Job Discussion Forums

[spiral78]

It was worth expanding on, whoever started it, and John did it nicely.

[santi84]

I have also played "social worker" from time to time. The program I taught at expected us to help the students understand local culture (rather than just pure language instruction). My students also knew I had previously worked in policing and would come to me with a variety of questions (or confessions... ). I'm not sure how common that would be in a TEFL environment.

One classroom management problem I found here in Canada was that you would get one large group with the same L1 and a few others scattered about with a different L1. The students without an L1 in common with the large group would often feel excluded (as nearly all of them had also left friends & family to be there). An "English only" policy came into effect not too long after...

[fluffyhamster]

There are several books in the Oxford Handbooks for Language Teachers range that now deal specifically with ESOL and look quite good:
http://elt.oup.com/catalogue/items/global/teacher_development/oxford_handbooks_for_language_teachers/9780194422819?cc=gb&selLanguage=en