ATESOL ACT Annual Dinner
with Guest speaker: Dr Bruce Moore
Reader and Head of Australian National Dictionary
Centre, ANU
at Southern Cross Yacht
Club
Alexandrina Drive, Yarralumla
Wednesday 26th August 2009
| For much of the twentieth century Australian English was regarded as a substandard version of British English. In his fascinating and recently published book, Speaking our language: the story of Australian English, Bruce Moore looks at the reasons for this attitude, and traces how Australian English became accepted in the final decades of the twentieth century. Dr Moore will talk about this very interesting process and share his perceptions of the future of Australian and other regional Englishes in the context of the globalisation of English. Dr Moore is currently putting the final touches to a new edition of the Australian National Dictionary and will also be able to reveal some of the new Australian words that will be included in the dictionary for the first time. | ![]() |
The Education Officers at Parliament House invited ACT TESOL members to come to a special meeting with them in the Parliament on Friday 18 September 2009. The 20+ members from primary and secondary schools, CIT and UC experienced the kind of educational activities offered in the Parliament to visiting educational groups.
ATESOL ACT members role-played the introduction of a Bill to increase school hours to 9-5. While 'MPs' were given scripts to read some embellished their scripts in an effort to increase pay for hard working teachers (Hear, hear!). There were moments of tension when some unruly MPs were almost expelled by the Mace-wielding 'Serjeant-at-Arms'. Fortunately Linda, the PEO Parliamentary Educator, was there to calm things down. Several 'Government MPs' threatened to cross the floor when an 'Independent MP' amended the Bill to remove the pay-rise. We all agreed that our 'fair but bossy Speaker' has a future in Parliament - she took to the role like a duck to water!
See below for the photo album of the ATESOL ACT members in action!
This event was also an opportunity for us to find out more about what is available, provide expert feedback on ESL-specific issues, go behind the scenes, and socialise with both Parliamentary Education Officers and ESL colleagues. The PEO website has a wide range of excellent resources for teachers and students, including a video of a student role play
And, as we have come to expect from ATESOL ACT events, the afternoon tea was memorable. Thanks to Committee members Jakki Cashman (the chocolate zucchini cake & orange cakes) and Jill Schaefer (brownies and dried mango).

On Saturday 24th October 2009 a panel of speakers with experience from different cultures discussed the obstacles that make cultural transitions so difficult for newly arrived students. What is it we need to be aware of in order to help them settle in and feel they belong? How do we avoid misunderstandings? How do we create a climate in which they can get the best out of their learning experience and appreciate different perceptions?
Companion House is a non profit community based organisation that works with people who have sought refuge in Australia from persecution, torture and war related trauma. Please visit the Companion House website for more information.

Three teachers presented a ‘Show-and-Tell’ of how they use technology in their classrooms and beyond:
Penny Ryder, Chapman Primary School, on blogging, podcasting, mini camcorders and video. See Penny's blog Teaching Challenges to view her slideshow and to download her handout.
Robyn Hammond, Tuggeranong Primary Introductory English Centre, on creative uses of interactive whiteboards. See this PDF document for a summary of Robyn's presentation and all her links - Using an IWB within the Tuggeranong Primary Introductory English Centre.
Lesley Cioccarelli, Adult Migrant English Program, CIT, on virtual (online) classrooms and ‘live video feedback'. See this PDF document for a linked list of virtual classroom (and voice) tools, and 'live video feedback' - Virtual Classrooms and Live Video Feedback
The image above created using http://www.wordle.net/ Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. Look on the Web for ideas for using Wordle in education.
Dr Chantal Crozet of ANU presented on: Intercultural language teaching aims to fully recognise and teach culture as part of language, not just as an adjunct to language. To achieve intercultural competence you have to understand your own as well as the culture of the target language. How to achieve this in the language class room was the focus of Dr Chantal Crozet’s presentation.
Mochamad Subhan Zein of UC presented on: Should English be made compulsory in Indonesian primary schools? If so, why? Mochamad Subhan Zein, Masters student at UC revealed the perspectives of Indonesian English practitioners, educational specialists, researchers, as well as government officials on this policy question. Should English be taught at primary level? The Jakarta Post 15/11/2008
At this year’s ATESOL ACT AGM we awarded 2008's two top students of TESOL and TESL at University of Canberra: Genevieve Hye Yeong Jamieson and Sue Honeyman.
Following the AGM, Dr. Helen Moore spoke on a topic highly relevant to all of us: "Where to for ESL assessment in the new federal education agenda?" drawing on information presented at the National Symposium on Assessing English as a Second/Additional Language or Dialect in the Australian Context she co-coordinated in Sydney earlier this month. It reviewed assessment issues in the AMEP, ELICOS and school sectors.
(Thursday 12th March 2009)
In this interactive presentation Kate Wilson drew from a holistic study of three reading classrooms in English for Academic Purposes. She suggested that scaffolding students’ development of reading practices requires high engagement as well as ‘high challenge and high support” (Hammond and Gibbons 2005). Using features from classrooms she has observed she showed how three teachers were able to create high engagement with text. Although these examples are taken from pre-tertiary settings, she made the presentation applicable to teachers at all levels.
Scott Thornbury gave a fascinating and inspiring speech of the sort that goes to the heart and stays. It was just great seeing 30 plus people chatting heartily away, obviously enjoying themselves.
At the end of August 2008 we organised a PD session consisting of a panel of teachers from the preschool, primary and adult sectors who presented their “Best Ever Lessons”. This proved a hit with attendees and is set to become a regular event on the ATESOL ACT calendar.
In this 4-hour workshop Eulea Kiraly of Tuggeranong Arts Centre introduced participants to techniques for developing Digital Stories - creating storylines through a story circle, storyboarding, and using PhotoStory3 to add images, record anrration and add music to create your final 'movie'.
Interesting links to find out more about Digital Storytelling:
Dr Deborah Hill (UC) - A
community of learners
Geoffrey Millar (ADFA) - the art of
inclusive teaching.
Conference Paper available from ACTA
website - Working with international students: Applied
linguistics and the art of inclusive teaching By Geoff
Millar [59kb] PDF
Peta Shepherd (SIEC/ Dickson College) -
Introductory English Centres – more than English teaching
centres
Conference Paper available
from ACTA website - Helping refugee students in Intensive English
Centres [Word doc.]
Edited by Mary Besemeres and Anna Wierzbicka, Translating Lives is an immensely moving collection of personal stories tracing the experiences of twelve people living in Australia who speak more than one language. Contributors including Kim Scott and Eva Sallis show how their experiences of language colour the way they relate to people and the way they see the world. Through their eyes, we learn how language, culture and identity are intrinsically linked. Illuminating and insightful, Translating Lives is an engrossing read for every Australian wanting to understand the complex culture we live in today.
At Asia Bookroom, Wednesday 30 May 2007
For a taste of the talk, listen to an interview from SBS
Radio - Translating Lives:
17.4.2007: click on the link below to listen
to the MP3:
http://203.15.102.140/elg/fbceeeb9-3bf6-4150-a6ae-80432ccb40b6.mp3
Visit to the exhibition Memory of a Nation at the National Archives of Australia and,
Coming to Canberra - Guest speaker Jorge Bagnini, ACT Multicultural Arts Officer, introduced and presented this short DVD which he produced as part of "Project 1955", the culmination of research and interviews with migrants who were Canberra residents in 1955. The film depicts actors recounting the first-hand experiences of migrants from Italy, Holland, Austria, Poland, the UK, Malta and Greece.
