Philosophy

This first section examines the findings from Rachel’s reflection on her philosophy. One of the reasons Rachel said that she became an ESL teacher was because she likes “helping other people.” She also noted that she loves to “spark interest in things” so that her students are motivated to learn from her. Rachel also remarked that she enjoys her work because she can learn from students as they learn from her. This reciprocal process is very important for Rachel because she finds “it interesting just growing and understanding different things about different people.” Rachel said, “I get a lot of enjoyment from the students. There’s always lots of stories and it makes me happy knowing that I can make them happy in other ways, not just with grammar or teaching.” These, as Rachel notes, are special “moments I hold on to. Even if I didn’t impact students related to speaking, I helped them in another way, and those are the things that keep me going every day.”

Further, and as already noted, Rachel relayed that for her, it is important her students “feel like they’re in a safe environment.” She said that she wants her students to “always feel comfortable sharing things in class,” and she wants to make sure she protects them so they are able to do this. Rachel continued, “I always encourage them that whatever happens in the class stays in the class.” She said that she also finds that connecting with students is another way to encourage them, but when some of her students seem to be less involved, she will work harder with them. She commented about such students, “I feel like those students are a project and I want to get to them somehow.” Rachel continued: “For me it’s hard to let go when you see them like that. Then maybe I think, if I could just try and give that special attention to that student to show that I care, then maybe I can encourage them to change.”

Rachel said that she feels such empathy for her students’ well-being that she will try to do anything she can for them, but that can also cause problems for her if she tries too hard, and she joked, “I think it might be a problem I have.” Again, Rachel said that for her, she always tries to find ways to encourage students by becoming closer to them; she remarked, “my mission is to encourage them and gain their trust” because “once your students trust you, they will do anything for you.” She said that she finds great value in connecting with learners beyond their teaching: “My philosophy is I’m not here just to teach. I’m here to learn from them and to be, not a friend, but someone who they can talk to them and not just about grammar but encourage them to succeed in life.”

So, for Rachel, an ESL teacher must be very empathetic. Rachel wants her students to see her as “that person who cares and is willing to do more for them than just open the textbook” but also encourage and look out for them. That is why she wants her students to always feel safe with her in her classroom. However, as she is empathetic to her students, she also worries that she “coddles them too much.” Rachel finds this especially happens at the beginning of term when students are still adjusting and “they’re figuring out where they fit in.” In this situation she thinks it’s easy to become lenient, as she says, “So I feel like it’s only natural to give them some leniency because they don’t maybe know too much of what’s going on.” However, Rachel said that she finds that she struggles most with “setting boundaries and authority” in her classroom.

When reflecting on what matters most to her as an educator, Rachel says that she would like her students to “think that they’ve gained things” from her not only when learning English as a second language, but also when learning about assimilating into a new country and learning about life in their new country. Thus, Rachel relayed that she is always worried that her students will become “scared” of her, so she said that she is always nervous about trying to encourage and empathize with them so that they can learn, but at the same time not to become frightened of her. She continued: “I want them to remember me as someone who pushed them to learn but that they learn from me in more ways than just English, like life, or about Canada. So that to me is important, finding that balance.”

Principles

This section presents Rachel’s reflections on her principles directly related to the teaching and learning of English as a second language, the second stage of the framework. Rachel noted that she was most familiar with teaching what she called “L2 speaking” or conversation in English as a second language, and thus she said she had strong beliefs about how this should be done. Rachel commented that her main teaching objective of a speaking class is to provide opportunity for students to use the language as much as possible. She remarked that “basically it is just to get them to talk. It doesn’t matter if they are making mistakes or if they need to take their time to think ahead. I just try to get them to use English.” Rachel also stated that by giving students more opportunities to speak English, she is “better able to build up their confidence in speaking L2” She continued, “I hope by them using it more frequently, they can just gain more confidence.” As a teacher, Rachel remarked that she has a role in encouraging them to speak the language, and she noted that at times she must “push them more to use the language and try to use English as much as possible.”

Nevertheless, Rachel expressed that although she attempts to provide opportunities for all students to speak English, the level of participation of each individual student is different, and not all students are willing to speak the language in front of the class. She commented that this occurs because “the more outgoing students usually dominate, so the shyer students maybe just rely on them.” Rachel said that she believes that she must provide more detailed guidance and a nurturing environment especially for students with lower English proficiency levels, whereas she believes that she expects a higher standard for students with a higher English-speaking proficiency. Further, she stated that because there are “always some shyer students” in the classroom, she believes that she should call students by their names to encourage them to speak. Rachel remarked, “sometimes I will just call them by names even if you are shy, you have that level of ability to push yourself, so I do expect everyone to try.” Moreover, Rachel expressed that choosing topics that students can relate to is important for their motivation. She continued, “I choose topics that anyone can talk about so no one is disadvantaged because they all know about the topic.”

Rachel also noted that during her speaking class she only corrects pronunciation problems that affect overall comprehension. In such cases, Rachel said that she would repeat the word to signal error location, and then try to explain the position of the tongue and lips for the students to repeat the sound. She continued:

However, Rachel also noted that she will not stop the flow of a speech when her students are presenting even if they make pronunciation errors. She continued, “If they’re doing presentation, I won’t stop and correct grammar, unless it’s a very serious problem, but if it’s more of an informal thing where I’m talking to more of a small group or individual students, I feel more error correction happens.” Rachel said that she believes that she has to judge each situation separately, and thus remain flexible and adapt to that particular situation.

In addition, Rachel said that she believes that her students should be able to use their first language (L1) in her lessons, and expressed her tolerance toward her students’ use of their first languages in class if they are not excessive. She remarked, “At the beginning levels it is inevitable that I find students using L1s, and so as long as they are using that language to help each other understand it’s OK. I’m not like a language police officer.” However, Rachel also said that she would try to indirectly encourage students to explain certain terminologies in English if possible. She gave an example of a situation where a student is struggling with a certain vocabulary item and the other student helps the weaker one by using their L1s; then she would intervene and ask the helper to try to explain in English, because “I know it’s easier for him to get the immediate translation. I want to show him, you can easily show me.”

In terms of helping to provide more learning opportunities for her students, Rachel said that she believed that she provides some kind of warm-up activity at the beginning of each class to get her students focused on “using English freely from the very start of each lesson.” She noted that questions she can ask as an “intro discussion to warm up the lesson” may include examples such as “How they’re doing? Did they do something fun last night? Or random comments about personal, not school related topics.” In addition, Rachel said that she sometimes plays a video related to a particular topic at the beginning of the class that can also “activate students’ schema and allow them to think more critically on a certain topic issue.” She said that she believes that her students must always take an active role in her lessons and “take investment in their own learning whenever possible.” Rachel also stated that she believes her students can learn the language while having fun if the teacher promotes a positive atmosphere. She continued, “I like to have fun with them too and treating them as individuals not just robots, so I believe learning is the most important, but you can have fun doing it too.”

Theory

This section presents Rachel’s reflections on her theories of practice regarding lesson planning and delivery procedures and the different choices she made about particular skills to teach or not to teach. She commented that when she uses more detailed lesson plans, she finds that they are useful to guide the instructional flow of the lesson, especially if she wants to use paired work groups. For example, Rachel remarked, “I plan for pairs because if one student doesn’t know the issue to be discussed or vocabulary or the like, then maybe the other can help or they can brainstorm together.” She said that she prefers to plan this way instead of just providing students with either written or oral instructions at the beginning of a lesson and then let them “figure it out” for themselves for the remainder of the lesson.

When planning to use groups, Rachel commented that she prepicks the members of each group before the lesson because she wants to make sure the groups have members who are not too anxious when speaking English. She stated that she encouraged her students to talk in pairs or smaller groups first, so that they could practice speaking with fewer students, because, as she noted, they might find sharing and speaking to the entire class to be too intimidating. Rachel remarked, “I always plan to get them to do things in pairs or groups first so there’s less pressure for them than having to speak in front of the entire class.”

Although she said that she makes detailed lesson plans with her students’ proficiency levels and emotional dispositions in mind, Rachel also remarked that she sometimes still needs to adjust the lesson plans based on her students’ progress during a particular lesson. She said, “whenever I’m planning, I’m trying to estimate how much time things will take based on their ability,” and that she may have to make changes as a result. As Rachel remarked, “it’s also important for me to take action and change things when the need arises so I don’t make such detailed plans.”

Indeed, a situation occurred a few years ago that impacted Rachel and ultimately changed the way she plans her lessons, activities, and assignments in her classes today. Rachel said that in one of her classes, although she made detailed lesson plans, the students seemed less motivated and that “they were very negative and always complaining” about various things they “needed to do.” In this class, she also noticed that the attendance was generally low compared with her other classes at that time. After noting this, Rachel said that one day she decided to change an activity she had planned originally for that lesson, because of the students’ lack of attention when she entered the classroom. She remarked, “I decided to make them hand in the completed activity at the end of the class for grading.” Rachel said that she noticed an immediate change in her students’ attitudes when she told them, “You guys have to hand this in by the end of the class.” They “all sat up and began to pay attention” to what she was requiring them to do. Rachel continued, “suddenly their eyes go big and they’re taking pictures of the instructions on the board, and I know they’re sending it to the people who aren’t there.”

Rachel said that she was shocked with the result of this sudden change to her planned activity: “they all handed the assignment in.” Even the students who were not present – as Rachel said, “remember many students did not show up as usual” – wanted to do the assignment and hand it in later. She remarked: “I got an email from one of the students who wasn’t there who asked me if we could do it and hand it in tomorrow. Well, I got the email this morning and I replied, and I said, ‘since it was an in-class assignment, I cannot accept your work.’”

The following day in class that student tried to hand in the assignment. However, Rachel said she was firm in her decision and told the student again, “it was an in-class assignment.” She noted that her firm response seemed to shock the students, but she explained to them that those situations are “a part of student life.” As Rachel noted, this also helped her establish certain limits. She continued, “I felt slightly bad, but then I know that I needed to set boundaries and make an example of those students who didn’t come, and so I just want them to be prepared for the reality of a classroom which is, you go every day. ‘It’s like your job,’ I told them.”

Rachel also remarked that she usually discusses her lesson planning with her colleagues. She noted that she always tries to share how her lessons went after her classes, and asks her colleagues who teach similar courses and levels about how their lessons have gone too, as “I like to hear their feedback about things.” She also said that over the years she has noted what has worked for her and that she makes use of this knowledge as well when she prepares and executes her lessons. Rachel remarked, “I feel my past teaching experiences for sure have made me more aware of what I’m doing in the classroom.” Such an example occurred when she decided not to follow the mandated syllabus provided by the school program as her students were required to make a presentation that she knew from her previous experience would be too challenging for students at their English language proficiency level. Rachel noted that in order for such a project to work with her students, the school administration should have provided much more guidance in terms of specific materials to use and support the teachers. As Rachel reflected,

Practice

This section presents Rachel’s observed practices of three of her lessons during her fourth year of teaching. She was interested in having observed three of her lessons on teaching speaking to her EAP students at a low to intermediate proficiency level of English as they were preparing to enter the university for undergraduate studies soon. Rachel said that a typical EAP speaking class for her is “basically just to get them to talk. It doesn’t matter if they are making mistakes, or you know if they need to take their time to think ahead or whether they are going to say anything.” So, she said she wanted to build their confidence when speaking, and she does this by providing opportunities “to try to push them to use it so they could hopefully build more confidence.” Thus, Rachel said that she always tries to begin her speaking lessons with some kind of warm up by asking her students how they are doing, and whether they did anything for fun the previous night, or some other personal, non-school questions to get them ready for the particular topic of the lesson. Rachel remarked: “I always try to start the class with some sort of warm-ups, whether it’s an intro discussion to the topic, or having them watch a video or just to get them to think of a topic or something and responding in speech to it so right away, it’s talking, there’s not too much silence in the classroom.”

However, Rachel also noted some of the challenges she is faced with teaching L2 speaking because she noticed that over the years many of her students “like to have fun, so a lot of them get off topic easily.” One big challenge, Rachel pointed out, was how to keep them on topic given that she noted most of her students are teens and “some of them are a little immature, so dealing with the age and everything, and trying to get them motivated to do their work is probably the biggest thing I face.” Thus, Rachel said that in order to keep her students motivated in a speaking class, she must choose “appropriate topics that anyone can talk about” so that everyone could participate. She continued, “I really try to motivate them, and make them feel what they are saying is important, so I want to hear about what you are talking about, so they feel they are doing well.”

Rachel’s first observed class was an introduction to the process of giving presentations because her students would soon enter undergraduate class in university. Rachel stated that she planned to have students deliver their presentation individually the following week, so this class aimed to provide a foundation for them to become familiar with the upcoming presentation. She began the lesson by reading the instructions of the presentation they would be required to present in the following class, and she also explained and clarified different vocabulary to ensure her students’ understanding of the procedure that the presentation involved. After Rachel explained the instructions, the students were given a practice outline on “planning a vacation” and were asked to complete the outlines in pairs or in groups of three. While students were working in groups, Rachel checked each group’s progress. However, it became clear to her that many students seemed not to understand what they were supposed to do, and so she decided to explain the instructions again to some students individually when they asked. Rachel explained:

Towards the end of the class, Rachel wrote the title “Planning a vacation” on the whiteboard as an example of a process presentation. Then, Rachel decided to create a wiki on the topic of “planning a vacation” to illustrate the steps that this subject suggested because she worried her students really did not know what was required of them even if she thought that she had explained it clearly. She reflected on this afterwards as follows:

Rachel’s first observed class mainly adopted a teacher-centered approach to instruction where she attempted to provide instruction and explanations whenever any vocabulary came up that she thought would be difficult for her students. However, because her initial instructions were not fully understood by the students, she had to re-explain what they were required to do, and Rachel remarked that this was “a bit off-putting” for her because it made her think on the spot about what to do and this was difficult for her. However, she said that she quickly recovered after this and was able to make sure that each individual student was aware of what was required. Rachel ended the class by assigning homework for the students to complete for the following class. As she reflected:

The second observed class the following day was to focus on helping her students decide on an appropriate topic to present, and so, at the beginning of the class, Rachel elicited from the students the items they had discussed in the previous class. She remarked:

Rachel then circulated around the class and checked with each student’s selected topic for the process presentations while also making notes of their potential topics. In addition, she evaluated students’ topics and provided direct feedback in order to help students critically evaluate them. Excerpt 1 provides an example of this:

In this example, Rachel provided explicit verbal feedback to the student on a one-to-one basis as she was checking the student’s outlines. Post-lesson, Rachel remarked that she had anticipated that this would happen because she realized that some of her students were still not getting what a process was in a presentation.

In addition, it was observed that some of the students were using L1 during the class, and especially when Rachel was giving one-on-one instruction to specific students. However, Rachel said she was fine with this because of their lower proficiency level. Indeed, she noted that this was “inevitable,” and that “as long as they are using that language to help each other understand it’s OK.” In general, Rachel said that she does not mind if they use their L1 in her lessons if they choose to as she is “not like a police officer. If they choose to do that, it is not my obligation to always be blowing the whistle, ‘hey, you shouldn’t’, ’cause if it’s like helping them then that’s fine.” Finally, at the end of the observed lesson, as homework, Rachel asked students to research more on their topics and submit their outlines the next day.

Rachel’s third observed lesson the following day was on finishing the presentation outlines and discussing the concept of self-improvement presented in the textbook. However, Rachel said that she noticed that many of her students were still unsure about the given assignment, so she decided to give them an extra fifteen minutes in the beginning of the class to complete their outlines. She remarked:

As observed, Rachel circulated around the classroom and checked students’ progress for their outlines. While she was helping the students, she provided explicit feedback for each of them depending on their individual progress as in the previous class, but this time included providing spelling corrections and giving suggestions and explanations that the students needed more clarification on. After approximately thirty minutes, Rachel turned to the textbook and asked her students to come up with different words related to qualities that are important in their friends.

During this section of the lesson, it was observed that some of the students were expressing some difficulties understanding the vocabulary that arose, such as the word “upright,” and that Rachel seemed to be struggling at times to explain this vocabulary in different ways so they were able to understand. Excerpt 2 illustrates this exchange.

As illustrated in Excerpt 2, when the word “upright” came up and a student asked her about its meaning, Rachel said that she found herself struggling to explain because she always tries to give examples of vocabulary using her “own body language when I act out an adjective or the like.” For example, she said that if the word that she has to explain is “arrogant,” then she uses her body language to show someone who is arrogant. Then she said that she hopes they find it funny so that “they will remember that more, and thus it sticks with them.” However, Rachel noted that at that moment in the lesson when the student said the word “upright” as a response to the qualities he wants in a friend, she was “somewhat stumped.” She said that she realized at that moment that she knew other words to explain it but worried the students would not understand those either. Rachel reflected, “I only know other vocabulary that they probably don’t know to explain that concept.” In addition, she said she could not think of any other synonyms at that moment, so she just moved on by asking another student a different question to change the focus, although she realized the first student had not understood any of the exchange. Rachel reflected, “I don’t think he fully got it, but I was like, we need to move on to something else.”

Beyond Practice

The following section reports Rachel’s critical reflection beyond practice and beyond the technical aspects of teaching to illuminate a broader outlook that encompasses social, emotional, and interpersonal components of practice. Although born in Canada, Rachel grew up in an immigrant community in Canada that was conservatively Christian, and so she established many of her life morals based on this religious background. Rachel was educated in a rural area for most of her youth and so taught Sunday school, which was her first real teaching experience. These early experiences had a lasting effect on her as an ESL teacher in her fourth year of teaching, and she attributes her always trying to respect her students to her deep religious morals. Indeed, when times have been difficult for her in her own teaching (an example with the administration of her school follows), she said that she “leaned back on my early religious beliefs to keep me going.”

Rachel expressed frustrations with the administration of her school over the past few years, and said that this impacted overall teacher motivation negatively in her school. For example, when the teachers are “asked for their opinions,” she noted that nothing changed and that “the ideas we give don’t get implemented.” She said that more recently in her fourth year of teaching she had become even more frustrated because of the lack of leadership in the school as she said they did not seem to care about what the teachers were trying to suggest in terms of improving learning opportunities for the students. As Rachel noted, “it’s just frustrating that we’re asked for our opinions, and we’re asked to share, but they don’t listen.” However, towards the end of her fourth year, she said that along with some other teachers, she decided not to sit back anymore and demanded that the administration take some action and listen to the teachers’ suggestions more. Rachel continued, “when we had the last meeting we started questioning and being like, what’s going to happen with these ideas and what is going to be the follow-up and what’s going to come out of it?” The leadership, she noted, seemed somewhat surprised that the teachers spoke up, but she noted that after the meeting nothing changed. Rachel continued: “We are all aware that nothing is going to happen. It doesn’t matter what we say, what great ideas we come up with, we all have reached the reality of the situation, which is that nothing will happen.”

Rachel then recounted one “disturbing incident” (she said she was not at liberty to disclose the exact nature of the incident) that had occurred recently in her classroom which she brought to the attention of the director of the school, but she experienced a “very slow follow-up process.” Rachel said that at that point she had “had enough,” and so decided to confront the director to remind her that the institution had to take some action to back her up. When the situation was finally being dealt with, she found that the director wanted to meet only with the student who was involved and caused the “disturbing incident” in her class but did not discuss it any further with Rachel. Rachel then wondered what other teachers might have had similar bad situations but were left with no responses. Rachel remarked, “It is a recurring issue in our department. Other people have had similar problems. Here we are again being quiet about things. Why is that necessary? We should not take this anymore.”

Even though Rachel said she was worried about her future career in that school, she nevertheless said that she realized she would have to “do something if I want to keep my dignity as an ESL teacher.” Thus, she decided to take the situation into her own hands and informed all her colleagues about the disturbing incident that occurred with the student, and that the school had not taken any action or follow-up that she was aware of to protect her as a teacher. As a result, Rachel said that she “felt a sense of empowerment” as the situation was important for her, and she wanted the whole school to be informed of behaviors that are appropriate:

In her previous year’s teaching, Rachel said that she did not really think too deeply or question the material she was given by a supervisor to teach. Now, however, in her fourth year of teaching, she said that she understands more about teaching and that her experience has given her more confidence to look at what she is doing and what others are doing as well as what the institution has given her to do. Rachel reflected on how she had changed as an ESL teacher in her fourth year from when she started teaching, when she noted that she “didn’t have a lot of confidence” and it was difficult for her to “take that authoritative position and try to control and be strict about things.” However, and as the example of her confronting the administration indicated, after four years as an ESL teacher she feels she has progressed to the point where “I know what to do and when.” Rachel continued:

Rachel remarked that she now realizes more the things that need to be changed because she noted they “are necessary to make education better for our students and for ourselves to be professional and proper teachers.” She continued, “I kind of feel like I don’t care if I step on people’s toes anymore because the most important thing to me is making sure that I am doing my job correctly and the students are getting what they expect to be getting.” That said, Rachel said that all of this has been upsetting for her, and so she is beginning to look at her future options as an ESL teacher, or even beyond teaching, as she noted that the “career path seems to be unstable” for her. She said that she worries about her future as an ESL teacher given her low salary and her lack of opportunities, especially in her current position. She also reiterated that despite all of her complaining about administrators what keeps her going is that she loves teaching ESL, and she loves helping her students and will do anything for them. Rachel said that because she loves her ESL students, she may have to consider leaving her current place of employment after four years because she is “stagnating” and that she has lost belief in the leadership of the school.

Envoi

As it turned out, several months after this reflective project Rachel moved to a new school in which she said she has settled in well; she loves teaching again.