May 15, 2020

Classroom Culture Shock: strategies for acclimatizing students to a learner-centred mode by Anne Merritt

Time: 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM

When ESL learners study in Canada, they bring with them their own cultural understanding of what learning is, what teachers and students do, and what defines a successful lesson. These understandings are sometimes at odds with Canadian concepts of learning and instruction. This presentation reviews a project in the University of Alberta's English Language School where course materials were modified to explicitly address (and ease) classroom culture shock for visiting students. Though the project was implemented to address the needs of Japanese students in immersive summer ESL courses, the strategies and findings can be broadly applied to other learner demographics and contexts.

Anne Merritt is an EAP assistant lecturer and curriculum designer at the University of Alberta’s English Language School. She holds an MA in Applied Linguistics and English Language Teaching, and has taught ESL/EFL in Canada, Europe, and Asia. Her areas of interest include academic English, intercultural communication, and sociolinguistics.

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Session link: https://tutela.ca/GroupEvent?organicgroup=31037&itemId=34760

ATESL Chapter: Edmonton