENERAL COUNCIL
Executive Board President Henrick Oprea 1st Vice President Higor Cavalcante 2nd Vice President Marcela Cintra Secretary Fernando Guarany Treasurer Sérgio Monteiro
Advisory Council Past Presidents Albina Escobar, Anna Szabo, Bob Carrington, Donald Occhiuzzo, Marcelo Barros, Marie Adele Ryan, Nadia Sarkis, Sara Walker, Valéria França, Vera Bradford, Vilma Sampaio de Oliveira, Vinicius Nobre Elected Members Adriana Lima Stranks, Ilá Coimbra, Isabela Villas Boas, Natália Guerreiro, Ricardo Barros, Yvelize Wielewicki
Proofreaders Daphne Walder Marcelo Barros Natália Guerreiro
Graphic Design Artsim
Advertising
Guess what: a review Bt News Review page 22 Video interview with Neil Bullock Bt News Interwiew page 23
Claudia Cavalcante BRAZ-TESOL represents over 3,000 teachers of English in Brazil. For membership information, please contact: R. Coronel Oscar Porto, 800 2º andar Paraíso - CEP 04003-004 São Paulo/SP - Brazil +55 11 3559-8782 braztesol@braztesol.org.br braztesol.org.br facebook.com/braztesol twitter.com/braztesol br.linkedin.com/pub/braz-tesol/ 31/74a/942 instagram.com/braztesol
BT NEWS 02/18
3
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Dear BRAZ-TESOLers, As the time for our International Conference approaches we bring to you a variety of ideas and content to help us all reflect and prepare for the plethora of talks, workshops and workshops and plenary sessions in July. Let’s keep growing together and making ourselves stronger. You will notice that in this issue we have not only put together knowledge from different contexts, but also included content in Portuguese, diversifying the reach and the voices in the English language teaching world. The first article is by Rodrigo Fagundes, who shows us practical ideas from his observations on how to really include visually impaired learners in the English language classroom by using Google docs. His small-scale study is insightful and inspiring towards a more inclusive language education context in which technological innovations beyond imagination are not required and careful planning may positively affect the inclusion process for all learners involved. In the second text, Mirela Ramacciotti explains how knowledge about neuroscience may impact teaching, delving into the science of Mind, Brain and Education. She discusses the theoretical principles and practical applications for language teaching and learning. The information is very helpful for all of us aiming at encouraging our learners to develop as a whole. You may get inspired and decide to join the BRAZ-TESOL MBE SIG to keep discussing the matter. In the third text, our past president Vinicius Nobre challenges us all to reflect and take action to discuss the investments in education in Brazil. He examines the dangers of creating teacher-proof materials and cutting costs of teacher training and development initiatives, bringing us to a conundrum in which we expect teachers to excel, but we do not contribute to their growth. I hope it inspires you all! This month we bring news from our Chapters around the country. The great work and all
4
the efforts put in building knowledge and spreading ideas show that the more we are, the stronger we become! Find the nearest Chapter and join in the future events!. Next, NatĂĄlia Guerreiro interviews Neil Bullock, who explains Aviation English, its importance for language learning and safety reasons, and how ELT professionals can join the field if they wish to do so. A very interesting perspective perspective that not only helps those involved involved in this area of English, but also inspires teachers in general to collaborate towards growth in the field. Finally, Ariadne Nascimento reviews Guess What! for this issue, based on her experience with the coursebook and describing how motivating the material seems to her learners. I hope you all have great reading and watching moments that can keep you developing, building motivation and inspiring learners to reach higher and higher. Let me know what you think of the ideas in this issue and share your thoughts on what you want to see published or discussed in the future. I look forward to hearing from you. See you in September! Or better, see you in Caxias do Sul! Marcela Cintra
LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
Dear BRAZ-TESOLers, Our 16th BRAZ-TESOL International Conference, a.k.a. 16th BTIC, is fast approaching and I do hope each and everyone who will be there will have a blast. It is often difficult to gauge the reach and impact of an association in a country as big as ours. It is very easy to both over and underestimate our influence on teachers all over Brazil. The 16th BTIC is one of the moments in which some of the teachers from all backgrounds and profiles gather to discuss and learn from one another. Yet, we need to do more. We are all well aware of the fact that attending a conference, be it ours or any other, is not something that should be taken lightly. The amount of effort that goes into the planning, the financial adjustments and all that goes into the decision of attending or not a conference is unsurmountable. Nonetheless, we all attend conferences and pursue professional development because we know this will give us a chance to go one step further in our professional lives. Most importantly, it’ll allow us to do more for our students! Despite all the struggle we face, I’m as thrilled as one can be when I hear that we managed to put together one of the largest ELT conferences in the world. I’m even more thrilled when I see that everyone working to make it happen does not simply settle for the bare minimum. We have been trying really hard to diminish the inequalities in our profession, but this is a battle we all have to fight on a daily basis. We’re not yet where we’d like to be, but we should also look back
and see how much we’ve accomplished. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I invite you to start playing a more active role in your city or state. We’ve got more regional chapters than we had 8 years ago. The SIGs are also pretty active. BRAZ-TESOL is going stronger than ever due to joint effort of all those who volunteer their time and work to make ELT stronger in our country. Each and every Chapter leader deserves a round of applause, but more than that, they deserve to be joined by individuals who also believe that it’s worth fighting for the improvement of ELT in Brazil. The success of our 16th BTIC depends largely on the work that is made in each state, in each city. I wholeheartedly thank everyone who understands what it’s like to be a volunteer in our country and I know we’ll accomplish even more in the years to come. It’s time we lay the foundations, and you are the very best bricklayers I could wish for in this endeavour. If you, reader, are curious to find out more, check the events that will happen near you. Join us! Together we are stronger. Henrick Oprea
BT NEWS 02/18
5
ARTICLE 1
Rodrigo Fagundes Rodrigo Fagundes has been an EFL teacher for almost 9 years. Currently taking his Anaheim TESOL Certificate course, he works for Cultura Inglesa – SP with young learners, teens and adults. His main interests are professional development, motivation and students with special needs. You can contact him by writing to rfcorreia@gmail.com.
Promoting inclusion in groups with visually impaired students EFL classrooms nowadays are full of visual features, devices and such. Some language schools tend to reject visually impaired students simply because they cannot afford to provide them with adequate conditions for a profitable learning experience. Hence, numerous questions arise: how to promote inclusion in a group with visually impaired students, especially in a digital environment where materials and resources are offered to students in a visual format? More than that, how to fully include a student without giving the impression to the rest of the group that they are somehow being left aside? Based on a previous experience, visual impairment has recently become one of my areas of interest. After doing some research and discussing with some peers who have been through similar situations on the matter, I came across the term Assistive Technology Devices, which can be any piece of equipment or product, possibly commercially acquired, modified or customized that is used to increase, maintain or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities (IDEA, 2004). Besides the Assistive Device, another aspect of paramount importance is to understand which category of visual impairment the student belongs to. There are at least four categories to consider: low vision, functional blindness, near blindness, and total blindness. Due to the classroom conditions, structure of the
6
courses and devices available at the time (Digital Board), the Assistive Technology Device I intended to use was the web-based application Google Docs. As this summarized experiment attempts to show, Google Docs can, in fact, be effectively used as a tool of inclusion, in that it provides the impaired student with a genuine sense of belonging. Furthermore, it can also enhance group cohesiveness and learning as it is equally used by everyone in the group in a fun and engaging way.
UNDERSTANDING THE CATEGORIES OF VISUAL IMPAIRMENT Low vision: visual impairment not corrected by standard corrective lenses, medication or surgery, that interferes with the ability to perform everyday activities (CABVI, 2012); Functional blindness: a deterioration in vision with
no apparent cause. Acuity is lost and can include painful symptoms like burning and tired eyes, double vision, convergence, and concentric field constriction (Nugent, 2013);
Near or legal blindness: visual acuity of 20/200 or less with a field of vision of 20º or less which is not correctable (Cowling, 2015);
Total blindness: the complete lack of light
perception and form perception, and is recorded as “NLP”, an acronym for “no light perception” (AFB, 2015).
THE PROCESS In March 2017 I came across a 14-year-old student with low vision, with a visual acuity of 35/100, who had a long-standing grievance as she needed to move away from colleagues in the classroom every
ARTICLE 1 time she wants to see what is on the board, take pictures of the content and return to her place. The problem is that she was studying at a branch far away from mine, so I would have to talk to her teacher first and of course her parents. Fortunately, convincing the teacher to participate in this experiment with my supervision as well as her parents to allow me to contact her occasionally was the easy job, the hard one, though, would be following up all the steps. Obviously, everything starts with the Lesson Plan. The teacher makes the lesson available on Google Docs via Presentations or Documents, with every information necessary for the student to “see�, such as descriptions of pictures if they are too small for the student to see from her place, texts that are not available on the books, etc. By doing so, the teacher is helping the student to overcome her lack of opportunities for incidental learning. Incidental Learning or Random learning as defined by UNESCO (UNESCO, 2005, p.4) refers to learning that takes place in an unorganised, unstructured or unintentional way; in other words, sighted students are able to learn something just by looking at a picture or a piece of text even if that was not
previously expected, whereas the impaired students are not. You might be asking now whether the impaired student does not get the edge as she might have received some information prior to the whole group. At this moment, the teacher instructs the student to go one step at a time or one slide at a time, revealing the content throughout the lesson. The tool can also be made available for all students, sharing the file and updating it during feedback moments, noticing of language moments and/or any other moment when the teacher needs to use the board. In this experiment, as the student is not blind and would not use the read aloud feature of the software, the teacher could use his handwriting, doodling and highlighting with one slight difference: The teacher can do that directly to the shareable file or if not possible, transfer the screen to the shareable file so the visually impaired student can see it. This is only possibility because Google Docs updates in real time, so once you put new data up there, the students can see it in their devices immediately. By the end of the day, both the visually impaired student and the rest of the group can take home a file with the content of their lesson that day.
There are at least four categories to consider: low vision, functional blindness, near blindness, and total blindness.
BT NEWS 02/18
7
ARTICLE 1
Sighted students are able to learn something just by looking at a picture or a piece of text even if that was not previously expected, whereas the impaired students are not.
If you happen to have a student who is totally blind, pictures must come with full description, and handwriting and dooding are not advisable. As time consuming as it seems to be, the extra minutes used for preparing those lessons did not exceeded 10-15% of the regular amount.
DATA COLLECTION Data was collected in three different ways for this experiment, namely lesson observations and interviews with the students and with the teacher responsible for the group. After every lesson, the teacher would answer a questionnaire prepared by me in which he would write down his impressions on his own performance regarding the use of the tool, the visually impaired student’s perceptions and the group’s perception. I had the opportunity to observe two out of the five lessons after the beginning of the experiment, visit the group and ask some questions for both the teacher and the group. During the observations, I could see that the student did not leave her position at any moment, either to read or to take photos. Other students also mentioned that they had some difficulties paying attention to the teacher and taking notes at the same time. They were glad they could access
8
the files to remember what had been said in class and use it in their homework, which shows a very positive aspect of this tool, as all students could take advantage of it. The visually impaired student was also interviewed after the end of the course and she highlighted the importance of not having to move towards the board to take pictures, which, according to her, made her feel awkward and embarrassed. She also pointed that using the files at home played an important role in her studies and helped her with homework and tasks. More importantly, her eyes stopped aching due to the effort she would make trying to read from the board.
“My eyes stopped aching. I wasn’t comfortable moving towards the board all the time, so I would squint from time to time to see something and that was always painful and uncomfortable.” The teacher in charge of the group mentioned after one of the lessons that the tool gave him a sense of relief as, before, he needed to set aside some time for the impaired student to move and take pictures of what was happening in class. With the tool, therefore, he could manage the lessons making sure that the whole group had been provided with the same amount of attention.
ARTIGO 2
CONCLUSIONS After this preliminary investigation, results indicate that this study can be relevant in an EFL context. However, due to the small number of lessons observed and students interviewed, a more in-depth investigation of the matter is needed, especially one that considers a broader group of visually impaired students with different levels of impairment. I am, nonetheless, convinced that Google Docs can help visually impaired students in several forms regardless of their level of impairment. This assistive tool has an extraordinary potential to provide those students with the opportunity to fully participate in the lessons, as they are given the chance to surmount the lack of opportunities for incidental learning when they are allowed to virtually see images and charts. They can also have online updates of what is happening in class as the teacher feeds the shareable file. For the same reason, other students can also benefit from such use of the technology as they can access the file during and after the lesson, which of course benefits absentees as well.
REFERENCES Mills, G. E. (2014). Action research: A guide for the teacher researcher, Chapters 8 and 9, Pearson.
Cox, P. R. & Dykes, M. K. (2001). Effective classroom adaptations for students with visual impairments. Teaching Exceptional Children, 33 (6), pp. 68-74, CEC. Definition of Assistive Technology (data?). Georgia Project for Assistive Technology. Retrieved from http://www.gpat.org/georgia-project-for-assistivetechnology/pages/assistive-technology-definition. aspx Nugent, P. M. S. (2012, May 11). Functional blindness. Retrieved from https://psychologydictionary.org/ functional-blindness/ Quatraro, A. (2011 Mar 31). ELLVIS - English Language Learning for Visually Impaired Students: Final Report. Retrieved from http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/LLP/ project_reports/documents/comenius/all/com_ mp_502249_ellvis.pdf Tebo, L. (2013). A resource guide to assistive technology for students with visual impairment. Retrieved from https://www.qiat.org/docs/ resourcebank/TEBO_VI_Resource_Guide.pdf Johnstone, C., Altman, J., Timmons, J. & Thurlow, M. (2009, Aug). Students with visual impairments and assistive technology: Results from a cognitive interview study in five states. Retrieved from https://nceo.umn.edu/docs/OnlinePubs/TARA/ TARAstudentInterviewStudy.pdf
BT NEWS 02/18
9
Mirela Ramacciotti Mirela Ramacciotti is a teacher, speaking examiner, exam trainer, lecturer, materials writer and author of the book “Aprender: entendendo o cérebro”. She’s the founding member and the coordinator of the MBE SIG and runs the site www.neuroeducamente.com.br.
Learning and understanding the brain*
“Neuroscience is by far the most fascinating branch of science because the brain is the most fascinating object in the universe. Every human brain is different – the brain makes each human unique and defines who he or she is.” - Stanley Prusiner This is a quote from 2015 by the American neuroscientist laureated with the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1997 for having unraveled the mechanisms for the development of mad cow disease, or its human variation, the CreutzfeldJakob disease. This disease is caused by prions, term coined by Prusiner that derives from the combination of the terms proteinaceous infections particle to name the agent of an infection derived from a change in proteins. This sentence illustrates the potential that neuroscience holds to reveal to all of us how much we still have to learn and evolve in order to understand the basic processes that affect our society. Neuroscience studies the brain, organ of all learning, and the combination of knowledge from this area and the findings from cognitive psychology and pedagogy is where we find the science of Mind, Brain and Education (MBE). This transdisciplinary area of knowledge, a little over 25 years old, lies at the intersection between the three primary areas of knowledge about the
10
processes of teaching and learning, and answers for the production of countless findings that are highly relevant for application in contexts where we teach and learn today. There are some universal principles that apply to all of us about how we learn. These principles lie at the basis of the science of Mind, Brain and Education. The first principle concerns our individuality. Each brain is unique like our faces (Tokuhama-Espinosa, 2014). We are all born with the same basic brain structures, but its organization and the neural networks that each brain forms are are unique and individual. That is why that are no two brains alike as much as there is no single way of learning. The second principle concerns the why of our differentiation. We are born not only with different abilities, that we can or cannot develop, but we learn in different ways because we experience different contexts and hold distinct interaction throughout life. This means that both our genetic makeup and our experiences always influence our success. We are molded by our nature and by our nurture and our differences can be attributed not only to the intelligence that we have and develop but, and mainly, by the way we are raised, nourished and stimulated along our whole lives. The secret lies in recognizing that we are all endowed with potentialities and that we can always expand the potential we came to this world with.
ARTICLE 2 Each and every day we wake up with a different brain from the one we went to bed with. This can be explained by the fact that each experience, feeling or thought modifies the very physical structure of the brain. This third principle can be routinely verified in each and every one of us. The brain changes when we find and try to handle different ways of communicating in a language that is not our mother language, for instance; or when we have to face the challenge of finding words or expressions that we know in Portuguese but that we are beginning to learn in English; or even when we have to avoid speaking in Portuguese because in class only English is spoken. These are experiences that modify and improve our brain capacity. The brain is an organ made for learning. We learn constantly, both good and bad stuff, and what we store, by the repetition of stimuli, that is, of our experiences, ends up shaping who we are. The brain adapts and transforms itself based on the stimuli that we get from what we learn. This is what neuroplasticity is about and it forms the fourth principle of all and any learning. The ability to adapt to the demands of our context and to reorganize our neural networks to face those challenges, either positively or negatively, is an intrinsic brain characteristic known as neuroplasticity. When we learn, we are like a house; nothing gets built from the ceiling downwards. We start at the base, the foundations, and that in the brain equals previous knowledge. We ground new information on what we already know, much in the way that we learn something complex when we understand every bit of it. Connecting new information to previous knowledge is the fifth principle of learning.
We are molded by our nature and by our nurture and our differences can be attributed not only to the intelligence that we have and develop but, and mainly, by the way we are raised, nourished and stimulated along our whole lives.
Good education is made when duly attention is given to how we deal with the knowledge that each student has and brings to the classroom. This will guarantee that the new learning is relevant and important, and that is it built upon a solid basis so that children can learn always, in the best way, rooted in rich experiences from the very start. To acknowledge the work of Prof. Tracey TokuhamaEspinosa (2017), that for long has dedicated herself to deepen and broaden the knowledge about the application of the science of MBE, we have a compilation of evidenced based on the agreement of members of the scientific community about the sixth principle, termed by her as the ‘equation of learning’. This equation involves adding up attention and memory to reach learning. Although very simple, this equation helps the agents of the teaching/learning process to remember the fundamental importance that we have to attribute
BT NEWS 02/18
11
The ability to adapt to the demands of our context and to reorganize our neural networks to face those challenges, either positively or negatively, is an intrinsic brain characteristic known as neuroplasticity. to these two elements. Without attention, there is no perception of relevant stimuli that will allow for memory encoding. It is encoding, and subsequent storing and constant retrieval that will allow us to make use of the learned content, that is, to remember it, as many times as necessary. But this process of repetition of information must involve variety and deliberate practice, or that practice which informs and exponentiates the knowledge to be memorized (HATTIE, 2017). “Without the whole picture, there in no whole child.� - David Perkins When we talk about the science of Mind, Brain and Education, it is important to understand the transdisciplinary message: we must look at the learner as a whole. Basic needs of the body, like physical activity, sleep and food, lie at the core and enable all
12
cognitive work. That, in turn, allows for creativity and imagination of minds in construction. To be aware of and to practice an education that takes into consideration all these aspects means investing in adequate facilities, forming and informing capable educators, and nurturing and caring for an environment where rich and healthy interactions can happen. It means taking care of the whole while caring for every part! * This article is an authorized translated reproduction of the book: Aprender: entendendo o cĂŠrebro by Mirela Ramacciotti available at http://bit.ly/aprender_livro . Please refer to this work for the references used.
Vinicius Nobre Vinicius Nobre é sócio-fundador da Troika, uma start-up focada em projetos educacionais. Trabalha com ensino de inglês em papéis variados há mais de 23 anos. Vinnie é um palestrante experiente e autor de livros. Graduado em Letras pela PUC-RJ, com Mestrado em Desenvolvimento Profissional para Ensino de Língua pela Universidade de Chichester e especialização em Gestão de Negócios pela Fundação Dom Cabral. Vinnie é tutor e assessor de CELTA, tutor e moderador de ICELT, e past president do BRAZ-TESOL.
Sobre os investimentos na educação e suas falácias (Publicado em 1º de abril de 2018 na plataforma LinkedIn) Ouvimos inúmeros discursos formais e informais sobre o valor da educação e sua importância para uma sociedade mais justa, desenvolvida, humanizada, evoluída e civilizada. Políticos, gestores e líderes conseguem permear suas falas sobre a necessidade de fazer investimentos na educação com doses de urgência e prioridade. No entanto, os investimentos – quando acontecem – são destinados para as áreas erradas e não conseguem o impacto almejado. Desperdiçamos recursos financeiros e alimentamos o retrocesso na educação como um todo, expandindo a máxima: “o professor finge que ensina e o aluno finge que aprende” para incluir “fingimos investir na educação e a sociedade finge estar satisfeita com essa ilusão”. Onde está a principal falácia, no entanto? Fundamentalmente a premissa de que o que realmente precisamos é de livros, diretrizes e recursos melhores e mais detalhados está errada pois ignora o fator primordial capaz de verdadeiramente impactar a educação: o professor. Testemunhamos o direcionamento de recursos para materiais, recursos, métodos
14
a serem seguidos cegamente, tecnologias revolucionárias, entre outras estratégias que visam a “compensar” a falta de qualificação de profissionais, sem questionar o absurdo latente desse direcionamento. Para melhor ilustrar minha perspectiva, compartilho o que já ouvi inúmeras vezes e em diversos contextos: “precisamos criar livros e apostilas que sejam à prova de professor”. Sim. A solução para as questões da educação não parece residir em melhorar as condições de trabalho do professor, suas habilidades e conhecimentos ou seu empoderamento. A solução parece estar no ato de diminuir a sua importância comunicando a irrelevância da profissão. Infelizmente, já presenciei muitas discussões em que os investimentos em materiais ou manuais precisavam ser aumentados, não porque o objetivo era instrumentalizar melhor um profissional já capacitado e eficiente, mas sim porque não havia crença na capacidade desse profissional ou vontade real de valorizá-lo e prepará-lo. Se partirmos do pressuposto de que um livro, um computador, um aplicativo, um plano de aula ou
ARTICLE 3 qualquer outro recurso entregue a um professor ainda dependerá do fator humano para que seja usado com eficiência, o investimento destinado à preparação desse profissional precisa ser tão grande ou até mesmo maior. Não é isso que acontece. O desenvolvimento profissional dos professores, seus treinamentos, sua liberdade de atuação crítica, sua instrumentalização para tomadas de decisão autônomas e seu crescimento holístico como educadores são tratados como luxos e caprichos por custarem demais. Façolhes uma pergunta: onde normalmente há o primeiro corte de custos? Na preparação de materiais e recursos novos ou na preparação do material humano que pode se empoderar de embasamento teórico, prática reflexiva e conhecimento técnico suficiente para, inclusive, atuar sem estar amarrado ou dependente de guias de aula, sistemas de ensino ou diretrizes inflexíveis? Infelizmente a resposta é que quando
é preciso enxugar investimentos, a primeira coisa a sumir é o treinamento e a capacitação dos docentes. Precisamos entender que assim como colocar um carro altamente moderno e cheio de recursos na mão de um motorista inábil pode gerar mortes, investir em livros, recursos e tecnologias que visam a diminuir a importância do professor, pode gerar uma sociedade incapaz de pensar criticamente. É extremamente importante manter o investimento nas pesquisas de métodos, abordagens, recursos e tecnologias mais eficientes. Porém, enquanto tratarmos os professores como elementos que precisam ser neutralizados ou como profissionais despreparados para tomar decisões autônomas e críticas, continuaremos construindo o futuro da nossa nação sobre uma perigosa falácia.
BRAZ-TESOL Mato Grosso do Sul
News from the BT Chapters BRAZ-TESOL Mato Grosso do Sul - March 10th After a groundbreaking launch last September, the Mato Grosso do Sul Chapter remarkably opened the 2018 season of BRAZ-TESOL events throughout the country on 10th March, in Campo Grande. The event was held at UEMS in partnership with the Secretary of Education and welcomed more than 550 professionals for a whole day of plenaries, talks and workshops. It was the first time in the history of our association that a local event brought so many attendees, speakers and sponsors together, united by the will to foster ELT in the state. Our National Secretary and BTMS Mentor, Fernando Guarany, and our Central Office Manager, Claudia Cavalcante, were also there to mark the beginning of a series of BRAZ-TESOL events around the country and help the Chapter President, Yvelize Wielewicki, and the BTMS board to make this an unforgettable event for our association.
BRAZ-TESOL Belo Horizonte - March 17th Our Chapter has the goal of joining all the different branches of ELT. So the event ‘ELT Perspectives & Experiences’ took place at PUC, and the first plenarist was Andrea Mattos from UFMG and the
16
second plenary was delivered by BRAZ-TESOL’s long time partner Carla Arena. For the first time, we had plenaries by two amazing women. We hope to have more and more public school teachers join us as well. By embracing the different perspectives in ELT we are stronger.
BRAZ-TESOL Brasília & Goiânia joint event - March 17th BRAZ-TESOL Brasília & Goiânia chapter joint seminar “Looking Back to Move Forward” was held on 17 March in Goiânia. The theme was particularly appropriate to reunite the chapters, reflect upon
their history and set new goals. The event excelled due to the joint effort of all board members from both chapters and the brilliance of the two plenary speakers, former BRAZ-TESOL presidents Valéria França and Vinícius Nobre. In addition to the plenary speakers, our guest speaker Lorenza Aildasani and twenty other experienced Brasília and Goiânia-based presenters contributed to make the event a huge success. Other highlights of the event were meeting the gender parity criteria established by EVE (Equal Voices in ELT) and a a book signing by Vinicius Nobre and Isabela Villas Boas. Around 150 Braz-tesol members enjoyed a truly inspiring and thought-provoking day.
development. All participants enjoyed the learning and experiences shared by our speakers, and some presentations gave us a lot of food for thought. We now hope all of them will enjoy the International Conference in Caxias do Sul. We are all waiting for you!
BRAZ-TESOL Curitiba - April 21st Back in April 1998, when the BT Curitiba Chapter started with the one-day event LIVING, LEARNING & TEACHING ENGLISH, there were very few teacher development courses, very little access to new ideas, books, presentations, and updates! Today, we celebrate our 20th Anniversary with not just one but two conferences! The April 21st one-day event,
BRAZ-TESOL Brasília & Goiânia joint event - March 17th
BRAZ-TESOL Rio Grande do Sul - March 17th We kicked-off 2018 with a one-day event in Porto Alegre, at Colégio Santa Inês on March 17th, 2018. The quality of the talks was amazing. Among the topics that were discussed, we can highlight gamification, innovation, entrepreneurship and teacherpreneurship, and how important it is for teachers to invest in continuing professional
‘Twenties! Remember where you started’, inspired the Plenary Speakers to tell us about falling in love with the English Language before deciding to start teaching. They reflected on how they have built their knowledge and expertise while showing the evolution of ELT as a profession throughout the years. For the second edition of the ‘Twenties!’, the theme is The Challenges Beyond… How about facing this challenge and presenting in Curitiba on August 31st?
BT NEWS 02/18
17
BRAZ-TESOL Manaus - April 21st
BRAZ-TESOL Espírito Santo - May 19th
On April 21st 2018, a memorable event was organized to celebrate the 10th anniversary of BRAZ-TESOL Manaus Chapter. It was a 6-hour event with presentations about neuroscience, technology and literature. Most of the presentations were given by public school teachers who had the opportunity to show wonderful things they have been doing in the classroom. Pearson, Richmond and Cambridge Assessment representatives were also present. Everyone really enjoyed the event and left with the feeling that other similar events should be organized every semester.
Another memorable event: the third event organized by BRAZ-TESOL Espírito Santo Chapter in less than one year! More than 120 participants from different Brazilian states and even abroad got together for a full day of sharing, learning and networking at Centro Educacional Leonardo da Vinci in Vitória/ES on May 19th. Special thanks to our sponsors, partners, speakers and most importantly, our participants. See you in our next event on October 27th.
BRAZ-TESOL Sergipe - May 26th BRAZ-TESOL São Paulo - May 18th Our event, ‘TECHELT: It’s for everyone’, started with a bang - a round table! It was led by our secondvice president Alice Turibio and it counted on the expertise of Isabel Schwarzman (director of Student Assessment at Avalia/Santillana, master in Technology, Innovation and Education from the Harvard), Maira Bertante (founder and director of studies of LQuest) and Rodrigo Vale (Web Analytics and Internet Ecosystem Developer at Google Latin America). We also had two rounds of concurrent talks, and we were thrilled to have had so many well-known speakers in our event, such as Claire Venables, Rubens Heredia, Vinicius Nobre, and Paulo Dantas. Stay tuned for our future events! You don’t want to miss them!
18
Our last event, “Shaping the way we teach”, took place at Colégio Módulo on May 26th and we had a whole day of plenary sessions and workshops. We are thankful for having such big names in the ELT community sharing their knowledge with so many people. Thank you all! It was a fruitful day, with lots of learning and sharing. We’re so looking forward to hosting another event soon. Thank you all again for making the event unforgettable. And remember: together we are stronger!
BRAZ-TESOL Triângulo Mineiro - May 26th The BT Triângulo Mineiro Chapter had its inaugural event on May 26th, 2018. It was a great and valuable afternoon; more than 240 English teachers from the region had the opportunity to share experiences, reflect upon their professional development, network as well as to be connected to the latest innovations in ELT for the first time. This was certainly the beginning of a very successful community. Long Live TM Chapter!
BRAZ-TESOL Rio Grande do Norte - June 15th The first joint BRAZ-TESOL RN Chapter (BTRN) and UFRN event, Bloomsday 2018, was held at the Centro de Ciências Humanas Letras e Artes (CCHLA-UFRN) and brought together around 80 participants from Natal and beyond, filling auditorium “D” to its full capacity! Our guest speaker, professor John Corbett, presented a funny, interactive and highly inspirational talk entitled Teaching Culture: Activating the ‘5Cs’ in
BRAZ-TESOL Triângulo Mineiro - May 26th
BRAZ-TESOL Pernambuco - June 2nd Educators from Pernambuco had the chance to gather and exchange ideas during the first event of the new chapter, on June 2nd, 2018 at Cultura Inglesa Setubal. Our guest speakers, Lorenza Aildasani and Manuella Farias, enriched our event by sharing experiences and tools to promote our professional careers and discussing bilingualism in our educational market. After such an incredible afternoon, we invite everyone to join us for our second event of the year on November 17th.
the Language Classroom. His session was followed by Bruno Lima’s session entitled Exercising Critical Cultural Awareness with Language Learners, which proved to be the perfect follow-up to John Corbett’s session. Participants also had the chance to socialise and chat with fellow teachers while enjoying a good cup of coffee and delicious food with old and new colleagues.
BT NEWS 02/18
19
A big shout out to our sponsors In 2018, BRAZ-TESOL counted on the support of sponsors that have joined us by sponsoring ALL of our chapter events. We understand this shift will be very fruitful for all sponsors and chapters, and it will allow us to reach even more people in the long run. This only strengthens ELT in Brazil. We are really honoured to have been able to have such special sponsors for all of our Chapter events!! The more we are, the stronger we become! Thank you for making ELT in Brazil better!!! Our big shout out goes to:
Events 2018
ARTICLE 4
21 04
31 07
15 06 02 06 26 05
05 10
19 10 26 05
17 03
10 03
17 03
10 11 18 05 21 31 08 01 04 09
17 03
MATO GROSSO DO SUL PORTO ALEGRE GOIÂNIA ESPÍRITO SANTO BELO HORIZONTE SANTA CATARINA MANAUS CURITIBA RIO DE JANEIRO
10/MAR 17/MAR 17/MAR 17/MAR 17/MAR 14/ABR 21/ABR 21/ABR 29/ABR
06 10
20 10
29 04
20 10
17 03
27 10 19 05
14 04
SÃO PAULO 18/MAI ESPÍRITO SANTO 19/MAI SERGIPE 26/MAI TRIANGULO MINEIRO 26/MAI PERNAMBUCO 02/JUN NATAL 15/JUN BELEM 31/JUL CURITIBA 31/08 | 01/09 TEACHER DEVELOPMENT SIG 28/SET
RONDÔNIA SANTA CATARINA BRASILIA RIO DE JANEIRO TRIANGULO MINEIRO ESPÍRITO SANTO MATO GROSSO DO SUL VOICES SIG PRONSIG
05/OUT 06/OUT 19/OUT 20/OUT 20/OUT 27/OUT 10/NOV NOV 24/NOV
Ariadne C. Nascimento Ariadne C. Nascimento é bacharel em tradução Inglês/Francês. Possui licenciatura plena em inglês, Francês e Português, além de ser mestre em Literatura. Atua como Cambridge Oral Examiner. Ela leciona no Colégio Santo Agostinho em São Paulo.
Guess what: a review A adoção do material permite que os alunos participem de uma sala online na qual o professor pode monitorar seus progressos e os responsáveis têm a possibilidade acompanhar todo o curso. Com a série Guess What! os alunos têm a possibilidade de desenvolverem as 4 habilidades (ler, escrever, falar e escutar) de maneira equilibrada e progressiva respeitando as faixas etárias.
No colégio em que trabalho, embora os alunos tenham contato com a língua inglesa desde os 3 anos, apenas quando têm 6 ou 7 anos passam a ter duas aulas semanais. A série Guess What! foi escolhida pensando em um material denso para preparar nossos alunos a chegarem ao sexto ano (11 anos de idade) já no nível A1 (segundo o Marco Comum Europeu). O material traz assuntos atuais, vídeos com imagens cativantes, histórias, canções, parlendas, e atividades de conversação e dramatização. Ele propõe discussões atuais e imperativas de serem tratadas em sala de aula e proporciona muita interação. Há, ainda, atividades de pronúncia em todas as unidades. As unidades são sempre encerradas com aulas CLIL que trazem um vídeo e uma sugestão de atividade prática na qual os alunos fazem/constroem algo ou trabalham em grupos em um determinado projeto. Os recursos online são um grande diferencial.
22
Usamos Guess What! desde 2016, e além de os alunos e eu nos divertirmos, pude legitimar a eficiência, pois no ano passado, apenas dois anos após adotarmos o material, o alunos do nível 4 fizeram uma simulação do exame Movers, nível para o qual só estariam plenamente preparados com, pelo menos, mais um ano de estudo. O resultado apontou que todos nossos alunos já se encontram no nível A1, uma conquista incrível para a realidade de um colégio não bilíngue com duas aulas semanais. Ou seja, Guess What!, além de divertido, motivador e atrativo, nos ajuda a desenvolver um trabalho coerente, agradável e de excelência. Como professora, além de me sentir segura de que há um trabalho sólido sendo desenvolvido, tenho a satisfação de não me sentir apenas professora de língua estrangeira, pois os temas e valores abordados me fazem explorar meu lado educadora. Posso tratar desde assuntos sobre preservação do meio ambiente a alimentação saudável. Por vezes me sinto professora de História, Ciências, Matemática, Geografia, Artes... É delicioso experimentar minhas diferentes facetas.
Neil Bullock Based in Switzerland, Neil Bullock has been an English language teacher, trainer, examiner and test developer in aeronautical communication for 15 years. Having previously worked in Air Traffic Control for 20 years, Neil complimented his operational experience with an MA in Applied Linguistics and has continued to write and present on language learning and testing in aeronautical communication. Neil is a Joint-Coordinator of the ICAEA Research group, as well as Coordinator of IATEFL Testing Evaluation and Assessment SIG.
Video interview with Neil Bullock In this issue of BRAZ-TESOL News Interviews, we bring you more information on the field of Aviation English teaching and testing. Natália Guerreiro was at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in May 2018 for the International Civil Aviation English Association’s (www.icaea.aero) yearly event and interviewed Neil Bullock, one of ICAEA’s board members, who is also very active in other ELT associations. Neil explains what Aviation English is and how language teachers can move into this field. He also reminds us of the important role English language teaching associations can play and tells us how, above all, Aviation English is about aeronautical safety.
Watch Neil Bullock’s interview here:
BT NEWS 02/18
23
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K