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24 May 2007 Despite a modest turn-out of around 10, a successful evening forum was held on 24th May 2007 at the Black Buffalo Hotel. The topic for discussion was ‘ESL support for mainstream students & independent learning skills’. There were two discussion leaders, Louise Oxley, from ELSIS (English Language Support for International Students) at UTAS, and Sandra O’Neill from TAFE. Various issues were discussed: mechanisms for reaching students and mainstream teaching staff to publicise the support, arranging workshops that target areas of need, deciding how to best use the time with students, clarifying ‘providing support’ versus straightforward ‘marking/proof-reading’ of work, the type of problems (cultural versus sentence-level grammar, etc), the availability of lectures on VISTA; also discussed were the tests and processes for selecting international students &/or migrants for mainstream courses, funding of support (at UTAS) through International services can exclude migrant students who may need assistance. 22 February 2007 The first Hobart branch meeting for 2007 was held at the Theatre Royal Hotel on February 22nd. Five speakers gave a very comprehensive overview of employment opportunities for ESL teachers. They were: Frank Conrow, on the possibilities and pitfalls in the overseas market; Helen Ebsworth, on the AMEP at TAFE; Giovanna MacFarlane on the ELC at the University of Tasmania; Danielle Bresneshan, on the Education Department’s support for schools teaching new arrivals and international students; and Richard Hayes on the LLNP at Mission Australia. Both paid and volunteer opportunities were covered, and much valuable information was given about differences and similarities between the various fields. Of particular interest was the variation in minimum qualifications required in each field and the funding and accountability reasons for this. Participants also valued the opportunity to find out about the application procedures specific to each of the providers discussed. 23 November 2006 The second Hobart branch meeting for 2006 was held at the Theatre Royal Hotel on November 23rd. The topic was What can be achieved on a short course? and the discussion was led by Helen Ebsworth (TAFE Adult Migrant English Programme), Karen Thompson (University of Tasmania ELC) and Frank Conrow (TAFE International English program). There was much lively interaction and everyone went away feeling they had learned more about the many ways in which English is taught through short courses. Possibly the most consistently reiterated point was that short courses work particularly well if the English taught is incidental to another skill that the students are learning, for example, using a computer program or finding out about what Hobart has to offer. 18 August 2006 The first Hobart branch meeting for 2006 was held at the Theatre Royal Hotel on August 18th. Laura Chapman and Anna Kingston from AMES led the discussion, which began with a sharing of strategies for teaching people with low or non-existent writing and reading literacy in their first language and moved on to strategies for use with intermediate level students. Details on a range of resources were exchanged and many participants left with copious notes. July 2006 n July 2006, the northern branch held a Wine and Cheese Book Viewing. A small group of ESL text book lovers met to drool over a large range of Cambridge material. Readers, textbooks, dictionaries, various exam preparation workbooks and the latest in language theory were spread out between the reds and whites and cheeses. There were many longing gazes as everyone left at the end of a very pleasant evening. Many thanks to Michele Benson of Cambridge University Press for the loan of the books. 4 April 2006 TasTESOL’s AGM for 2006 was held on April 4th in a classroom at TAFE Tasmania’s Bathurst St building. Thanks to our Adult Migrant English Program members for hosting it. The guest speaker was Sandi McKay, talking about her experience teaching in an orphanage in Vietnam in 2005. Office-holders elected for 2006/7 are: President: Wanda Gunawardana; Secretary, Nell Rundle; Treasurer, Mary Collie-Holmes; Representative for TasTESOL North and for ACTA, Vicki Walker. The other elected committee members are David Sellers and Frank Conrow. Regular events to look out for Regular conferences that teachers of English to
speakers of other languages might be interested in attending are:
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