Experienced ESL Teachers Research Articles

Sustainable ESL teacher support in the Global South through e-coaching

Abstract This qualitative study investigates the challenges faced by five ESL teachers in Nigeria and the role of an e-coaching intervention in providing support for these challenges. In undertaking the study, the author engaged in a two-cycle coaching session involving a pre-planning conference and post-observation feedback with the teachers. Teachers were interviewed to examine their perceptions about e-coaching support. Analysis revealed several key findings on the role of the coach in providing instrumental support to the teachers, which they felt had a positive impact on their professional development. The study proposes e-coaching as a feasible teacher development activity in low-resource contexts and sheds light on whether the coaching models adopted via online platforms are accessible and practicable for experienced ESL teachers in comparable contexts across both sub-Saharan Africa and the wider Global South.

Changes and Challenges in the Teaching of Grammar in the Age of Disruption

The teaching of grammar during classroom meetings is entirely different from the grammar instruction in the new normal. The learning and teaching atmosphere has been more challenging in the contemporary time because people want to be safe and secure as they do transactions. The widespread threats of the pandemic forced humanity to observe mandatory policies and protocols in work, school, and home. Development of language skills is a long time thrust by which ESL teachers carry among their schools. In the Philippine setting, both private and public school teachers share common problems in a different context and situation. The importance of grammar skills can be reflected on the various tasks and activities performed by people in the worksite, academe, and industry. As such, language teachers confront the issues and challenges in the actual ESL classroom where students are expected to learn and master grammar skills among others. Not all students have a good language facility as shown by poor performance in the English language assessments. Some students dislike inclusion of grammar lessons in the curriculum for fear of being unable to participate in the class and produce outputs. This paper aims to identify and describe the challenges (in the time of pandemic) experienced by language teachers on the teaching of grammar in the local Philippine context. Before the study culminated, the researcher has decided to get the views of experts and experienced ESL teachers about this problem and/or issue. It is a fact that has been observed and proved by many teachers not just ESL area but other majors that having grammar competence can help both students and professionals to achieve their goals and perform communicative tasks in the workplace. Results of the study provided insights and tips on how language teachers can make grammar teaching effective and relevant despite changes in setting and environment.

Enhancing Cultural and Linguistic Responsiveness in Argument Writing Pedagogy through Effective Adaptations for English Learners: Insights from C3WP Resource Analysis and Three Experienced Teachers’ Practices

This article examines recommended adaptations for English Learners (ELs) in the nationally-recognized C3WP argument writing program through the lens of effective EL literacy practices and culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy. We present an analysis of C3WP EL tips and EL notices and argue that when evaluated from the second language literacy and linguistically and culturally responsive pedagogy perspectives, the C3WP program could be enhanced by adding guidance for 1) specific instructional supports designed to increase ELs’ access to the resources and 2) helping teachers leverage these learners’ multicultural and multilinguistic capital. To help imagine how such effective additional guidance could be enacted pedagogically, we share three experienced ESL teachers’ perspectives on adapting C3WP for ELs. We hope that the insights gleaned from our resource analysis, the interviews with the teachers in our study, and our own experience with teaching argument writing with C3WP can serve as a useful starting point to creating specific, actionable supports for ELs, thus ensuring educational growth and promotion of culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy for all students.

Scaffolding thinking in ESL lessons: Negotiating challenges

The main focus of second language teaching is developing basic language competencies to help learners to communicate in another language. ESL teaching in many developing countries is an area that needs further development to provide best opportunities for students to engage in learning English. Recent research suggests the positive impacts of embedding thinking skills to enhance ESL learning. The Sri Lankan secondary school ESL curriculum emphasises the need for developing students’ competency of extracting necessary information from various types of reading texts but it does not explicitly recognize the need for developing students’ thinking skills. Therefore, this study examined teachers’ perspectives of incorporating thinking focused activities in reading. It employed 20 semi-structured Skype interviews with experienced ESL teachers to discuss how they scaffold thinking in reading lessons in grade 11 textbook prescribed for all state schools. The informants of this study found only simple and interesting themes helped students to think beyond creatively, but unfamiliar topics made students less engaging with the content. Teachers also encounter challenges in scaffolding thinking in multi-level language classrooms because of students’ limited knowledge of English vocabulary and general knowledge. Teachers also think cultural factors such as students’ inbuilt respect for teachers made students less interactive. This paper proposes a few strategies such as bilingual approaches to activate students thinking in ESL acquisition poor environments.

English

Examining language teacher beliefs and practices has been the subject of inquiry for the past 20 years. While some studies confirmed the consistency between teachers’ beliefs and practices, others also confirmed that beliefs are not always reflected in their classroom practices. It has also been found that teachers’ beliefs and practices do not always integrate the recent and established principles in second language teaching. To this end, this study sought to explore the teaching beliefs and practices of experienced ESL teachers and to determine whether these beliefs and practices run consistent with the current principles in ESL pedagogy from a sociocognitive-transformative perspective. For the stated purpose, five experienced ESL teachers were interviewed. The findings revealed that while there are consistencies between their beliefs and practices, some divergence were also observed. These results were attributed to several factors such as the abstractness of principles and attitude toward students. Implications for teacher education and future studies are discussed. Keywords: second language teaching; sociocognitive-transformative approach; teacher beliefs; teacher cognition; teacher practices DOI: http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2016-2201-12

‘I feel like I’ve plateaued professionally … gone a little stale’: mid-career reflections in a teacher discussion group

This paper reports on a qualitative study of the reflections of three mid-career female ESL teachers in Canada through the lens of their participation in a two-year teacher discussion group. Not many studies exist about the mid-career reflections of experienced ESL teachers and their concerns (perceived or otherwise) with the phenomenon known as ‘plateauing’, and so the intent of this paper is to try to shed some light on this topic within the TESOL profession. The results indicate that some ESL teachers in mid-career may encounter some form of plateauing, but if they engage in collaborative group discussions with other teachers either within or outside their institutions, they can learn to better understand, and ultimately learn how to resist it and maintain their commitment and enthusiasm for their work as ESL teachers.

Reflecting on ESL teacher expertise: A case study

Abstract Some teachers have been regarded as experts only because of their years of experience in a classroom, but the number of years of teaching experience does not necessarily translate into expertise. Within the field of TESOL teacher expertise is still a very under-researched topic. This paper attempts to contribute to the literature on ESL teacher expertise by examining the experiences of three experienced ESL teachers as they reflected on their work over a 2-year period in a teacher reflection group with the aid of a facilitator (this author) as part of their professional development. The findings identify and discuss five main characteristics of teacher expertise in order of frequency: Knowledge of Learners and Learning, Engage in Critical Reflection, Access Past Experiences, Informed Lesson Planning, and Active Student Involvement.

Teacher self-awareness through journal writing

Reflective practice has now become the leading paradigm in second language teacher education and development programs worldwide. Teacher reflection refers to teachers subjecting their beliefs and practices of teaching and learning to a critical analysis. One way that has been suggested to promote reflective practice for experienced ESL teachers is through journal writing. This case study sought to investigate in what ways regular journal writing promoted reflective thinking in one experienced ESL college teacher in Canada over a two-year period of reflection. Results showed that the teacher wrote mostly about her self-awareness as a teacher and that writing regularly in a journal provided her with some constructive behavior changes both inside and outside the classroom.

Exploring the professional role identities of experienced ESL teachers through reflective practice

Abstract Over their careers teachers tacitly construct and reconstruct a conceptual sense of who they are (their self-image) and what they do (their professional role identity). Teacher role identity includes teacher beliefs, values, and emotions about many aspects of teaching and being a teacher. Reflecting on teacher role identity allows language educators a useful lens into the “who” of teaching and how teachers construct and reconstruct their views of their roles as language teachers and themselves in relation to their peers and their context. This paper reports on the professional role identity of three experienced ESL College teachers in Canada as communicated in regular group meetings. A total of 16 main role identities were identified and divided into three major role identity clusters of teacher as manager, teacher as professional, and teacher as ‘acculturator’, the last of which may be somewhat unique to ESL teachers.

Perceptions of L2 Fluency by Native and Non-native Speakers of English

This article explores perceptions of the speaking fluency of 24 adult ESL learners (11 men, 13 women) who narrated picture stories at Time 1 and again 10 weeks later at Time 2. One-minute excerpts from each rendition were randomized and played to 15 novice and six expert native speakers of English (undergraduate education students and experienced ESL teachers holding graduate degrees, respectively). Because of the increasingly frequent use of English among non-native speakers (NNSs) throughout the world, 15 advanced NNSs of English were also included in the study. All three groups of listeners rated and recorded their impressions of the fluency of the stimuli. The ratings of all three groups were highly inter-correlated at Times 1 and 2. Fluency ratings correlated with the temporal measures of total pause per second and pruned syllables per second. Pausing, self-repetition, speech rate, and fillers accounted for three-quarters of the negative temporal impressions recorded by listeners; salient non-temporal impressions included pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary.

Looking beyond teachers' classroom behaviour: Novice and experienced ESL teachers' pedagogical knowledge

This paper reports a study that examined the categories of pedagogical knowledge (knowledge related to the act of teaching) of novice ESL teachers as gleaned from their verbal reports of what they were thinking about while teaching and compared these categories to those found for experienced teachers in an earlier study (Gatbonton, 1999). The goal was to discover what pedagogical knowledge these learners have internalized after having completed a teacher-training program and how this knowledge compares to that of teachers who have had more experience than they have had. The novice and experienced teachers' pedagogical knowledge were examined specifically in relation to language management (how to handle language input and student output), procedural issues, and handling student reactions and attitudes. The results of the study show that the pedagogical knowledge of novice teachers is comparable to that of experienced teachers in terms of major categories but not in terms of details within these categories. Implications for teacher training are discussed.

Marching in Unison: Florida ESL Teachers and No Child Left Behind

■ The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB; U.S. Department of Education, 2002a) is dedicated to comprehensive school reform in the United States. NCLB targets the reading and academic achievement of all students and specifically includes English language learners (ELLs), who typically trail their nonminority English proficient peers academically. Although we support the goal of reducing this achievement gap, we problematize the equity assumptions underlying NCLB as well as the standardized implementation and inequitable outcomes of the policy for ELLs. Extending our previous research on educational policy and programs in Florida, we interviewed 52 experienced ESL teachers for their perspectives on NCLB. We framed the study around two research questions:

The relationship between experience, education and teachers’ use of incidental focus-on-form techniques

This paper reports the findings of an empirical study that explored whether ESL teachers’ use of incidental focus-on-form techniques was influenced by their level of experience. The results showed that experienced ESL teachers used more incidental focus-on-form techniques than inexperienced teachers. A follow-up study investigated whether inexperienced ESL teachers’ awareness and use of incidental focus-on-form techniques could be influenced by education, specifically, their participation in a teacher education workshop. Overall, the studies demonstrate the importance of taking experience and education into account in research on teacher-initiated incidental focus on form.

Investigating Experienced ESL Teachers' Pedagogical Knowledge

This study investigated the hypothesis that it is possible to access the pattern of knowledge about teaching and learning (pedagogical knowledge) that experienced teachers utilize while they teach. This hypothesis was investigated through qualitative and quantitative analyses of verbal protocols obtained from teachers who simultaneously watched videotaped segments of themselves teaching and reported on thoughts they had as they taught these segments. Two sets of experienced teachers (N=7) uniformly reported 20 to 21 categories of pedagogical thoughts that they claimed were in their minds while teaching. Of these, seven to eight were reported more frequently than others. The lists of predominant categories for both sets are headed by thoughts concerned with managing both the language the students hear and the language they produce (Language Management). Thoughts about students (Knowledge of Students), thoughts about ensuring the smooth transition of activities in the classroom (Procedure Check), and assessing student participation in and progress with the classroom tasks (Progress Review) were also among those that featured highly on both sets of teachers' predominance lists. In terms of an approach in analyzing the thought processes of ESL teachers, the study suggests that a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods may be profitable.

Investigating Experienced ESL Teachers’ Pedagogical Knowledge

This study investigated the hypothesis that it is possible to access the pattern of knowledge about teaching and learning (pedagogical knowledge) that experienced teachers utilize while they teach. This hypothesis was investigated through qualitative and quantitative analyses of verbal protocols obtained from teachers who simultaneously watched videotaped segments of themselves teaching and reported on thoughts they had as they taught these segments. Two sets of experienced teachers (N = 7) uniformly reported 20 to 21 categories of pedagogical thoughts that they claimed were in their minds while teaching. Of these, 7 to 8 were reported more frequently than others. The lists of predominant categories for both sets are headed by thoughts concerned with managing both the language the students hear and the language they produce (Language Management). Thoughts about students (Knowledge of Students), thoughts about ensuring the smooth transition of activities in the classroom (Procedure Check), and assessing student participation in and progress with the classroom tasks (Progress Review) were also among those that featured highly on both sets of teachers’ predominance lists. In terms of an approach in analyzing the thought processes of ESL teachers, the study suggests that a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods may be profitable.

A Comparison of Pedagogical Reasoning Skills in Novice and Experienced Esl Teachers

A Comparison of Pedagogical Reasoning Skills in Novice and Experienced Esl Teachers

The Effects of Referential Questions on ESL Classroom Discourse

In their examination of ESL teachers' questions in the classroom, Long and Sato (1983) found that teachers ask significantly more display questions, which request information already known by the questioner, than referential questions. The main purpose of the study reported in this article was to determine if higher frequencies of referential questions have an effect on adult ESL classroom discourse. Four experienced ESL teachers and 24 non-native speakers (NNSs) participated. Two of the teachers were provided with training in incorporating referential questions into classroom activity; the other 2 were not provided with training. Each of the 4 teachers taught the same reading and vocabulary lesson to a group of 6 NNSs. The treatment-group teachers asked significantly more referential questions than did the control-group teachers. Student responses in the treatment-group classes were significantly longer and more syntactically complex and contained greater numbers of connective.

Using Objective Methods of Attained Writing Proficiency to Discriminate among Holistic Evaluations

Ten objective measures of writing proficiency were used to evaluate compositions written by advanced ESL students. Only those objective measures which take the absence of errors into account discriminated among holistic evaluations of the compositions by experienced ESL teachers. A standardized objective writing test failed to discriminate among the holistic evaluations as well as the error-free objective measures did.