Profile (More Details)

Joseph Vincent Dias, an American from San Jose, California, graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a BA in psychology and holds a master's degree in TESOL from Teachers College Columbia University. He is currently the coordinator of the Integrated English (IE) Program and a member of the Communications Unit of the English Department.

Research Interests

• How CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) can contribute to learner autonomy and transform the roles of both teachers and learners.
  
  
• Ways that doctors communicate life-style change messages to patients and how these messages are received--as seen from the perspective of conversation analysis.

Message to Students

To learn a language is not always a smooth process. What sustains the learner is the knowledge that its acquisition is the key that opens the minds of millions of others; famous others whose names grace the covers of novels and plays, and inconspicuous others who lead ordinary lives. The more we come to understand a foreign language and 'tame' it, the more we realize that there really is no 'ordinary.' In the smallest of actions, in the humblest tenant farmer, in the most subtle of gestures, there's a story hidden, waiting to be noticed and told. In a novel by one of my favorite authors, V.S. Naipaul, the protagonist covertly watches a fellow diner in a public house where he has lunch each day. He sits where he can see the diner's hands. Although he has no personal connection to the diner, the hands tell a vivid story.

"While chaos comes swiftly and simultaneously to other plates...those two hands are unhurriedly, scientifically, maintaining order, defining garbage, separating what is to be eventually eaten from what is to be thrown away." [Naipaul, V.S. The Mimic Men. London: Penguin Books, 1967. (p.246)]

Educational Philosophy

"In my classes, I emphasize the importance of working on projects collaboratively as that simulates the modern workplace. It is through active participation and engagement with meaningful tasks that students learn. Toward this end, I strive to bring students up to speed with information technology so that they can use it to further their knowledge, work independently, connect with colleagues abroad, and prepare to meet the increasingly harsh demands of the 21st century workplace."

"I try to bring students to the realization that English is a language that 'belongs' to them and all others who use it as a means of communication. It does not belong solely to so-called 'native speakers,' test designers, or other gatekeepers. It can be used as a bridge by people all over the world to cross cultural and linguistic barriers."

Links

ESL/EFL websites and sites offering content in English

Download IE Texts

Learn/Study English on the cell phone

Podcasts made by Me and My Students

Article on educational uses of cell phones

Article on the creation of podcasts by students and faculty at AGU

Online article about medical ESP

Links related to the textbook Toward the Future

Joseph Dias' latest poetry and graphics

The New IE Program Website

Employment Possibilities