First - Greetings: Dennis Newson, one of the moderators for this forum. Some of you may know me as the moderator for the IATEFL YLSIG Yahoogroups list. I'm an Englishman living in Germany, formerly, nominally involved in teacher training, TEFL And now, over to you. What are the most interesting, the most urgent, the most difficult themes and issues that face you in your daily work which you think the IATEFL Cardiff conference should be exploring and addressing?

Again:  WELCOME!  Looking greatly forward to what you write here.

Dennis

Well, I can say what I'd personally like the IATEFL Cardiff conference  to explore and address in terms of teaching Young Learners, especially teenagers.

- How to keep teenagers constantly motivated in learning English?

- How to encourage them to actively take part in online projects?

- How to develop their learner autonomy?

- How effective is online learning for Young Learners?  

I will also welcome hints on how to deal with disruptive behaviour, students' extensive use of L1 in class, mixed ability classes, class dynamics.

I may soon get back to this thread, with more expectations to list.

Anna,

That's quite a list - but very realistic and interesting and of vital importance,  to be summarised perhaps as: understanding teenagers - a potent question in the light of yesterday's events near Stuttgart in Germany, where a 17-year-old shot dead former classmates and teachers before being shot dead by the police. And how many teenagers murder each other weekly in large cities like London? To hell with grammar and how to teach vocabulary - forgive me, I get carried away - what can/must teachers in modern society do to save  and re-direct as many teenagers in their care as they can?

Thanks, too, Anna, at the ouset of Cardiff Onlne making it clear that "young" in YSIG runs from three or four up to 16 or 17. This is the list not only for kindergarten and primary school teachers, but for those of teenagers, too.

Hi Anna

I reckon the jury is out on online projects/ICT ... from 23-25th March YLT SIG and LT SIG together with British Council have a conference in Milan, focusing on ICT, assessment and CLiL ...

personally I reckon that the prob with attempting to 'teach' online with YL is that they are way ahead of us ... don't know if you've hear the term 'digital immigrants' and 'digital natives' ... they are the latter ... they are completely involved with ICT in most aspects of their lives, it's almost as if they were born with an extra chip in their brains, no one needs to explain to them how to use ICT, they just 'do it'! So if ICT is going to work for them then it has to be very 'free' ...

as far as learner autonomy is concerned ... the sooner we do this the better ... YL teach themselves/each other much better than thru teacher (in my modest opinion) but the teachers important role is to help YL find 'what's in it for them' ...

what do you think?

bfn, W:)

Dennis,

it's a very serious problem that you've raised, I can understand why, lots of us must have had similar thoughts on Wednesday... We teachers should understand our students and make a real effort to get to know them and their family backgrounds in order to do our best to prevent such or similar tragedies. It's not only our responsibility though, collaboration with parents (sometimes educating them) and school counsellors is essential.

I wonder what other YL teachers would say here.

Hi Wendy, glad to meet you.

I agree that teenagers are far ahead of us in terms of ICT. But while they will use it on a regular basis for fun and socialising, lots of them will stay unwilling to try it in learning. In my opinion, they are unaware of the possibilities ICT offers for learning and how much it can enhance it. They follow their parents in thinking Internet offers only 'shallow entertainment'. Well, at least in my context such opinions are still quite common.

It's true we should develop learner autonomy as early as possible. But how shall we do it so that we're effective with young learners? In my school 15-year-old teens still don't know how to do it. They expect their teacher to 'give them knowledge' under lots control.

What do others think?

Hi Anna and Wendy,

I think part of the problem lies in the parents attitude towards computers and their function in a teenagers life. Very often it is automatically assumed that if the child is doing something on the computer, it is not "serious", it's time wasting or potantially dangerous (lately). I've had parents tell me, "He has no time to waste on his computer. He must concentrate on his studies!" We were doing research for one of the Comenius projects. Well, after we'd finished all the work and the results were evident the parents were very happy and quite surprised. What do you think? Have you come across such problems? Secondly, a lot of parents think that if you are laughing, playing games and having fun in class you are not working "seriously". I have seen this both in Europe and in China.

Discipline - now that is a tough issue. I have a weakness for naughty students. Probably because I was one myself. Remembering how I felt and what made me do it helps me a lot to deal with the problem now. I would really like to know what other colleagues think are the reasons for behaving disruptively in class.

And now I would like to introduce a topic which I think would probably be of interest to teachers in Asia - large numbered classes. I am talking about classes 50 to 80 students.

-How do you manage to involve so many students to actively participate in the learning process;

-How do you manage the discipline):):;

-what methods do you apply to promote adequate oral English performance?

looking forward to reading you,

Iskra

ICT: Iskra and Anna and Wendy.  ICT is a subject dear to my heart, as Wendy knows. First of all, I think it is essential that teachers be made aware of the scope of possibilities for using the internet with young people - beginning with blogs and wikis, perhaps, and moving on to making international contacts. Do look at the program of online presentations on the YLSIG's. It's a place to start.

Large classes?  There are definitely people around on the YLSIG list who have experience here - Harry in Cameroon, for example, but he is not a regular contributor.

Parents.  Do you know, when I was a teenager and fantasying that my parents were not my real parents, my friend and I - we were 15/16 - seriously decided that there should be an examination that parents must take before they were allowed to have children! There is no doubt that many - not all - of the problems that young people sometimes experience can be traced back to their parents.

Discipline  Of course there are techniques of classroom management as people like to call it these days, but in the last analysis (tjhis is my view) discipline is a question of personality, of the character and nature of the teacher.It's a bitter fact, but you have either got it or you haven't, and it is sometimes the nicest, most sensitive people that fall by the wayside.

www.ylsig.com

ICT  Can I just pick up on Dennis's point on online presentations.

I "discovered" them quite recently and I find them very rewarding and enriching - being able to sit in the comfort of my living room and enjoy fascinating talks from real hands-on experts is very precious. 

Perhaps it is because of the "distance", but I have found them more welcoming than some f2f seminars !!

Do check out Dennis's link above for the speakers to come.

Helen, Thanks for referring to my link. This is an improvement - it goes straight to the page in question:

ylsig.com 

It needs slightly updating  I need an assistant  :-)    but the information is correct.

Hi all,

Silvia - moderator of Testing, Evaluation and Assessment!

I've been reading this forum with interest!

I would love to know how you evaluate your students' English level. I just posted a new thread in the Testing, Evaluation and Assessment Area about the evaluation of primary school children.

I'd love to know about your experiences.Meet me there if you wish!

Best :),

Silvia.

Silvia, I don't think I welcomed you, did I? Better twice than not at all - welcome!