I've really been meaning to post up this presentation, done at TESOL Spain earlier this year, and finally have had a chance to run through the slides and update them slightly so that they make sense - without my voice giving instructions or explanations!
Here they are:
To scroll through the slides, use the arrow keys at the bottom of the presentation:
What do you think?
Are textbooks too pedagogically based?
Is it important to design materials that take in the differences between adults and children? Why?
Do you think that children can also benefit from an "andragogical* approach"?
Do let me know what you think, and/or don't hesitate to ask questions if you have them!
Best,
Karenne
p.s. one of my teacher-trainees in a professional development course last week thought that the term shouldn't really be called andragogy because it really means "man-leading" and instead should have a term that refers more to "adult-age-learning/leading." Google and Wikipedia haven't been too helpful on finding sources for these differences however - thoughts, ideas?
The reason you can not make the perfect textbook is because our students aren't perfect: they do not fit into boxes or packages.
Our students differ in their ages, occupations, wants and needs and we pay attention to that.
If you are a publisher or textbook author stumbling across this blog... I have more to say:
If you please, why do you write:
This course is the ideal choice for anyone who needs to make presentations in English.
When, actually, what you mean is:
This course has been designed for young adults, probably between the ages of 18 and 23, studying Business. It will help them learn, in our seven-step approach, to develop an authentic style and apply these skills later on in their future working lives.
You make me look like a fool when I walk in to my managers and CEOs with your amateurish guide... you make me waste my and their hard-earned cash when you tell me that it's for anyone who needs to make presentations and you send me combing the internet for real advice.
Please... in future, please make sure the back of your books carry an appropriate and adequate description of its intended audience.
Also, while you're here - what are you doing to the CEFR: you know, that standardized guide which was supposed to erase all the confusion you created in what is a false beginner, what is elementary vs. what is pre-intermediate and intermediate knowledge of English?
Any chance you could all have a little sit down together and hash out an agreement so that the one size fits all could actually apply here?
I was browsing around in youtube last night and came across a video from a Columbian youth.
The question was so poignant I immediately knew it would make a great lesson.
Today in Davos, the World Economic Forumbegins. To support their activities, other than their website, the WEF have also created an interactive page on youtube for questions and lectures on a number of topics including economy, ethics, environment and politics.
Pablo's answer to the question Should CEOs have a code of ethics was:
You can download the video from here. Not sure how to take it into class, come here.
I know I'm 100% for this idea, my feelings are "about time" -but what do our business English students think?
Here's a quick lesson plan - don't hesitate to add to it or suggest other uses for these rich and interesting discussions.
ask students if they know what a "code of ethics" is
get them to list professions that have one
doctors, psychologists, lawyers, journalists, social workers and more
write on the board - Should CEOs have a code of ethics? Ask why, why not?
watch the video (possibly more than once depending on your students' levels)
review some of the more difficult vocabulary* (see below, you could also pre-teach)
hold a discussion on the suggestions he makes, feasible?
provide students with these codes of ethics: doctors and lawyers
Quite long: you can split these up into parts or only use some of it, do a google search for others if you have a large class.Different codes to different students.
provide this guideline on creating a code of ethics, c.o.e. (or adapt)
get students to brainstorm a new code specifically for CEOs in groups
encourage them to use some of the 'legal-speak' they've picked up so far
choose a presenter from each group to relay their c.o.e, edit as necessary
discuss the pros and cons of their suggestions
Important vocabulary
to be contingent on, to standardize, to compromise
unethical liberties, human rights, common characteristics, profit-driven
an international code, international markets
Post-task activity
Let your students choose between watching further videos on youtube, listening to podcasts or reading articles, blog postings etc on the WEF and ask them to report back on their activities next week (or next lesson(s)).
You could also ask them to research the people present or behind the scenes. Alternatively, you can also ask your students to look into the history of the Forum and the location chosen.
Or, if you're lucky enough to be teaching a group with great technology skills, teens /youth perhaps, why not get them to make video responses on their cameras or camera phones and actually participate in the debates - such fun!
Best, Karenne p.s don't forget you can .pdf this page or send it to yourself/ a friend. Buttons below.
'I didn't have time to do my presentation' he gushed.
Markus is a part of a 3hr, once-a-month evening presentations course I run. Part of the requirements are to bring in their real presentations for "hands-on" practice, powerpoint slides - which we review, discuss and dissect for standard lexical chunks and language specific to Business English.
'Markus,' I said 'Go on over to Slideshare, find a presentation in your field, download that and bring it in. I need your English, not specifically your slides.'
He did.
The presentation he chose was from by Bach, Abraham, Fisher and Dupree of the Moore School of Business and was about Hydrogen Fuel Cells.
As this topic is directly related to his industry and key responsibilities, he was able to follow the original authors' work and successfully add his own specialized knowledge and input.
What slideshare offers are presentations: on each slide there are only key words and/or images so the success of the exercise is entirely dependent on the student's ability to elaborate on the information and statistics.
In our case, a quick, less than 5 minute download led to a half hour presentation which we then could turn into a dynamic pedagogical exercise. As a group, we discussed his lack of 'signposting' (language indicators of where one is within a presentation), worked on his introduction and summary language, reviewed phrases they'd been taught previously from Business Builder, 7.2b and Macmillan's Presentations English, unit 1.
What was also interesting was the territorial aspect Markus to on to the work - he didn't agree with all of the statistics or the slant on each slide and didn't hesitate to let us know what he thought they should be or what Germany is doing in these ventures.
Try this type of exercise with your students -low prep on both your parts, maximum speaking practice on your student's - and, of course,
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