Teaching at the English Language Center at Brigham Young University,
Provo, Utah, was not my first teaching experience. I had previously
taught French at the same university, as well as music and music theory
in Switzerland. Teaching English as a Second Language, however, was
my first "scary" experience because I am not a native speaker
of English and I wasn't sure my students would respect me and want me
as their teacher. For this reason, I tried to improve my pronunciation
and speech a semester before I started teaching, and with the very encouraging
mentoring of my own TESOL teachers and supervisors, I was able to feel
a little more confident in my abilities. I don't believe there is a
school as supportive, creative, and well organized as the ELC and I
still miss working there a lot today.
I started by teaching the community students, that is, students who
are not necessarily legal, work all day, and want to improve their English
for a small fee at the end of the day. I taught first an advanced class,
which was a challenge because it was not that advanced and the levels
of proficiency of the students varied greatly within the class. However,
those students were so eager to learn and were so enthusiastic and encouraging
that it was a great pleasure to teach them. The second community class
I taught was we called a "level zero" class, which means that
the students could barely say "my name is..." and although
I thought this would be my hardest class to teach, it was in fact a
great one. Again, the students so desperately needed to learn English
that they were the most attentive and studious students, even if they
had jobs and families to take care of in addition to their English class.
Through the students of these two classes, I was introduced to the harsh
life of illegal immigrants who were lawyers and doctors in their countries
and now have to clean bathrooms for a living, but are always trying
to reach their goals of a better life by learning English as much as
they can.
Then I started teaching the "regular" classes at the ELC,
that is, classes given to full-time ESL students who are hoping to pass
the TOEFL and get into college or to go back to their countries and
get better jobs. Except for one class on my second semester, all the
classes that I have taught there were simply fantastic. The first class
was of course the best and I managed to get to know my students and
love them so much that I still keep in touch with several of them today.
In fact, several of my students from the following semesters are still
in contact with me today. I care a lot about my students and tried to
give them as much help and encouragement as I possibly could.
I taught grammar at different levels there, as well as reading and
writing classes, and also several TOEFL preparation classes, and I especially
loved the reading and grammar classes. My students quickly saw me as
a grammar expert and often expressed how much they liked to have me
as a teacher because they could feel that I knew what they were going
through and how difficult it was to learn a new language. I also built
a strong reputation of being a tough but good teacher, which is something
that I am very proud of, because I believe that my tough teachers were
the ones who taught me the most. In my TOEFL preparation class, which
was optional for all students who wanted to take it, I often had students
who did not want to take the TOEFL but still enjoyed my teaching and
came for the extra learning experience they could get from my class.
I have loved teaching at the ELC. I met extraordinary students and
teachers, too, I was extremely well supported and respected by both
the students and the other teachers, and believe that I was a very successful
teacher. Because of my fight for the TOEFL exam, the students can now
take the exam at the school and in a very good and familiar environment
instead of having to take it in an unknown place they didn't know and
where no one really cared about them. I sang in our international choir
with the students and we even sang at the plenary opening session of
the TESOL convention in Salt Lake City, I often organized big parties
where students would bring international foods and musics, I found and
developed a lot of materials that is still used today, such as the book
about Einstein, for which I got posters and educational materials from
the NASA, created activities, exams, quizzes, reading questions, book
quest games, and several other activities that could be used by teachers
and students who would (and do) read that book. I helped with and went
to a lot of cultural activities organized by our school, I helped students
pass their driver's licenses, open bank account, buy cars, find apartments,
deal with roommates problems, apply to college, start college, take
the TOEFL, survive homesickness, and learn English.
