Pedagogical Changes

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TESL 0120

This past week has been a great learning experience, and I know this is just the beginning! Even though I taught English as a Second Language in the past, times have changed and pedagogy has greatly evolved since then. Shortly after graduating from the University of Manitoba with my Bachelor of Education in 1996, I went to South Korea and taught ESL for about two and a half years. I continued in the field for a few more years, teaching in private language schools in Winnipeg and  Florida.The majority of the classes I taught in South Korea focused on English conversation at various levels. For some of the classes there was a textbook or curriculum to follow, whereas others were more open and teacher-created.

As I read through the Canadian Language Benchmarks this week, I was amazed at the amount of detail in the descriptions of competencies and the examples of specific tasks for each. I wish that this type of document had existed when I first taught ESL! I was also overwhelmed by how much information and how many activities can be found online. When I went to South Korea I went in somewhat blindly, and learned a lot by just trying things out. I had the knowledge I had gained from my BEd of course, and I did pick up a couple of books on teaching ESL before I left Canada. I also received a lot of support from other Canadian and American teachers at my school. Fortunately I worked at a school that had an extensive resource library for the teachers to use, in addition to the texts that were selected for some of the classes.

To teach my classes I made use of many of the materials in the resource library, did a lot of hands-on activities, and became quite good at making all kinds of faces, gestures and motions. I also had my students take part in a lot of role-play activities. I think you have to almost become a bit of an actor/actress to teach ESL! It was a wonderful experience and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

 I know that it is going to be a lot different this time around and that I'll be incorporating all kinds of technology into my teaching, but I also know that I am going to love it. I feel like the education and professional experience I have had over the past twenty years, along with everything I will be learning in the TESL Certificate Program will prepare me for whatever comes my way. I can't wait to have an ESL class of my own to work with again!

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