Tag: ESL teacher

Repeat “No, I cannot speak in the library.”

Cynthia Desjardins

I have been working as an online ESL teacher for the past six months. I teach students that live mainly in Asia in a one-on-one format with the curriculum developed by the company. As a busy full-time M.A. student, I appreciate not having to develop classes and am happy to teach what they provide. However, as a trained ESL specialist, I find myself questioning the curriculum’s efficacy.


The classes usually have similar formats, especially within the same ‘level’. There is vocabulary introduction, grammar conjugation, sentence structures, reading, drilled phonics and math. I did not include writing, since it is extremely minimal. This morning I found myself teaching a young learner of approximately 6-7 years old at a beginner level, where they cannot read independently yet. Following the curriculum, our class proceeds as usual with the repetition of the vocabulary, conjugating the verb ‘to speak’ and repeating the main sentence structure for this class: “No, I cannot speak in the library.’’ This phrase may not seem daunting to produce by fluent speakers of English, but for a beginner ESL student the yes or no answer+ verb+ adverb structure can be difficult to memorize and requires a lot of repetition.

Repeat after me.

This led me to question the usefulness of teaching long, pre-established phrases, repeating verb conjugations and drilled phonics. How often will they realistically need to use these in their lives? Will they even remember such a long and complicated phrase after class, never mind in a year from now?

            Reflecting upon it, this very structured, formatted approach reminds me of behaviourism, a teaching approach that was very popular in the 1940’s-1960’s. Essentially, this theory states that language learning is the result of imitation, practice, positive feedback and developing habits (Lightbown & Spada, 2013). This simple yet very explicative YouTube video further explains this theory. Watching it helped me realize that a lot of the curriculum is indeed repetition, habit formation and positive reinforcement. We are expected to explicitly correct grammar and pronunciation mistakes. 

This theory was replaced over the decades by numerous ones and by the time I completed my B.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language, we were taught that a communicative approach in more suited for ESL classes. The contextualization of classes is expected to naturally elicit the student’s vocabulary. This approach also focuses on learning by doing and fluency over accuracy, as mistakes are seen as an integral part of language learning. This inductive way of learning is learner centered and the teacher seem as a guide and facilitator (Shastri, 2009). Essentially, what I was taught for four years in my B.A. and the drill -focused, repetitive curriculum I am currently teaching differ greatly. This begs the following question: Would a communicative approach to the curriculum be more appropriate?

Is it noteworthy that the vast majority of the students that are currently taking classes are young beginners. This could make it very difficult to elicit language in a communicative manner. I can understand the rationalization behind the more repetitive, drilled structure of the classes, but I still feel doubt over its efficacy. My parting questions are these:

  • How can ESL classes be made more communicative with beginner level students who do not necessarily have the vocabulary and grammar to express themselves?
  • Are drills and repetitions the only way to give them a basis in English?

References

Lightbown, P., & Spada, N. M. (2013). How languages are learned (Fourth ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Payne, M. & Sitler, S. [Sharon]. (2014, March 22). Behaviorist Theory of Second Language  Acquisition [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvOIbDI2fro

Shastri, P. D. (2009). Communicative approach to the teaching of English as a second      language. Global Media. Retrieved from https://public.ebookcentral.proquest.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=3011323

Wikihow (n.d). Encourage students to speak only English in the classroom. [Image]. Retrieved October 5th, 2020 from https://www.wikihow.com/Teach-English-As-a-Second-Language-to-Beginners#/Image:Teach-English-As-a-Second-Language-to-Beginners-Step-8.jpg

Native or non-Native ESL Teacher: That is the Question!

By: Zahra Zamani

From my first attempts in Canada to be an English Teacher (what I used to be in my country), I understood that there is a long journey in front of me to be admitted to the club. Assuming that you are from a non-native English-speaking country, native speakers (especially native English speaker teachers (NEST)) become sensitive to check your pronunciation and your knowledge of English language to be sure that you are put in the right position. The questions that I always see in their eyes are “does she make a good teacher of English language while she has not learned it naturally and cannot speak it with a perfect correct accent? Do not we have enough native speakers who can teach the course?”

This view/ attitude can be easily seen in the teaching market demands when you see that majority of EFL and ESL teaching job sites require applicants to be native speakers. Then, you will confront this fact that being a non-native English speaker teacher (NNEST) can be a serious disadvantage for you despite your many years of studies in ESL programs at accredited universities and your valuable teaching practices. This happens while just being a native English speaker (NES) gives a great opportunity to some other people to be English teachers all around the world without having enough knowledge and experience about teaching.

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Reflecting on my Language Biography

Maxime Lavallée

Hello! Having grown up in several countries and spoken different varieties of the same languages in different places, I decided to begin with a brief timeline for some context.

  • Born in Quebec to French-Speaking parents.
    • Native speaker of French.
  • Moved from Quebec to California at the age of nine.
    • Became a minority language speaker of French.
      • No prior knowledge of English before moving to California.
    • Went to primary school in English.
    • Continued on to high school in English.
      • Became indistinguishable from native speakers of English.
      • Adopted Californian vernacular and accent.
    • Moved to Australia at the age of sixteen.
      • Had to adapt to Australian English.
        • New vocabulary, sentence structure, cultural norms, spelling, and more.
          • Over time, adopted Australian vernacular and accent.
    •  Moved back to Quebec at the age of twenty-one.
      • Had to acclimate myself to Montreal English.
        • New vocabulary and cultural norms very different from Australia.
      • Found a job and made some serious improvements to my stagnating French.
      • Began to learn Spanish.
      • Adopted Montreal English vernacular and accent

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