DVC EVALUATION - "GOING BEYOND WITH PRACTICE"

UNCLAS SAN SALVADOR 000265 SIPDIS STATE FOR IIP/G/WHA-JMANES, WHA/PDA-RQUIROZ, WHA/CEN- PDEGLER AMEMBASSY SAN JOSE FOR PAS-RELO MRUDDER E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OIIP KPAO ES SUBJECT: DVC EVALUATION - "GOING BEYOND WITH PRACTICE" WITH ESL EXPERT DIANE LARSEN-FREEMAN. ¶1. SUMMARY: On January 26 the Regional English Language Office (RELO) in San Jose, Costa Rica sponsored a successful interactive DVC between speaker Dr. Diane Larsen-Freeman in San Jose and audiences in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Panama. Fifty English teachers and professors from universities and high schools in San Salvador, Santa Ana and San Miguel attended the conference entitled "Going Beyond with Practice". END SUMMARY. ¶2. SPEAKER'S BACKGROUND: Diane Larsen-Freeman (Ph.D., Linguistics, University of Michigan) is a Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Language Teacher Education Department at the School for International Training (SIT) in Brattleboro, Vermont. She was in San Jose to take part in part in a conference for Central American Teachers of English as a Foreign Language. She is the author of several books ("Discourse Analysis in Second Language Research," "The Grammar Book: An ESL/EFL Teacher's Course," "Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching," and "An Introduction to Second Language Acquisition Research," as well as the series director for "Grammar Dimensions," a four-level English grammar series. ¶3. EVALUATION OF THE PROGRAM AND SPEAKER: Dr. Larsen-Freeman based her presentation on the value of practice in language learning. Historically, the meaning of "practice" has varied according to the teaching methodology in vogue. She maintained that practice that is psychologically authentic can help learners "go beyond" what they know and help them to create new language resources and techniques. Dr.Larsen-Freeman's engaging and well-organized presentation was followed by a question and answer period, allowing all audiences to reflect on ways to improve their teaching practices. Audiences were encouraged to utilize techniques that focus on the students rather than the teacher. ¶4. RELO SUPPORT: Good. Post thanks RELO Michael Rudder and his staff for organizing this DVC. Barclay