fulbright Taiwan online journal

fulbright Taiwan online journal

Tag: TEFL

A Preliminary Research Note on International Teaching Partnerships

Introduction The Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) Program is a collaborative effort between the United States and host countries around the world.  Bringing together young U.S. citizens with experienced English teachers in the host country, it provides enriched English language instruction to students in elementary, junior high, and senior high schools.  In Taiwan, the ETA program was introduced in 2004 when a group of ETAs were sent to Yilan County to participate in a co-teaching program with local elementary school teachers.  Since then, several counties have begun to participate in the ETA program, including Kaohsiung, Kinmen, Taichung, and Taitung, adopting the co-teaching model in selected schools. As the mission of Fulbright is to promote international understanding, cross-cultural and binational partnerships such as the Fulbright ETA program give participants and stakeholders a unique perspective on intercultural understanding on a deeper level and enhance the richness and variety of language instruction.  During the 2012–2013 academic year, 33 English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) were selected and sent to Yilan (16), Kaohsiung (11), and Kinmen (6) for an eleven-month grant to work side by side with Local English Teachers (LETs) to plan and teach English lessons at designated schools.  During the grant period, some partnerships

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Cross Cultural Collaboration: Lessons Learned

The role of the Teacher of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) advisor is multifaceted. When people ask what we do, we explain the job responsibilities as facilitating TEFL teaching workshops, observing classes and holding post observation conferences, responding to weekly English Teaching Assistant (ETA) reports, and conducting research. However, we discovered that the key to fulfill all of these duties is our ability to communicate with one another. Throughout the past five months of working together, we have found great value in facilitating discussions that lead to greater understanding of one another’s culture.      We believe that through our own interactions, discussions, reflections, and co-constructed knowledge base, we have discovered successful strategies for collaboration. We have gained a deeper understanding of the Fulbright mission through our own joint efforts and now better appreciate the essence of what “a world with a little more knowledge and a little less conflict” means in the context of the Fulbright ETA program. In this essay, we hope to articulate the lessons that we have learned about communication and how they might be applied to the co-teaching relationships which are the cornerstone of the Fulbright ETA program. Compromise      Great collaboration does

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Chiung-yao Ho: Does cross-cultural co-teaching work?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCk33Nlh_1w     To learn English well is not only critical to increase students’ capacity to compete, but also to open doors for them. The Fulbright Taiwan is dedicated to the English co-teaching model and to improve the English literacy in Taiwan more than eleven years. On this journey, every English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) devoted their effort and energy to broaden the impact of the ETA program, so as the TEFL Professors, who provide professional training and counseling. As the TEFL professor of the year, Dr. Chiung-yao Ho has hold 25 workshops in Yilan, Taichung, Kaohsiung, and Kinmen for 33 ETAs and more than 70 local English teachers. After one year of observation and research, Dr. Ho answers the question “Does cross-cultural co-teaching work?” with tremendous confidence.   英語教師訓練之我見:傅爾布萊特系列講座     把英文學好,不止能提升學生的競爭力,也是替生命開一扇窗。台灣傅爾布萊特在英語協同教學領域耕耘了十一個年頭。過程中,除了每位英語協同教師的活力與努力之外,英語教學顧問與其帶領的培訓課程也功不可沒。何瓊瑤教授在台灣十個月的時間主持了25場工作坊,協助分布於宜蘭、台中、高雄、金門等33位美籍英語協同教師與70多位台灣籍本地教師提升他們的英語教學。在何教授駐台的一年之中,她反覆自問如何讓跨文化協同教學方法更有效,經過一年多的資料蒐集與分析後,她最後得到了令人滿意的答案。     何瓊瑤博士任教於美國德州休士頓孤星學院希費校區,專長於英語為第二語言的教學。她同時為Cambridge CELTA (劍橋成人英語語言教學) 培訓認證講師。何教授在英語為第二語言的教學這個領域已有超過15年的教學經驗,並於TESOL及NAFSA等國際年會發表。

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Research & Reflections

fulbright taiwan online journal