CATESOL24

Academic writing often confines students to a rigid approach that stifles creativity. This session introduces an innovative approach using stories from The Players' Tribune blog as mentor texts. By fostering personal voice and multimedia expression, students learn to challenge academic norms. Participants will explore strategies for encouraging 'rule-breaking' within academic contexts, empowering students to find their unique voices and build community through multimedia and digital literacy.

Generation Z students, shaped by technology and pandemic online classes, find reading challenging due to shorter attention spans and a preference for visual and oral information. Digital natives who are accustomed to constant digital exposure quickly embrace technology but find traditional reading tedious. Educators struggle to teach reading amidst online learning transitions. To aid comprehension, teachers should employ include visual aids, structured sentences, and active learning. Proficiency in reading is essential for academic success and standardized exams. This presentation promotes diverse teaching approaches to improve Generation Z's reading abilities, vital for their academic and professional futures.

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.

A picture is worth a thousand words, especially if those words are oral and aurally comprehensible! Phonemes enjoy sound-symbol correspondence in writing, a visual medium. In contrast, suprasegmental elements of spoken language including stress, intonation, rhythm, and connected speech are not codified in written form. They typically remain in an invisible sphere. Using a digital audio recording application software program, Audacity, a teacher of speech, pronunciation and listening can exploit the Spectrogram feature to enhance learners' understanding and perception of their spoken English and compare it to that of intelligible speaker models.

The speaking skill in the second-language classroom is mostly ignored, difficult to assess, and the dialogues commonly employed in English as a foreign or second language (EFL/ESL) textbooks for exercising it are stubbornly grounded in the written form. Although it is common knowledge in the TESOL community that the affective factors of anxiety and self-esteem influence second-language acquisition and that our models for teaching speaking show that the role of authentic speech is fundamental for teaching the speaking skill, no work until now has shown instructors how to prepare students for creating authentic speech before entering into dialogues in action.

Assessments in TESOL are not just tools for assessing student progress but are integral to effective teaching and learning. This session explores practical strategies to create more effective assessments by incorporating the six principles of effective assessment: validity, reliability, authenticity, practicality, positive washback, and equity. The session covers aligning assessments with objectives, using clear rubrics, providing meaningful feedback, and making the assessment process more equitable. By the end, educators, assessment designers, and administrators will gain strategies to create goal-aligned assessments, illustrated with real-world examples and success stories. This presentation is ideal for those seeking to refine their assessment practices.

How can language teachers best facilitate this win-win situation: students improve their language skills and increase their knowledge of community issues, social justice strategies, and U.S. culture, while community-based organizations gain from the time and energy of student volunteers? Whether called service-learning, community-based learning, or community-engaged education, this practice has a long tradition in language classrooms. Learn strategies for crafting effective community-based learning projects that are respectful of the diverse backgrounds, needs and goals of all involved. A case study from a noncredit community college class will be described, as well as lessons learned from two semesters of implementation.

Join author Donna Price and two engaging Adult Ed ESL instructors as they share their experiences from their virtual and face-to-face classes. They'll focus on building communities in their beginning and intermediate level ESL classes while Donna showcases the variety of resources available on Cambridge's learning management system, Cambridge One. Find out what their favorite technology tools are, including easy digital gamification, creative uses of the Ventures series, and strategies for engaging learners and building community. You'll leave excited to incorporate new strategies and technology tips into your classroom with ease.

This presentation will give the audience opportunities to see the innovative applications of three domains of authenticity, linguistic, cultural, and functional (Buendgens-Kosten, 2013) in ESOL. In addition, it will present the ideas of various activities applying the three domains of authenticity in various interesting contexts such as online materials, signs, and humor. The audience will be able to widen their view to incorporating authenticity in ESL/EFL classes, especially in connection with technology.

This project reviews forty scholarly works on intertextuality in academic reading and writing to investigate how language educators can help L2 learners improve their academic literacy through intertextuality-based practices. It identifies effective pedagogical practices and provides practical guidelines for educators to integrate intertextuality in the teaching and learning of academic reading and writing, enhancing L2 learners' academic literacy by bridging theoretical perspectives and practical applications.

Join us for an exploration of how one community college empowers both non-native English-speaking learners and tutors through technology-integrated ESL tutoring and ongoing training. This presentation explores replicable tutoring models and strategies, contributing to ongoing discussions on technology's pivotal role in TESL education and student access. Join us to explore insights, successes, and challenges.