Educators who focus on teaching non-English speakers can learn new tips and tricks at the Wise ESL Symposium at Missouri University of Science and Technology this May.

The Wise ESL Symposium will be held at 1 p.m. Friday, May 19, in the Southwestern Bell Cultural Center at Missouri S&T, located at 1207 N. Elm St. in Rolla. This event is free and open to the public.

The symposium will include three sessions during the afternoon. “The One-Point Multiskills Analysis,” best suited for university intensive English programs (IEP), will start at 1 p.m. “Read-a-thon Activity” for K-12 education, and “Head-to-Toe Method” of associations for vocabulary acquisition, which can be used for both K-12 and IEP education, will begin at approximately 3 p.m. The symposium is a Applied Language Institute event, part of the office of international and cultural affairs at S&T.

Patrick Randolph, lecturer of English as a second language lecturer at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, will be the guest speaker for the event. Randolph teaches curriculum development, materials development, class assessment and student assessment at the university. He is the author of six books and specializes in creating learning activities for language skills classes. Randolph is a member of Mid-America Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (MIDTESOL) and has received a number of awards for presentations at the annual TESOL international conference.

The symposium is dedicated to the late Dr. James N. Wise, professor emeritus of English at Missouri S&T, and his wife, Hester Wise. James Wise was the first chair of the department when it became a dedicated subject at S&T in 1984. Hester Wise has taught courses in the Intensive English Program at Missouri S&T since its formation in 1993.

“We’re very excited to host Patrick Randolph as a guest speaker for the symposium and hope to be able to immediately apply some of what we learn there to our classroom curricula,” says Roberta Morgan, director of programs in international and cultural affairs at S&T. “Anyone with an interest in teaching or who wants to better understand the ESL educational process is invited to attend and learn along with us.”

Missouri S&T’s Applied Language Institute develops ongoing language programs for S&T’s international community through the Intensive English Program. Its mission is to assist international students in attaining the proficiency level needed to meet language standards and promote a successful transition to academic programs.

For more information about the Applied Language Institute, visit ali.mst.edu. To learn more about the symposium, call 573-3341-7753.