Wesley Martin
University of Iowa
About
Hi! My name is Wesley, and I'm currently a graduate teaching assistant in ESL at the University of Iowa. Prior to starting my MA in Linguistics, I taught EFL to young learners in South Korea for four years. I'll be completing my graduate degree in May 2022, and hope to return to South Korea soon!Sessions
Developing American Cultural Knowledge and Sensitivity Through Historical Fiction more
Fri, Apr 29, 09:00-Tue, May 31, 23:55 Asia/Seoul
The purpose of this session is to highlight how collaborative group discussions on historical fiction can help facilitate cultural understanding. The session will begin by briefly discussing the research of Jaran Shin, who suggests that teaching historical fiction both helps with language proficiency while also developing cultural knowledge. The speaker will then introduce the historical fiction novel “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet,” which gives students an understanding of both past and current racial and class tensions in the United States. The speaker will then describe collaborative discussions on the novel in the form of Discussion Circles, which allow students to form their own hypotheses about characters and events, form their own questions about the target culture, and shape their understanding of the United States. Attendees will come away with an increased awareness on the usefulness of historical fiction and peer discussion for developing cultural knowledge, especially in the context of Discussion Circles.
Developing Inferencing Skills for Literature Through Students’ Personal Experiences more
Fri, Apr 29, 09:00-Tue, May 31, 23:55 Asia/Seoul
This presentation will highlight the usefulness of students’ personal stories and experiences in developing inferencing as a reading skill, particularly when reading literature. To better understand inferencing, students can be asked to recall times in their own lives where they made assumptions based on observing details. When recalling these assumptions and their conclusions, an easy-to-understand parallel can be drawn with inferencing, or forming hypotheses based on details in a text. This is especially useful when reading literature, as a story’s plot and background is often suggested through details and is not explicitly declared. The presentation will give examples of connecting these “real-life” inferences to inferring personality traits of a novel's characters based on details about their actions, wardrobe, settings, etc. Attendees will come away with a fresh perspective on teaching inferencing as a reading skill and a greater appreciation for the use of personal experiences to inform reading skills.