HOMEPAGE
| Introduction
Hello, my name is Glenn Stevens and welcome to my website! I am an English language instructor at the UAE Academy in the United Arab Emirates. This website was designed specifically as a final project for an MA TESOL course taken at the University of Southern Queensland, titled LIN8016 - Internet Based Language-Instruction. |
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Educational / Professional Background
Pre-TEFL: Although American born, I grew up in various parts of the world - mainly in the Middle East. I spent the majority of my childhood and pre-college education in the Sultanate of Oman. I include this under the 'educational' section of this site as the experiences I had living and travelling abroad throughout my upbringing taught me and made me who I am just as much as anything I ever did academically. After receiving a Bachelor's of Arts in Geography from San Francisco State University in 2004, with an emphasis in Techniques of Geographic Analysis - I completed an intensive certification in TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) from the International Teacher's Training Organization (ITTO) in Guadalajara, Mexico.
TEFL & beyond: The TEFL certification course at ITTO worked in collaboration with a nearby language institute, IMAC Ingles, in which teachers in training were put on the spot to plan, deliver and then reflect on fully-observed classes. This gave me my first working-experience in teaching English as a foreign language. I got my first break as a language instructor at the ELS Center in Abu Dhabi. I spent two years at the ELS working on a variety of projects that included teaching general English to students of mixed nationalities, ethnicities, ages and professional backgrounds. I was then awarded with a contract (through ELS) teaching technical English for the oil and gas industry at the GASCO Technical Training Center out at the GASCO Habshan-Bab Natural Gas Processing Plant. After over a year out in the oilfields, I decided to return to Abu Dhabi where I currently reside, working for the UAE Academy. I am now delivering vocational training courses, teaching English to employees at the Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority.
With this have being my final semester, I will have completed my Masters in TESOL at the University of Southern Queensland by the middle of November, 2008.
 Above: Graduates @ ITTO in Guadalajara 2004 |
Teaching Philosophy
My teaching philosophy as that languages are not taught, they are learnt. It is therefore the duty of the language instructor to take on the role as a facilitator to the language learning process rather than a 'teacher'. My classes are always well organized and planned with a clear objective being met at the end of each lesson. I did my initial training as a teacher using the communicative approach to language learning and I utilize many of the theories acquired from that. However, I believe an integrated syllabus, in which functional and topical English tasks are incorporated with grammatical and lexical themes is the best form of English language-teaching curriculum. I would say that I mostly take a constructivist, communicative and collaborative approach to language learning.
In terms of computer assisted language learning and Internet-based language-instruction, I believe that computers are tools that should be naturally implemented within the language education curriculum. While computers should not be seen as a replacement for traditional language teaching methods or natural face-to-face conversation, I believe that the computers flexibility and endless amount of functions make it a valuable instrument to be used as an additional gizmo to facilitate language learning. Computer-mediated-communication has been found to have many added benefits to face-to-face communication, such as recorded transcripts, delayed response, links to online resources, etc. As long as the communication is being conducted in the target language, I would strongly encourage students to engage in various forms of computer-mediated communication, be it synchronous - in the shape of instant messaging, or asynchronous - maintaining a blog or social networking site portfolio.
Research Interests
Throughout the MA program at the University of Southern Queensland, I have taken courses in the Nature of Language, Principles of Second Language Learning, Methodology in Teaching a 2nd Language, Language Testing, Syllabus Design & Material Writing, Discourse Analysis, Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Internet-Based Language Instruction.
In computer-assisted language learning, and especially Internet-Based language instruction, I am especially interested in the nature of computer-mediated-communication and what types of effects it may have on language learning. In doing research for projects in this MA, I developed a keen interest in language learning opportunities within a 3-D multi-user virtual reality social space. I was fascinated at the prospect of an online, real-time 3-D virtual reality classroom being taught by a live teacher at a computer with a microphone and headset somewhere that one could just plug themselves in and out of with the click of a mouse. I was able to sit in to and observe such classes and was invited to Gavin Dudney's E-consultants-sponsored annual SLanguages Virtual Conference on Second Life in early 2008 in doing research for papers on language education in a multi-user virtual-environment, using Second Life as a case study.
| Contact: glennaldo_sf@hotmail.com
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