Global Launch educators share expertise at TESOL International Conference
Over 3,000 English teachers from 110 countries attended the largest gathering of English teachers in the United States, the TESOL International Conference, held March 21 to March 24, 2023 in Portland, Oregon. Six Global Launch educators shared their expertise.
Teaching ESL Pronunciation with an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) Mobile Application
Emilia Gracia presented her research about using automatic speech recognition technology and artificial intelligence to teach pronunciation in her classes for international teaching assistants (ITAs). She piloted the use of a mobile app called ELSA, and found that frequent use of the app helped learners make small improvements in their pronunciation in a short amount of time.
Online Tools for Formative Assessment and Learner Engagement
Sarah Jarboe and Claire McLaughlin helped participants learn how to use online tools to create interactive, engaging content for online courses and for self-grading knowledge checks. They demonstrated how Global Launch uses H5P, iSpring, and Playposit. Members of the audience gained ideas and resources for engaging students in online assessment.
Empowering Online Learners
Dianna Lippincott, Shoshanna Starzynski and Claire McLaughlin explained the advantages and disadvantages of different online formats, and explained how important it is to think about the students’ goals when deciding which format to use in building online courses. They discussed ASU Global Launch’s use of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), asynchronous classes, hybrid classes, and synchronous classes.
Exploring Teacher Identity
Alissa Nostas, with colleagues from the American University in Cairo, focused on exploring teacher identity for social justice. They explained a multi-step autoethnography assignment where teachers worked collaboratively to write about their identity through their experiences with teaching. This identity-focused assignment heightens the participants' awareness of the sociopolitical nature of being and becoming a teacher and promotes the power of collaboration to guide transformations in the workplace.
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