Learner Independence SIG
e-newsletter
2009/1
2009: LI-SIG News
SIG Team
Hello!
Over the last
year there have been a few more changes within the LI-SIG team. The
most important is also our greatest loss. Heather Baba, one of the
original founders, has decided to step down as Treasurer and, in reality,
SuperSIG: the person who always knows who to go to whenever we need
help. She is currently working on an MA in Museum Studies and feels
that she does not have the necessary time to fully fulfill the obligations
which go with the position. Jane has also decided to step down, so
we will shortly be looking for a new editor. Rachel, unfortunately,
was involved in a motorcycle accident and has not been able to do
as much as she would have liked. Phil and David are still trying to
help out wherever they can.
Events
so far
In October the SIG took part in an event with the Al Ain Chapter and
towards the end of last year, on December 26th, Phil went to Dubai
where he gave a workshop at the Dubai Chapter event. He also joined
LI-SIG regulars, Melanie Gobert, Allan Pollock, Jim Buckingham and
relative newcomer Jeff Knowling for the Western Region event at the
Madinat Zayed HCT in February 14th. Co-chair Jane Hashemi was also
there presenting on Reading techniques for the IELTS exam. Phil was
also a Featured Speaker at the ESP Conference in Sharjah, a week later.
TESOL
Arabia Conference
Learner Autonomy and Independence were extremely well represented
among the featured speakers at this year's conference with two major
speakers: Phil Benson from Hong Kong and Ema Ushioda from the University
of Warwick. Both gave extremely interesting talks with Ema interspersing
her SIG workshop with anecdotes from her childhood to illustrate her
points and Phil using his struggles to learn Portuguese as an example
of how to create an aural learning journal. Heather Baba and Phil
Cozens were able introduce people to the world of online and virtual
museums - thanks, of course, to Heather's research from her DL course.
IATEFL
Cardiff Online
Take part in the
IATEFL Conference March 31- April 4 by joining the online
forums
This issue
In this issue, we have comments from students who took part in the Student Panel at the ESP Conference in Sharjah. Information on using wikis from Jim Buckingham, and advice on setting up a listening course from Jeff Knowling.