Dr. Dr. Power Learning

As it turns out, I'll be presenting in two sessions at TESOL's Elevate conference this year 🎉! Both are recorded presentations in the Technology Integration strand 💻📱.

📌 Enhancing Language Learning Through Mobile and Task-Based Approaches
📌 Integrating Multimodal and Multilingual AI-Powered Texting Into the Language Classroom

Excited to be in the same category as Grazzia María Mendoza, who will present Generative AI: Dos, Don’ts, and How-Tos 🤖✨!

Here's more information on how you can register for the conference: https://www.tesol.org/elevate-registration/

At the EnglishUSA conference this year, it was interesting to see a panel of test developers presenting 11 proficiency and placement tests currently competing in the U.S. and beyond 🌎. In alphabetical order, and represented by colleagues from left to right in the picture, are:
📌 Duolingo English Test
📌 IELTS
📌 Integrated Skills in English (ISE) by Trinity College
📌 iTEP Academic
📌 iTEP Placement
📌 Michigan English Placement Test (Michigan-EPT)
📌 Michigan English Test (MET)
📌 Oxford English Language Level Test (ELLT)
📌 Oxford Spotlight
📌 Pearson Test of English (PTE) Academic
📌 TOEFL iBT

In the U.S., the TOEFL iBT has undoubtedly been the most widely accepted test by universities 🏫, with ETS reporting a 100% acceptance rate 💯.

IELTS claims to have 4 million test-takers globally 🌍, making it the most taken proficiency test for higher education and migration ✈️, according to the British Council's website. However, in the U.S., IELTS still has room to grow 📈 in terms of acceptance among universities.

The Duolingo English Test (DET) has been gaining popularity due to its low cost 💸 ($65) and convenience. Duolingo reports that the test is accepted by over 5,000 institutions worldwide 🌐.

Pearson PTE, a product of Pearson—a company with over 30,000 employees globally 👩‍💼👨‍💼—has also been gaining traction 🚀. I recently learned that the Pearson English International Certificate (PEIC) has been approved by Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Training for university admissions in the country 🇻🇳.

The Michigan English Test and Michigan-EPT have long been popular in the U.S. 🇺🇸. During my 12 years as Director of the English Language Program at Chatham University 🎓, I used the Michigan-EPT as a placement test. Its paper format was a convenient option for students arriving during orientation or for those needing make-up tests 📄.

iTEP has also been added to the list of accepted tests at many universities 🏛️. I found it interesting to learn about the Oxford Spotlight, which allows programs to customize tests for placement purposes 🎯.

Seeing so many tests side by side and hearing from the panelists as they highlighted their distinguishing features was insightful 💡. I plan to take both the iTEP and Pearson PTE to experience them as a test-taker 🎓.

Some additional observations:

IELTS emphasizes its in-person interview 🗣️, offering students comfort in speaking with a human and its variety of test tasks.

TOEFL, with its long-standing reputation in U.S. higher education 🎓, recently reduced its testing time to under two hours ⏱️ but maintains a solid standing.

The Duolingo English Test, designed as digital-first and adaptive 💻, offers efficiency, but some tasks feel less authentic compared to traditional tests 🧐. Duolingo is actively working to demonstrate the test's reliability, validity, and innovation 🔬.

In addition to test information, I want to highlight a few thoughts on the learning process 📚:

A colleague at the conference pointed out EF's suggestion that it takes about 1,200 hours of study to reach C2 📊. To me, this seems like an underestimate, unless it assumes additional time spent outside the classroom 🏫.

An article from Pearson suggests that achieving C1 as a beginner could take between 1,520 and 4,491 hours ⏳, depending on various factors such as the target language's difficulty, motivation 🔥, aptitude 🧠, and learning context 🏠.

In Korea 🇰🇷, students preparing for IELTS over 12 weeks with 284 hours of study and 272 hours of language use improved their IELTS band score by an average of 0.3 📈, totaling over 550 hours combined.

These findings underscore the significant number of hours required to reach a high level of English proficiency 🏆. As I mentioned to a colleague from IELTS USA, this aligns with the principle of needing 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill 🎯.

Another observation, supported by research 🧪, is that entertainment technologies like YouTube and games 🎮 have had a greater impact on language learning than many language learning apps. Apps like mine (Eduling Speak and Pangea Chat) serve specific purposes but don’t cover the full spectrum of language acquisition 🌐.

❓ What is research?
📄 What are the common parts of a research paper?
👥 How do you describe participants, instruments, data collection, and data analysis in the method section of your research paper?
📊 What do variables, correlation, descriptive statistics, and more mean?
🔍 How do you identify sources for your paper?
📚 What are scholarly sources?
✏️ How can you use APA citations?
📝 How do you put together a reference list using APA?

🌟 My Conducting and Reporting Research course will help you answer these questions and more in the most digestible and succinct way. Here's what it offers:

📄 Real-World Examples: The course uses a well-known published paper on foreign language enjoyment and foreign language anxiety to make all the information concrete.
📝 Hands-On Practice: Learners receive a sample instrument to collect their own data, plus a dataset to analyze.
🔍 Step-by-Step Guidance: Think it's too complicated? It’s not! The course walks you through each step, one at a time.

🎓 Research Fundamentals: Think it’s too simple? It’s not! The course covers the essential research fundamentals and guides you on how to report research clearly for reviewers and readers. Having reviewed many submitted articles, I’ve noticed that clarity in presenting information is often lacking.
🌐 Streamlined Content: Could you search for all this online? Maybe, but I've made it simpler and clearer by carefully sequencing the content and providing examples.

💸 Affordable Pricing: Get access for just $3.99 for the first month and $7.99 per month after that, with self-paced access in the Eduling Speak app. Check out this plan I'm offering, too: https://www.eduling.org/product-page/eduling-speak-3-month-premium
📝 Feedback: If you'd like feedback on your writing, I have an option for that, too.

NEXT STEP
📲Download the app from the App Store or Play Store or with this link: share.eduling.org/edulingspeak
👉Search for Conducting and Reporting Research in tab Learn

Happy learning!

🚀 Introducing a brand new, one-of-a-kind, and innovative course: Developing Communicative Tasks—designed to empower teachers with tools and inspiration to create engaging communicative tasks for their classroom! 🎓✨It's FREE as a gift to teachers for the beginning of the semester and school year!

🔍 Exploration of TBLT and criteria of tasks:
Hear from Professor Rod Ellis, a world-renowned applied linguist, defining Task-based Language Teaching in a webinar clip. 🎤

📚 Key course components:
Learn the four key criteria for designing tasks. 💡
Explore a variety of task types presented by Dr. Linh Phung and Dr. Nguyen. 🗂️
Break down essential strategies for successful task implementation. 🛠️

💥 Action-oriented learning:
Access step-by-step examples easily adaptable for your own teaching. 📝
Experience tasks firsthand using the Eduling Speak app. 📲

💭 Outcomes:
By the end of the course, you'll be bursting with ideas, ready to create transformative tasks for your classroom—or even for publication! ✍️

🎥 Course structure:
5 engaging modules packed with videos, short readings, and quizzes to keep you on track. 📖

🚀 Next steps:
Download the Eduling Speak app and search for Developing Communicative Tasks to get started and enjoy this exciting learning journey! 🌟 Use this link to download the app on your mobile phone: share.eduling.org/edulingspeak

NEW COURSE: CONDUCTING AND REPORTING RESEARCH 🎓
Are you in college and learning to write research papers?📑 Are you expected to conduct academic research for a class or as a graduation requirement? 🧪📝Do you want to better understand data collection, data analysis, and APA citations? Would you like to start publishing? If the answer is yes to any of those, I think you'll like a brand new course in Eduling Speak.

MORE INFORMATION
This course guides learners step-by-step through planning, conducting, and reporting their very own primary research study. 📝🔍

Throughout the course, learners will discover what research truly entails, craft clear research questions, collect and analyze data effectively, and report and discuss findings with confidence. 💡📊 Plus, they will gain proficiency in using APA citations. 📚

Our engaging short videos 🎥 and interactive quizzes make learning these concepts a breeze, while practical assignments allow learners to apply what they've learned in a real-world project. 🌐 EdulingAI will be there to help brainstorm ideas, plan your research, and reflect on your progress. 🤖🧠

By the end of this course, learners be more confident writers, researchers, and critical readers of research. ✍️📖

HOW TO GET STARTED? 🚀
Download Eduling Speak from the App Store or Google Play Store or through this link: share.eduling.org/edulingspeak 📲
Open tab Learn. Search for "Conducting and Reporting Research". 🔍
Start learning! 🎉

Download a free Course Guide with many extra materials here: https://www.eduling.org/product-page/course-guide-conducting-and-reporting-research

Join our global conversation at 8:30am US ET today https://discord.gg/3R8uFEny

Improve your study skills, learn new content, and acquire language at the same time with the How to Become a Power Learner course in the Eduling Speak app. 📚🌟 The course features:

🎥Short videos with pop-up questions ❓
🤖Brainstorming and reflection conversations with AI 💭
📝Quizzes to test your knowledge ✅

The course can be finished in 4 weeks with 3-5 minutes a day. As an example, the schedule for Week 1 includes:

1. Video: Introducing Power Learning 🎬
2. Conversation with AI: Setting up a Medium-term Plan 🗣️🗓️
3. Video: Setting up Medium-term Goals 🎯
4. Conversation with AI: Vision and Goals 🗣️🔍
5. Video: Making Good Study Plans 📝
6. Conversation with AI: Study Plan for Week 1 🗣️📅
7. Video: Rehearse to Reinforce Learning 🎥🔄
8. Video: Spending Two Thinking Minutes ⏳💡
9. Quiz: Module 1 Quiz 📝📊
10. Conversation with AI: Study Reflection for Week 1 🗣️🤔

More are available for Week 2, Week 3, and Week 4! 📆📈

Put these strategies into practice, and you'll be a effective power learner ready to tackle any learning tasks. 🚀🌟

To get started:
1. Download the Eduling Speak app from the App Store or Google Play or with this link: share.eduling.org/edulingspeak
2. Go to Learn and look for How to Become a Power Learner

Two American students waiting to talk to you in our Discord channel. Join us now if you'd like to talk: https://discord.gg/6M2MVm6C

About 400 registrants (I heard) and over 70 participants on Zoom, it was like seeing fireworks 🎆. In hindsight, I exerted too much energy as I'd always love a more relaxing pace without too much content in a presentation 😅.

That said, I think I delivered the messages that I wanted to deliver:
🧑‍🏫 We learn new tools all the time, but we keep the fundamental education principles at the center.
🌍 We create the porous classroom to extend learning beyond the classroom, bring learning in, and learn with students.
📚 Lifelong learning and learning to learn are essential to move forward in today's evolving world.

The most influential applications in teaching to drive learning to me include:
📖🎧📺 Access to engaging materials and content through extensive reading, listening, and viewing.
💻 Using tasks to promote communication and language development with the mediation of technology when needed.
🎮 Facilitating learner engagement with or without gamification.
🤖 Realizing the potential of AI.

I didn't cover virtual exchange in detail, but the Discord project I briefly mentioned, the Eduling Speak app, and the Pangea Chat app are meant to facilitate international and intercultural communication 🌐. In fact, Eduling International is organizing weekly global conversations in Discord, and this is the invite link for this week: https://discord.gg/6M2MVm6C.

If teachers want to try and experiment with my app, please let me know, and I'll walk you through 🧑‍💻.

Thank you Childhood Education International for organizing the event and having me. Thanks to some colleagues that I briefly saw in the chat or on screen Ali Kılınc, Fayyaz Malik, Gabriela Rodriguez, and others!

My PPT is now on my website:https://www.eduling.org/_files/ugd/03159e_ac13ac1535f04fba91a1c61f8ab6df4e.pdf

The first half of the presentation is on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYfNgV5Iq9g&t=2413s

Other resources are on my webpage: eduling.org/drlinhphung

Starting

It was a pleasure presenting to Catesol: CA Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages yesterday to talk about Task-based Language Teaching to Promote Oral Communication. Thanks Marsha J Chan and colleagues for organizing and having me.

I covered the usual topics that I've been covering when talking about TBLT, but I also shared something new. I'm creating tasks that learners can complete with AI. This is an example of a decision making task between me and EdulingAI. It has not yet been published, but we now have a structure to create all kinds of multimodal tasks and see how learners perform them with AI.

In another task, my daughter was able to describe a flower for the AI to guess what it is. In the presentation, I used the term "struggle with language" several times because I do think that is where learning happens. Learner language samples must be way more interesting than my sample below because you'll see when learning happens.

Despite the potential of AI, I still believe in creating opportunities for learner-learner interaction, so the duo tasks in the Eduling Speak app are still something unique and special that learners can take advantage of. We have weekly Discover conversation hours to connect learners also.

I will be sharing my slides after finalizing them and sharing them with the host first.

Link to download the app: share.eduling.org/edulingspeak