Contacting ESOL Publishers

For this assignment you will need to (1) contact at least five major ESOL publishers and request to be put on their mailing lists (to receive catalogs, flyers, etc.) and (2) submit a brief report (one page maximum) explaining which publishers you contacted and how they responded. The names and telephone numbers of a number of major ESOL publishers are provided.

Designated Reader Team Presentations

As a valuable alternative to teacher lectures, you and your classmates will be assigned to give in-class presentations on an area of ESOL teaching methodology that you have been designated to read about in our textbook.

Final Examinations

There are two final examinations in this course. The first one is an in-class teaching demonstration. In this lesson, your teaching objective may be skills or content related to the English language or (preferably) another language-one which your classmates do not know-to make the teaching and learning more authentic. The second examination will take the form of a brief oral interview (as if you were being interviewed for an ESOL teaching job). The possible questions for this interview will be developed in our class and given to you in advance.

Journal Article Reports

Here you will find a list of the TESL-oriented periodicals in the HBLL. Before your assigned date, you will need to go to the library, find an article that is pertinent to the topic(s) being discussed in class, read and understand it, and then present a summary (oral and written) to the class. Be sure to follow the guidelines for preparing your written summary. Your grade is also based on how well you follow those instructions.

Lesson Plan Creation and Sharing

After receiving instruction in and examples of what constitutes a good lesson plan (and the possible variations), you will create lesson plans for the various language skill and content areas as they are discussed in class. (These lesson plans are apart from those you make for the teaching practicum.) Every student in our class will not need to create a lesson plan in every area. You will sign up to do lesson plan presentations in two different areas. One of these presentations will take a "micro-teaching" format (maximum length=10 min.). In this presentation, you will present ("teach") your lesson to class members who will act as students. In the other lesson plan presentation, you will explain ("walk through") a different lesson plan to a group of your classmates. In both cases, you will be expected to use the feedback you receive for (1) conducting a self-evaluation and (2) revising your plans accordingly. After you have revised your lesson plan, you will need to submit it electronically so that it can be posted on the WWW and kept in a database of lesson plans. Unless you state otherwise, it will be assumed that you grant permission for this storage, duplication, and distribution of your lesson plans.

Log of Practicum Experiences

A major learning activity in 577 is the teaching practicum. This lab experience involves you observing and teaching a class of real ESL learners at BYU's English Language Center (or other ESL course). You will be assigned to work with a series of experienced teacher/mentors at the ELC (or other location) for two different one week sessions. Since the ELC classes run 65 minutes each, you ordinarily observe, assist and/or teach in four of these classes per session. If you have questions about your responsibilities, please see the guidelines for the practicum or contact the practicum coordinator, Paul Mason (378-8154 or pmason@byu.edu ). You will be responsible to see that each of your mentor teachers fills out and sends a Mentor Teacher Response Sheet to me. During the weeks that the practicum is being carried out, our 577 class will usually not meet on Tuesdays.

As you go through your teaching practicum experience, you create a teaching log book which consists of written, reflective evaluations of your own and your mentor teachers' teaching, your lesson plans, as well as sample teaching materials (handouts, visuals, etc.). For a set of reflective questions to guide your thinking and writing, see Dr. Tanner. This log book is submitted to the 577 teacher for evaluation near the end of the course. The evaluation criteria are listed here. Please attach this sheet to the front of your log when you submit it. Sample pages from a good teaching log are available.

Materials Evaluations

You will need to find (in the HLRC, the HBLL, the bookstore, or elsewhere) a textbook, software, instructional WWW site, or other material for teaching ESL students and then analyze and report on it. This evaluation will be done in two stages. The first involves creating a checklist-style form for evaluating materials and then filling it out for the book/material you have chosen. The second stage will take the form of publishable quality book review (see criteria and samples on on the WWW). You are encouraged to submit this review to a professional TESL journal (such as the I-TESOL Newsletter, TESOL Journal, or TESL Reporter) (review editors' names and addresses are on the WWW) and earn extra credit.

Materials File

A major assignment in the materials area is the creation of a file of ESOL teaching materials (pictures, tapes, transparencies, readings, figures, etc.). Specific guidelines regarding the types and numbers of items expected in the file are on the WWW syllabus. You will be introduced to facilities on campus (such as the media lab in the McKay Building) where you can produce such materials. At the end of the semester, you will show the entire file to the teacher for evaluation. On that day, please bring the criteria sheet (in your packet) with the top part filled out. A valuable related activity is sharing this file with classmates on the day set aside for this demonstration. The Video "Materials File Demonstration" available in the HLRC (call # VC LI-MAT-577) may be helpful.

Observations of Varying Types of ESOL Classes

You are expected to observe as wide a variety of ESOL classes as possible (high-level, low-level; skill-based, integrated; for adults, children; at the ELC, UVCC, public schools, video-taped in non-U.S. settings, etc.) in order to gain an awareness of the breadth of the profession and the many adaptations that must be made when teaching ESOL under varying circumstances. Possible sites for these observations are found on the WWW. So are the evaluation criteria for your observation reports and a sample report. You will do at least two observations (outside of your practicum experience) and write a report on each. The first observation report will be relatively informal, employing a "fill-in-the blank" type of format. The second will be a formal, written report. In it, among other things, you will be expected to report on one of the "Another Set of Eyes" observation procedures you employed. You will also exchange observation reports with other students and evaluate one another's work. As you read what your peers have written, you will have a beneficial vicarious observation experience, learn from the good examples you see, and provide useful feedback to each other.

Practice Toefl Exam

You are required to take a practice TOEFL exam so that you can have an idea of what ESL students often spend a great deal of time preparing for. The materials can be checked out from the HLRC. There is a folder with the sample test (3 sections) and a tape for the listening comprehension exercises. There is a second folder with the answer key and a scale to compute your score. After you have finished the exam, your test sheet should be turned in to the course instructor. See an online practice Toefl exam at: http://www.toefl.org/abttoefl.html

Professional Activity Report

You are required to participate in a number of activities related to the TESL profession. These activities include attending professional lectures, subscribing to electronic discussion lists (such as TESL-L), reading articles in professional journals, attending professional conferences and reporting on the sessions you attended, and writing a book review. The following is a list of possible activities and associated points.

• Submission of an abstract to a professional conference ----------------------------------------------5 points each
• Submission of book review to professional journal -----------------------------------------------------10 points each
• Submission of article to professional journal -------------------------------------------------------------15 points each

• Viewing videotape of TESOL presentations (HLRC) and submitting a one-page review -----5 points each up to 15 points

  Video tapes available in the HLRC:

  • How People Learn VC LI HOW -230
  • International TESOL Conference (April 1994) VC LI ITC -001
  • Keeping Pace with the Profession VC LI KEE -005
  • Lilly Wong Fillmore (Feb. 15,1985) VC LI LIL -003
  • Making Connections: Learning, Language, and Tech VC LI MAK -002
  • Rocky Mountain TESOL Conference (Oct. 1993) VC LI ROC -001
  • Second Language Acquisition VC LI VC -7809 or 7810

  Audio tapes available in the HLRC:

  • Professional: Publishing and presenting AC LI --002--PP
  • Tele TESOL AC LI --001-- TS

• Tutoring ESL students -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2 points/hour up to 5 hours
• Joining TESOL, MLA, AAAL, NCTE, or other national professional organization ----------------10 points
• Joining I-TESOL (or other appropriate affiliate) 10 points
• One to two page summary of a journal article or TESL-L “discussion thread” -------------------2 points each up to 10 points

* Extra points exceeding the 25 required will be counted as “bonus” points, for a total of up to30 bonus points.

Reading and Discussing Assigned Chapters from Methodology Textbooks

Methodology readings (primarily from the Brown Teaching by Principles textbook, but also from the Bowen, Madsen, & Hilferty TESOL book, the packet, and the HBLL course reserve collection) constitute a key part of 577. It is from and through these readings that you will gain much of the theoretical understanding that must underlie your teaching practices if you are to be successful. To help you understand them, study questions (that you will be expected to use-as well as evaluate and revise) prepared by 577 students in previous semesters are linked on the course calendar.

Teacher Lectures

Accompanying and supplementing the assigned readings, lectures and discussions led by the teacher are another major learning activity. Nevertheless, in this course it is intended that student activities (presentations, reports, discussions, etc. ) and demonstrations will predominate.

TESL-L Reading and Reports

In this alternate (or extra credit) activity, instead of reading and reporting on periodical articles from the library, you will become involved with TESL professionals around the world on a listserv (electronic discussion group) called TESL-L. You will do this over the Internet. You can subscribe to TESL-L (for free!) by following the instructions provided on the WWW. When other class members report on what they read in the library, you can report on the electronic mail you have read.

Viewing of Video Taped Lessons

The Longman Teacher Training Through Video tapes shown in class will provide an important, popular, and beneficial activity for you. Before class, you will need to do as homework the readings and focus questions (found in your paper packet) which accompany each tape. In class, we will discuss the reading and questions and then view the tape as a group. While doing so, you should look for the items noted on the accompanying checklist and then discuss what you saw with the 577 teacher and other class members, thus building our understanding of the particular techniques being demonstrated and the teaching process in general.

Virtual Class Discussions

Several times during the semester, in lieu of regular class sessions, we will conduct electronic discussions of designated chapters in the Brown textbook. Before the due date for each of these discussions, you will need to read the entire assigned chapter, write a paragraph or two describing your reaction to the chapter (what you learned, whether you agree, etc.), and send your paragraph to the class listserv. On the due date, the reactions of all the class members will be released and sent to everyone on the Ling577-L listserv. You will then be expected to read these reactions and send your reaction to the listserv by the next day.