SESSION 2:
Effective Syllabus Design in English for General Academic Purposes Instruction
Wednesday, July 13, 2022 | 9:30 - 10:30AM (JST)
(Tuesday, July 12, 2022 | 8:30 - 9:30PM EST)
Format: Webinar
Length: 60 minutes
Cost: FREE
Language: English
In this webinar, I will outline key features of a language education syllabus that effectively targets the development of students’ English for General Academic Purposes (EGAP) abilities. The ability to communicate successfully in English is a common goal for millions of learners worldwide who wish to access education through study abroad experiences, collaborative online instruction, or in English-medium instructional environments. The fundamental premise for achieving this goal is that learners learn a language best experientially, by using it to engage in and accomplish relevant communication tasks. But simply having learners attempt to do academic tasks is insufficient to support their sustained language development. Drawing on tenets of Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), I will highlight critical components of syllabus and lesson design, emphasizing how each contributes to a maximally effective EGAP learning experience. I will also demonstrate these ideas by sharing examples of educational designs and materials inspired by the recently released TOEFL Teaching Framework and the teacher development course Teaching Academic English with the TOEFL iBT.
Speakers & Facilitators
John M. Norris
- speaker -
Principal Research Scientist
ETS Japan
John Norris is a Principal Research Scientist at ETS Japan, where he conducts research and outreach related to language teaching, learning, and assessment. From 2016-2022 he was Senior Research Director of the Center for Language Education and Assessment Research at Educational Testing Service in the US. Prior to joining ETS, he was a professor at Georgetown University and the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, and assessment specialist at Northern Arizona University. He began his career as an English teacher in Brazil, and he completed his Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition at the University of Hawai‘i. John’s research focuses on language education (task-based language teaching), assessment, program evaluation, and research methods. His most recent book publication is “Assessing academic English for higher education admissions”, winner of the Sage/ILTA best book on language testing in 2022. John speaks German, Portuguese, and Spanish, and he is currently acquiring Japanese.
