I am delighted to be able to extend an invitation to all ICHN teachers. On Friday 30^th at 19.00 in the auditorium in Moneda we will be showing four short films created by the institute’s own Cristian Diaz and his students in La Florida. We are very much hoping that the main stars (see the posters below) will be in attendance, as well as the director himself.

If you are interested in seeing exactly how creative both students and their teacher can be then please feel free to attend!

Comments or questions, please contact Kevin Towl (ktowl@norteamericano.cl)

 Tuesday, July 27, 2010

The Instituto Chileno Norteamericano now offers a variety of engaging online courses, in co-operation with ed2go and Cengage Learning.

Topics range from Accounting to Web Design. Each course is accompanied by a professional tutor/instructor, lively discussions with fellow students, and plenty of practical information that can be put to immediate use.

All of our courses can be taken from home or office at the times that are most convenient. Courses start monthly, run for six weeks, and consist of 12 lessons, equivalent to 24 hours of instruction. Students can ask questions and get help any time during the course.

Participants need an ALTE 3 or equivalent level in order to take a course.

Courses of interest to teachers include

• Teaching Lexically

• An Introduction to Corpora in ELT

• An Introduction to Task Based Teaching

• Solving Classroom Discipline Problems

For more information visit http://www.norteamericano.cl/ed2go/

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

This Thursday 22 July, Mr. Dellar will be presenting at ICHN:

Moneda, Auditorium

Hugh Dellar is an EFL teacher at the University of Westminster, London, where he is also a teacher trainer.

He is the co-author of Innovations published by Heinle ELT and is also an online instructor for Cengage Learning’s ELT Advantage programme.

He has presented papers, workshops and teacher training courses all over the world. His main interests revolve around the implications of new findings on the nature of language for classroom practitioners, trainers and materials writers.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

The English language is permanently evolving and developing. New words and expressions are coined and existing words change their meaning as society, culture and technology progress.

Professor David Crystal is one of the world's foremost experts on language. He has recorded 26 short talks on some of these words and expressions that have recently made it into the language, if not necessarily into dictionaries.

Each unit contains the text of the talk by Professor Crystal. You can also listen to the talk and download the transcript, audio and a lesson plan for teachers.

The lesson plan contains teacher's notes, worksheets for students as well as a key to the answers.

VISIT THE WEBSITE

Friday, July 2, 2010

ICHN WINTER FORUM PROPOSAL FORM

Following the success of last year’s event I am happy to announce that the ICHN Winter Forum will take place this year from August 9th to 13th in sede Moneda. Each day will see a variety of presentations, workshops and other events.

Attached is the Winter Forum Proposal Form which you will need to complete and return by July 25^th if you wish to present. There are several options for hosting a session, including presentations, workshops or chairing a roundtable discussion.

I urge you to get involved, regardless of your length of service at the ICHN. Presenting is a great learning experience and there are many people available to help you prepare. If you have something you would like to share with your peers then this is the perfect opportunity.

This year the Winter Forum has a theme – ‘The Essentials’. Applicants should take the following question into consideration when submitting proposals:

What do you believe to be the essential teaching elements that ensure that learning takes place in your class?

When one describes the quality of an element as “essential” the final product created ceases to be what it should be when that particular element is missing. It’s like pizza - without tomato sauce and cheese, it is not really pizza anymore! So, we encourage you to share the essential teaching practices, or elements, that guarantee a rich learning dividend.

Thomas Keller has pointed to the nature of various classroom activities that are likely to provide what Diane Larsen-Freeman calls “learning opportunities” (Teaching Language, 2003, p.116):

1. Repetition - students need to do things more than once.

Can you show how you engage students in meaningful repetition practice?

2. Attention - students won’t acquire what they have not noticed.

Can you show how you draw the students’ attention to important language features?

3. Focus on Form - students need to notice patterns (as opposed to rules) as they process language. Can you show how you help your students to become good observers of language patterns?

4. Output hypothesis - students need to use the language.

5. Input hypothesis - students need to hear the language they are supposed to produce.

Can you show how you provide a language rich environment for your students?

6. Practice - students need to practice the language because they develop fluency through the control of formulaic speech, which in turn frees up attention resources.

Can you demonstrate how you ensure this takes place?

I believe that within the teaching team at the ICHN there is the experience, creativity and knowledge needed to demonstrate the essential ‘learning opportunities’ mentioned above and I am sure that proposal forms will show exactly how you intend to share this information with your peers.

I sincerely hope that you will be able to get involved in the Winter Forum 2010, either as a presenter or as an enthusiastic and respectful attendee. I have no doubt that collaboratively we will be able to make the event a success.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Regards,

Kevin Towl

Jefe de Capacitación Docente

Tuesday, June 22, 2010