Antonioshi2

Internationalizing Your Teaching with the Blackboard Learning Management System, Three Useful Websites & Frequently-Used English Phrases for the University Classroom


Robert E. Johanson
NTUST Department of Applied Foreign Languages

Introduction
As Taiwanese universities continue to internationalize their campuses by implementing bilingual (English & Chinese) instruction, it is becomingincreasingly important that we locate online sources that can help us meet this ambitious goal. The purpose of this workshop is three-fold: 1) to demonstrate how the presenter uses the Blackboard Learning Management System in his English-language content courses, 2) introduce the audience to three extremely-useful ESL/EFL websites, and 3) to familiarize non-native English-speaking instructors withsome commonly-used English-language teaching terms that they can readily adapt to the bilingual classroom. The sources of the material for this workshop derive from Randall’s Listening Lab [http://www.esl-lab.com], Rong-chang.com [http://rong-chang.com], The Purdue University Online Writing Center (OWL) [http://owl.english.purdue.edu], the University of California at Santa Barbara TeachingAssistant Handbook*, and the presenter’s own lecture notes. Hopefully, this presentation will not only help audience-members take the necessary steps to transform themselves from monolingual to bilingual instructors, but also offer some pedagogically-powerful phrases that teachers everywhere might find worthy of reflection.
(This presentation is supported in part by funding received from the NationalScience Council (NSC 97-2410-H-011-014) and the Institute of System Engineering, National University of Tainan.

Part I: An Introduction to a Useful Blackboard Exercise


The presenter will introduce the audience to a novel way to conduct a writing assignment via the Blackboard Learning Management System.

Part II: Three ESL Websites


Three extremely “handy” ESL/EFL Websites
a.)Randall’s Listening Lab [http://www.esl-lab.com]
b.) Rong-chang.com [http://rong-chang.com]
c.) Purdue University Online Writing Center (OWL) [http://owl.english.purdue.edu]
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Part III (A): Useful English Phrases for Classroom Communication*

Set out below is a series of useful expressions that have been adapted from theUCSB Teaching Assistant Handbook*. Please refer to the handbook, itself, for a more in-depth coverage of these topics. [Note: To save resources, the phrases have been collapsed two to a line and connected with back-slashes (/).]

Introducing a Topic
What we are going to cover today is ... /First of all, I would like to talk about ...
Today, I am going to talk about … /What I want to do today is...
The important point I want to make today is ... /Today's topic is ...

Making Transitions Between Ideas
Now, let's see what happens. /The second point I want to make is...
If that's clear, we will go on to the next point. /Let's get back to the idea of...
Now, let's approach the problem in a different way.
I'd like to finish talking about ... before we move on ...

Summarizing andConcluding
In summary ... /To conclude ... /In conclusion ... /The conclusions we can draw from this are ...
What we have been talking about ... /Okay, we have discussed...
So far (up until now), I have been trying to show you ...
The important points to remember are ...

Inviting Participation or Discussion
Who would like to say something? /Do you agree ...? /Could you say a little more aboutthat?
Can you elaborate on that? /What do you think ...? /How do you feel ...?
What comparison can you make between ...?
What is the point made by the author of this article?

Clarifying Student Comments
In other words ... /If I understand you correctly, you mean ...
What you said is ... /What this means is that ...
I think I understand what you mean. Let me put it another way.
Would...