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Week1-Introductions

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Saved by Horacio Idarraga Gil
on January 19, 2009 at 3:01:10 pm
 

 

 

Week 1 [Jan 12-18, 2008]

 

 

 

 


Introductions:

 

Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nnest_evo2009/ and post your introductions. Please tell us where you are located, where you teach, what you expect from this session, and other info that you want to share with us.

 

Check out our World Map and see the people who have joined our discussion group. You can add your photo, too!  

 


                     Moderators Introductions.

                      

                

My name is Ana Wu, and I will be one of the moderators. I was born and raised in Brazil, and in 2008, I celebrated my 10th year in the USA. Currently, I teach ESL at City College of San Francisco, and have been an enthusiastic member at TESOL.

 It is still Sunday, January 11th in California, but I am very excited infacilitating the NNEST EVO workshop because it is the first ever to be offered.                                                                                                                       Also, as you may know, the Non-native English Speakers in TESOl Caucus became an Interest Section in July 2008. So this is a good start to understand more about being perceived as a non-native speaker, understand the history, what kind of research has been done, and what tools/strategies to apply in order to attain equal opportunities, be competitive, employable, and marketable.

I am also very thrilled to work with our guest speakers. We are very honored to have gathered a group of experts here, and I have not doubt that at the end, we will be very inspired!

 Welcome again and thank you for your participation!

 

 

 Dear NNEST-EVO 2009 Session Participants,

 

                    Welcome to NNEST-EVO's Networking Solutions for Professional Development Session.   Like Ana, I'm also excited  and I'm looking forward to sharing and learning with all of you. My name is Aiden Yeh and I am currently based in

Taiwan. I say 'currently' because I don't know where I'll be in the next 5-10 years.( I go wherever my family goes)                  

I teach at Wenzao Ursuline College in Taiwan, and I'm also pursuing my PhD studies at the University of Birmingham.

My diss. topic focuses on Taiwanese teachers in supplementary schools and their attitudes and practices toward professional development (see

http://nnest-evo2009.pbwiki.com/Moderators)

 

I've been a TESOL member for about 10 years now, and i've always been interested in NNEST issues, and of course, CALL issues as well. Professional development for teachers, regardless of ethnicity, highly depends on one's motivation and determination to learn. For many teachers, professional development doesn't come cheap. The price for paid courses sometimes exceeds the amount of salary received; hence, it becomes a detrimental factor in pursuing professional growth. This is why I believe that the TESOL's CALL-IS's project, Electronic village Online  or EVO, provides teachers from all over the globe access to professional development courses that are totally FREE of charge. All of us in the EVO coordination team work as volunteers and offer our time and efforts also at no cost.

 

If you will look at our weekly syllabus, http://nnest-evo2009.pbwiki.com/, you will see that the activities are outlined in a way that would introduce what the NNEST in TESOL as an Interest Section (IS) is about and how it can help EFL/ESL teachers in understanding the issues that concern us, from personal perspectives to academic achievements and goals.

It's true, that some of the issues are personal, and therefore, sensitive in nature.

However, we should look beyond our ethnic backgrounds and comfort zones, and start becoming aware of the realities that exist in the industry that we are all involved in.

 

Ana has already mentioned that we have an impeccable list of guest speakers, who are also sharing with us their knowledge, skills, and their invaluable time. So, brace yourselves and enjoy 6-weeks of fruitful learning :-)

 

We have about 55 participants (and still growing), and if you're going to look at the Participants' page,

http://nnest evo2009.pbwiki.com/Participants, you'll see that we practically cover the globe (well, sort of ) 

 

Introductions are archived in the Yahoogroup,

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nnest_evo2009/ and the thread can also be found here, http://nnest-evo-network.pbwiki.com/Week1-Introductions

 

If you still have not done your introductions, please do so; this is a good way to become part of this diverse community of professionals.

 

Don't forget to add your photo to our session world map at

http://nnest-evo2009.pbwiki.com/map or you can upload it to the Yahoo! Group Photos area.

 

I will stop here for the moment ;-) and we'll wait until most of you have done your intros, and then we will proceed with our discussions with Katya Nemchinova (first half of Week 1) and second half of the discussions will be with Brock Brady.

 

Thanks again for joining us, and I wish you all an exciting NNEST-EVO Session!

 

Aiden Yeh

 

 

 

                      Participants' Self-Introductions

                     My name is Rabia El Antaki.

                           

 I am an English teacher from Morocco.

I am glad to join this training and I am looking forward to learn and interact with nnest from all over the world                                                                                                                                                                                                                        learnandinteract

Posted on Sun Jan 4, 2009


                  Hello everyone,

                  My name is Tommy. I'm an NNEST in Aotearoa New Zealand. I'm studying Korean

                  NNESTs for my doctoral research. I'm *very* excited about this experience!

                  Peace,

                  Tommy

----

                  Puto me securem in capite habere.

 

 

 

 


Hi dear friends.

 

My name is Horacio Idarraga Gil.

I am in Venezuela.

I got retired in 1990. People say teachers never finish been teachers.

So, even I am not in a classroom with a group of students,

I am always interested in themes related to education.

I join this group because there is always something new to learn

and there are always people willing to share what they have already

learnt. Looking forward to making a lot of new friends and

seeing you in the sessions, warm regards,

Horacio

Posted on Mon Jan 5, 2009


 

 

 

 

 

                Posted on Tue Jan 6, 2009

                    Hello, everybody!

                    I am Ela, originally from Romania. Romania is also an ex-communist country like Bulgaria and now part of EU.

                    Indeed, English was not an important part of the curriculum before 1989 in any of the ex-communist countries.

                    But now, everybody is crazy about learning English in Romania.

                    Besides the curriculum,  students of all  age,  are  taking private classes to learn English.

                    That's big change, right?

                    I have learnt English since I was 6 and I teach ESL in the US

 

                    Talking about accent, unless you learn English before the age of 5, you will

                    learn it as a non-native speaker. The irony is that my mom sent me to tutoring at the age of 6..

                    Best regards,

                    Ela

                    Talk to you soon.

 


Good day fellow teachers! Im Theresa from the Philippines. I am a

secondary school teaher in Manila. I've been teaching for 10 years

now and still wanting to grow in teaching English.

Posted on Tue Jan 6, 2009


Hello Everyone!

My name is Maribel Barrera -Boender. I am a Mexican woman living in the

Netherlands. I teach English and Spanish. I am also a TEFL teacher

trainer. I work online for an international TEFL school. I'm looking

forward to getting to know you better as we complete our weekly

sessions. I am very interested in learning and sharing.

Best regards,

Maribel

Posted on Wed Jan 7, 2009 


          Hello everyone !

My name is Elena. (You may call me Helen or Helena)

I come from Bulgaria. Bulgaria. I've taught English for 14 years at a High

School in the town of Ruse, Bulgaria. Since 2005 I've been living in the town of

Kehl in Germany. I started working for Interparla Sprachzentrum in

Kehl in April 2008, teaching Business English to company employees. I

am very happy because my dream has come true - to live and work in a

multicultural environment. I enjoy teaching English because I love

working with people.I hope that EVO2009 will give us a lot of

information and will enable us to exchange ideas and experience of

mutual benefit. I would also like to wish success to the moderators

and all the people who organised this event.

Posted on Thu Jan 8, 2009 

 

 

 

          Hi!I'm Alfia Mironova an ESL teacher from Russia.

          I teach in a lingistic gymnasia. I'm looking forward to our work here, expecting to meet

         enthusiastic collegues as usual at EVO courses. Wishing success to

         everybody!

         Alfia

         posted on Thu Jan 8, 2009 


 

           Hello Everyone, My name is Yohimar Sivira.

             I am an English teacher at the Francisco de Miranda University,

          Falcon-Venezuela..I am just so?excited to participate in this session. This is

          a great opportunity to share and exchange ideas as well as our teaching

          experiences...:)

          Warm regards...

          Yohi

          posted on Fri Jan 9, 2


            Hi everybody

I am a DELTA-qualified English teacher and have taught in various context inBrazil,Germany and the UK. Now, I live in Turkey and have recently started teaching

online andin Second Life.I do find it annoying when I read "only native speakers can apply" in job ads or when sometimes being a native speakers is qualification enough but at least an MA is

required from non-native speakers. Although, On the other hand, I understand that

students who go to an English-speaking country to study English expect native speakers as

teachers.

 

For me the main problem is the concept of a native speaker. What does that say

about somebody? I was born in Turkey, both my parents are Turkish. But I lived in

Germany most of my life So, I'm a native speaker of Turkish but don't speak it as well

as my best/first language German or even English. Does that qualify me as a better

Turkish teacher than someone who has studied Turkish, is proficient in it and maybe even

has a teaching qualification for Turkish?

Having said that, I have often been preferred to native speaking teacher by

students in Germany because they were less shy with me, I was a good model for them, and

because I could help them in German when necessary or help them compare English to German.

 

Looking forward to hearing about your experiences and the discussions.

Nergiz Kern

posted on Fri Jan 9, 2009


My name is Hyman and I am from Hong Kong. I taught English in a

Secondary school for the past 10 years. Students are Chinese and they

learn English as a subject. Now I move to education administration in

the daytime but I still do a lot part-time teaching for interest. I

also teach univeristy students and provide training for teachers. Nice

to see you all. In Hong Kong, most of English teachers are Chinese but

we have Native English teachers in schools. I also work with these

teacher before. What about in your situation?


I'm Doron, a teacher trainer from Israel. For my students, Arabs and Jews,

English teachers-to- be - English is their 3rd or 4th language, and I'm here

to learn how to enable them to use all their linguistic resourses in the

english-teaching situation. 


Hello everyone!

My name is Maya and I'm a Georgian teacher of English from Tbilisi,

Georgia in the Caucasus. I'm a professor of linguistics, IH (London)

certified teacher of EFL, and LCCI certified teacher of Business

English.

My friends and I run a private English language school in Tbilisi, The

English Language Centre, where I am responsible for Business English,

Legal English, IELTS preparation branch. Apart from this I am an

associated professor at Georgian Technical University.

I have been in this profession for more than 20 years, initially as a

teacher of General English. About 10 years ago I started teaching

Business English. Since then I hsve been working with those who are

already in business or students at universities. Last year I started

teaching English for Law and discovered an incredibly challenging and

fascinating area of ELT.

My students are mostly Georgians whose first language is Georgian. I

occasionally have French, Romanian, Chinese, Russian and Indian

students who work or study in Tbilisi and need to improve their

Business or Legal English language skills.

Another aspect of my work is teacher training and materials writing in

Business English.

Sorry for this long message.

I hope that EVO2009 will enable us to exchange ideas and experience of

mutual benefit. I would also like to wish success to organisers of

this event.

Maya Rogava

posted on Sun Jan 11, 2009 12:27 am, Message #32


Hello fellow NNESTs,

I'm a phd student (just finished data collection) at Penn State

University, in State College, Pennsylvania. I was born and raised in

Brazil 'till I was 22, but have been living in the US now for 10

years. I've been teaching EFL/ESL for 12 years in both the private and

public sectors. My dissertation project is an attempt to support pre-

and in-service NNESTs as they work to establish their professional

legitimacy in the classroom and reconstruct their self-concept and

identity (if they so choose).

I'm thrilled to be a part of this EVO (my very first)!

"See" you all tomorrow during the kick-off,

Davi

posted on Sun Jan 11, 2009 7:13 am , Message #34


My name is Dora, and I'm an EFL teacher from Quilmes, Argentina.  

 

                  I've  been learning English since I was 6 years old, and after I finished

                 school, I joined the English teaching course of Studies while tutoring

                 some private students. Since 2003, I've been working at different

                 institutions.

                 I love to learn more about the English Language because I think that

                 to be a good language teacher you have to live the language. I hope we

                all enjoy this sessions while learning a lot!

                posted on Mon Jan 12, 2009 , Message #37


 

 

 

                         Hi everyone!

                           My name is Karen Rauser (my yahoo id is karenrauser)and I am a

                         graduate student at Trinity Western University in Canada. I work as

                         an online curriculum designer and ESOL consultant right now, while

                         juggling the degree with being mom to our 6 year old daughter! I have

                         been teaching ESL and more recently doing teacher training (of NESTs

                         and NNESTs) in ESOL. My studies have led me to discover more about

                         NNEST issues and I am thrilled and honoured to be a part of this 6-

                         week journey with everyone. I am hoping to do a lot of listening to

                         hear about your experiences and the ways that colleagues (whether

                         native or not) can all work together to enrich each other.

                         My bachelor's degree was in linguistics, and so I have a strong love

                         for different languages and cultures (specifically, I have spent some

                         time learning -- in order of --limited!-- proficiency -- French,

                         Spanish, Tagalog, and -- more recently -- Mandarin). So while I

                         cannot claim to be multilingual, I am at least trying to break out of

                         the prison of monolingualism.

                         Looking forward to interacting with you

                         Karen Rauser

 

 

 

 

                        

                           Hi! My name is Ana T. Solano-Campos. You can call me Ana.                                                                                           

                         My yahoo ID is anatris. I am an EFL teacher from Costa Rica.

                          I currently work as a university professor at Universidad Nacional in CR, but for 3 years I

                         worked as an ESOL teacher in a title 1 school in the United States. As

                         an English teacher and English learner, I became concerned with

                         improving my English language skills. However, a colleague pointed out

                         once that although accuracy in the language is important, my Spanish

                         accent was something beautiful that I should embrace. After that, I

                         became really interested in knowing more about how NNESTs perceive

                         themselves and how we are perceived by NESTs. I cannot wait to learn

                         and here from everybody in our sessions.

 

 

                         

 

 

                         Hi!

                         My name is Elisenda Bargalló, and my yahoo ID is e17elisenda@...

                       Although m y personal account is e17elisenda@...

                     I work in the state school in Catalonia, Spain. I'm a supply English

                     teacher and this year I'm working part-time.

                     I joined this group because I found the course very helpful as I'm a

                     NNES teacher and because it is for free -great!-!! That's a good chance

                     to meet other teachers and interesting people... I think this course is

                     going to be fantastic! I want to learn the most and to meet new people

                     from whom I can learn a lot. :-) Moreover, if I can be of any help to

                     you... here I am.

                     I'm going now to add my photo. :-) Keep in touch to everybody! Just to

                     know, is there someone from Catalonia too?

      

       

 

                         

                         Hello Everybody,

                         My name is Sevtap Karaoglu. As most of you, I am also a non-native

                         English speaker. I am originally from Turkey and have been living in

                         U.S. since 2005. I completed my graduate studies in TESOL in 2008. I am

                         willing to pursue my studies with a PhD in education and focus my

                         concentration area in teacher education.

                         I am very happy to be a part of this discussion group and I know that

                         the collaboration and motivation we will provide each other within

                         this group will strengthen our professional and personal thoughts .

                         Sevtap Karaoglu

 

 

                         

                         Hi There!

                         My name is Meng Ying Li. You can call me Athena. I will complete my

                         Master's degree in Language Learning and Education at the University

                         of York (UK) in February.

                         I taught Grammar and Writing in an ELS school in Taiwan for 2 years.

                         The students were 8 to 12 year olds. After that, I taught 13 to 15

                         year olds for 3 months, and had to focus on testing skills for GEPT

                         (General English Proficiency Test), a popular test system in Taiwan.

                         It's my pleasure to join this group. I would love to learn more about

                         what other NNESTs think about English language teaching and learning,

                         especially problems they have had or have solved. Nice meeting you

                         all. Looking forward to upcoming events!

                         Athena

 

 

                     I am (Mr.) Tetsuya Fukuda. Please call me Tetsuya.

                     b. My Yahoo ID is tftoko2009. And my e-mail address is

                    tetsuyafukudajapan@...

                     I live in Tokyo, Japan and I work at Dokkyo University as a part-time

                    lecturer of ESL.

                    d. I teach English.

                    e. I would like to make friends with nnes people in the world who teach English.

 

 

                    Hi everybody,

                    My name is Imane Belakhdim.I am Moroccan and I am 27 years old.I am a

                    high school english teacher in Annasr High School. I've been working

                    there for three years.

                    Even if I have been a teacher for three years, I still feel that I need

                    more training and more advice on how to teach non-native english

                    speaking students effectively ; and that's why I joined this particular

                    group.

                    I hope this will be a good and beneficial experience that would help me

                    achieve my goal.

                    PS: I am a bit lost with how to start since it's my first time here,so

                    please dear friends give me some help and advice.

                    Thanks in advance.

                    Imane

 

 

 

 

                    I thank Violeta C., she invited other ESL Chilean teachers through a

                    social network. I am interested in this matter. My name's

                Benjamin Perez, I work as a College and High School teacher in the southern

                    area in my country, and also support our Local Government's Specific

                    Programs to support TESL in my Province.

                    I am 43 years old and I have always heard of TESOl and due to

                    different excuses ( studies, jobs, lack of time) I had never given

                    myself time to approach and meet this important world Institution aims

                    and works until now.

                    Our Local Government has considered TESL as a priority educational

                    achievement in our national syllabus since 1998 and has incorporated a

                    national English Program "English Opens Doors"

                    (http://ingles.mineduc.cl) since 2003 to support Chilean ESL teachers

                    up to now.

                    In 2005-2006 I designed a Pilot Program to our Local Government to

                    support a English Room Lab (http://englishlabinchiloe.blogspot.com)

                    the idea is to re-create a medium sized tech-lab room for English

                    Students in a specific commune or area, selecting a the most socially

                    deprived students' school to have it implemented. I also work using

                    LMS website platform in college and support a class seminar for giving

                    Teaching students with the necessary ICTs training for future

                    teachers' methodology.

                    I hope I will meet new pal teachers and wish I will learn and improve

                    many personal and professional difficulties in my teaching job.

     

                    The best to you! 

                    Benjamin Perez

 

 

                    Hi everyone. My name is Masakazu (Kaz for short).

                    I've recently completed my post-MA studies at NYU majoring in TESOL and 

                    now looking for a temporary ESL teaching/research position in New 

                    Jersey/New York.

                    I'm so excited to learn from you all about NNEST issues that I've been 

                    so interested in for a long time.

 

 

                    Hi. My name is Joibel Gimenez. joibelgim. joibelgim@yahoo. es.

                    I have worked as an English teacher for more than twelve years. I have

                    worked in all levels: pre-school, elementary, high-school, and

                    university. Right now, I work teaching technical English in a

                    university in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. We have a Moodle platform in

                    the university, so I need to be updated in computing and Internet

                    resources.

                    I want to share teaching experiences with everybody.

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Hi all,

                     Apologies for my rather late self-introduction. My name is Tony Lam,

                     I am originally from Hong Kong. My yahoo ID is tonihku. I trained as a

                     CELTA teacher in London. Prior to that I did an MPhil in English and

                     Applied Linguistics at the University of Cambridge. I currently work

                     as an EAL (English as an Additional Language) teacher at Harrow

                     International School Beijing. 

                     My training in linguistics only reconfirmed my preconception that

                     there's this unbridgeable gap between native speakers and those who

                     aren't, no matter how advanced one might get. Until I did my CELTA

                     training in London. I was the only non-native speaker there and was

                     doing much better than all my native-speaking peers. But then I moved

                     to Beijing and was going through all sorts of unfair difficulties in

                     the recruitment process because of my non-native status and race,

                     despite my relevant qualification and experience. 

                     Sorry for rambling on...

                     I guess what I'm trying to say is I want to believe that non-native

                     English teachers can also be, at the very least, as good as the native

                     ones. I'd like to hear what you think/have to say. And of course I'm

                     sure I'll learn a lot from all of you.

                     Tony Lam

 

 

 

                    -Hi everybody! I'm a teacher of English from Argentina. I'm glad to

                    join this group to be able to exchange opinions and experiences with

                    teachers from all over the world. I work with kids, adolescents,

                    adults and also at the university ( as an assistant in "History of the

                    English Language) Being a non-native speaker I feel "inferior" in a

                    wasome way when talking to a native. Besides, I haven´t had the

                    opportunity to travel to an English speaking country to improve my

                    oral skills. Here there are many teachers who have been in England or

                    the U.S.A for several years and have come back more fluent. However,

                    they think that our subjects and methodology are similar.This is good

                    to here because you always think that everything from abroad is the

                    best. I feel a little better now after reading the material. I also

                    think that is not a question of native or non-native. It's a question

                    of vocation, education, attitude , knowledge, passion, respect. 

                    Dakotado

 

 

      

     

          

 

 

 

 

                                        

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