Kate Sutcliffe - January, 2007

This morning we got to meet some real students, and observed two classes. One was lower intermediate, the other upper intermediate. One thing I’m a bit baffled by at the moment is how to know what kind of work is appropriate for which level, and how to guess whether your students will already know certain grammatical forms or vocabulary items. This is a particularly pressing point, as today we were introduced to the students we’ll be teaching one-to-one and writing individual profiles for. The first session is an interview designed to help us assess the student’s language-learning needs, but it also has to include two each of reading, writing and listening exercises so we can assess all four skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing). I don’t want to give my student something too easy, because I won’t find out what she finds difficult – but I don’t want to give her something too hard in case she gets completely lost and discouraged, and I end up with nothing to analyse. Quite hard to work out what’s going to be appropriate before the analysis stage!

Our grammar lesson this afternoon contained disappointingly little grammar and was more like an exercise in lesson planning. In fact, most of our classes are basically exercises in lesson planning… which makes complete sense, as that’s precisely what they’re trying to teach us!

This afternoon we had our first Russian lessons. The point, of course, is not for us to learn Russian, but for us to experience what it’s like being taught a completely new language only through the medium of that language. So our teacher (after explaining in English about the journals that we’d have to make) left the room and came back in, and spoke only Russian for the rest of the session. It was surprising how easy it was to understand, with the help of gestures, pictures, props, and lots of repetition. Quite confusing as a student though: having to take part in the Russian lesson, but also having to make extensive notes on how the teaching was carried out. I hardly wrote down any Russian in the end.

I was very relieved that we had less homework today. I’m not quite sure that I’ve done all of it properly, but it only took about two hours rather than three.

It’s hard to believe that it’s only Tuesday – feels like it should be at least Friday by now! On the other hand, I’m quite glad it’s not, as we have to give our first lessons on Monday… eek!

My best advice so far: if you’re going to do an intensive TESOL course, don’t be ill! In order to pass it’s necessary to have 100% attendance, and as classes run basically 9-5 every day (with a few minor variations), there isn’t even time to go and see a doctor. I survived today on paracetamol and taking things as gradually as I could. But the problem is, the intesity of the course doesn’t leave much room for taking things gradually! Had I not been ill, I think today would have been fine. But as it is, with a half-speed brain, I’ve only just managed to finish all of my homework. One thing I had to do was to record a tape for listening exercises – something of a joke with my croaky frog voice! Perhaps I’ll have to re-record that one when I’m feeling better.

I really ought to be in bed already (having to get up fairly early to get to college on time) but there’s just time to tell you that we’re in a class of eight (six girls and two boys), with two main teachers and some other people to teach us a few other bits. Everything’s very organised (eg they tell us exactly how to file all of our notes), which is really for the best, as there isn’t much time to think about things! Today as well as having all sorts of preliminary information thrown at us, we had to start proper work too, with teaching aids, an example lesson, and introductory grammar and function sessions. (Communicative function being the reason for a particular set of speech, which can be taken as the basis for a lesson. For example apologising, or polite requests, or asking for directions). We also had quite a lot of stuff to do at home – not particularly difficult, but rather time consuming (at least if you’re not entirely feeling well!)

Ugh. Today is not a good day to be ill. Spending most of the day in bed doesn’t seem the ideal way to prepare for the first day of my intensive TESOL course! Just hope that I wake up tomorrow feeling competent to get to Milford station, catch the train to Woking, find my way from Woking station to the college – and then proceed to take in a day’s worth of intensive tuition, and probably do some homework when I get back!

I am excited about beginning. It’s been a year and a half since I last did any proper studying and I’m rather looking forward to packing my (multicoloured ) pens and folders, going off to college, and learning something new. I’m not sure quite what to expect really, although if lessons are anything like the pre-course open day then we’ll be sitting round in a circle without tables, discussing teaching, grammar, phonology, and whatever else we’re going to learn. Actually I think classes will be quite varied – we’ll have Russian lessons (for teaching methodology), and I think we’ll be starting to give our own lessons rather sooner than currently feels a good idea…

So I’m just praying that I’ll be well enough to take everything in tomorrow (today my ill-brain refused to remember my own email address – not a good sign!) and that the first day goes well.

Today’s task (phonology) was even quicker than yesterday’s. The second part of the study pack from ULT sets out the system of phonemic transcription used on the course. Although the consonants were all as I expected, some of the vowel symbols were a bit different from ones I’ve used before. This provided a good excuse to use my new multicoloured pens (hooray!) to make a list of the vowel and diphthong symbols, now stuck in the front of my new bright green folder for easy reference. (I am convinced that having multicoloured pens, folders, paper, dividers, socks, and anything else available in rainbow, really does help with studying. If not with the actual learning process, then at least with cheering you up on a Monday morning )

ULT were very specific about the stationery requirements for the course. They told us the number and size of ringbinders we would require, as well as the number of file dividers we’d need for each one. I was slightly alarmed, at first, by such precision, but I guess it’s just because we won’t have much time whilst doing the course, so they probably want to make sure that we won’t be wasting any thinking about how to organise our notes.

Almost everybody I know seems to know someone who’s done an intensive TEFL course in the past. And all of them have said that the volume of work means it really does take up all your time: apparently it’s not possible to think about anything else whilst the course is on. Maybe I’m slightly worried about that. I’m not always very good at concentrating on the same thing without a break – when I’m meant to be doing something specific, I suddenly remember the five hundred or so interesting things that I somehow forgot all about when I had nothing to do…

I chose this particular course for various reasons (not least its being in the vicinity of my parents’ house, who have kindly agreed to let me move back home whilst I study). The thing that first made me like it was reading on the website that as part of the course you get given two or three Russian lessons, to experience what it’s like to learn a completely new language from scratch and without speaking anything else in the classroom. I was futher swayed by the free open day/seminar that ULT do about once a month, to let you get a feel for the course before you decide whether or not to sign up. As you can tell, I liked it! The Trinity TESOL certificate also appeals because it covers teaching children as well as adults, whereas I am told that Cambridge CELTA only covers adults. However, both courses look good to me, and it seems that they’re generally accepted as equivalent.

You’ll be glad to hear that I did, eventually, manage to get my desk tidy yesterday. Then, having no further excuse for not doing any work, I took another look at the pre-course study pack provided by ULT. Because it’s such a short course, we’ve all been sent this pack to give us some preliminary knowledge of grammar and phonology. I’d read through the whole thing before; yesterday I set about actually trying to learn the grammar part of it.

This is grammar as I’ve never seen it before: grammar with a highly practical application. Instead of learning the names of different tenses and how to form them with different kinds of verbs, the important thing here is to know the context in which each formation would be used. Some things are counter-intuitive. The Simple Future tense (eg I will go to London tomorrow) is less common for expressing the future in informal conversation than using the Simple Present with a future time marker (eg I am going to London tomorrow). I imagine trying to explain to a group of students that, although I will go is technically correct, it sounds much more normal in everyday conversation to use the present tense to describe what’s going to happen in the future. Hm. No wonder people think English is confusing.