TESOL Meets Teachers and Students in and Outside Shanghai

On March 20, the MA TESOL program welcomed English teachers from Changning District for a professional development workshop on ‘Communicative Approach in Teaching Reading and Writing’. The presenter of the workshop was Professor Kentei Takaya, the Director of the MA TESOL program at NYU Shanghai.

(Professor Takaya during the workshop)

At the workshop, Professor Takaya offered various examples of communicative approach in teaching reading and writing skills. Criteria for selecting reading and writing materials and places where useful materials can be found were also discussed at the workshop. Professor Takaya emphasized the importance of enabling language learners to ‘learn’ the target language as well as to ‘use’ the language as we teach reading and writing skills.  

(Professor Takaya with the delegates from Changing District Education College)

(Professor Takaya with the English teachers from Changning School District who participated in the workshop)

On April 2, 2019, TESOL faculty, Professor Frank Tang and Professor Kentei Takaya, visited Ouhai High School in Wenzhou where a current MA TESOL student, Zhihui Yan, is teaching. Zhihui spends six hours between her home in Wenzhou to NYU Shanghai every time she attends TESOL classes at NYU Shanghai. She is a dedicated teacher who is motivated to learn new perspectives about teaching English.

(Zhihui teaching her class)

At Ouhai High School, Zhihui invited the TESOL faculty to her open class where she taught reading and writing skill using the communicative approach.  The topic of the lesson was ‘global warming’ and Zhihui used media, group work, and class discussion to facilitate interactive learning. The open class was followed by a reflection session where Zhihui and the TESOL faculty exchanged their thoughts about the lesson.

(Post-class reflection)

Following the visit to Zhihui’s open class, the TESOL faculty were invited to deliver a lecture on their past learning experience to all juniors at Ouhai High School.  The lecture was followed by a Q & A session where students asked questions about learning English and managing their study.

(Lectures by TESOL faculty)

(Ouhai High School students and TESOL faculty)