My TESL Journey

Context: You are teaching night classes in an adult education ESL centre. There are 14 students (CLB 2) in your class and most of them are factory workers. They are studying a unit on workplace safety and health. You have the Workplace Safety and Health in Basic Language resource available. I chose module 2 - Basic vocabulary for health and safety. The principles for materials development I have chosen to focus on in the activity: Materials should be authentic in terms of text and task (Nunan as cited in Tomlinson, pg 98) I chose this principle because the learners are adults attempting to learn English as an additional language in part as a means of better understanding their colleagues and safety regulations in their particular field.  Authentic texts and tasks can help these learners more quickly understand signs and vocabulary that directly relates to their careers while also allowing them to see how other aspects of the ESL course directly relates to their lives....

This lesson is based on the material about Aboriginal Governance from the LISTN website.  This material will be used for a CLB 7 classroom of newcomers to Canada who are mostly adults.  The learning objectives for this class are listed as Learn about the Royal Proclamation and historical treaties between the British government and Aboriginal people in Canada Learn about the Indian Act and its effect on the lives of Aboriginal people Learn about the reserve system and its impact on the lives of Aboriginal people Learn about modern treaties between First Nations, the provincial government and the Canadian government and how these treaties might benefit Aboriginal people (LISTN, pg 1) This lesson is being evaluated based on a variety of criteria that look at the suitability of the material for learners at a level 7 CLB, ability of the material to interact with the learners at a deep level, the different ways in which the material hopes to support learning among th...

Purpose/Nature of use: In this case, the lyrics were put in the title of the unit. They were used for an educational purpose as it is in the unit of a course. It was used as an attention getter for learners. Amount used: 2 lines of the whole song were used. This would be less than 10% of the material. Type of work: Lyrics from the song “Something just like this” by the Chainsmokers and Coldplay that were transformed into a motivational and eye-catching title of a unit about Copyright. Impact on the market: Using these two lines would have no negative impact on the copyright holders or the market. However, this title may result in the song getting stuck in someone’s head making them go and listen to it ultimately having a positive impact on the market and the copyright holders. Another resource: Harry Potter quote to put up in my classroom “It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.” (Rowling, 2000, p. 614-615) Purpose/Nature of use: The purp...

For assignment #3, we needed to reflect on our goals and our achievements during this course. At the link below, you can find my full reflection on how my learning went and my continuous progress throughout the course. Assignment #3 - Goal reflection