Job Discussion Forums

[jimi1999uk]

Hi all. I'm hoping to complete a CertTesol course later in the year and I was hoping some of you fine people could help me with this. Cheers.

1. Does anyone have any vague essay style questions (don't spent kill yourself forming them) regarding important aspects of teaching, the Tesol course or anything else you think important that I could set myself to help my learning. I've tried to study the few textbooks i've got but it's honestly impossible. My eyes glaze over almost immediately. It's better give myself a few large topics then I could trawl through my books on a mission and likely retain much more. I doubt it could hurt the application process either but that's secondary. They could be as anything you want as long as the journey would be instructive.

Thanks again.

Throw in a few joke ones too if you want, I know you want to

[fluffyhamster]

I'm not sure that you'll be writing essays at cert level - more like direct and short answers to reasonably simple questions and tasks. Try searching for keywords like 'celta AND task', perhaps in conjunction with me as author (to help cut down on the number of resulting threads - 'celta AND task' alone produces 93 results). But in the meantime, keep reading your books, and don't neglect studying the grammar!

[jimi1999uk]

I should've been clearer. I was hoping some of the experienced amongst you would be able to give me a few expansive questions I could set myself as a sort of learning aid.

For example:

"what would be the advantages and drawbacks of x method of teaching?"

Or whatever it may be. I'd just like some meaty topics I could use so my reading of the textbooks would be the completing of a task rather than halfarsed pageflicking currently.

Yeah, I know it's probably overkill but i've a lot of time on my hands and the halfarsed method isn't working for me so far

Don't kill yourselves thinking of suitable topics. Any random, even vaguely informative topic would be a winner imo. Thanks.

[fluffyhamster]

Well, if you want critical overviews of the methods that have been (and often still are! Continuity despite amazing "revolutions" and all that) used in language teaching, then try books (arranged in a rough order of accessibility) like Richards & Rodgers' Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, Larsen-Freeman's Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching, Bygate et al's Grammar and the Language Teacher, Lewis' The Lexical Approach, Howatt's A History of ELT etc. (Most should be previewable on Google Books). Try also searching for terms like SLA here if not on the net generally. A lot of methodology IMHO boils down to the value placed on knowledge (explicit ~ , manipulation etc) of grammar (and quite what 'grammar' is taken to mean and represent), and to what extent other forms of knowledge besides grammar are catered for and developed in the learner. (But on a cert, you WILL be expected to learn about, and implicitly if not explicitly transmit, knowledge of grammatical forms in "theory-neutral", 'common-sense' yet somehow "approved" sole-or-limited-options methodology...so there isn't much debate actually on the 'advantages versus disadvantages' of [the course provider's] method A as opposed to [another's] method B, otherwise they'd be there all day justifying to some argumentative trainee the quality of the training offered!).

Then, off the top of my head, there might be general questions of:

-The extent to which the learner's* mother tongue (i.e. translation) should be allowed or avoided

-The necessity or not of locating the language and its learning within native-English-speaking culture(s) if not communities

-The status and role that should be afforded to (particular) native-speaker/"prestige" norms and forms

-The extent to which natural discourse patterns are introduced if not produced (a lot of practice even nowadays still smacks of decontextualized grammar drills)

-How errors are to be viewed and treated (- corrected?)

Some of this may strike you more as 'issues' (of the sort discussed in especially the first few chapters of Seidlhofer's very interesting Controversies in Applied Linguistics) than 'methodology' per se, but deciding upon such issues is just as if not more fundamental to how one teaches than a lot of methodology is(n't, once you are your own teacher after completing a cert say!).

A few "specific" (i.e. chosen especially by moi LOL) threads that might be of interest:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?p=722133#722133
http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewtopic.php?t=9501
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?p=839302#839302
http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=73008

I'll try to think of a few more 'expansive questions', but I'll probably need to have a quick flick through a methodology book or two myself!

*Or rather, learners' mother tongue - translation is only really possible in 'monolingual' (as opposed to 'international') classrooms i.e. where the majority of the learners share a mother tongue.

[nickpellatt]

I would guess you have bought the wrong books jimi. Do you have 'learning teaching' by Scrivener...very accessible and useful too! I also recently read 'how to teach grammar' by thornbury (I think). Also accessible and useful. Might be worth visiting your local library and digging around in the learning English section (Im sure they will have one)

[jimi1999uk]

Thanks fluffyhamster that's exactly the type of thing I was after. Cheers for the effort you put into the post.

I do have Learning Teaching nick along with a few similiar ones (I need to buy/lend a grammar book soon). Learning Teaching is a very good book but leafing through it doesn't suit the type of learner I am imo. I do really need something to look for, otherwise I soon adopt a vacant stare as I'm flicking pages, quickly followed by thoughts along the lines of "I wonder, if someone was to splice the genes or a rabbit with the genes or a wolf would the aforementioned creature eat a meat or veg diet, and if meat would buck teeth drive that possible branch of evolution extinct. What would I call such a hybrid also?"

lol you get the idea. Also nick I sent you a pm about 6 months ago thanking you for persuading me to do an OU course (the fact that I could finish it <6yrs was the thing that swung it) . I'm halfway through and coasting although I'm using the OUlite method of study :O Two courses next year though. Would that be much of a struggle two Eng Lang+Lit OU courses and a teaching gig in China? Thanks all.

[nickpellatt]

I dont think two course would be a problem with the jobs I have had with China...but it would mean less fun when you are there! Only possible headache is getting the coursebooks. Some courses post them all at the start...some stagger the postings..which could be a problem if you are waiting for books! Glad to hear the OU is going well tho!

You need to make sure you are ahead of the game though...try and get a TMA or two ahead...that way when you have the initial jetlag, meals/drinks out, and the inevitable Chinese partner....things wont be so bad!

[fluffyhamster]

Just thought I'd add these!
http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewtopic.php?t=9720
http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewtopic.php?t=9916