TEACHING GENERATION Z: PASSING ON THE BATON FROM K12 TO UNIVERSITY
29-30 November 2019
Şila Yosulçay Uz
The 2nd TESOL Turkey International ELT Conference was hosted by Osmangazi University in Eskişehir on 29-30 November 2019. The aim of the conference was to create a platform for focusing on the gap between K12 and higher education in teaching, learning, research and professional development. In his concurrent session, German de Jesus Lopez Araujo from Universidad Europea del Atlantico started his session by stating that in a classroom context, the perceptions, beliefs, attitudes, background and metacognitive knowledge of the students enrolled in a learning situation are recognized as significant contributory factors in the learning process. For this reason, he asserted that the use of cultural materials to increase students’ motivation towards English acquisition is highly relevant and crucial. The speaker continued with the definition of culture and asked the definition to the audience. He then addressed the non-diversity of commercial books focusing on teaching English. He therefore claimed that teaching culture falls on the shoulders of English teachers. Araujo in this respect claimed teachers should promote the usage of cultural materials to increase student’s motivation towards English acquisition. He then continued with how he implements this approach in his classroom.
He initially asked the audience how they celebrate birthdays in Turkey. He then informed the audience of how birthdays are celebrated in Canada. He told the listeners in Canada people grease their noses with butter to ward off bad luck. He then asked the audience to ask google to find a weird way to celebrate a birthday. He elicited different answers and continued with famous sculptures. He showed a video about 23 incredible sculptures from all around the World. He then continued with an activity called who is the author. He had the audience listen to a poem and asked listeners to guess the author. He then asked the audience to find a quote or lyrics and the listeners shared their ideas as to who the poet or the author was. Along these lines, he illustrated how he teaches culture and raises awareness of different cultures around the world in his classroom.