Minutes

Faculty Meeting & Faculty Development Workshops

Spanish-American Institute

May 19, 2001

Convened: The faculty meeting was convened at 10:10 a.m.

Attendance: 24 faculty and 4 staff attended.

Executive Director/President’s Report: Mr. Ferraro yielded the floor so that more time could be devoted to the Faculty Workshops.

Faculty Workshops (10:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m.): Melba De La Rosa, Libertad Grajo, and Marcia Viera served as faculty workshop facilitators. Each employed different strategies to illustrate the use of active language teaching activities that could be used with video material. Each of three faculty groups rotated every 45 minutes into a new workshop with a different faculty facilitator.

Faculty Meeting (12:30-1:00):

Dean’s Report—

1. New Video: Business Watch, a new ESL video, has been added to the Institute’s collection of teaching videos. Dr. Prager distributed a summary sheet that described the video’s actual broadcast segments. The sheet should be added to the recently distributed video handbook, ESL Video and Audio Tapes (Spring, 2001). She stressed that the video is intended for students with near-native listening comprehension skills.

2. Video Resource Material for Faculty: Dr. Prager also reviewed the video resource teaching material available to faculty in the bookstore. The resource material includes an in-house Reference Manual for using Side by Side TV videos, publishers’ teaching manuals for Side by Side and for True Voices, and publishers’ video workbooks for Side by Side.

3. TESOL/TEFOL Master’s Programs: Dr. Prager invited interested faculty to review a folder she has started on local New York and New Jersey TESOL/TEFEL graduate programs.

Chairperson’s Reports—

1. Computer Technology: Khalid El Harmassi reported on the evolution of Internet distance learning. He stressed that distance-learning technology is not a replacement for the human factor in the classroom. However, he suggested that classroom teachers could use communication technology to enhance the classroom experience, including e-mail to students.

2. Accounting: Lilliam Hernandez reported that the practice of accounting is changing rapidly because of increased reliance on technology. She will be discussing the accounting curriculum with Dr. Prager.

3. English/ESL: Rhada Krishnmoorthy reported on this year’s annual TESOL conference which she attended with Marcia Viera. They found three workshops of particular interest—1.) teaching pronunciation, 2.) teaching writing as a creative response to films, objects, short stories, etc., and 3.) teaching TOEFL using Longman’s preparation materials.

Discussion: Several faculty members indicated that they would like to have more resources for assisting ESL students with pronunciation. Mr. Ferraro indicated that the Spanish-American Institute would support the attendance of faculty members in courses or workshops for teaching pronunciation skills. Dr. Prager stated that two faculty members would be attending this summer’s TESOL Academy in San Diego in which each will select one intensive workshop topic for the entire session. One of the topics is pronunciation. Faculty were invited to submit ideas for other possible faculty development activities that could develop pronunciation-teaching skills.

Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 1 p.m. Mr. Ferraro invited faculty to lunch at Ollies.