Job Discussion Forums

[golsa]

I've recently started doing some ESL work in the US after several years teaching EFL abroad and have quite a few concerns about what I'm seeing in the US. I was pretty lucky in my EFL time and mostly worked with good materials, reputable organizations, and had DELTA or local master's degree qualified DOSes and ADOSes to consult when I needed help.

I'm currently teaching ESL to recent immigrants in the US and have found the books to be similar to 20 year old CEF material. As in basically like teaching from Headway (not even New Headway). The materials I'm using don't have any included controlled practice, guided discovery, and often don't even present target language in context. I have plenty of British produce supplementary material on hand for things like controlled practice and am fully capable of making my own guided discovery materials, but I have to admit that I'm a little dumbstruck that these things aren't ubiquitous in EFL/ESL materials produced in first world nations.

Another thing that has really struck me is my peers aren't able to talk about materials and teaching using nomenclature which is standard in the European market. For instance, when I first interviewed for my position with the center director I asked her if there is a particular approach or method they preferred. She said that she didn't understand my question, so I briefly mentioned CLT, audiolingualism, etc and she said that it didn't make a difference. I've also been approached by a few peers about our core materials (none of them are too fond of them) and none of them seem to be familiar things like PPP, schema theory, lexical chunks, controlled practice, and so on. These colleagues range in qualifications from someone who has an unaccredited 15 credit hour TESOL cert from the local community college to licensed teachers who hold a state ESL endorsement....

One last mini-rant. Someone I share my beginner class with told me that she doesn't think the students need to be learning word order for present simple (:shocked:) and she normally waits until they are at intermediate level (which I interpreted to be CEF B1 as our beginner book is certainly on the same level as CEF A1) to teach them. She also claimed that their final test only has things like filling out a form with things like your name, address, and labeling an envelope correctly. How on earth are these students going to be ready for an elementary or per-intermediate level class if they're not even learning things like SVO order and question forms at the beginner level?

Here is basically what I'm asking: is all American ESL this bad? This caliber of teaching is basically what I saw in China and it might have been ok if I hadn't experienced working with well qualified people, good materials, and CEF standards before experiencing what happens in China.

[nomad soul]

[golsa]

[nomad soul]

[spiral78]

It sounds like you've been unlucky enough to get hooked up with a school where the director and the other teachers aren't well-educated about ESL/EFL.

Back a decade ago, I saw schools in Canada where it was assumed that any retired elementary school teacher was a great candidate for teaching adult ESL without relevant professional development. They were mostly a disaster in reality. ESL was seen as the bottom of the teaching barrel, - I know people who were genuinely shocked that an MA TESL/TEFL even existed! Canada thankfully instituted a law requiring a CELTA at minimum even for private language schools, so this old guard has basically dried up these days. But no way would I trade Europe for the US. Do feel for you!

[golsa]

[nomad soul]

Golsa:

If you haven't done so already, consider joining your state TESOL affiliate. In addition to providing professional development, it's a great way to network.