NYS TESOL 30th Annual Applied Linguistics Winter Conference (March, 07, 2009)

NYS TESOL 30th Annual Applied Linguistics Winter Conference
Second/Foreign Language Research: Information Technology, Inquiry & Interaction
Date: March 7, 2009 Time: 09:15~5:30

This TESOL conference was meaningful to me not only because it was the first time to participate in the conference, but also because it give me some hands-on experiences about teaching and chances to think deeply regarding teaching and learning in several ways.

Throughout the conference, a variety of topics associated with teaching – teaching reading and writing, teacher and student interaction, different activities in the classroom setting – were covered. The scheduled presentations reflected the diversity of research and approaches being implemented and explored in ESL and EFL classrooms as well as in academic research. Not only that, but it was great opportunity to meet with all different kinds of people – different school teachers, student teachers, students – to share experience, thoughts, and ideas in both research and the classroom. I have learned what really happens in the classroom and what strategies can be used in certain classroom environment depending on students’ level, age, gender, or ethnic background from different presentations and different people.

Moreover, the plenary speaker, Dr. John Liontas, offered insight on how we, as a teacher, can use technology for instructional and research purposes. Highlighting recent developments in Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) technologies and Artificial Intelligence (AI), Dr. Liontas traced recent trends in instructional technological development. Since I’m not the person who is into technological field, it really helped keep myself up-to-date. It gives me some thoughts about how and when to use technology in my future classroom.

Besides that, the publisher’s exhibit lasts throughout the day so I can visit there whenever I had a time. I visited before the conference started, during the lunch time, and after the conference ended, and I took advantage of the opportunity to peruse teaching materials including content-based books, children’s books, and so on and examine new offerings.

As researcher and teaching professionals, I have thought I must strive to bridge the gap between theory and practice and this conference help me bridge the gap between what I have learned and what I will teach. It gave me some practical, realistic ideas about teaching, what being a teacher means, and how I can apply what I will have been learned at NYU to teach most effectively in my future classroom.