2012 Daegu-Gyeongbuk

Workshop Schedule

 March 2012 Workshop 

Kongju Suh has this to say about her Presentation: "Teaching writing in English has been my key interest for years. In 2011, I had the fortunate chance to teach English writing skills to high school first year students. My main concern is motivating the students to write something in English, and my assumption is that students may enjoy writing if they believe they can write. My assumption comes from noticing that students often fear making mistakes because their written work will be scored by their teacher, and this tends to be a major block for them to start writing. During the class I taught last year, instead of giving them pressure, I tried to encourage them to enjoy their writing. In the first semester, I checked how the students’ knowledge about writing helped their writing skills, and in the second semester, I tried to observe the relationship between their writing topics and their interest in writing. The results were awesome; at the end of the second semester, many of the students actually came to enjoy writing. In the last writing test, most students succeeded in fulfilling the word limit I had set for them. This included 60 words for 15 minutes and 80 words for 20 minutes, which is similar to the NEAT (National English Ability Test) standard. During this presentation, I will share some of my experiences, and help the participants understand how they can also have a similar outcome with their students."

Kongju Suh has been working as an English teacher since 1993. She received two Masters degrees, majoring in English Education, in 1997 and 2001. She received the SIT Best Practices in TESOL certificate in 2008 and also completed the Teacher Education Consultant Course in 2011. She received a TEE Master Certificate issued by Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education in December, 2010.  Since 2003. her major interest has been in teaching writing in the EFL context, and in relation to this topic she has been involved in the novice teacher training program and in-service teacher training programs of Daegu Metropolitan Office of Education. You can contact Kongju Suh at prss727@empal.com or 010-5004-5323.