Dr. J's Blog of ELT Praxis

Here is my presentation for the 2010 MIDTESOL Conference in Dubuque, IA on Friday, October 22. Foreign Language & ESL Education, University of Iowa MIDTESOL Conference 2010" href="http://prezi.com/ih09442iln9s/incorporating-multiliteracies-into-the-esl-classroom/">Incorporating Multiliteracies into the ESL Classroom on Prezi

This previous semester at the University of Iowa, I have taken interest in media literacy, specifically information literacy in terms of online or digital information, in the context of teaching English as a second language. I was hoping to investigate into this topic for one of my classes, Reading in a Second Language, however there weren't enough peer-reviewed articles for an adequate literature review. I broadened my search to extensive reading online and came up with a few more articles, but still not enough for a satisfactory literature review. Finally, I broadened the search to online or digital reading in a second language. If interested in this broader topic, please visit the website I created for my presentation . For this posting, I will discuss how my teaching experience prompted interest in media literacy, followed by identifying who advocates and researches media literacy in general, and I will conclude by calling for research into and teaching media literacy as a...

This semester, I'm taking a seminar on teacher education. The readings and discussions have prompted me to reevaluate my motivations for teaching English as a second language. I have found it useful to answer the question, "Why do you teach?" because students have come up to me and asked. This question has caught me off guard as I didn't expect them to ask me this question as I met them in the hall. I believe that I didn't give them the best answer I could, so I disappointed myself. Perhaps that disappointed them. So, why do I teach ESL? Or better, why do I choose to remain an ESL instructor? I can answer these questions in a few categories. Intellectually Stimulating I like having my worldview challenged. Living and working in another culture have certainly challenged my American worldview. After living in three different countries for nearly a decade total, I can safely say that my worldview is not the same as it was before I started teaching English. O...