Gordon Tapper

 

My work:  I am currently the coordinator of Academic Spoken English at the University of Florida working in the fields of ESL and ITA (international teaching assistants) training.  I am also the current Chair of the ITA Interest Section of TESOL International for 2007-2008.

 

Currently teaching (Fall 2007)

 

EAP 5836 (#2876/2877): Tuesdays 9:35 am – 11:30 am – Supervised teaching for International Teaching Assistants.

 

In past semesters I have taught more general ESL courses:

EAP 5937 – 2-credit summer course.  No prerequisites.  General oral communications in English course.  This course includes a pronunciation lab.

 

Campus Culture – The communication and culture of the US university:  an ESL orientation.   This course was offered at the English Language Institute at the University of Florida.

 

 

Conference Presentations/ Publications

 

2007

World Englishes and ITA training, Academic Panel moderator, TESOL, March 23, Seattle, WA.

Co-constructing respect in ITA classroom discourse, presentation with Virginia LoCastro, TESOL, March 22, Seattle, WA.

 

2006

International teaching assistants and identity construction: politeness in classroom interactions, poster with Virginia LoCastro, AAAL, June 17, Montreal, Canada.

A research-informed approach to international teaching assistant preparation, book chapter with Kathy Kidder in Professional Development of International Teaching Assistants, eds., Dorit Kaufman and Barbara Brownsworth.  TESOL publications, March.

International teaching assistants and identity construction, presentation with Virginia LoCastro, TESOL, March 15, Tampa, FL.

 

2005

Accommodating to US academic teaching norms: identity construction, presentation with Virginia LoCastro, International conference on interrogating third spaces in language teaching, learning, and use, June 28, Leicester, UK.

Accommodating to US academic teaching norms: cross-cultural pragmatics, presentation with Virginia LoCastro, 16th Annual International Conference on Pragmatics and Language Learning, Bloomington, Indiana.

Validating the new TOEFL Academic Speaking Test, TESOL, San Antonio, TX.

 

2004

International teaching assistants as intercultural communications resources, TESOL, Long Beach, CA.

 

2002

Adding a research component to your ITA program, TESOL, Salt Lake City, UT.

ITA professionals as ethical gatekeepers, discussion session, TESOL, Salt Lake City, UT

 

2001

Stimulating critical self-awareness through the use of videotaped presentations, South East Regional TESOL, Miami, FL

 

2000

Sunshine State TESOL (May 13, 2000) presentation – Lesson planning advanced academic oral communications courses: heading towards failure.

 

Contact information:

 

Gordon Tapper, Coordinator and Senior Lecturer

Academic Spoken English

Yon Hall 313

University of Florida

PO Box 115454

Gainesville, FL 32611-5454

http://ase.ufl.edu