News

＜About＞Tuesday, September 15th, 2020, 10:00-17:00 @Zoom meeting room

Professional and Global Educators’ Community (PAGE) organized an online workshop “Teaching effectively in English (basic course): Online workshop for faculty members and graduate students.” We invited Mr. Masakuni Yoshinaka (Global Professional Development Consultant with ALC Inc) as an instructor. A total of 10 participants consisted of faculty members, graduate students, and researchers at the University of Tokyo. Since it was held online, one of the participants joined the workshop from overseas.

The workshop was intended for people who were expecting to teach in English in the near future and those who already had an experience of teaching in English but were willing to brush up on their basic skills. The activity involved group discussions by using the breakout rooms of Zoom.

In the first half of the workshop, the participants discussed the problems that non-native English speakers are likely to encounter when delivering classes in English by citing examples such as using wrong phrases for giving instructions to students and making grammatical errors that are misleading. Then, they worked on structuring an introduction that attracts and motivates students in the first class of a course, and each of them gave a five-minute mini-lecture. They exchanged feedback among the participants and also received thorough feedback from the instructor.

In the latter half of the program, the participants realized their own communication style and tendency by using a simple self-assessment sheet. Then, various cases of student behaviors with different values and backgrounds were presented, and the participants tried to figure out why they showed such behaviors through active group discussions. They learned about cultural differences, how to deal with them, and the differences between high-context and low-context communication styles.

Here are some of the feedback we received from the participants after the workshop:
“The program covered basic elements, so I thought I could make use of them right away.”
“It was an effective program. I will keep in mind to take the attitude for teaching in English I learned here and memorize frequently used phrases so that I can use them immediately. If there is a chance to teach, I will apply what I learned in this workshop.”
“It was very beneficial to discuss specific measures to deal with students who are unwilling to participate and to receive feedback. Regarding the last session on ‘Content/Context Communication,’ I wanted to have more time for further input and training than having a discussion.”

PAGE will continue to hold workshops focusing on the improvement of academic communication skills in English. We sincerely look forward to your participation.

Click here for a free online program provided by the PAGE project: English Academia.↓
https://utokyo-ea.com

Click here for more details of the PAGE project. ↓
https://www.he.u-tokyo.ac.jp/activities/page/