How MA-TESOL Students Use Knowledge about Language in Teaching ESL Classes
THE STUDY
This topic is based on four case studies which took place within the context of a larger longitudinal research project of a cohort of MA–TESL students’ professionalization processes. During their four–semester, two–year program, the thirteen graduate students involved in the larger project were all observed in their MA courses, interviewed both in small groups and individually, and asked to fill out a variety of objective measures, including a questionnaire, a survey, and measures of their knowledge of applied linguistics. The four case studies presented here focus on four of these students who had simultaneously been hired as instructors in the program’s English language institute (ELI). (See Popko [2003] for a detailed description of the progress of these four students and their peers throughout their MA–TESL program.) The site of the study was a mid–sized southwestern university (SWU)1 with an MA program in TESL and a Ph.D. program in applied linguistics. The English language institute (ELI) provides 25 hours of English instruction per week for full–time students, many of whom would like to enter SWU or some other American university upon raising their test of English as a foreign language (TOEFL) scores. The three courses observed for this study were the Core class (an integrated study skills course), writing, and reading.
For purposes of the present study, a qualitative case study design was used (Creswell, 1997). Following Miles and Huberman (1994), the unit of analysis, or case, was “an individual in a defined context” (p. 26), in this instance, an MA–TESL student in the act of teaching an ESL class. In order to examine connections between knowledge gained in MA–TESL courses and ESL teaching praxis, each of the four participants was observed while teaching in the ELI. Each was interviewed both before and after teaching the observed class, on the same day if possible. The post–observation interview used a modified stimulated recall procedure in which the stimulus included both the observed teacher’s lesson plans and the researcher’s observation notes. (See Gass & Mackey, 2000 for a detailed discussion of stimulated recall methodologies used in second language acquisition research.)
As far as possible, the researcher (Jeff in the data) verbally walked each participant through the lesson using observation notes and the teacher’s lesson plan, providing exact details and quoting student and teacher interaction. Participants were then asked to explain why they had made specific choices, where they had learned to use specific procedures, and how each specific activity related to what they had studied in their MA coursework. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using HyperResearch 2.0 (1999). The transcriptions were examined for evidence that these teachers’ KAL, gained during their MA–TESL courses as well as through prior teaching and learning experiences, was being used to inform their practice.
Patterns that emerged from the data were examined in a cyclical manner (Miles & Huberman, 1994). If a pattern appeared in one of the interviews, the rest of the interviews were reexamined for evidence of similar or contradictory patterns. The perceived patterns were organized into categories for each participant, and quotes were chosen to represent each perceived pattern. These quotes were then organized and written down as “cases,” proposed representations of each participant’s perspective (Wolcott, 1990). Participants were then invited to read and comment on their own case as written by the researcher. Changes suggested by the participants were incorporated into the final draft.
Participants
The four MA–TESL students who took part in the study reported here were all women in their mid to late twenties, who officially entered the MA–TESL program in the Fall 2000 semester. They chose pseudonyms used in reporting the data: Daisy, Joyce, Lilly, and Pako. All of them had taken Introduction to Linguistics, Grammatical Foundations, Fundamentals of Second Language Teaching, ESL Methods and Materials, and Sociolinguistics, and from one to three electives. In other ways, this particular group was not so homogeneous.
Lilly had an undergraduate degree in geology, and switched to the MA–TESL program from another graduate program in a different department. She had never taught before. Pako had an undergraduate degree in Spanish and had taught high school Spanish teacher for two years. She entered the MA–TESL program primarily as a career shift, hoping upon leaving to get a job in a Spanish–speaking country. Daisy had been teaching at an English language institute in Japan prior to entering the program. In Japan, she had taken the one month Royal Society of Arts (RSA) ESL certificate course. From the beginning of her program, she expressed interest in improving her professional marketability so that she could find a better EFL job. Joyce had taught adult ESL in a university setting, with colleagues who possessed MA–TESL degrees. She had decided that ESL teaching was her career, and to pursue a higher degree. Her goal was to get a job in some interesting foreign location. Lilly, Pako, and Daisy took summer courses in order to finish in December 2001, so their teaching was taking place in the fourth and final semester of their MA program. Joyce was following a more traditional two–year plan, and was teaching in her third semester. Pako and Joyce had taught freshman composition the previous year, but none of the students had previously taught in the ELI.
Definitions
Because the following terms have been used in a variety of ways by different authors, this study uses the mutually agreed upon definitions of the participants. The definitions below are intended to be functional rather than absolute.
Applied Linguistic Knowledge
The definition of “applied linguistics” is still being debated in the literature, but I agree with Widdowson (1993) that the field is certainly more than “linguistics applied.” The focus of the field is on solving language related problems, or as Brumfit (1995) puts it “the theoretical and empirical investigation of real-world problems in which language is a central issue” (p. 27). As an applied field, it is interdisciplinary, involving such related subjects as psychology (especially cognitive psychology), sociology, anthropology, and education. Knowledge of applied linguistics, then, includes whatever KAL these related fields possess. This knowledge is instantiated in areas such as psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, language testing, language acquisition, and so on.
Knowledge About Language.
Unlike other terms defined here, KAL was not a term used by the participants in the study. Rather, it is used as a general umbrella term that includes knowledge about all aspects of language –linguistic, applied linguistic, and metalinguistic.
Linguistic Knowledge
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. As such, it provides knowledge specifically about language systems and subsystems (such as phonology, morphology, and syntax). It is focused primarily on the artifact “language” rather than on the producers and users of the artifact.
Linguistics Courses
Courses defined as “linguistic” include only those that focus on the language itself rather than on its users. Introduction to Linguistics and Grammatical Foundations are the two courses taken by all of the participants that were mutually agreed upon to be linguistics courses. The former includes a discussion of the primary divisions of linguistics: phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. However, the focus is on the first three, while deeper discussions of the nature of semantics and pragmatics are held in Sociolinguistics. The Grammar course extends the linguistic discussion into the parsing and diagramming of sentences.
Methodology Courses
If the focus of a course was on methods, approaches, or techniques of TESL in the classroom, a course was considered methodology. Participants referred to Fundamentals of Second Language Teaching and ESL Methods and Materials in this category. KAL in the methodology courses is presented largely as underlying support for specific methods or techniques used in teaching ESOL.
Theory courses
If a course focused on issues beyond the nuts and bolts of language, but not directly on classroom practices, it was considered a theory course. Sociololinguistics was agreed to be a theory course by participants.
1. Pseudonyms were used for all participants and institutions named in this article.
