No pain, no gain

SIT class of March 2004 front row:(from left) Clay (SIT trainer), Elizabeth, Patiweth, Marcha, Flrence back row: (from left) Susan (SIT trainer), Chris, Peter, Suniti, Steve (SIT trainer), Fran, Daniel, Monica (SIT trainer)

Last February, the editor of my section enrolled me in the month-long School for International Training (SIT) TESOL certificate course. Scholastics was the last thing I wanted to be doing in my life at the time, but as education editor for Student Weekly, the third publication of Post Publishing, I felt an obligation to serve the needs of the readers.

Before enrolling, I didn’t even know what TESOL was or how it differed from other acronyms like TEFL and TESL. This was a great opportunity for me to gain some pedagogic practice and acquire some theory about language teaching. And I really did want to learn how to teach English.

Now, as I open my journal and reflect on those four intensive weeks in March, I am reliving what it felt like to burn the midnight oil writing reflective essays and lesson plans, to become addicted to caffeine and to experience the trials and tribulations of teaching English to a class full of young foreigners. Needless to say, it was a great learning experience.

This is me pointing to the last day on the lesson schedule.

So there I was, sitting in a classroom with 10 other participants who probably wanted to be rescued by their moms too. It was a multicultural class with students who came from all over the world. There were participants from Malaysia, the Netherlands, Thailand, Canada, Germany and the United States.

Each of them had different reasons for enrolling. Most of them wanted to become certified ESOL (English to Speakers of Other Languages) teachers. One participant wanted to add one more certificate to her long list of achievements on her resume, while others needed the certificate to obtain proper papers to stay and work in Thailand. Most of the participants had background experience in English language teaching and were familiar with the jargon and teaching techniques. Several were already teaching at AUA, and most knew more or less what to expect from the course.

As I flipped through the full-size three-ring binder, I quickly realised that this was going to be a long and intense four weeks. I noticed at the bottom of one of the handouts in tiny print, “On extensively run courses, '2 days' is equal to 14 hours of course sessions.”

The four SIT trainers for the course were Monica, Susan, Steve and Clay. Monica and Susan flew all the way from the SIT Center in Boston especially to teach the class, so I felt quite privileged. The other two trainers, Steve and Clay, were from AUA. They were apprentices who took the course last year and were learning the ropes of how to become full-fledged SIT course trainers for Thailand.

All four teachers, it turned out, more than knew their stuff. They were professional, enthusiastic, and observant. They really knew how to conduct lessons and manage the classroom. Each trainer had their own particular teaching style and it was refreshing to have a new take on things at every lesson rotation.

One of our topics in the first week involved an introduction to Creole, an interesting language that is a mix of European and African languages. We were introduced to new words and how to use them to make sentences to communicate with our classmates. Clearly, this was no easy feat. Learning a new language taught me how difficult it was and how it felt to be in the shoes of a language learner.

After the crash course in Creole, we had to process what we had learned. Processing was one of many activities SIT learners had to do throughout the course. Whether it was done using a flip chart or rearranging strips of paper in chronological order, the end of each module involved some sort of reflection to help students recap what was learned in the lesson and for the trainers to see if students were able to achieve their lesson objectives.

I also believe this was done to see whether or not we were paying attention in class. Here, my abilities were hindered somewhat by severe sleep deprivation. But coffee and the plentiful bounty of sweets helped to get rid of the effects and clear up my double vision.

Reflection was also an important part of the SIT experience. Along with the binder, participants were given a journal to write their thoughts on their progression through the lessons. Students were also required to complete several reflective writings after every practice teaching session. Then, there were three additional reflective essays, and three extended reflections to be submitted.

The essays were tedious chores, but if you wanted your certificate you had better include them in your course portfolio. I may not have liked it, but to give it its due, the reflective writing task was helpful. Writing about my experience allowed me to look back on my work, to evaluate myself as a teacher and a learner, to see where my strengths and weaknesses lay and to realise where I could improve. Some classmates felt reflective writing was merely an obligatory task, but others felt it was a major benefit to their learning process. By the end of the course it was almost second nature for me to reflect at the end of any activity.

As if processing and essay writing weren’t enough, there were also required readings and research assignments. Altogether, there were 10 relatively long articles that required my in-depth opinion and critical assessment. I found some topics to be quite enlightening and informative, while others just made my head spin, especially those I read in the wee hours of the morning.

For one assignment, there was a grammar activity called the “Grammarama conference” whereby participants had to research a particular grammar point and teach it to their classmates. Although I'm a native speaker of English, grammar was never my forte, nor did it seem to be for the others in the class.

Like everyone else, I had to take grammar in school, then I promptly forgot about it. But by the end of the activity, I knew more about articles, relative clauses and adverbs of frequency than I had ever known before. The assignment required extensive research for which AUA supplied an abundance of resources and materials including books, coloured markers, flip chart papers and one highly temperamental computer.

Success in the SIT TESOL is not solely an individual effort. Group work is a vital part of the learning process. My group was aptly named Acharn, or “teacher” in Thai and we taught the “high beginning level” class of ESOL students for our practice teaching sessions. Collaborative work meant sharing ideas for the lesson plans and problem solving during class study.

The group was also there to lend emotional support – even physical support like waking up a member of the group who happened to be dozing off. The most important thing about working as a group was giving and receiving feedback after each practice teaching session. The group feedback session was indispensable in our development as language teachers.

The first week wasn’t that stressful, but from the second week onwards, it was a whole different story. Things really started to pick up, and I began to feel like an army cadet at boot camp as I started to cross off the days I had completed on the course calendar.

By that time, I was starting to get overwhelmed by all the work and the different learning modules. There were new teaching methodologies and techniques introduced daily. There was research for my papers and little things like finding a good warmer to give to my class. Moreover, I was being inundated with strange acronyms like, PDP, PPU, SWBAT, FUMP, CCQs, TTT, VAKT and jargon like “elicit,” “modeling,” and “realia.”

There was a moment midway through the course when a fellow participant dropped out. It was probably for personal reasons, but perhaps it was the workload. I truly believe that in order to successfully complete a course of this magnitude and come out of it alive and in one piece, participants must have effective time management skills and be able to suppress the underlying urge to procrastinate.

It isn't all doom and gloom, however. The part of the course I found to be most engaging and helpful was the practice teaching session. Not only did my group have to work with a beginning ESOL class of learners from various countries, we had to work together as a group and share ideas about our individual teaching lessons. It was also a great opportunity to put all that we learned about framework, objectives and more into practice with a real-life class.

All told, group members had to do a total of four assessed teaching hours, 29 hours of lesson planning, 24 hours of peer observation and 12 hours of feedback – and these hours don’t include the work after class.

Being able to teach is one thing, but I soon learned getting students to achieve your lesson objectives is quite another. There were times when things didn’t go according to plan and I had to scramble to get back on track. There were also many things happening at the same time. I had to make sure students were all warmed up and ready for the lesson; that the environment was conducive to learning; and that it wasn’t too hot or too cold in the room.

I also had to make sure that my instructions to students were crystal clear and that they understood what was being presented in the lesson. In addition to this, I had to be sure to FUMP (Form, Use, Meaning and Pronunciation) the words and constantly ask the students comprehension-checking questions.

The challenges of teaching a class of beginners were daunting, but the amount of satisfaction I got when I saw light bulbs turn on in their heads when they understood the lesson and seeing them participate and have a good time was indescribable.

I learned a lot from the other participants as well. Indeed, I emulated some of their teaching techniques for many of my lessons.

The tables are turned on the SIT trainers.

Work was non-stop up to the very last minutes of the course. Luckily I didn’t have practice teaching or any more papers to submit in the final week, so I used the time to compile my portfolio of reflective essays, assignments, handouts I found useful, lesson plans, readings assignments and my personal assessment form.

The final course activity was presenting our survival kits. It was like show-and-tell time for kindergarten kids, but here participants presented items they felt would be useful in the future as English teachers. Some participants presented textbooks, and, to the amusement of the class, one participant donned a surgical facemask to discourage himself from too much teacher talk. The half-empty binder I started out with at the beginning was now filled with reams of paper. The copious notes I took were filed into another binder making for a two-volume encyclopedia to be put on the bookshelf.

The SIT TESOL certificate course was certainly intensive, but I am grateful to many people who put me through the experience. I learned a great deal about English language teaching. I’ve found much of what I learned in the course to be very useful for my job.

As for my fellow classmates, they have gone on to pursue teaching careers in Thailand. I am sure that ESOL students who have these new graduates as their teachers will have fun and will learn a lot of English. And one classmate will help teach the SIT course in May.

Believe it or not, I have fond memories of those four arduous weeks in March. Along with sharing hysterical laughter and tears with a talented group of 14 like-minded individuals, I also learned a lot about myself. For one thing, I didn't even need my mom.