Meet The Speakers: Tetiana Shyian

06/04/2018 - 22:59

Room 308
11:45-12:25
40-minute workshop

Let's circle

Tetiana Shyian

In this presentation I will demonstrate how an entire group of learners can be engaged into highly interactive activities that provide a change in a working pattern. Sharing my own experience, I am going to show how to use circle games as warmers, fillers, triggers in a language class.

Tetiana Shyian’s Bio

Freelancer
Mykolaiv National University
Ukraine / Germany

Tetiana Shyian is an English language teacher with 16 years of professional experience. She has been teaching ESP and Business English to university students in Ukraine. She is a TESOL Ukraine presenter (2016), an Access Microscholarship Program teacher, and an E-Teacher Program alumna. Her main areas of interest are cross-cultural communication, blended learning, academic integrity.

Why have you chosen this topic for your presentation?

Not only do activities in a circle provide a safe learning environment, they also fit in well with the communicative approach to teaching and learning a language.

What do you want participants to take away from your presentation?

Sitting in a circle, participants will have experienced lots of interactive activities that they will be able to implement in their own teaching contexts without much adaptation.

Summary of presentation

This is a highly practical workshop, which is based on my own experience as both a learner and a teacher.

I will start with talking briefly about my background and working experience. I will then ask the participants about the possible benefits / drawbacks of circle games in a language classroom. Then I will proceed to show a 45-second video in which my students talk about how they feel when they do circle activities.

In the next 35 minutes I am going to engage the participants in a series of games, starting with ice-breakers and team-building activities and ending up with those that give much space for communication with an element of fun. These activities are aimed at developing all language skills. After each activity I will ask the participants to reflect on how it can be adapted in their own classrooms with the view of learners’ age, language competency etc.

At the end of the session I will show an inspirational 50-second video, featuring my students performing circle games.

After the session each participant will get a hand-out containing a name and a description of an activity that we have done during the session.