【專題演講一】Title: How to learn from teaching in English? Beauty and sadness in EMI

Abstract

Learning Management in English is not easy for Taiwanese students, and teaching in English is difficult for Taiwanese teachers as well. One of the most important aspects of teaching English is creating a supportive and inclusive learning environment. Students come from different backgrounds and have different learning styles, so it's important to be flexible and adapt your teaching methods accordingly. Creating a classroom culture of mutual respect, active listening, and constructive feedback can help students feel more comfortable and confident in their language learning process. We’ll also learn a lot on this journey.

 【專題演講三】Title: Story-Listening and Guided Self-Selected Reading for Optimal Teaching

Abstract:

Story-Listening and Guided Self-Selected Reading (SL/GSSR) are presented as examples of “optimal” input. The hypothesis is that they supply exactly what students need for the most efficient and the most pleasant way of acquiring language.

Both SL and GSSR are based on the familiar principle of “comprehensible input,” that is, we acquire language when we understand it. This input can be in the form of aural stories (Story-Listening) and written stories (Guided-Self Selected Reading). Interesting Story-Listening (SL) is assured when teachers tell stories that have stood the test of time, known to be comprehensible and interesting to language acquirers from many countries and traditions. Teachers help make stories comprehensible, using drawings, explanations, and occasional translations for challenging segments. This makes the input rich and abundant.

GSSR begins after students have heard and understood stories and help ensures interest and comprehensibility by having students select the books they want to read. Students are not required to do assigned reading but choose what they want to read. They are introduced to the book collection on the first day and make their initial choices with the help of their teacher. They are not, however, required to finish every book they start. When they experience "pleasure reading" with every book they read and success in understanding stories when they listen, their interest in reading books continues.

For both SL and GSSR, there are no “supplementary exercises” to drill grammar or vocabulary and no comprehension testing.  Rather, grammar and vocabulary are acquired through listening and reading. When students finish a book, they are free to choose another of their interests. Students who have done the SL/GSSR combination have made impressive progress as confirmed by standardized tests.

The SL/GSSR combination meets the description of “optimal input” for language acquisition: the input is comprehensible, highly interesting, plentiful, and rich in language.

 【專題演講四】Title: Making Home Between Languages and Cultures

Abstract:

Why do we need bilingual education? What are its pros and cons? How will it position Taiwan in a highly globalized and capitalized world where neocolonialism continues to exert its force? What future do we envisage for ourselves and for the place where we live? How do we make home or to be at home between languages and cultures? I am neither a linguist nor a language policy maker. I am a storyteller seeking to think through these questions by interweaving ethnography, archival research, and autobiographical accounts of border traversal. My narrative will begin from my current responsibility as a graduate coordinator of Theatre and Performance Studies Programme at the National University of Singapore. Part of my responsibility is to identify, admit, and nurture high performing individuals, locally and internationally, to be part of our graduate programme. From there, I examine Singapore’s history of language development and its impact on identity formation. Major works by Singapore’s preeminent playwright, director, and art activist Kuo Pao Kun (1939-2002) will be read to respond to the linguistic, as well as social and cultural, positioning of Singapore within the larger international context. Singapore is certainly not alone in its endeavor to strike a balance in staying economically competitive and to be confident in upholding its sociocultural identity. Juxtaposing Singapore’s narratives are voices of Taiwanese theatre artists who perform in their ancestral languages in the post-martial and (post)-colonial era. Through their voices, I read their endeavor to reclaim disappearing tongues, bodies, and spaces. Resonating with their voices are the Hawaiians’ search to preserve the language and culture of a kingdom lost (1795-1893). Finally, I revisit the year 1989 when my journey of border traversal as a migrant began. Having spent my formative years in Aotearoa New Zealand, in a time when Māori-Pakeha biculturalism was promoted, I share my experience of growing up in the down under.  Cross-referencing the linguistic and cultural struggles of these island experiences, I return to my prompting questions for your consideration.