Learning to teach ESL

One of the readings that we were assigned this week is a chapter from the book by Brown and Lee (2015) called "Classroom Management." It discusses the basic principles of classroom management, managing the physical environment of the classroom, voice and body language, unplanned teaching moments, teaching under adverse circumstances, teaching roles and styles, and creating a positive learning climate in the classroom.

One of the concepts that resonated with me in this reading was how to address issues with individual students. Brown and Lee (2015) contend that it is very important for teachers to build rapport with their students in order to create a positive learning climate in the classroom. Some of the ways that teachers can do this by showing interest in each student as a person, giving feedback on each student's progress, directly soliciting students' ideas and feelings, and valuing and respecting what students think and say (Brown and Lee, 2015). I agree that it is very important to establish rapport with students. However, it can be difficult for teachers to do this when they have to teach large classes. Despite the teacher's intentions, students who are struggling may slip through the cracks.

One of the reasons why this resonated with me is because I had similar experiences as a student and that the reading allowed me to see my experiences from a teacher's perspective. I had similar experiences when I was in high school and university. I was experiencing a number of emotional issues and had trouble sleeping so I had difficulty functioning in the classroom and completing reading and written assignments. Teachers told me that I was bright and that I was capable of doing well in their classes. They became frustrated when I did not go to them to discuss the issues that was experiencing. I did not go to them because I did not understand what was going on, I was embarrassed, and because I did not know what was appropriate to share with them. As a result, my teachers had limited abilities to help me.

Brown and Lee (2015) write that it is important for teachers to determine and address the source of problems with students in the classroom if they are not working as expected and/or there are disciplinary issues. Addressing symptoms, such as a student not paying attention or sleeping in class, is not as effective as addressing why these problems are occurring (Brown and Lee, 2015). This is somewhat worrisome for me because I will be teaching lower level students who have a limited ability to answer these kinds of questions and to explain what their needs are both inside and outside of the classroom. In my own teaching, I will try to speak with a family member with stronger English skills and/or a translator to help determine the problem and if needed, I can connect the student with a social worker from the organization who can direct them to services and resources in the community that might be useful.

References

Brown, H. D., & Lee, H. (2015). Classroom Management. In Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy (4th ed., pp. 289-311). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.

Oksmith.(2018b, February 23). Sleeping student [Digital Image]. Retrieved from https://openclipart.org/detail/297180/sleeping-student

One of the readings that we were assigned this week is a short book by Jones (2007) called "The student-centred classroom." It discusses topics like autonomous learning, classroom management, motivation, fluency and accuracy, the teacher as a facilitator, and different activities that teachers can use in their lessons to increase student engagement. It also describes the necessary shift from teacher-led activities to those which promote learner autonomy.

One of the concepts that resonated with me was student engagement in activities used in the classroom. Jones (2007) argues that most types of activities can be adapted for pair and/or group work. Pair and group work allows students to collaborate together to complete and discuss activities and tasks, as well as encourage target language use amongst students. The author states that students are more engaged in lessons when they have opportunities to interact with others and are not just receiving input from their teacher (Jones, 2007).

Brown and Lee (2015) also discuss student engagement within the context of classroom interaction. The authors define interaction as "the collaborative exchange of thoughts, feelings, or ideas between two or more people in an L2 classroom" (p. 633). Interactive pair work activities can take the forms of practicing dialogues, question and answer exercises, short brainstorming activities, and checking written work while interactive group work activities can take the form of games, role-playing, simulations, drama, group projects, interviews, brainstorming, information gap and jigsaw activities, problem solving, decision making, and exchanging opinions (Brown and Lee, 2015).

This concept resonated with me because it is my responsibility as a teacher to create lesson plans and activities that engage my students in the learning process. I would feel disheartened if my students thought that my classes were boring and/or felt like they were not learning anything. I think that the suggestions presented in the readings about how to improve student engagement and develop interactive activities are useful. However, it is not clear to me whether they would be equally as suitable for adult ESL literacy students. This is because one of the main goals of this type of teaching is to help students develop their own learning strategies so that they can gradually let go of their reliance on classroom literacy supports and can complete the same tasks as mainstream ESL students. I think that too much focus on interaction in the classroom can impede the development of these skills for individuals. However, student engagement in what is happening in the classroom does not require them to always work in pairs or in groups and that they can also interact individually with the task at hand.

The teacher of the ESL classroom that I volunteer in often facilitates this type of individual interaction with learning materials in the worksheets that he uses. Some worksheets require students to take vocabulary words from a word bank and combine them with target sentence forms to create sentences. Other worksheets require students to look at scrambled words and unscramble them to reveal vocabulary words or look at the outline shape of the letters in a word and to write the letters of the correct vocabulary word in each box. These types of worksheets provide students with opportunities to problem solve and interact individually with the materials. I plan to incorporate similar activities in the materials for my own teaching.

References

Brown, H. D., & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy (4th ed.). White Plains, NJ: Pearson Education.

Jones, L. (2007). The Student-Centered Classroom. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
 

Oksmith. (2018, February 23). Studying together [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://openclipart.org/detail/297158/studying-together

I have decided to reflect on one of the activities that were listed in the outline for unit one of this course and I will not be reflecting on a particular reading. I am choosing to reflect on concepts from this activity because I think it was a helpful exercise for identifying personal biases and assumptions, how they are reinforced by different aspects of our cultural identities, and how they affect our teaching. We were directed to think about the relationships between our personal identities, workplace culture, local culture, and the mainstream culture of our country in how they shape the ways that we relate to other people and cultures. This activity preludes one of the discussion board activities but I think it deserves its own post.

Considering cultural relationships and teaching

I think that my identity and cultural background will influence the way that I teach and view my students. I will expect my students to view me as a professional and listen to me even though I am female and that I might be younger than they are. I will also expect that my students will treat each other with respect despite differences in gender, ethnicity, culture, and religion. Based on my own educational experience, I may expect that students will know how to act in the classroom. However, they will likely have had less schooling or have not received schooling for several years. As such, they might need help building learning strategies or understanding the rules of the classroom. I may expect them to complete work even if they don’t feel like participating much. I think that these differences could be a problem if I forget that my students bring their own experience and knowledge to the classroom and that it will likely be different than my own.

I think that the differences between my identity and cultural background and those of my students will influence the way that they see me as a teacher. Some cultures view teachers with high respect as educators while others don’t. Likewise, some people from some cultures are used to teacher-focused teaching and are not familiar with student-focused learning. As such, they might expect different things from me as their teacher than other students and they may have preconceived ideas about what to expect in the classroom. Students may also expect teachers to know all the answers and that most of their learning will occur in class. As a result, some students may lack self-agency and not see their own role in their education, particularly outside of class.

My identity and my cultural background will also influence the expectations that I have of my workplace. I will expect that my workplace will be an encouraging environment where I can develop friendships with my coworkers and other staff. I will expect them to provide teaching supports for me in the classroom and that there will be equality for all workers, despite differences in gender, ethnicity, culture, and religion. I don’t think that this will be a problem since I share the same cultural views as my workplace. Should I work abroad, I will have to consider how the organization that I work for tolerates different cultures and worldviews because I can’t expect that they will share my personal beliefs and views on education.

I think that the culture of my workplace will influence the expectations that the organization will have of me and my students. In my particular case, the organization that I volunteer at will expect that I share their compassion towards newcomers and their perspective on the benefits of diversity in Canadian society. Their expectations will also encourage me to build professional relationships with the students, their families, and other important people in the community.

I think that I might expect that the local culture will share the value that I see in teaching English to newcomers. However, I know from my own encounters with people outside of the organization that there are a lot of misunderstandings about the experiences that newcomers have when they settle in the city. I also think that the local culture will expect that the focus of my teaching will reflect what they see as important. I think that there is a misunderstanding amongst the wider population about how language teaching works and the relationship that multiculturalism and diversity have with integration and social inclusion. They may expect me to teach in such a way that my students will pick up the language very quickly and be able to integrate into the wider society and obtain employment. I think that some people will expect me to “educate” my students about local culture so that they can share the same values and beliefs.

I think that Canadian culture is accepting of newcomers, whether they are immigrants or refugees, as long as they accept and adopt mainstream Canadian values. I think that these expectations establish English language teachers as people whose role is to teach these values and to help integrate newcomers into Canadian society. As I wrote above regarding local culture, I think that there is a misunderstanding about the purpose of language teaching programs and about how students who are newcomers will adjust to living in a new country with a different culture than they grew up in. I also realize that Canadian culture impacts my teaching and relationships with my students. I have expectations that students will connect with the lessons that I teach about subjects related to local and Canadian culture and will find them as meaningful as someone raised in Canada. However, just because we think that certain subjects and their related values are important doesn’t mean that newcomers will feel the same about them or that they reflect their needs as they settle in a new country.