AOK Basic Skills Project
Portland, Maine
E: kirkjohnb5@gmail.com
W: www.aokbasicskills.gratis
2021-11-20
Re: Workshop: “Studying English with Internet, the CEFR and the Biography Section of the European Language Portfolio (ELP): students levels A2-B1”
Dear Director:
I’m a semi-retired ESOL teacher over 65 and lived in Ecuador for over 10 years before recently relocating to Portland, Maine in the U.S. I am the director of AOK, a charitable educational effort and my retirement project that was connected to my English school in Quito. AOK is not an organization. AOK specializes in teaching basic skills in ESOL, native speaker Spanish, and nutrition. During the past three years, I have written 20 AOK Basic Skill Workshops and before the Pandemic presented many of them throughout the Ecuadorian Sierra.
The workshops are related to my effort to encourage the UN to offer different websites in support of their 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Recently, I have completed a workshop for ESOL A2-B1 students that I would like to share at no cost.
Workshop summary
The workshop takes place in 50 minutes and includes a file with free to use English language learning websites which are organized, annotated and contain a number of sites for levels A2-B1. Through Power Point, I explain how to connect the basic skills objectives of the CEFR standards with free online learning materials at the A2-B1 levels and the student’s English texts.
I also offer a brief introduction on how to use and evaluate metacognitive and cognitive learning strategies at these levels. These strategies are part of the “Biography Section” of the European Language Portfolio (ELP). The ELP is the primary tool used for language learning in Europe. I use a series of handouts to support the instruction. The presentation is mostly in English, and there is a detailed bibliography to support the materials I use. I would be pleased to work with the workshop director on any follow-up activities.
The long-term purpose of the workshop
The long-term objective of the workshop is to encourage the United Nations to provide an Independent Language Learning (ILL) website by 2030 in support of its Sustainable Development Goal No. 4: Quality Education. With permission, I do this by asking the students to complete voluntary and anonymous evaluations of the workshop that include the question: “Do they consider a U.N. ILL website a good idea?”
Registration
Because the language study materials I use are written for non-commercial purposes, I do not charge for the presentation. I am registered with the National Human Talent Directorate in Ecuador…
Sincerely,
John B. Kirk, Director
E: kirkjohnb5@gmail.com