Teresa X. Nguyen is Department Chair and full-time faculty of ESL/ELL at Golden West College located in surf-city Huntington Beach, California. After receiving her Master’s in Linguistics, she became committed to teaching English both abroad and in the United States.
Her YouTube education projects, materials writing, and classrooms reflect over 15 years of learning and teaching experience. The experiential foundations for her communicative creative projects are her own struggles and successes as an international student studying abroad in Korea, Spain, and China as well as the depth and breadth of her teaching experience. Nguyen has taught specialized English to immigrant adults in corporate America and to Vietnamese programmers in corporate Vietnam. She has taught academic English to elementary, high school, undergraduate, graduate, and re-entry students from over 30 different countries. Yet her most rewarding teaching experience thus far is with immigrants and refugees.
In addition to her teaching, Nguyen is also a content creator and material writer. She is the creator of ESL Garage, a bilingual (English-Vietnamese) YouTube channel for English language learners. She is the co-author of four books including Creating Compelling Conversations: Reproducible Search and Share Activities for English Teachers (2019), 60 Positive Activities for Every Classroom (2018) and Compelling Conversation-Vietnam: Speaking Exercises for Vietnamese Learners of English( 2016).
Additionally, Nguyen has presented at several teacher conferences including TESOL international conferences in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania (2022), Seattle, Washington (2018), and the Autumn Virtual International Publishers Exhibition hosted in Greece (2021). Her dynamic presentations focus on the optimal use of EdTech pedagogy and student mental health. One of her most memorable experiences is being a English Language Specialist for the U.S. Embassy in Jordan to produce short videos teaching basic, everyday English (2021).
A mother to a Dare Devil and a Princess, Nguyen likes to sit with a nice cup of barley tea when she has time for herself.
At ELT Summit 2022, Teresa will speak on ‘Ten Popular Activities and Microlessons to Engage English Students Via Zoom’.
Talk abstract
Post Covid, we teach and learn in a different world of online classes. Come learn easy activities that aim to create engaging experiences for our students online. This interactive workshop/ presentation introduces and shares over ten simple, popular exercises to use in online classes/meetings to infuse some extra joy into online classes.
This presentation provides some Zoom-friendly activities to kick off class sessions, add moments of delight, or wrap up English classes. The flexible micro-lessons – appropriate for middle school and high school to adult school and university classes – can build rapport (Spirit Days), help students express themselves (Virtual Background, Grab, Show and Tell), . Other Zoom icebreakers develop a stronger working vocabulary with Chat prompts and story lines, and create a more relaxed learning environment (Virtual Tour, Talent Show), leading to positive experiences for language learners and teachers. Attendees will share their own authentic responses in this lively workshop for English language teachers and trainers.
