The World is My Oyster

For #TESL0100

Or at least, for the immediate future, Winnipeg and the Manitoba Interlake region are my "oyster"! This is essentially what I was told by a professional colleague when she commented that I would soon be done my TESL training and I replied, "Yes, but then what?"

During the various components of my pursuit of this training, I have researched employment opportunities, met with course administrators and toured their facilities, experienced language teaching in a university setting, and discussed volunteering experiences with my classmates. The result is that I have become aware of the many contexts, both paid and unpaid, in which I will be able to share my newly acquired skills. However, before I launch myself upon the world, or even the above mentioned region, I thought it would be a useful exercise to complete the self-rating list of "Characteristics of a Successful Language Teacher" as suggested by Brown & Lee (2015). As well, I will look at one of the characteristics that I need to improve on and discuss how I can continue to develop that skill or quality.

The following table shows the characteristics adapted from Brown & Lee (2015), but I have compressed the suggested rating scale to three levels that are meaningful to me. Bear in mind that I have very limited experience as a language teacher, so some of my answers come from other teaching experiences in math and science. Also consider that a rating of 3 is not an indication that I consider myself to have attained perfection in that characteristic, but rather that relative to some of the other characteristics, I do not need to focus on them, but that I should continue to maintain them as I gain experience.

Characteristics of a Successful Language Teacher Rating: 3 = I do this consistently; 2 = I am developing in a positive way; 1 = I need to do a lot of work
Description	Rating
Background Knowledge
Understands organizational, pragmatic, and socio-cultural systems of the English language	2
Comprehensively grasps basic principles of language learning and teaching	3
Has fluent competence in speaking, writing, listening to , and reading English	3
Knows through experience what it is like to learn a foreign language	3
Understands the close connection between language and culture	3
Keeps up with the field through regular reading, collaboration with others, and conference /workshop attendance	2
Pedagogical Skills
Has a comprehensive, informed approach to language teaching	2
Efficiently designs and executes lesson plans	2
Understands and appropriately uses a variety of techniques	3
Monitors lessons as they unfold and makes effective mid-lesson alterations	2
Effectively perceives students’ linguistic and personal needs, along with their various styles, preferences, strengths and weaknesses	1
Gives optimal feedback to students	2
Stimulates interaction, cooperation and teamwork in the classroom	3
Uses appropriate principles of classroom management	2
Uses effective, clear presentation skills	2
Creatively adapts textbook material and other audio, visual, and technological aids	3
Innovatively creates brand-new materials when needed	3
Uses authentic, washback-giving techniques to assess students	1
Interpersonal Skills
Is aware of cross-cultural differences and is sensitive to student’s cultural traditions	2
Enjoys people; shows enthusiasm, warmth, rapport, and appropriate humor	3
Values the opinions and abilities of students	3
Is Patient in working with students of lesser ability	3
Offers challenges to students of exceptionally high ability	1
Cooperates harmoniously and candidly with colleagues, including seeking opportunities to share thoughts, ideas, and techniques	3
Personal Qualities
Is well organized, conscientious in meeting commitments, and dependable	3
Is flexible when things go awry	2
Engages in regular self-reflection on teaching practices and strives to learn from those reflective processes	1
Maintains an inquisitive mind in trying out new ways of teaching	3
Sets short-term and long-term goals for continued professional growth	2
Maintains and exemplifies high ethical and moral standards	3

It's obvious that I have plenty of work to do in my continuing development as a language teacher. However, I am going to look at the two characteristics that I gave myself a low rating for under the heading of Pedagogical Skills, since I believe the root cause of my need for further work is the same for both. These are "Effectively perceives students’ linguistic and personal needs, along with their various styles, preferences, strengths and weaknesses" and "Uses authentic, washback-giving techniques to assess students". As I mentioned, most of my teaching experience is in math and sciences, at the college level, and for the most part, those classes are presented in a lecture style and assessment is in the form of tests and lab reports. Assessment criteria are well-defined,  results are either right or wrong, and feedback is in the form of a percent correct translated to a letter grade. There is some opportunity to give additional feedback through comments on a test paper or report, but there isn't much time to discuss the details with individuals. Adult students are expected to take the initiative in asking for clarification, and some do, but most rush off to the next class. Therefore, I don't have much experience in perceiving students' personal styles and preferences.Teaching language classes to smaller groups, either in a community or college setting, will give me greater opportunity to tune in to my students, and to really tailor my teaching to their personal styles and needs.

I am also still working my mind around the concept of "washback". Brown & Lee (2015) says that it includes the effects of assessment on teaching and learning prior to the assessment. I suppose the review I did with my students prior to a final exam, and the exam-taking strategies I gave them would be a kind of washback effect of a summative assessment. However, there was not much formative assessment, other than machine-graded homework and my ability to occasionally use the results of that to re-teach some material if a majority of students were having some difficulty with a particular concept. So for the most part, I have little experience with washback, and I will need to pay careful attention to including opportunities for its positive effects in my teaching and assessment.

Resources: 

Brown, H.D. & Lee, H., (2015), Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy, 4^th ed., Pearson Education Inc., White Plains, NY, pp. 497, 546 - 547