“We devised a drill-focused workshop for practical interviews and writing because it is the most effective way to comprehend English,” said Shin Sang-keun, Associate Dean of the TESOL Graduate School.
The first two workshops of the program were held on Sept. 17 and Sept. 24 respectively. The first workshop was about presentation skills, and taught by Professor Lee Ji-yeon (TESOL). The workshop took one hour and a half. It began with theories of presentation, and presentation practicing drills followed the theories to allow students to participate and evaluate themselves.
The second workshop was provided by Professor Chin Deborah (TESOL) in ECC B321 under the theme of “How to Write a Resume and Statement of Purpose.” Similar to the presentation workshop, writing workshop also provided a lecture on the kind of contents that should be considered in writing a resume and personal statement and then practice exercises were given to participants.
“Most students showed high levels of satisfaction with the workshops but they felt something was lacking due to the time limit,” said Shin.
In response to students’ criticisms, the TESOL Graduate School is currently designing future workshops to cover their topics in more depth, for a longer time. The school is also conducting a survey on students’ preferences in learning English.
“Workshops will be held weekly to let students learn specific skills in detail,” said Shin. “Like we did in the current workshop, we would like to cover diverse topics related to learning English such as recruitment and study-abroad tips, rather than just academic English,”
Currently three more workshops are on the program’s list. The third workshop, “Guide to Job Interviews,” will be on Oct.8; the fourth workshop, “English Pronunciation Clinic,” on Oct. 15; and the final workshop, “Strategies for Academic Writing,” on Nov. 19. Students who are interested in attending the workshops can visit the Graduate School’s website (http://tesol.ewha.ac.kr) for further information.