CATESOL24

The transition from the EAP classroom to the college campus and external community can be difficult. Surviving and thriving requires more than just academic skills. In fact, social integration is often as challenging as academic issues. This presentation will discuss a number of these challenges. It will show how to go beyond classroom-based tasks by taking students into the community and/or bringing the community into the classroom. Through a series of activities and examples, teachers will learn ways to help students overcome the fear, anxiety, and isolation that can limit their success after EAP.

Grammar doesn't have to be boring! The editor of three well-known resources, The ELT Grammar Book, The Grammar You Need series, and the Zero Prep series, shows how engaging, accessible content mixed with corpus-based and active-learning approaches transforms grammar instruction from lifeless to lively. Materials provided.

This session explores the wide range of submissions The CATESOL Journal, Newsletter, and Blog welcome and how accessible these venues are for members to share their action research, conference presentations, and/or classroom activities. CATESOL publications editors explain the ins and outs of publishing: audience and editor expectations, submissions policies, review and revision processes, and ideas for article topics. Anyone interested in publishing is encouraged to attend, regardless of background experience.
Slides: Tips for Publishing in The CATESOL Journal

This poster session shares emerging results from the development of the Multilingual Pedagogies Scale (MPS), developed by the researcher, to assess and support instructor readiness with multilingual pedagogies within the community college context. Designed to measure teacher attitudes toward multilingual pedagogies, the novel tool will benefit all instructors of multilingual learners.

CATESOL attendees are invited to showcase a new corpus-related app, platform, or digital resource that you have tried out this past year -- or think you might try out in the near future.

This is really informal and low-stakes: Just be ready to take 3-5 minutes to highlight the app/digital resource and a classroom or online activity idea. Then, each of us can follow up with people about the items that resonate the most.

Let us know if you are interested in highlighting a tool: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Vefd7bJWRPzzzMqnUVmO4ds268TJdmHMjJnztTAQm6Y/edit?usp=sharing. Or just show up ready to roll!

And bring your devices, questions, and snacks.

This study used a written interview format to ask several large language models (LLMs, specifically, Claude, Chat GPT, and Gemini) about their ability to write reading passages restricted to particular vocabulary lists, and with specific restrictions on text complexity. The presentation outlines the background of the study, particularly features that might be included in passage specifications, and provides options for setting specifications in a particular context and/or at a particular level of English proficiency. It outlines the various capabilities claimed by current versions of the LLMs that were interviewed.