Date: 8 October 2016
Link to the recorded talk: http://britishcouncil.adobeconnect.com/p3vqm5t2iwh/
My interest in this topic began while I was undertaking my MA TESOL. I wrote my dissertation on learner noticing of corrective feedback provided in a text chat environment. After completing my MA, I self-published a guide to using text chat in language classrooms (http://www.markjoliver.co.uk/text-chat-activities.html). In this book, I highlight the advantages of text chat practice for learners and provide a step-by-step guide for teachers and 29 text chat tasks. The book has been well received and reviews will appear in the autumn editions of Voices and IH journal. I have also had an article about text chat published by English Australia Journal Volume 31 No.2, found here: https://eajournal.partica.online/digital/english-australia-journal-312
In this workshop, I intend to follow the outline below:
- What is text chat?
- How can students benefit from practising their English in a text chat environment?
- How can teachers set up a text chat activity in a safe way with the resources available to them?
- Examples of text chat activities.
- Post text chat activities.
About the speaker:
Mark J. Oliver is a teacher, teacher trainer, and blogger. He has taught English for fourteen years in Australia, Japan, Brazil, Portugal, The UK, Thailand, Singapore, Lebanon and Sri Lanka. In addition, he has worked on teacher training projects in Lebanon and Malaysia. Currently, he works at the British Council in Singapore. Mark is the author of two digital graded readers, The Dragon Thief, and Brian British; an essay writing guide, On Essay Writing; and the teacher resource book, Text Chat Activities. He regularly posts articles on his blog: https://textchatteacher.wordpress.com/. His interests include creative writing and educational technology. You can follow him on twitter at https://twitter.com/Textchatteacher.