Speaker
Description
Vietnam faces a stark pedagogical paradox: an ambitious national mandate for systemic bilingualism (Decision No. 2371/QĐ-TTg, 2024) colliding with chronic resource constraints in classrooms across the country. Meeting this challenge demands innovative, scalable frameworks that teachers can implement now, without waiting for infrastructure to catch up. This workshop argues that Google's NotebookLM offers exactly that — a low-cost, replicable model for building English language proficiency that any teacher with a smartphone can begin using today.
Specifically, this workshop demonstrates how NotebookLM's dual-speaker Audio Overviews can train top-down listening comprehension while simultaneously positioning students as active producers of language, not passive consumers. Participants will experience the full workflow firsthand: curating a NotebookLM source set around a target listening topic, generating and critically evaluating an Audio Overview for immediate classroom use, and adapting the same production pipeline to at least one additional language skill. A brief orientation situates AI as a personalized linguistic partner across all four skills before the group moves into extended, guided practice with listening as the central example.
Attendees will leave with three transferable outcomes: a ready-to-deploy listening activity built during the session, a replicable content-creation workflow adaptable across skill areas, and a practical understanding of how to transform static curricular inputs into dynamic, multi-modal learning environments. Participants can complete the exercise on a smartphone, though a laptop or tablet is preferred. These are the classroom-level building blocks for operationalizing Vietnam's national bilingual vision — accessible, immediate, and scalable.
Biography
Jason Slimon is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Applied English at Ming Chuan University, Taiwan. His educational background includes advanced degrees in education from Seattle University and the University of Kansas. With teaching experience in Taiwan for more than 25 years, he has broad interests in undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate student- and teacher-training programs, having delivered dozens of workshops to future K-12 English teachers in Taiwan. Dr. Slimon is currently most interested in developing hybrid human-AI tasks in an effort to discover how generative AI can be leveraged to increase English-language skill levels - and thus competitiveness - of students and teachers both academically and in the workplace.
Scott Sommers is an Assistant Professor at Ming Chuan University's English Language Center on the Taoyuan campus. With a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from National Taiwan Normal University and an MA in Sociology from Queen's University, his multidisciplinary background informs his research at the intersection of pedagogy and emerging technology. Dr. Sommers leads Ming Chuan's AI initiatives, focusing on integrating Generative AI and Large Language Models like ChatGPT to enhance learner autonomy and authenticity in English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) contexts. Beyond educational technology, he explores the historical and social dimensions of language teaching in Asia. A recognized figure in Taiwan's digital academic community, Dr. Sommers leverages corpus linguistics for innovative instruction and conducts workshops on navigating the digital job market. His current projects aim to redefine the educator's role in a post-AI world.
Joseph Lavallee is a professor at Ming Chuan University, International College, in Taiwan. His research examines comparative education, digital inequality, and how technology shapes access to language learning and academic opportunity. His current work develops the Functional Digital Access framework, using large-scale data from PISA and ICILS to study how device access, connectivity, and digital competence relate to reading achievement, English-language learning, and AI readiness. He has collaborated with student research teams on Southeast Asian education projects, including a developing family of studies on Vietnam, Cambodia, and cross-national patterns of digital access. His recent projects focus on making digital divide research more useful for teachers, institutions, and policymakers as English-medium education and generative AI become more central to learning.
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