Blog Address Change!

Thank you for visiting the MAT Admissions blog.  We’ve moved!

All the content of this blog, plus newer posts, are now hosted by SIT at http://blogs.sit.edu/tesol.

The new blog expands content and places increased emphasis on all TESOL-related activities by SIT Graduate Institute, its alumni, students, and faculty, as well as those of the Education unit of World Learning’s International Development Programs.  Now, the new blog can represent our whole organization’s capacities, distinctions, and vision.

The MAT Admissions blog lived at this address from October 2007 through February 2010.  For the freshest posts, please come visit us at the new location!

SIT INTERLINK Fellowship Announced

INTERLINK Language Centers and SIT Graduate Institute

Three-year Teaching Fellowships

June 21, 2010 – August 2013

INTERLINK Language Centers and SIT Graduate Institute are pleased to announce teaching fellowships for 2010-13.  Fellows enhance their teaching effectiveness through study in SIT’s MA in Teaching ESOL and employment at the Saudi INTERLINK Language Centers (SILC).  Fellowships consist of two summers of full-time study in Vermont, USA, and, at the Saudi INTERLINK Language Center at Al Yamamah University (YU) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a one-year supervised internship and two years of full-time employment.

SIT Representatives Near You

Do you live near these places?  SIT representatives will be there!  If you are an alum, a prospective student, or a friend of SIT by your own definition, please come say hello!

Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening

Direct recordings from sets of brain cells revealed that three fundamentally distinct aspects of language (meaning, structure, and word sounds) are computed in a small part of the brain and in a tightly-timed sequence. (Illustration / Ned T. Sahin, PhD)

Reading, writing, speaking and listening are the four primary language skills.  They can be considered in several ways.  Here’s a common one:

• Expressive: speaking, writing.  A person can express themselves using language in these ways.
• Receptive: listening, reading.  A person receives someone else’s self-expression.

The enhancing of these language skills occurs in classrooms, on the job, and in just plain old living.  For language teachers, the ways of science, art, and parents everywhere have been utilized in various forms to increase both first and second language competency.

Let’s look at science.

New Scholarship for Tibetans

The Trace Foundation announces a new scholarship!  Designed as in-service training for English teachers in Qinghai and Gansu provinces, the scholarship was created to increase individuals’ capacities.

To apply, please follow Trace Foundation application instructions.  Application deadline is March 15, 2010.

3 Ways to Visit SIT

What are some ways to deepen your knowledge of the SIT Graduate Institute this spring?  Mary Kay Sigda of the Admissions Office describes 3 ways, a campus open house, a virtual open house, and a personalized visit.

Mary Kay Sigda

English as Lingua Franca, 2

In the first part of this series, student Ginna Allison reflects on the prevalence of English in the world.  In this second part, she considers various models of English as a lingua franca.  Currently, she is in Mexico for the winter where she is an interning teacher — checking her perceptions — at the ABC School of English in Pachuca.

The Status of Variations on the Lingua Franca

It is important to note that not all manifestations of English are equal in the eyes of the world.

Alum Akisha Pearman: English Language Fellow

Applying her Peace Corps experience at SIT, Akisha Pearman went on to be a US State Department English Language Fellow in Mozambique.  Here she reflects on her SIT experiences and presents a compelling, insider’s view of what it means to teach, to listen, and to change.  In this email interview, note how she uses her SIT learning in a variety of settings.  How different education would be if we all had had teachers like Akisha!

How to Write a Successful Proposal

This post reviews Barbara Rupert’s article, “How to Write a Successful Proposal for the ACTFL Convention,” in The Language Educator (November 2009, vol. 4, issue 6).  Members of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages can access the article in context.

Using experience as a guide, Ms Rupert describes the multiple stages of thinking that can lead to presenting at a meeting of a professional association of any kind, not just those teaching foreign languages.  While her article is written from the perspective of this association, its content is easily transferred to other professional contexts.

Alum Wilma Luth: Good Practices

Wilma Luth

How do you increase awareness without anyone standing right beside you and calling your attention to what is there?  How can you see what’s right in front of you, familiar and predictable, with a fresh perspective?  How can teachers grow and development themselves professionally?  How can students learn to create awareness for themselves?  Ask Wilma Luth.

Wilma Luth (SMAT 17, 1998) has lived on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido for many years.  Besides her own EFL teaching, she is an active member of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT).  It is in the dual capacity that she was invited to present a workshop on good teaching practices to Hokkaido’s EFL teachers at a regional meeting of the national association.  Describing the work, she says, “I enjoy giving workshops like this that help teachers stop and think about what they’re doing in the classroom. So many teachers rarely spend the kind of reflective time that could really re-energize their teaching.”