LCC TESOL instructor, Erin Bronsink, travels with a purpose. Read about Erin’s adventures last summer in Kyrgyzstan in her own words.

“This past spring I had the opportunity to travel to Kyrgyzstan for a short-term project and research opportunity. There were two major components to this trip. The first part was to lead a small conference for teachers in the TokMok area, hosted by a local organization, Mercy Foundation. The content of the conference focused largely on assessment. Each morning, the conference began with community time to allow for networking and collaboration for the teachers who were attending. In addition to this, the conference offered a mixture of plenary sessions and workshops.

Session topics ranged from teaching and encouraging young learners to do research, to incorporating technology into classrooms, working with challenging students, to a variety of seminars on assessment. One of the workshops that I co-lead was titled Innovative Methods of Assessment. The focus of this was to provide new ways to creatively assess students to gauge learning.  In this workshop, we helped teachers think outside the box regarding assessment and move beyond traditional tests. Another session, Effective Ongoing Evaluation, addressed the importance of developing a constant awareness of where students are at in language learning. Rather than limiting testing to a formal, high-stakes exam, we encouraged teachers to implement both formal and informal methods of evaluating and measuring progress.

The second portion of the trip was also focused on assessment, but in two different contexts. We partnered with two different schools in TokMok. The first school was the Humanities and Technical College (HTC), which is a vocational school that prepares students for future careers in technology; the second school was the International University of Central Asia (IUCA) which is a university based on the American model of higher education.

Both schools asked for an English language proficiency exam to get a better sense of their students’ English level. For this purpose, we designed a multi-part language proficiency test that was administered over the course of several days. In addition to determining the proficiency levels of the students, we also decided to incorporate mindfulness activities prior to testing to lower the affective filter. Many students reported feeling quite anxious prior to taking these assessments, as the results of these tests would have implications for their future course schedule. As a result of this experience, I am now collaborating with others to further research if mindfulness activities can help reduce anxiety among students prior to taking assessments.”

Erin Bronsink earned her MA TESOL from Azusa Pacific University. She has taught English in the U.S., Kazakhstan, China, Tunisia, Myanmar, and Iraq. She enjoys grammar and learning new languages. Erin teaches writing and research courses at LCC.

Author: Robin Gingerich, Ph.D., MA TESOL Program Director at LCC International University.