NETRUZ Teacher-Researchers' Projects

The NETRUZ teacher-researchers explored their teaching practices, identified challenges or puzzles and took actions to bring changes to their classroom. Their fantastic exploratory action research projects were presented at the ReSIG: Teachers Research! Online 2021 International Conference on December 11, 2021 at 14:00 (UK time) or 19:00 (Tashkent time).

Did you watch the wonderful presentations of NETRUZ teacher-researchers at the ReSIG: Teachers Research! Online 2021 International Conference?

If no, these teacher-researchers recorded their exploratory action research projects for you.

Malika Mirvokhidova, EAP teacher, TEAM University, Uzbekistan

Link to the padlet: Ensuring students` engagement in task completion

Dildora Khallyeva, ESP teacher, University of World Economy and Diplomacy, Uzbekistan

Link to the padlet: Students’ low level of motivation while studying remotely

Feruza Erkulova, EFL Teacher, PhD Student, Namangan State University, Uzbekistan

Link to the padlet: Making online grammar learning engaging for students

Dilafruz Sarimsakova, EFL Teacher, Namangan State University, Uzbekistan

Link to the padlet: Motivating students to develop their autonomy

Ella Maksakova, EAP Teacher Researcher, British Management University in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Link to the padlet: Strategies for pairing EAP foundation year students for speaking activities

Nilufar Tillaeva, Adjunct Professor, Webster University in Tashkent

Link to the presentation: How to develop critical thinking in students’ writing

ReSIG: Teachers Research! Online 2021 International Conference

ReSIG: Teachers Research! Online 2021 International Conference - December 10-11, 2021

NETRUZ's 6 teacher-researchers have done fantastic exploratory action research projects. They explored their teaching practices and took actions to bring changes into their classroom.  These teacher-researchers will be presenting at the ReSIG: Teachers Research! Online 2021 International Conference on December 11, 2021 at 14:00 (UK time)/ 19:00 (Tashkent time). 

Who are these wonderful teacher-researchers?

 Ensuring students` engagement in task completion

 Malika Mirvokhidova, EAP teacher

TEAM University, Uzbekistan

Teachers expect from their learners active participation and completed tasks. However, expectations are not always met and this can make teachers more encouraged to explore their classroom practices. This presentation aims to share the EAR findings, which focuses on challenges related to student engagement and task completion and the ways to overcome them.

Students’ low level of motivation while studying remotely

Dildora Khallyeva, ESP teacher

University of World Economy and Diplomacy, Uzbekistan

This talk is aimed at those who would like to learn how to increase students’ motivation to study online. I will also share my research findings on the reasons for students’ low motivation and suggest some feasible ways of making them more engaged in online classes.

Making online grammar learning engaging for students

Feruza Erkulova, EFL Teacher, PhD Student

Namangan State University, Uzbekistan

School graduates are required to take grammar tests to enter national universities. This is the reason why they mainly focus on their grammar development. This research investigates the difficulties students faced while studying grammar online. It also suggests ways to overcome these difficulties.

Motivating students to develop their autonomy

 Dilafruz Sarimsakova, EFL Teacher

Namangan State University, Uzbekistan

Developing autonomous learning has always been a core issue in ELT for years as it promotes students with a positive environment, motivating, encourages collaboration, and social interaction. The presentation refers to my EAR results on how to motivate students to develop their autonomy.

Strategies for pairing EAP foundation year students for speaking activities

 Ella Maksakova, EAP Teacher Researcher

British Management University in Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Being an EAP teacher at a foundation year program at EMI university in a non-English-speaking country imposes some context-specific challenges on teaching and learning EAP. The purpose of this research is to share the findings on the reasons for the unwillingness of EAP students to participate in speaking pair work activities and consequently on changes observed after some actions were taken.

How to develop critical thinking in students’ writing

 Nilufar Tillaeva, Adjunct Professor

Webster University in Tashkent

EFL learners usually find writing challenging due to which they can become less motivated and engaged in it. The research focuses on how the integration of critical thinking in writing activities influence their language development.

The presentation sessions by NETRUZ teacher-researchers (ROOM 3) will be livestreamed in the following Facebook group: 

Room 3 – https://www.facebook.com/groups/mentoringTR [Mentoring Teacher-research Facebook group]

Stay tuned,

NETRUZ

Handbook of Formative Assessment Practices

Within the project which was supported by Hornby Trust and British Council, the Handbook of Formative Assessment Practices was developed. This Handbook of formative assessment practices will introduce five main strategies of formative assessment suggested by scholars and help teachers to know how to integrate formative assessment in their classroom processes. These strategies, if used, have the potential to improve the learning processes of students, leading to quality education.

This Handbook consists of two parts: Training materials and Articles. The first part of the book is a collection of (self) training materials produced by local experienced teachers and teacher educators E. Menglieva, G. Niyazova, and G. Tojieva. The second part of the Handbook is an edited collection of research articles written by teachers and teacher educators working at local and international universities in Uzbekistan. The units and research articles were reviewed and edited by Elyanora Meglieva, the Project Lead, Nilufar Begibaeva, Republican research centre for the development of innovative methods in teaching foreign languages, Uzbekistan and Inomiddin Imomov, Inservice and retraining institute of managers and specialist personnel of public education system named after A.Avloniy.

The main reason for publishing this Handbook is to offer English language teachers to explore formative assessment practices, implement some of the outlined strategies in their teaching context and reflect on their formative assessment experience. The first part of the Handbook with training materials can be completed individually or in groups with colleagues. This Handbook can be used informally for your own reflections on your formative assessment practices, for teacher training workshops organised in your educational institutions, etc. Besides, the research articles selected for this publication offer some useful insights into the assessment practices in the context of Uzbekistan.

 To download the Handbook, go to this link: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ke12QbLncimOHVSBXkzz0JSUqJ-JnWbI?usp=sharing

Teacher Training on Formative Assessment Practices: Special Guest Speakers

The NETRUZ has started its teacher training course on Formative Assessment Practices. This training has been organised with the support of Hornby Trust and the British Council. There are ... guest speakers who will be presenting in this training. The NETRUZ is grateful to our guest speakers for their kind help and support.

Guest speaker Day 1: Dr. Bahia Diefenbach, USA

Dr. Bahia Diefenbach, an Instructional Design and Assessment expert, has extensive experience in teaching as well as in designing, developing, and implementing EFL/ESL training materials and curricula. She has strong leadership skills and a proven record to initiate, design, and implement innovative ideas while supporting and inspiring team members she works with. She has the ability to foster growth and interest, and to promote success. Dr. Bahia Diefenbach’s work experience in diverse cultural environments makes her adaptable to frequent changes. She has a positive attitude and effective communication skills. She is very approachable, easy to work with, and has already been proven to be a great asset to teachers and colleagues in Uzbekistan. 

  

Guest speaker Day 3: Khanh-Duc Kuttig, Germany

Khanh-Duc has an MA in TESOL from Canterbury Christ Church University (UK) and has been teaching English since 1995. Currently in the Department of English as the University of Siegen, she teaches a range of language courses on the teaching degree. She is Events Coordinator for her local teaching association as well as IATEFL’s Teacher Training and Education SIG. She is also newsletter co-editor for the TESOL Teacher Education Interest Section and is TESOL/NGL 2021 Teacher of the Year.

Guest speaker Day 4: Charlotte Benham, USA

Charlotte Benham is from Massachusetts and completed her BA in History in 2007 and her CELTA in Montréal, Canada. She started her teaching career as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Nepal in 2009. Since then, Charlotte has worked as a teacher and administrator for ESL programs in the United States, Nepal, Bangladesh, and the United Arab Emirates. Ms. Benham has extensive experience in working with students transitioning from high school to university. Her interests lie in developing students’ critical thinking skills and the relationship between reading comprehension and academic writing. Now, she is working as an EAP teacher at British Management University in Tashkent.


Guest speaker Day 6: Prof. Lic. Andres Villalba, Argentina

Andrés Villalba is an EFL teacher with a BA in Applied Linguistics from Universidad Nacional del Litoral de Santa Fe, Argentina, and a specialization from Ohio University in USA. Andrés delivers conferences about education for universities, ministries of education and teachers’ associations in Argentina and abroad. This year he has received the Tesol International Association Award for International Participation.

Guest speaker Day 7: Kari Miller, Ecuador

Kari Miller has been a teacher and teacher educator since 1995. She has taught and trained teachers around Ecuador, working closely with various universities in Quito and Guayaquil to design and write professional development courses for secondary and higher education professors. In addition to giving courses to university professors in Quito, Guayaquil, and Ibarra, she has also participated in various writing projects, including co-authoring the Uncover for Ecuador series (Cambridge University Press), and The Academic Books 1, 2, 3, and 4. She co-authored the National EFL curriculum implemented by the Ministry of Education in 2016. Her work has been presented in several international conventions. Her latest research work was presented at TESOL 2021.

Guest speaker Day 7: Dr. Laura Loder Buechel, Switzerland

Laura Loder Buechel (https://phzh.ch/personen/laura.loder) is a teacher trainer at Zurich University of Teacher Education and an editor of the Swiss journal of language education, Babylonia (https://babylonia.online/ ). She did her undergraduate work at La Salle University (Philadelphia, USA), her graduate work at Northern Arizona University and her doctorate at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland.

Guest speaker Day 8: Dr. Lena Barrantes, Costa Rica

Dr. Lena Barrantes holds a Ph.D. from the University of Calgary in Canada. She started her career by completing an English Teaching Major. Then, she completed a Licentiate’s program in Applied Linguistics with an emphasis on English as a Foreign Language, a master's degree in Second Languages and Cultures and a master's degree in Educational Management with an Emphasis in Leadership. She has been an EFL instructor and teacher trainer for 20 years in Costa Rica, at Universidad Nacional, Sede Regional Brunca. She also worked for the Ministry of Public Education teaching young learners for 8 years. She has shared her research and practice contributions in national and international conferences, and published in journals in the area in Canada, Mexico, Spain, Argentina, Costa Rica, and Peru.

Teacher Training on Formative Assessment Practices for School Teachers

Dear English language teachers of schools,

The NETRUZ is organising a teacher training course on Formative Assessment Practices during July 6 - 15. The main aim of this project is to increase school teachers’ awareness of alternative assessment practices, encourage teachers to reflect on classroom assessment practices, equip teachers with practical formative assessment tools.

The training is organised by local teachers, teacher educators, and teacher trainers working at educational institutions of Uzbekistan and the world. Our guest speakers are from countries such as Germany, Switzerland, Argentina, the USA, etc.

• If you are an English language teacher working at schools of Uzbekistan (public, presidential, private, etc.),
• If you are interested in learning more about formative assessment practices,
• If you are interested in improving your students' learning with the help of formative assessment,
• If you want to learn more about the NETRUZ project, APPLY for this training.

Register in advance for the training via the following link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIkdemrrDopHt2V_j3aoi7INH34UNXJmSDW 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the sessions.

Please note that the number of places is limited, so apply as early as possible.