Professional Standards for TESOL

Professional Standards for TESOL

Case Narrative 1

This case narrative is of an ESL teacher working in a primary school providing ESL support. A strong feature of Helen’s work is her collaboration with non-ESL teachers to create stimulating language lessons within an existing curriculum and that meet the language learning needs of all the students in the classroom.

Accomplished TESOL teachers

advocate for and create a positive environment for cultural diversity, inclusive practice and English language learning

understand the linguistic, cultural and contextual factors involved in the development of English as an additional language

appropriately select and sequence language and culture content to provide for and critique meaning-making in diverse texts and contexts

use learners, families, communities and educational setting as resources for classroom activity

are familiar with and can critique existing provisions, policies, and curriculum and assessment frameworks

/ In my work developing explicit teaching activities for primary students, I try to create the opportunity to work with mainstream classroom teachers in planning activities that involve not just ESL students but all the students in the class. Some of the most rewarding sessions occur when, following this planning, I am able to share the teaching of the lesson with the classroom teacher. This results in a lively three-way interaction that provides a rich learning environment for ESL and non-ESL students and both teachers.
An important part of this process is the planning that takes place between the classroom teacher and me before the lesson. We discuss the topics, for example “Migration”, being worked on in class and look at the texts that are being used. Then I focus on the language skills to be developed, while the class teacher develops the content of the topic. I break down the texts, often to the sentence level, and use a Systemic Functional Linguistics approach to explain the language features of the text to the whole class. This results in all students, but particularly ESLs, being provided with a language/grammar lesson based on authentic and relevant materials. These lessons are usually structured along the following lines: after the preplanning occurs between myself and the classroom teacher, I generally introduce the lesson e.g. explicitly teaching features of a noun group and the classroom teacher becomes involved in supporting interactive pair or group activities that reinforce the explicit teaching. At this time I move to assist students of ESLbackground. Interaction between the teacher and me is a feature of the lesson and both of us support the children and each other throughout the lesson. The classroom teacher then continues work on the topic after I’m gone, reinforcing the appropriate use of the language feature in the texts being used in the classroom.
This approach has four important outcomes:

The opportunity for two teachers to pre-plan creates the best learning situation for everyone, teachers and students.
Students and teachers experience a language/grammar lesson that is energetic, authentic and relevant to the wider curriculum focus.
Engagement of the classroom teacher means that the learning will be reinforced after the lesson.
Two teachers are available to support the ESL students in the class.

Most classroom teachers tend to work in relative isolation and are often initially apprehensive having other teachers in the class. However teachers working in this situation find the collaboration beneficial and stimulating.
Another aspect of my ESL Work occurs at the start of the school year. I go through the class lists highlighting ESL students and noting cultural backgrounds. I arrange an initial discussion about this with the class teacher and then, ideally, work with the teacher over the year to remind and support the teacher around these student’s needs. Class teachers can then use this information to become more knowledgeable about the cultural and linguistic diversity in their class, and we discuss ways they can use student’s cultural and linguistic backgrounds as a resource for their teaching. This can be, for example, by introducing fairytales from different cultures or inviting parents in to teach a cooking class. This allows me, as a TESOL practitioner, to act as a catalyst for the use of the cultural resources of the school and to help give the culture a higher, positive profile in the school.
In a broader sense, the most professionally rewarding situations for me occur when I have opportunities to talk with teachers in a school, often in a casual situation (e.g., over lunch in the staff room) about issues to do with language, grammar, and culture. The SACSA ESL Scales are a useful tool to stimulate professional discussion with colleagues. It takes time for trust and professional cooperation to develop between ESL and class teachers, but once established the sharing of ideas, planning and teaching time allows for the systematic scaffolding of learning that is essential to ESL students in their language development.