Susan+Nyrop


 * Goin' Upstream**

Slides from presentaion are at: http:/[|/www.slideshare.net/susnyrop/virtual-mystery-guest-in-the-language-classroom-presentation]

Mystery guest teacher from Denmark meeting online with a university class of English language students from Belarus.

[|goinupstream.blogspot.com/]

narrated by Sus Nyrop, education community consultant, Denmark. Bio:

Susanne Nyrop is an education researcher with a special interest in multimedia, communication and online narratives of communities of practice. She works part time for the Danish ministry of education as an appointed, external examiner of bachelor exams at university colleges of social education. Sus Nyrop has followed Webheads in Action since 2001, as an active participant in multiple guest teacher sessions, online conferences and workshops. Although she is not a CALL language teacher, her frequent contacts and ongoing collaboration with such teachers has given her a good deal of practical, hands-on knowledge of this field.

See more at her online portfolio: http://susnyrop-portfolio.wikispaces.com

Authentic communication - language students meeting with a Mystery Guest teacher (blog + Elluminate)
What do language students need to develop natural conversation skills?

Meeting with foreign people while travelling is, of course more interesting when you master a shared language, and a genuine interest in the other as an intercultural exchange. Listening to each other helps – and in the case of not being a fluent language speaker, some sort of mental as well as practical, hands-on preparation for the informal mutual interview may help, too. In the more traditional classroom context, this situation can be difficult to simulate, and even though writing exercises can develop conversation skills to a certain degree, the authentic, everyday meeting with a total stranger has demonstrated positive potential. The Mystery Guest has this approach as central. The guest teacher who is volunteering for this role, sent a few hints about herself, in the shared blog. As students started with knowing nothing at all, or very little from their teacher, they were encouraged to ask curiousity questions in the blog, hoping to get cues to imagine the gender, age, country and personality of their mystery. For a period of some weeks, the mystery guest teacher is answering questions as well as posting a few more hints. She also reads the student blogs and send some comments as encouragement feedback. The culminating event took place in the synchronous meeting place, where students as a group presented a short narrative from their local cultures, with pictures, text that was also read aloud, each student was responsible for one slide. Then, their mystery guest whose identity had now been revealed, also shares a short presentation about her local context, and there are some questions and answers in the text chat accompanying the session. The surprise was students singing a capella a sentimental, traditional song using one shared microphone. As a thank you, the guest teacher also sings an improvised version of a song in her local language, totally unprepared.

Mystery guest blog:http:// http://goinupstream.blogspot.com

This was part of an English language course for university students of science and law. Their reaction afterwards was overly positive and apparently the event had been helpful for developing trustful, intercultural exchange and conversation skills.