News

Winning entries – WATESOL/MLTAWA JOE DALE WORKSHOP Saturday 15 June 2013

Hello everyone – two very enjoyable and informative sessions on Saturday – thank you so much to Joe [Dale] for presenting and Claire [Leong from MLTAWA] for organising.

Joe and Claire have also done their ‘judging’ for the winners of the Language Perfect vouchers.

There were 11 entries overall and according to Claire all ‘really fabulous creative sound recordings [using Audacity or similar software]. One teacher even had a guitar accompaniment! Very impressive overall. In the end the winning entry for the morning was a pair entry from Natalia and Mirella Kerrigan for a recording of an Italian conversation. The winner of the afternoon session was Mary Verstegan who did a very humorous recording on Joe!’

Congratulations to Mirella, Natalia and Mary – a great effort and use of the technology. We’ll be in touch with the LP prize.

Nadia Civa

Vice-president MLTAWA 2013

‘For immigrant students, early arrival is best.’

PISA data shows that for immigrant students, arriving after 12 years of age makes education in the new language much harder. The article, in PISA In Focus No. 29, concludes that:

“More immediately, though, targeted help with language skills for those foreign-born students who arrive when they’re in their teens can limit the need for future assistance; and flexible arrangements to defer tracking can help to ensure that students perform at their full potential when decisions are taken about further education. Both measures will have a direct impact on these students’ employment prospects later on.”

For the full article, please follow this link: PISA in Focus No. 29: Do immigrant students’ reading skills depend on how longthey have been in their new country?

Using IT in Language Teaching

 

Dear members,

WATESOL is delighted to announce a special professional learning opportunity with a well-known international speaker on technology and languages.

On Saturday 15th June, Joe Dale will deliver a half-day presentation on how to use tools like Twitter, Audacity and Podomatic in the languages classroom.

Joe Dale is a popular conference presenter from the UK, where he writes for the Guardian (Education) and is a consultant for a number of bodies including the BBC and the British Council.  I will attach a summary of his current bio and links to his podcasts at the end of this email, for those who are interested.

We are co-hosting this event with the Modern Language Teachers’ Association and you need to get in quick as there are very limited places available for members of each association.  Please follow the RSVP instructions on the attached flier scrupulously!

If you miss out, don’t worry.  We hope the survey will help us plan more PD in this area.  So, as usual, feel free to drop me a line if you have any suggestions.

Thanks,

Khalin

Click on this link for details: Joe Dale 15th June(1)

Compulsory literacy and numeracy testing?

“I just found this really interesting response written by ACTA (Australian Council of TESOL Associations, the Australian Linguistics Society (ALS) and the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia (ALAA) to the Senate Education, Employment and Workplace Relations Committee Inquiry into the administration and reporting of NAPLAN testing. With the recent announcement that SCSA will now be requiring ALL students from year 10 to sit and pass a compulsory literacy and numeracy test and pass in order to obtain a WACE certificate, it makes for rather interesting reading!! I think the arguments they put forth in this document are very strong and somewhat compelling!”
– Committee member Sakura Ashton

Press ‘Control’ and click on the link below to take a look at the doc.
http://www.tesol.org.au/files/files/145_ACTA_ALAA_ALS_submission_NAPLAN.pdf

WATESOL Life Member Aileen Hawkes

Aileen Hawkes was an active committee member with WATESOL from soon after its inception until retiring in 2007.  Over the years she has held a number of roles on the committee including president and ACTA vice president. Always politically savvy, despite retiring from the committee she continues to keep us informed about issues of importance and concern.

In her roles she balanced professionalism with a sense of humour, sharing stories and contributing her thorough knowledge to issues tackled by the committee. In recent years she was our representative on the national TESOL council, ACTA, where she worked tirelessly advocating for the educational rights of migrant, refugee and Aboriginal students.

An example of her commitment to her role was the thoughtful succession plan that she put into place as she drew near to stepping down from active committee work.  Aileen mentored her replacement for a year prior to retiring, explaining issues and procedures and accompanying her in teleconferences and national meetings.

Her warm and friendly manner has been a wonderful example to the rest of us.

WATESOL Life Member Professor Ian Malcolm

SPEECH FOR WATESOL LIFE MEMBERSHIP AWARD

TO

PROFESSOR IAN G. MALCOLM

(Written by Patsy Konigsberg, awarded by Khalin Driver, President of WATESOL)

Before we move into the conference proceedings, there is an important function we would like to perform.

Over the years WATESOL has awarded life membership to people in the field who have provided outstanding service to the profession.  Therefore, it is my great honour and privilege to announce that WATESOL, this year, is awarding that honour to Professor Ian Malcolm.

There is no more worthy recipient of this award than Professor Ian Malcolm who is a national and international icon within the academic realms of linguistics and particularly within EAL/D.

Professor Malcolm’s passion for language studies and language rights have made him the leading figure he is.  Over the years, Ian has been and continues to be an inspiration to many of us.  Particularly in Aboriginal EAL/D, where he has influenced so many to take up the work.

From his initial role as a language teacher, Ian understood early in his career, what is involved in helping students learn English.  He understood the difficulties of both, the students’ lack of access to the content of lessons and the teachers’ lack of knowledge about the difficulties EAL/D students are facing when learning Standard English.

Following this, his research work providing descriptive and contrastive linguistic descriptions of Aboriginal English, his work in sociolinguistic studies, discourse studies, historical studies, conceptual and cross-cultural/educational studies, has influenced the very tapestry of EALD understandings

It is due to his influence that Western Australia has been able to take the national lead in including the needs of Aboriginal students within the area of EAL/D.

Ian’s passion for making the education for Aboriginal students more relevant and meaningful has placed WA at the forefront of linguistic research in this area.

From his early works with the late Susan Kaldor, to research projects such as the Language and Communication Enhancement for Two-Way Education and the Towards More User Friendly Education for Students of Aboriginal English, Ian has always been keen to ensure that the research was to benefit those who needed it most: the Aboriginal EAL/D students.

Ian worked closely with Education personnel such as Dr Yvonne Haig, Aileen Hawkes, Louella Eggington, Rosemary Cahill, Glenys Collard, Patsy Konigsberg and Adriano Truscott to develop and deliver projects that were of real benefit to the school-based educators involved.  Through the research projects he led, the skills and abilities of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal staff were enhanced and the west Australian notion of “Two-Way” was born.  This is the approach where both benefit, the Aboriginal and the non-Aboriginal side.  .

Many of the resources now so well known by educators of Aboriginal students around the world were developed under his guidance. Resources such as Two-Way English and Solid English provided the backbone for Deadly Ways to Learn and Ways of Being, Ways of Talk.  Ian provided initial guidance to Dr Judith Rochecouste, and supervised Professor Farzad Sharifian and Dr Ellen Grote, all of whom are presently engaged in further research, development of resources and influencing National directions in Aboriginal EAL/D education.

Over a span of 36 years, numerous action research projects have been developed, many of those with ground-breaking significance.  In particular the latter ones, which exemplify how the cultural conceptual interpretations differed between non-Aboriginal educators and Aboriginal students, are of high significance for educators.

Two of the resulting projects from this research were completed this year. The Understanding Stories My Way report was launched in July and the Tracks to Two-Way Learning, a 12 volume-resource, will be launched on Tuesday.

Ian’s work has been prolific and although he has been retired for some time now he still continues to present very new ideas at conferences and to develop highly inspirational academic papers. He also continues to find time to respond to the constant questions and demands from colleagues in the area particularly fellow WATESOL members. His work continues to be ground breaking and relevant to improving the field of EAL/D education.

I would now like to invite Professor Ian Malcolm to come forward to receive the award of WATESOL Life membership.