Author Archives: commonsenseesl

• Interviewing Candidates for a Writing-Teacher Position: Learning Their Approach to Dealing with Grammar in the Writing Context

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job interview woman

Our search committee for ESL Writing teachers completed the applicants’ interviews. However, unlike previous searches, we all felt completely confident in our ratings of the candidates. This was because of one part of the interview process that we had recently added.

Research of mainstream college instructors at our college showed that they expect students to have control of the grammar in their papers. Thus, our ESL Program realized the importance of selecting candidates who understood how to deal with grammar in the writing context. For this reason, we developed a part of our interview process that has been very effective for helping us choose the most qualified Writing teachers.

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• High Early Grades in a Course: Motivating or Dangerous

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Low grades Cover shot

At the end of the term, the Level 3 Writing teacher Pam (not her real name), was filled with turmoil. She had shared samples of her students’ papers with our Writing Panel (a group of five Writing teachers.) After reading the papers, the members felt that four of her students’ writing skills hadn’t developed enough to pass to the next level. Thus, the members recommended that those four repeat Level 3.

Pam acknowledged that the students’ skills were weak and said that two of them were expecting to fail. However, the other two would feel shocked.

At the beginning of the term in September, Pam liked to give students high grades on assignments. She was worried that low grades would discourage them. As the term progressed, she continued to score high those students who made a good effort, thinking that would keep them motivated. But now it was December, and she was caught in a dilemma: either pass those two students who would struggle greatly in the next level or shock and disillusion them with the news that they had failed.

In his book, Punished by Rewards, Alfie Kohn, discusses meaningful perspectives about and approaches to giving grades. By incorporating many of her ideas, we can avoid the pitfall that this Writing teacher had fallen into.

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• ESL Teachers’ Gift to Students: Silence

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Cover Silence man

I’m experiencing life as a L2 learner for four hours. One of our colleagues, Susan, has volunteered to teach eight of us ESL teachers beginning Farsi for professional development. After we have learned some basics, she does an oral “drill”. She calls on me, and I feel some pressure to respond quickly not wanting to make everyone wait. To my relief, though, Susan patiently remains silent while I formulate my answer.

As she calls on others, I become aware of how I am feeling. To my surprise, unlike how I imagined my ESL students feeling in these situations, I , as an L2 learner, am not restlessly yearning for a faster pace. Instead, I appreciate the chance to formulate responses in my own mind, and when I’m called on again, I feel my stress level diminish.

 According to research, many of us ESL teachers find silence to be uncomfortable. And this can result in loss opportunities.

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• Introducing any ESL Lesson: FIVE Effective Ways

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COVER Intros

I need to start by making a confession. After I had been teaching ESL for about 10 years, I suddenly realized that I had become a bit careless about something important.

Here is what happened. As I mentioned, I was in my 10th year of teaching ESL, and I was asked to teach a course to American university students who wanted to become ESL teachers. One day, I planned to demonstrate a lesson. The first thing I decided that I need to tell them is that it’s really important to have a good introduction to the lesson. You don’t just want to tell students, open your books to page 23. Your assignment is to do Ex 4 and 5.

Slide 1

But wait! That is exactly how I had been starting my ESL classes recently. I realized that in my effort to get the lesson started, I had stopped doing a very important first step. And as a result, I missed an opportunity to stimulate and motivate my student.

So as I prepared to show my teacher-training students ways that they could introduce lessons, I returned to my days as a beginning teacher and started to use them once again with my ESL students. And I have to tell you, the results were amazing. I could see it in my students’ faces how much more energized and eager they were to do the activities. And I felt not only excited about teaching them but also confident in the importance of the activities they were about to do.

Perhaps the greatest motivator for students is feeling like they are working toward something worthwhile and are doing something important. We can satisfy this need in students by explaining the reason for the assignment.

So here are four great techniques that you can use to introduce your lessons.

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