I want this website to be a practical resource for you as you prepare to teach abroad. Each blog post illustrates a different lesson I learned or tip I wish to pass on. More tips can be found under "Practical Tips", but the blog posts offer more background information. Please, send me any tips or helpful anecdotes you have to offer. I would love to hear them and use them in to make this site more useful.
I found myself with a free semester between graduating CÉGEP and beginning an undergraduate degree in Education. I decided to use the time off to volunteer for four months overseas - something I had been interested in since I was a kid. I researched my options and was accepted as a short-term English teacher at an AIDS center/orphanage in Cambodia. The center was located near Phnom Penh, the capital city. I packed my suitcase full of books before boarding the plane to Cambodia. The books ranged from Dr Seuss to chapter books with few pictures. Interestingly enough, the two books I used most often were the ones I had been most reluctant to pack: Dick and Jane. What makes for a good ESL/teaching abroad book for students to practice reading? Below are the criteria I found to be most helpful for my beginning readers, and why the most boring books of my childhood were the most useful in teaching my Khmer students. I am not used to being unable to communicate. I speak English and French fluently and in most of my travels I have been able to communicate with local people in at least one of these two languages. Before leaving for Cambodia, I tried to learn some Khmer - hello, numbers from 1-10, some pronouns and basic nouns - but my efforts still left me unprepared to deal with living in a language I could not understand. I definitely suggest you try to pick up as much of the language as possible before you leave, but also prepare to deal with language barriers. Below are a few of the challenges language presented I found during my time in Cambodia. Photo on left: a mother prompts her daughter to use the gesture of greeting/respect/thanks. Cross-cultural communcation is ever-present in an ESL classroom. School is a part of daily life and daily life is part of school. Since daily life is full of cultural nuances that are not obvious to outsiders, it should not be surprising that your teaching environment will also be full of cross-cultural interactions. The specifics will of course depend on your host country. In this post, I will share my experience with Khmer culture to give you an idea of the influence and effects of culture classroom interactions. |
AuthorA no-longer-first-time teacher, hoping my experience can be of some use to you. ArchivesCategories |