ESL 101

¡Hola!

The last week has gone by so fast, yet I only have one class to show for it (well, that and a trip to PATAGONIA!! but that’s for a whole other post) It went pretty well overall, I had so much time to prepare for it and practice the commute that it almost seemed anti-climatic by the time it was over. It went pretty well overall. I had a group of three siblings, triplets no less! However, I worked with each of them individually, so instead of planning an hour and a half lesson, I planned one thirty minute lesson and did it for each of them. It sounds like it’s super easy, and believe me it is strangely unnerving after student teaching to only have to prepare thirty minutes of material. I’ve realized after this last class that I will seldom ever run out of material, but it will be tough to make those thirty minutes count. I arrived super early last week, and out of fear for showing up to early (not something Chilean culture typically approves of) I walked around the neighborhood for a while and explored some local markets. However, I think in the future getting early will be helpful, because by the time you get in, say hi, negotiate which kid goes first, and get all your materials out, you’ve lost at least 5 if not 10 minutes. It also took more effort than I thought to get them engaged. But you can’t blame them, their class wasn’t until 6 pm, after they’ve had a full day of school, and who knows what other extracurricular, plus one girl had just gotten back from the dentist!

Another thing that surprised me was how tempting it was to speak to them in Spanish. We talked a lot during orientation about how it is difficult with young learners at a starting level, because their English abilities are so limited. Many of the stronger Spanish speakers in our group inquired if we should start off speaking in Spanish to them to make them feel more comfortable or use it to explain a game or concept they couldn’t understand in English. Our bosses strongly encouraged us to refrain from Spanish completely if at all possible, to make it a full English immersion experience. I thought this wouldn’t be an issue for me, as my Spanish skills are far from stellar. Yet when they were staring at me with confusion asking, “¿qué? I found myself, albeit quickly and with a twinge of guilt, explaining in Spanish what I was trying to get them to understand in English. Apparently my innate need to comfort the kids I work with transcends language! It’s interesting, but something I need to be aware of. They are there to learn English, so I need to remember to be firm about only using English as much as possible.

It was definitely a humbling experience. I’ve been working towards being a teacher my whole life, and have worked with countless kids in the process among various settings. I’ve become pretty confident in my ability to teach, but transitioning to ESL is a whole different ballgame. All the tricks up my sleeve I had when teaching early childhood and literacy are completely inapplicable here. I took a TESOL course before arriving, but while it taught me about the actual structure of grammar and language, I wish it did more to prepare me for actually teaching English as a second language. I’ll have to keep doing research on my own, and I believe our company holds workshops regularly which will definitely help. One things for sure, I’ll definitely be a better teacher by the end of this!

Next post will be a long one! My partner in crime, Deirdre, and I took on Patagonia in 3 days. Look out for pictures from that trip on Facebook soon and a post about it after my class tomorrow.

¡Buenas Noches!