Beginning of a New Semester

In my new office, coffee in hand, I am once again so grateful to be a teacher.

Every day, I get to do what I love--learn about English and the world through the eyes of my students. My new job as composition instructor is proving to be a fantastic application of my TESL degree. I teach two sections of composition for students already enrolled in the university (mostly native speakers), and one section of students who are in the top level of the intensive English program. My supervisor has has recognized my TESL training and assigned me to be an interface person between the IEP and the university's writing program. I help to coordinate the teachers who teach composition to IEP students.

I'm enjoying the change of pace with the native speaker sections, but I still have a soft spot for teaching ESL students. My teaching has changed so much from two years ago, when I also taught native-speaker composition. I now feel like I am able to build activities and assignments that are meaningful for students, rather than just doing group work because I heard it was good. I see an improvement in the way I give directions, the way I open and close class, and the way I interact with students who might be disruptive in class. The master's degree in TESL taught me the importance of planning and classroom management, which are relevant in all classrooms.

That's not to say that there aren't a million mysteries of teaching that I haven't begun to figure out. Here are a few that I'm thinking about:

1. Making small talk before class.
2. Corrective feedback during class activities. Both linguistic and content-focused.
3. Balancing student choice (motivation) with in-class scaffolding opportunities.

One success story to report: I gave my students the choice of two articles to analyze. Then, during a lab day, I set up two Google documents for students to work on collaboratively, one for each article. In the rhetorical analysis, students are examining how an author uses ethos, pathos, and logos, so I included in the Google Doc a table with ethos, pathos, and logos  in the top row. Students then documented examples they had found in the document, sorted by appeal. Within 10 or 15 minutes my students had collaboratively brainstormed 20 good examples. They even had side comments with some disagreement and discussion about the effectiveness of certain examples. I loved seeing my students work together, talk, and critically think about the articles. Plus, students have unlimited access to the document as they are drafting. Even students who had a hard time understanding how to analyze can use the Google Doc as a guide to get started. Highly recommended!

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