“Teaching there wasn’t worth my efforts”: Investigating the experiences of MA TESOL students as volunteer adult ESL teachers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Doyle
Keyword(s):  
Esl Teachers ◽  
Adult Esl

scholarly journals Telling Stories of Violence in Adult ESL Classrooms: Disrupting Safe Spaces

2017 ◽  
pp. 20-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Waterhouse
Keyword(s):  
Life Experiences ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Safe Space ◽  
Emotional Impact ◽  
Literacy Practice ◽  
Esl Teachers ◽  
Safe Spaces ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Adult Esl ◽  
Langue Seconde

This article develops a complex understanding of safe space in relation to adult refugee learners’ oral literacy practice of telling stories of violent life experiences in English as a second language (ESL) classrooms. A rhizoanalytic approach brings theoretical and empirical elements into conversation to ask two questions. Can the exigencies of safe classroom spaces accommodate the telling/hearing of violent stories? What might be the pedagogical potential of such storytelling in ESL classrooms? Grounded in literature critiquing safe space discourses and theoretical work that views the telling of violent stories as ambivalent (destructive and productive), I argue that unproblematic conceptualizations of safe classrooms become impossible when refugees are involved. I present a data assemblage drawn from a qualitative study with two ESL teachers and four students. In a series of interview vignettes, the students describe their experiences of hearing their classmates’ stories of violence, highlighting the emotional impact of these experiences and their capacity to bring on new ways of thinking. This analysis reframes refugee storytellers as powerful, agentive forces in the ESL classroom and suggests that sharing stories is pedagogical in the sense that it affects and transforms learners. In closing, I discuss the practical and ethical implications of the research. Cet article développe une interprétation complexe du concept d’espace sûr relatif à une pratique li éraire orale selon laquelle des réfugiés adultes racontent des expériences de vie violentes dans leurs cours d’anglais langue seconde (ALS). Une approche « rhizoanalytique » réunit en conversation des éléments théoriques et empiriques pour poser deux questions: 1- Est-il possible de raconter et d’écouter des récits violents tout en respectant les exigences liées aux espaces surs en classe? et 2- Quel pourrait être le potentiel pédagogique de ces récits dans les cours d’ALS? Puisant dans la recherche qui critique le discours relatif aux espaces surs et dans le travail théorique qui perçoit comme ambivalent (destructif et productif) le fait de raconter des histoires violentes, j’affirme qu’il n’est pas possible de concevoir des espaces surs en classe qui ne posent aucun problème lorsque les élèves sont des réfugiés. Je présente des données tirées d’une étude qualitative impliquant deux enseignants d’ALS et quatre élèves. Par le biais d’une série de capsules d’entrevues, les élèves décrivent ce qu’ils ressentent en écoutant les récits de violence que racontent leurs camarades de classe et soulignent l’impact émotionnel de ces expériences et leur capacité d’entrainer de nouveaux modes de réflexion. Cette analyse restructure les conteurs réfugiés comme des forces puissantes et capables dans les cours d’ALS et propose que le partage de récits est pédagogique dans le sens qu’il exerce une influence sur les apprenants et les transforme. Je discute des conséquences pratiques et éthiques de cette recherche.  

Adult ESL: Politics, pedagogy, and participation in classroom and community programs. Trudy Smoke (Ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1998. Pp. 337.

2001 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-131
Author(s):  
John Strucker
Keyword(s):  
Community College ◽  
English Language Learners ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
Esl Teachers ◽  
Adult Esl ◽  
Education Community ◽  
Senior College ◽  
College Programs

This anthology consists of 20 chapters contributed by 25 authors and coauthors; its articles are divided into three sections corresponding to the title categories: politics, pedagogy, and participation. As Trudy Smoke states in the preface, “I decided to use the term adult ESL in its broadest sense – non-native speaking adults who participate in ABE (adult basic education), community college, or senior college programs” (p. ix). However, about 75% of the articles are written from a community college or senior college perspective, with a focus on intermediate-level or above English language learners. There is nothing inherently wrong with this; in fact, it may be inevitable that college ESL teachers are more likely to be able to write articles than their ABE colleagues, who are among the most overworked and underpaid teachers in U.S. education. Smoke notes briefly that some ESL students in ABE programs eventually enroll in community and senior colleges, but for the most part the reader is left having to infer how the insights of college ESL practice and research might apply to teachers in community-based ABE programs in ESL. A more extended discussion of the similarities and differences between ABE and college-based learners would have made the book more useful, especially for new teachers or other readers not familiar with the field.

STUDENTS’ ACCEPTANCE TO USING GRAPHIC NOVELS IN LEARNING LITERATURE (L2): A MALAYSIAN CASE STUDY

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
Abu Yazid Abu Bakar ◽  
Dayang Nurfaezah Abang Ahmad ◽  
Melor Md Yunus
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Method ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Graphic Novels ◽  
Graphic Novel ◽  
Mixed Method Study ◽  
Motivation To Learn ◽  
Esl Teachers ◽  
English As Second Language ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Methods

Research has shown that using graphic novels in the classroom is one of useful approaches to promote the understanding of learners especially for lengthy and difficult literature texts. This study reports the extent of graphic novel in facilitating students’ understanding of literature and the students’ perceptions towards using graphic novel in learning literature (L2) as compared to other genre of texts. This is a mixed method study which employs quantitative and qualitative methods to obtain data. The findings indicate that most students found that graphic novel helped them to enrich their vocabularies and understand the text better. The findings also reveal that students were attracted to the illustrations in the literature text in which this helps to boost their motivation to learn literature in the classroom. The findings provide useful insights for English as Second Language (ESL) teachers in incorporating and expanding the literature learning through graphic novels in the future. The findings also imply the need of ESL teachers to use graphic novels effectively in facilitating their teaching and learning of literature in L2 classrooms particularly to suit the 21<sup>st</sup> century teaching and learning.

Finding Talent Among Elementary English Learners: A Validity Study of the HOPE Teacher Rating Scale

2021 ◽  
pp. 001698622098594
Author(s):  
Nielsen Pereira
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
English Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Rating Scales ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Teacher Rating ◽  
Esl Teachers ◽  
Invariance Testing ◽  
Scale Scores ◽  
The One

The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity of the HOPE Scale for identifying gifted English language learners (ELs) and how classroom and English as a second language (ESL) teacher HOPE Scale scores differ. Seventy teachers completed the HOPE Scale on 1,467 students in grades K-5 and four ESL teachers completed the scale on 131 ELs. Measurement invariance tests indicated that the HOPE Scale yields noninvariant latent means across EL and English proficient (EP) samples. However, confirmatory factor analysis results support the use of the scale with ELs or EP students separately. Results also indicate that the rating patterns of classroom and ESL teachers were different and that the HOPE Scale does not yield valid data when used by ESL teachers. Caution is recommended when using the HOPE Scale and other teacher rating scales to compare ELs to EP students. The importance of invariance testing before using an instrument with a population that is different from the one(s) for which the instrument was developed is discussed.

The Multimedia Adult ESL Learner Corpus

2003 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Reder ◽  
Kathryn Harris ◽  
Kristen Setzler
Keyword(s):  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Adult Esl

Adult ESL/Literacy from the Community to the Community: A Guidebook for Participatory Literacy Training

1997 ◽  
Vol 81 (4) ◽  
pp. 570
Author(s):  
Steven G. McCafferty ◽  
Elsa Auerbach ◽  
Byron Barahona ◽  
Julio Midy ◽  
Felipe Vaquerano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Adult Esl ◽  
Literacy Training ◽  
Participatory Literacy

CONSTRAINTS ON “NOTICING THE GAP”

2003 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenefer Philp
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
Dyadic Interaction ◽  
Attentional Resources ◽  
Immediate Recall ◽  
Adult Esl ◽  
Esl Learners

Interaction has been argued to promote noticing of L2 form in a context crucial to learning—when there is a mismatch between the input and the learner's interlanguage (IL) grammar (Gass & Varonis, 1994; Long, 1996; Pica, 1994). This paper investigates the extent to which learners may notice native speakers' reformulations of their IL grammar in the context of dyadic interaction. Thirty-three adult ESL learners worked on oral communication tasks in NS-NNS pairs. During each of the five sessions of dyadic task-based interaction, learners received recasts of their nontargetlike question forms. Accurate immediate recall of recasts was taken as evidence of noticing of recasts by learners. Results indicate that learners noticed over 60–70% of recasts. However, accurate recall was constrained by the level of the learner and by the length and number of changes in the recast. The effect of these variables on noticing is discussed in terms of processing biases. It is suggested that attentional resources and processing biases of the learner may modulate the extent to which learners “notice the gap” between their nontargetlike utterances and recasts.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document