2009-10 Tsunami Project

Welcome to the 2009-10 Tsunami Zone Web-based English Language Teaching Materials Project

Project Goals and Materials

The goal of the Tsunami Zone Web-based English Language Teaching Materials Project is to serve secondary level Thai teachers who work in the 4 provinces damaged by the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake Tsunami. This website provides them with training and free copyable materials for teaching in English, using tsunami and other related disasters as a focus for content.

These Tsunami Zone materials are based on a communicative, integrated skills approach with activities to support the development of reading, writing, speaking and listening skills for low-proficiency English language learners. Critical Thinking Skills (as opposed to strictly lock-step memorization of facts) are incorporated, encouraging learners to develop and use problem-solving strategies and creativity in their learning tasks. Activities are also varied in style in order to create opportunities for differentiated learning and to accommodate learner preferences.

Are You Ready for E-Learning?

Ten English teachers and ten science teacher from Thailand will work together in pairs online with faculty from the University of Oregon, Linguistics Department, American English institute (UO AEI) October 4- December 10, 2010. We will use the Nicenet course management system to host our discussions.

Please try the Ready for E-Learning? self-quiz to help prepare yourself for the discussions. It has a self-scoring guide at the end with advice for people who may not yet be ready for e-learning.

Course Description

Click on Course Description to get information about the course, including the schedule and topics. You can also download the PDF file with the course description.

Assignments

The assignments are in the Course Description and linked here:

Week 1 – Week 2 – Week 3 – Week 4 – Week 5 – Week 6 – Week 7 – Week 8 – Week 9 – Week 10

Contacts

For more information, you can contact the instructor and materials developers through the Contact Form or directly:

  • Deborah Healey, PhD, dhealey@uoregon.edu
  • Leslie Opp-Beckman, PhD, leslieob@uoregon.edu