Professionalism

From my perspective, professionalism in the teaching field represents the application of teaching methods, materials and assessments in real-life settings. The successful achievement of this standard requires the combination of the previous four standards. For teachers, after we can acquired theoretical knowledge about the language, we will design corresponding instructions and assessments to teach students. During this process, we should pay attention to student's cultural and linguistic backgrounds, in order to make sure that education is more than just passing exams and getting good scores. It is more about expanding their vision and developing good personalities. Hence, in order to become professional teacher, especially a ELL teacher, the first thing we need to establish is our identity. We should ask ourselves " Are you a TESOL professional or do you just have a job?" (TESOL Inc., n.d. a). We need to acknowledge that we will have an impact our students' life and even their views about the world, so the sense of responsibility must be established before taking any jobs. The second quality that ELL teachers should be equipped with is advanced teaching skills, which, I believe, can be achieved by taking courses and practices. Compared with ELA courses, our target students are not proficient in this language. When we teach them, we need to treat them as babies and to start from the very first beginning. It is a lot harder than teaching native speakers, as it requires patience and techniques of explaining everything in a simplest way possible. The last quality of achieving professionalism is the determination of never stop learning. Even if we have already got a teaching job, we should take professional development seriously. In every school, I believe there will be programs related to it. As a teacher, whether new or old, we need to update our information about teaching and materials, thereby making sure our strategies would be up-to-the-minute and professional.

Reference

TESOL Inc. (n.d. a). Guide to professional development in TESOL. Retrieved February 8, 2012, from http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/sec_document.asp ?CID=3&DID=2769

This course focuses on supervised field experience in an ESL setting with applications of TESL methods, materials and assessment procedures.

TESOL Standards:

Standard 1b: Language Acquisition and Development

Standard 3a: Planning for Standards-Based ESL and Content Instruction Standard 3b: Implementing and Managing Standards-Based ESL and Content Instruction

Standard 3c: Using Resources Effectively in ESL Instruction

Standard 4a: Issues of Assessment for ESL

Standard 4b: Language Proficiency Assessment

Standard 4c: Classroom-Based Assessment for ESL