Visiting Taiwan

It's official. I'm travelling to Taiwan at the beginning of May to take part in Oxford Day. My talk is going to be on critical thinking and vocabulary and how the two are intertwined. In addition to Oxford Day in Taipei and Taichung, I'll also be making presentations at National Cheng Kung University (http://www.ncku.edu.tw/) and National Kaohsiung First University of Science & Technology (http://www.nkfust.edu.tw/). Here is some more information about my talk along with the poster:

Unlocking the Potential: Creative Thinking Skills and Lexical Proficiency

As English Language Learners ready themselves for participation in the globalized world of the 21st Century, a focus on inquiry, creative thinking, and problem solving is fast coming to the forefront of English language teaching. In order to employ critical thinking skills such as these, students require increasingly sophisticated levels of lexical proficiency. Exploration of the lexical demands of novice academic writing at the post-secondary level reveals vocabulary benchmarks and directions for language instruction that foster critical thinking skills and successful writing. In examining these aspects of vocabulary teaching and learning, seminar participants are encouraged to reflect critically on the presented ideas and plan strategies for unlocking the cognitive and academic English language potential of their students.

http://www.oup.com.tw/pics/2012OxfordDay/main.html
http://www.oup.com.tw/pics/2012NKFUT/main.html