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Selected Workshops

In the United States

Professor Rassias conducted workshops for students employed in the language teaching programs at Dartmouth College at the beginning of each term. His training methods and courses have led many undergraduates to enter the field of teaching.

In 1989 he accepted an invitation from the Actors’ Equity to train actors in the craft of teaching in order to meet the demand for teachers of English as a Second Language in the New York area. Professor Rassias offered two such workshops per year in New York, and in his career trained some 450 actor-teachers.

From 1992-1996 he worked with the State Board of Education in Illinois, presenting teacher workshops for teachers of all languages and levels from throughout the state. In addition, he was responsible for a new program in Illinois (Project Roll-up), whose mission was to make language teaching an integral part of school curricula. In 1993, Professor Rassias directed a pilot language immersion program with the Frederick Douglass Academy, an inner-city public school in New York, for instruction in French.

Abroad

Professor Rassias spent three months in the People's Republic of China as a guest of Peking University from January to March 1987. He conducted workshops at Peking University for several hundred teachers of English as a Second Language selected from all levels of language instruction throughout China. He also lectured to teachers in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. John Rassias developed extensive materials in English for his Chinese colleagues. He was also the subject of a film about education in China and his training methods. The film ("Rassias in China") was partially funded by IBM, the Rockefeller Foundation, and AMPEX, and was shown on national Public Broadcasting System in the fall of 1992. In 1993, the “China” film received the Golden Eagle, the Hugo, and the Angel awards.

In November and December of 1996, the United States Information Agency in Turkey worked with Professor Rassias on a workshop tour for Turkish and American teachers of second languages. He returned in November 1997 to work with USIA on follow-through workshops. This project culminated in an international workshop sponsored by the U.S. Embassies in Sofia, Ankara, and Athens. The workshop was held in Istanbul with teachers and administrators from Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, and the United States, “to acquaint teachers with the philosophy of teaching and techniques for effective instruction, as well as build bridges for professional and personal communication between teachers and institutions among four countries.”