Sessions / Location Name: Room DT

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Engaging EFL Learners Through the Game of Go #3006

Sat, Apr 30, 17:00-18:00 Asia/Seoul | LOCATION: Room DT

Motivating EFL learners is a daunting task as exam-driven teaching requires drilling students to memorize vocabulary and grammar rules. Typically, TL materials cover unfamiliar topics from foreign countries which students can't easily relate to, thus impeding the learning process. Practical alternatives are urgently needed to overcome this challenge. This talk proposes to teach the East Asian board game Go inside the ESL classroom. It aims at demonstrating how EFL educators can design lessons on the game of Go that engage students actively. As the basic Go rules are simple, learners can grasp them within five minutes and have immediate hands-on activities to experience the game themselves. In addition, there are many interesting facts (i.e., history, professional players, competitions) that you can utilize when developing TL materials. In the first part of the workshop, we will elaborate on why this East Asian tradition is worth learning and what makes Go different from other board games. The second part of the workshop will focus on the basic Go rules, including some hands-on activities that you can easily use in your EFL classrooms.