Standards For Esl Efl Teachers Of Adults

Standards for ESL/EFL Teachers of Adults offers performance indicators, vignettes, and evaluation tools for instructors. These clearly organized components will help instructors identify the qualities and practices to pursue in their teaching. The standards in this book address planning, instructing, and assessing as the basis for effective teaching. These three core standards lead to five additional standards that focus on both the instructor and the instruction: identity and context, language proficiency, learning, content, and commitment and professionalism. Collectively, these eight standards represent the foundation of what professional teachers of adult ESL and EFL learners should know and be able to do. The eight standards are organized in a useful and concrete format. Each is introduced with a brief description followed by theoretical justification, numbered performance indicators, vignettes of real-life settings using the performance indicators, and a forum for further thought and discussion. The standards can be applied to most settings with adult ESL or EFL learners and can benefit educators and administrators in teacher-training programs, in educational programs, and in achieving professional development both personally and institution-wide.

The revised PreK-12 English Language Proficiency Standards build on the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessments (WIDA) Consortium's English Language Proficiency Standards for English Language Learners in Kindergarten through Grade 12 (Wisconsin, 2004). The WIDA Consortium is a group of ten states, formed in 2002 with federal monies, that has developed comprehensive English language proficiency standards. This volume also uses grade-level clusters that reflect current educational configurations in the United States. Each of the five language proficiency standards is divided into the four language domains of listening, speaking, reading and writing. The five levels of language proficiency reflect characteristics of language performance at each developmental stage and include: starting (L1), emerging (L2), developing (L3), expanding (L4), and bridging (L5).

This volume takes a holistic view of the current trends and challenges in quality and quality assurance in TESOL and teacher education. Bringing together top scholars in the field from all over the world, the text features invaluable international perspectives with the common objective of improving the quality in TESOL and teacher education in constantly changing and challenging educational contexts globally. Grouped into four wide-ranging, thematic sections – on multilingualism, diversity, teacher education, and future challenges – the book addresses new obstacles faced by educational professionals in today’s rapidly changing educational landscape by offering alternatives to quantitative targets. Chapter authors cover a range of contexts and timely issues, including technology in the classroom, culturally relevant teaching, teaching for continuous improvement, professional development, and monitoring and evaluating quality. Providing a forum of discussion on the intricacies, complexities, and challenges related to the urgent question of quality in the field, this book is a must-read for prospective ESL/EFL teachers and teacher educators.

This collection of original articles provides an overview of key issues and approaches in contemporary language teaching.

Teaching Digital Literacies explores different approaches to teaching digital literacies in the second language classroom. The authors provide a comprehensive overview of literacy and the new technologies in an easy to follow guide that language teachers will find very practical for their own contexts. Topics covered include different and multiple forms on literacy including web 1.0 and web 2.0, blogging and Twitter, multimodal literacy, social networking, mobility and digital literacy, as well as assessment of digital literacies. Teaching Digital Literacies is a valuable addition to the literature in our profession.

This book introduces a new topic to applied linguistics: the significance of the TESOL teacher’s background as a learner and user of additional languages. The development of the global TESOL profession as a largely English-only enterprise has led to the accepted view that, as long as the teacher has English proficiency, then her or his other languages are irrelevant. The book questions this view. Learners are in the process of becoming plurilingual, and this book argues that they are best served by a teacher who has experience of plurilingualism. The book proposes a new way of looking at teacher linguistic identity by examining in detail the rich language biographies of teachers: of growing up with two or more languages; of learning languages through schooling or as an adult, of migrating to another linguaculture, of living in a plurilingual family and many more. The book examines the history of language-in-education policy which has led to the development of the TESOL profession in Australia and elsewhere as a monolingual enterprise. It shows that teachers’ language backgrounds have been ignored in teacher selection, teacher training and ongoing professional development. The author draws on literature in teacher cognition, bilingualism studies, intercultural competence, bilingual lifewriting and linguistic identity to argue that languages play a key part in the development of teachers’ professional beliefs, identity, language awareness and language learning awareness. Drawing on three studies involving 115 teachers from Australia and seven other countries, the author demonstrates conclusively that large numbers of teachers do have plurilingual experiences; that these experiences are ignored in the profession, but that they have powerful effects on the formation of beliefs about language learning and teaching which underpin good practice. Those teachers who identify as monolingual almost invariably have some language learning experience, but it was low-level, short-lived and unsuccessful. How does the experience of successful or unsuccessful language learning and language use affect one’s identity, beliefs and practice as an English language teacher? What kinds of experience are most beneficial? These concepts and findings have implications for teacher language education, teacher professional development and the current calls for increased plurilingual practices in the TESOL classroom.

Applying the principles of facilitative teaching to mentorship, this book brings together well-established knowledge about mentoring with the experiences and ideas of mentors in the field to advance and support the professional development of language teachers. Recognizing the impact of globalization and technology, Smith and Lewis identify processes and pathways for mentors to develop multi-layered skills for working with teachers in both their own and cross-cultural contexts, and in face-to-face and virtual settings. Grounded in theory, this innovative approach is illustrated with authentic experiences, and ready to be applied by readers in their specific settings around the world. With an interactive design that encourages participation and practice, each chapter includes vignettes, reflections, and challenging scenarios from mentors in training. Self-reflection and task sections at the end of each chapter engage the reader in combining theory with practice. Sample materials such as mentor-mentee contracts, work plans, journal templates, discussion suggestions (face-to-face or online), and observation forms deepen understanding and enable mentors to adapt or create their own materials. This practical and context-adaptable guide is accessible to mentors at any career stage, for use in personal professional development, or as part of mentor training sessions.