Week 6: Specialist Option(s)

The video below explains how my partner, Keiko Sakui, and I have created online English and communication courses using the Udemy platform. These can be shared for free or purchased by anybody who uses Udemy. The specialist skills include making videos, audio, animation and editing.

Our desire to create online courses arose out of research we did on expert language teachers and a desire to emulate them and make something very practical. The following are references to that research:

Cowie, N., & Sakui, K. (2014). Take your pick: Out-of-class, blended language and Web 2.0 projects, and online. The JALT CALL Journal, 10, 3, 273-286.

Cowie, N., & Sakui, K. (2013). It’s never too late: An overview of e-learningELT Journal, 67, 4, 459-467.

Our current focus is on motivating online learners. This is a topic which we were very interested in previously and have now come back to.

February 14th 2019. How do we keep motivating learners?: Using online platforms to teach languageSoTEL Symposium. Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand. With Keiko Sakui.

Sakui, K., & Cowie, N. (2012). The dark side of motivation: Teachers’ perspectives on ‘unmotivation’ELT Journal66, 2, 205-213.

Cowie, N., & Sakui, K. (2011). Critical but neglected: EFL teachers’ perspectives on learner motivation. In G. Murray, A. Gao & T. Lamb (Eds.) Identity, Motivation, and Autonomy: Exploring the Links, pp. 212-228 Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Sakui, K., & Cowie, N. (2008). “To speak English is tedious”: Student resistance in Japanese university classrooms. In P. Kalaja, V. Menezes & A. M. Barcelos (Eds.) Narratives of EFL Teaching and Learning, pp. 98-112. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.