Yu Jung Han
Warner School of Education, University of Rochester
About
Yu Jung Han is an avid traveler and a proud TESOLer with 19 years of international teaching experience, first in her native country of Korea, and later in Japan and the United States. She received her Ph.D. in Education from the University of Rochester (Rochester, NY) where she is currently teaching and working. Her research interests include interest-driven language teaching and learning, transcultural fan practices and identity development as well as technology-assisted language learning.Sessions
Synchronous (Onsite) Exploring artificial intelligence (GPT-4) in TESOL: How the field should be ready more
Sun, Apr 30, 12:00-12:50 Asia/Seoul
The emerging artificial intelligence (AI) and its capacity to generate illustrations and texts using the enormous amount of data available on the internet have received researchers’ attention lately. Especially, strong AI systems such as GPT-4 can generate “poetry, dialogue, puns, literary parodies, and storytelling” (Branwen, 2020, Creative fiction section) as well as academic papers with references (Thunström, 2022) by using its “state-of-the-art machine learning algorithm” (Thunström & Steingrimsson, 2022, p. 3). In this three-part workshop, the presenter will first briefly introduce emerging artificial intelligence (AI), specifically focusing on its capability in academic writing (10 minutes). Then the audience will try GPT-based platforms to see how AI can generate texts written in academic or other genre-specific languages (30 minutes). Finally, the audience will together discuss the potentials and risks that such AI can impose in the field of TESOL, and how the field should be ready (10 minutes).
Synchronous (Onsite) Asset-enriching pedagogy for Interest-driven language learning: Tapping into students’ fannishness more
Sat, Apr 29, 14:30-14:55 Asia/Seoul
The field of TESOL has focused on how interest-driven practices (e.g., playing English-medium online games) facilitate incidental language and literacy development among language learners. Researchers have tried to bring students' interest-driven practices into formal language classrooms. This presentation shares the presenter's design-based research study on using popular pop culture content (TV shows) in her adult international English language learners in the U.S.. The presenter triangulated the three key elements - the learning potential of the target content, students' actual interest in the target content, and teacher's familiarity with the target content. Through the lens of affinity space (e.g., Gee, 2007) and L2 willingness to communicate (e.g., MacIntyre, et al., 1998), the qualitative analysis revealed how the course 1) evoked the feeling of fannishness' among the students to be more willing to communicate in English and 2) functioned as an affinity space that invited and enriched students' out-of-classroom interest-driven language practices.