Seven members of the Conestoga community presented at the Teachers of English as a Second Language (TESL) Ontario’s 46th annual conference held November 1 and 2 at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto. The conference is the largest of its kind in Canada and hosts approximately 800 delegates annually that include language training professionals, academics, researchers and government representatives.
Faculty members Serena Reis, Alison Wilson and Adrienne Horvath Cortes were among the presenters at TESL Ontario's 46th annual conference.
Adrienne Horvath Cortes, Serena Reis and Alison Wilson, faculty members with Conestoga’s Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program, presented the Portfolio Based Language Assessment (PLBA) - aligned Literacy Assessment Toolkit that was developed by the LINC program. It has been shared with other LINC and ESL programs both provincially and nationally.
Karen Low and Romina Ibanez teach English for Academic Purposes at the college and presented findings from research pursued in their Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics at York University in 2017-2018. The presentation, Gender Identities in the Adult ESL Classroom, aimed to build awareness around gender identities in the adult ESL classroom. Research indicates that most teachers are apprehensive about negotiating this issue in class.
Finally, Ahmad Hussain and Lesline Fehr, two professors in the English for Academic Studies department, shared their findings of “Elevating MCQs - from LOTS to HOTS” in a poster presentation. The presentation engaged attendees in identifying and ranking several multiple choice questions (MCQs) from lower to higher order thinking skills (LOTS to HOTS) with regards to reading strategies and assessment for English second language learners. Attendees also identified a number of strategies used to assess critical thinking skills based on current research.
TESL Ontario, established as a non-profit in 1972, serves approximately 4,000 members across Ontario to provide support and direction to professionals, government bodies and learners involved in English as a Second Language in Ontario.
The School of Language & Communications Studies offers English as a second language and foreign language programming through the Conestoga Language Institute. Visit the School website for more information.