Full-time ESL teaching

Since I last posted, I've experienced TESOL in a new way. I'm now teaching a full load of courses (16 contact hours per week). I'm teaching my standby class, an intermediate-advanced academic listening and speaking course. We are using Lecture Ready 3, a book focused on the listening skills and strategies needed in the university. I really like this book, although I do supplement vocabulary and pronunciation instruction. Clear Speech is an invaluable tool even in advanced courses. Because I've taught this course before, I'm spending less time brainstorming what to teach, and spending more time figuring out how to best teach it. I'm developing our vocabulary logs from last semester into a multi-modal learning tool that includes podcasts. A colleague and I hope to present this idea at TESOL 2014 in Portland. Fingers crossed.

The other half of my teaching is going to a class I've never taught. A very low-level listening and speaking course. My two students are false beginners, and it's been a real challenge for me to figure out how to approach the needs of this very small group. Luckily, I'm using Clear Speech and Top Notch (Fundamental Level), which has an incredible library of supplementary activities and ready-made worksheets. Once I figured out where to find everything that comes with this series, I found that I was able to plan lessons much more easily.

Full-time ESL teaching is my dream job, but it has many challenges. Time management is crucial when teaching, meetings and other teaching obligations compete for your 40-hour workweek. I'm trying to break the cycle of grad school weekends and take a breather so that I can return to the classroom on Monday refreshed and energized. I know that teaching is not necessarily a 9-5 job, much less limited to the 40 hour contract, yet, I do wonder how successful teachers maintain a work-life balance and still contribute to the field in ways besides teaching.

I'm enjoying the full-time challenges, and looking forward to learning more about the variety of teaching experiences available to ESL teachers.

WPA Outcomes for Freshman Composition

In thinking about my experiences as a Freshman Composition TA at NAU, I have been thinking about the WPA outcomes: rhetorical knowledge; critical thinking, reading, and writing; processes; knowledge of conventions; and composing in electronic environments. This is a set of principles to guide writing teachers in preparing university level writers to be successful throughout their academic careers.

Link to the WPA outcomes

M.A. TESL in Review

I've just submitted my final assignment toward my M.A. TESL degree. It feels great. This degree has been bootcamp for two years, but what a rewarding experience! I wanted to make a list of the courses  and remember some of the most important things I learned.

Fall 2011

• Foundations of ESL Teaching
• Affective factors in language learning
• Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
• TBLT, CBI
• Intro to Language and Linguistics
• Phonology
• Teaching Assistantship Practicum (ENG 105)
• TESLers vs. Creative Writers
• TESL Practicum (German TA)
• Affective filter
• Teacher proficiency in CLT
• Professional Development
• Keep the resume short and sweet

Spring 2012

• Sociolinguistics
• Sociolinguistic relativity
• Speech acts
• Discourse analysis
• Grammar
• Everything!
• Relative clauses
• Corpus linguistics
• Listening and Speaking Methodology
• Pronunciation
• Technology
• TESL Practicum (Course for visiting scholars from China)
• Co-teaching

Fall 2012

• ESL Assessment
• Reliability, Practicality, Validity
• Item writing
• Raters
• Item analysis
• Test development
• Time management
• Reading and Writing Methodology
• Vocabulary is king
• Reading fluency
• CBI
• Teaching Assistantship Practicum (Program in Intensive English)
• Teaching styles
• TESL Practicum (Discipline-specific Writing Support)
• Course development
• Professional Development
• Flesh out the resume

Spring 2013

• Curriculum and Program Administration
• Course design and development
• Pronunciation Lab project
• Leadership
• Computer Applications in Linguistics
• Technology is the future
• Google Docs
• Leadership Skill Development
• Styles
• Strategies
• Techniques
• Writing prompts
• TESL Practicum (Volleyball-based Instruction)
• Leadership
• Classroom management
• Couse development
• Comprehensible input

Computer-Assisted Language Learning Portfolio

Click this link to view my CALL portfolio

Teaching English to Young Learners

Due to my growing interest in getting future employment in K-12 ESL/EFL teaching, I attended a TESOL virtual seminar this morning on Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL). I was very impressed by Dr. Joan Kang Shin's presentation. It was easy-to-follow, informative, and inspiring. She and a colleague just released a book called Our World. The book looks vibrant and practical. I'm going to check it out!

Course Development Project

Together with my colleagues, I developed a course to improve intermediate-advanced students' pronunciation. In the document below, we take readers through the course development process. I'm very proud of this project--a wonderful capstone to the MA-TESL.

Pronunciation Lab

Reflections a month from graduation

While reading a chapter in Christison and Stoller (2012), I remembered something that has gotten lost in the shuffle during my MA-TESOL: language learning is hard--and a little scary.

I was acutely aware of this during my first semester at NAU because I was a TA for German 101. Having to tap into my own anxieties as a language learner, as well as my insecurities as a new teacher made me empathetic to language learners. Yet, here I am, a month from graduation, and reading this passage made me realize how far student affect is from my mind on a daily basis:

"The very process of second language learning places students in high-stress situations, thus creating the potential for crises to develop" (p. 108).

In my own experiences as a language learner in Austria and Cambodia, I experienced this high-stress feeling every day. The frustration that accompanies not being able to express yourself clearly the first time (or second, or third) can be overwhelming, annoying, and demotivating.

The point of this entry is for me to never lose sight of the challenges of learning a language--not necessarily linguistic, but affective. Especially in an ESL context, students are under a lot of pressure just going about their day-to-day lives. I'm setting a challenge for myself to remember this, and to not lose my admiration for the courage it takes to be an international student.