Should we teach our students English grammar?

According to an article published on Jan. 19, 2005 Times Newspapers in Britian, teaching grammar to our students is not whorthwhile in terms of improving their English writing ability. However, it also reported that some scholars disagree with the results of this research.

I strongly believe that in an EFL environment teaching our students important and practical grammar is extremely essential. "Sentence combining", as the news story mentioned, is an alternative to grammar teaching in the classroom if the purpose of teaching grammar is to improve students' writing ability. Probably I should give my students more sentence combination practice in the future.

2005 EFL conferences in Taiwan - ver. 1

Happy Chinese New Year. If you are interested in English teaching-related conferences here in Taiwan in 2005, here are some of them:
1. 2005 Conference and Workshop on TEFL and Applied Linguistics,Department of Applied English, Ming Chuan University (Date: March 12 ~ March 13) (abstract deadline past already). Details about the conference can be found at the Department of Applied English at Ming Chuan University.
2. Freshman English Conference, Department of English Language and Literature, Soochow Univeristy (Date: May 7) (abstract deadline: Feb. 20). Details about the conference can be referred at the Department of English Language and Literature at Soochow University.
3. The 22nd International Conference on English Teaching and Learning in the Republic of China (ROC-TEFL), National Taiwan Normal University. (Date: June 4 ~ June 5) (abstract deadline past already). Details about the conference can be found at the Department of English at National Taiwan Normal University.
4. The Fourteenth International Symposium and Book Fair on English Teaching hedl at Chien Tan Overseas Youth Activity Center, Taipei. (Date: Nov. 11 ~ Nov. 13) (abstract deadline: Feb. 15) Details about this conference can be found at English Teachers' Association, Repbulic of China.

digital media designer class

digital_media_designer
Originally uploaded by MichaelWu.

As an English teacher who is interested in CALL, CAI, CMC, CAT, & E-learning, I think it is quite important to keep up with the latest educational technology. I got a chance to take a digital media designer class at Tamkang University, Taipei from Jan. 10, 2005 ~ Jan. 28, 2005. I learned how to use a lot of new software such as "Articualte", "Captivate", "Flash", "Photoshop", "GoldWave", and "Moodle", etc. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to practice all of them fully. In the last day, we took this group photo.