Speaker A
Okay. So, good afternoon. Thank you for agreeing to participate in this interview. So, my name is Phoebe and I'm a year 2 student from SEI University.
Interview with ESL educator on selecting materials, technology use, challenges, and strategies for effective ESL teaching.
Key Takeaways
- Effective ESL teaching requires selecting materials that match students' language levels and learning styles.
- Technology supports but does not replace teacher engagement and interactive learning.
- Blended learning models combining face-to-face and online instruction are beneficial.
- Technical difficulties and reduced physical interaction are notable challenges in tech use.
- Continuous reflection and adaptation of materials are essential for successful ESL teaching.
Summary
- Phoebe Yee, a year 2 student at SEI University, interviews Mr. Right, an ESL teacher with 10 years of experience.
- Discussion on types of ESL teaching materials including textbooks, songs, videos, and technology-enhanced resources.
- Emphasis on the importance of relevance, appropriateness, and language level when selecting teaching materials.
- Use of pre-tests and observation of learning styles to match materials to student proficiency and needs.
- Technology is used as a supportive tool with blended and hybrid learning models implemented.
- Common digital tools include LMS platforms, Microsoft Teams, Hiflex, and Padlet for interactive learning.
- Challenges include technical issues like Wi-Fi outages and over-reliance on technology reducing face-to-face interaction.
- Adaptation of materials to accommodate different learning abilities through varied task types and skills focus.
- Advice for ESL educators to regularly reflect on material effectiveness and adapt to student needs.
- Overall focus on balancing traditional and digital resources to enhance ESL learning outcomes.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Interview Purpose
- 00:44Interviewee Introduction and ESL Experience
- 01:22Types of ESL Teaching Materials Used
- 02:08Most Effective Materials and Student Engagement
- 02:59Factors in Selecting Teaching Materials
- 03:41Determining Material Suitability for Proficiency Levels
- 04:42Adapting Materials to Learning Styles
- 05:24Role of Technology in ESL Teaching
- 06:19Blended and Hybrid Learning Models
- 06:53Digital Tools and Platforms Used
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
So, I'm currently to uh conducting this interview for my course EDT 3253 materials and resources for ESL classrooms.
Speaker A
Okay. So the purpose of this interview is to gain insight from educators experience, challenges and the strategies in selecting and using teaching materials or resources in ESL uh teaching. So before we begin, could you briefly introduce yourself and share
Speaker A
your experiences in ESL? Okay. All right. Thank you so much for having me. I'm Mr. Right. So I have been teaching English for about I think 10 years now. I'm currently with Taylor uh Taylor's college. So I've been here for
Speaker A
about one year but I've been teaching tertiary education for about 3 years now. But before this I was teaching in usually a secondary school setting. So yeah it was I would say a good experience teaching ESL students.
Speaker A
Okay. So thank you so much for your introduce. So uh shall we begin with the first question?
Speaker A
Yeah sure. Okay. So for the first question what are the uh sorry what are the types of materials or resources that you usually use in your ESL teaching?
Speaker A
Okay to be honest like currently uh because our target groups are mostly uh college students and we do have like lectures so we have to standardize all our materials. So usually our notes are from books, articles or relevant
Speaker A
references. So even though we have like quizzes, discussion boards, worksheets but uh all the teachers we have to standardize our materials but when I taught in school I think there there were more. So we have like songs, videos, movies, poems. So
Speaker A
but mainly is from textbook too. M so uh among the materials just that you mentioned just now like textbook songs so on uh which do you find the most effective for helping your students in learning English and why
Speaker A
I would say textbook um we can't teach like just from a textbook because the students might find it boring so usually we engage with like perhaps technology or some task based activities Like currently we have like postal presentations or maybe we have to
Speaker A
connect to real life uh experience. So they have to it's good when they can relate to what they are experiencing. So I I would say it will be more effective when they can relate the content. So if it's something new then they might find
Speaker A
you know struggles or difficulties in understanding it. I see. So uh what are the factors that you usually consider when selecting materials uh for your lesson?
Speaker A
I would say maybe the relevance of it few factors maybe the whether it's appropriate and then their language level. So it can't be like too difficult for them or maybe too easy because when it's too easy some students might find
Speaker A
boring and they won't listen. Yeah. It's a mix like uh wanted it to be engaged and also in the meantime not to be bored.
Speaker A
Yes. Correct. Correct. Their language level is quite crucial too. I see. Yeah. So, uh how do you determine about the whether the material is suitable for your students proficiency level? Because uh sometimes in a classroom maybe students they are intelligent on English
Speaker A
maybe they uh some like vocab, grammars or so usually we do have like I think pre-est or like comprehension or perhaps essay writing. So we'll see um whether they understand and from there we will see which material will be like
Speaker A
suitable. So like personally I do uh emphasize on like what kind of uh learning styles they they like or maybe they are. So like for example I'm a visual learner. So perhaps when I observe that oh these students learn
Speaker A
better through uh visuals you know pictures videos. So sometimes I will include that to make sure that yeah they understand and it's suitable for them.
Speaker A
So if uh let's say the students they kind of struggle by listening so you can see it through their writing or any skills that you listening it will be hard for them to understand our our the way the the
Speaker A
messages that we want to convey. So if that's the case then perhaps uh they have to maybe convey in writing. So different skills that we will observe like which one would be better for them or more suitable for them.
Speaker A
I see. I see. Okay. Yeah. So uh since now uh technology uh we can't live without any internet or any digital devices and all and I believe that even for every schools we use computers project for teaching. So what
Speaker A
are the roles that technology plays in your ESL teaching? I think technologies will be like uh like a tool. So it it's very like supportive but uh I don't just really rely on that. So uh we still need the
Speaker A
you know engagement teachers engagement and then like exposure in different stuff. Yeah. Like what you say they are all using gadgets right? So it's really important to engage them using technology too. But uh I would say the content itself is quite important. So
Speaker A
perhaps we can have like blended learning or like for example in like uh our college now right. So we like we have 14 weeks in total. So week one to week seven we have like face toface lecture but week eight onwards uh
Speaker A
towards the end. So it will be online lecture. like uh you know like a mixture like a blended learning for that hybrid mode.
Speaker A
Ah yes hybrid. Yes. Yes. So uh what you mentioned because you are blending with the digital tools with uh traditional teaching right?
Speaker A
So uh do you find any digital tools apps or any online resources that you use frequently for the class uh lecture or tutorial or anything? Um I would say the most common one we use is the LMS learning management system.
Speaker A
So we do have like platforms for stu for lecturers to upload materials and then students can assess to that and perhaps teams Microsoft teams. So um they can submit assignments too. you can create quizzes as well. And then we do have um
Speaker A
something called Hiflex, but I'm not too sure what's the the maybe original, you know, system for that, but um it's a it's a website that we can submit our materials and then it will convert quizzes for students to do.
Speaker A
So like AI powered too maybe. Yeah. So that would be quite useful and I find Padlet quite interesting too.
Speaker A
the website. Yeah, it's like a teacher create a space where students can their answer is it correct. Correct. I love that.
Speaker A
Uh in your experience what are the challenges that you face like uh even recently when you uh any teaching materials or any technology in your ESL lesson?
Speaker A
Yes. maybe technical issue. So sometimes when you know the Wi-Fi is down or perhaps I don't know sometimes the teams is not working very well students cannot access to it they cannot access to materials then we have to bug
Speaker A
their friends like you know send via WhatsApp or maybe other platform to the the peers for the worksheet. So that's the thing that I think it's a bit annoying.
Speaker A
Yeah, the technical issue and then sometimes perhaps over reliance on technology might be an issue too because it could reduce the inter interaction.
Speaker A
So I can see like some sometimes when we have like group works right they they just communicate via WhatsApp but actually they are physically in a class.
Speaker A
So I say why don't you just sit together and discuss about it. So it doesn't make sense but yeah maybe makes sense to them. Oh, so they they kind of like isolate themselves through physical correct communicate in Yeah, that's weird that I find that why
Speaker A
but maybe they feel more comfortable. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe it's Yeah. So I did ask them like why don't you just sit together? Oh we are um discussing through WhatsApp and then yeah later we'll discuss further.
Speaker A
Okay. I don't judge but yeah. Okay. Yeah, I understand also. So, um how do you adapt your teaching materials to meet your students different learning abilities and their needs?
Speaker A
Um perhaps like using different uh task like task types. So for example, we have uh reading you know reading comprehension. and they have to read and understand answer questions. So that could be one and uh like presentation.
Speaker A
So when they have to um come up with discussion and then they have to come up with a poster and then they have to present certain topics then uh we look at speaking skill more. So listening and speaking skill. So we try to touch like
Speaker A
all four skills. Yeah. So that uh you know some students they are better in speaking but maybe poorer in writing. So we hope that that would help them too.
Speaker A
So yeah so make sure that all skills are covered. I see. I see. Yeah. It's hard for students who can manage all skills.
Speaker A
Yeah. Yeah. Like professionally or Yeah. True. They are still learning as well. Correct. Okay. So, uh for the last question that I would like to ask because uh you have a quite decent of experience in teaching especially in English.
Speaker A
So, uh based on your teaching experience, do you have any advice for other ESL teachers, educators as well?
Speaker A
Maybe they are new, they are just a fresh grades who just after degree and they have I think nearly zero percentage of uh experience of using these materials and resources on teaching materials. So uh what advice you can give them uh to use it more
Speaker A
effectively? Um I would say there is no like one like one very effective medium or you know like uh material that suits all the students because we have different types of students right and then um I think it's good because uh it's good for us to
Speaker A
reflect regularly like we think of what works and what doesn't maybe like you know sometimes some material suitable for this batch of students but next batch they don't really enjoy it. So we have to like constantly like reflect on
Speaker A
our yeah materials or resources whether it's effective or is it still relevant because like sometimes um perhaps some skills I'm not too sure I can't think of any but back then right we don't really rely on technology that much but now we
Speaker A
do look at this aspects like AI right so we we can't stop them from using AI tools anymore because it's like just there and some of them they have a child us. So it's really hard for that us to
Speaker A
like you know stop them from using but we have to see how we can use like the current technologies or some materials to help in order uh to help students in order to get to what they want to
Speaker A
achieve. So perhaps like graduating or u I don't know depends on the goals of the students. So learning objective is important too and then yeah always reflect like what are the materials or resources that make learning more effective. I think that's quite
Speaker A
important. So maybe the new teacher she can observe whether the last uh term that whether the students are effective on this kind of stuff.
Speaker A
Yes. Whether uh can determine she can use it on upcoming terms or she need to change.
Speaker A
Yes. Correct. Correct. because I used to have um like a survey after my my like my term like throughout the semester. So end of semester I will give like feedback. So for myself as well to see which one is effective, which one do
Speaker A
they like, which one not effective. So from there we can learn as well like how should we improve, what are the aspects that need to focus more. Yeah, I see. I see. Okay.
Speaker A
Um this concludes to our uh interview session today. So uh thank you so much for answering for nearly nine questions and a lot of inspiration for me to understand more about ESL teaching for materials and resources.
Speaker A
I'm glad that I can help you. All the best. You can do it. Thank you so much.
Speaker A
Okay. You're welcome. Have a nice day. Thank you. Okay. Bye.
Topics:ESL teachingteaching materialstechnology in educationblended learningdigital toolslearning management systemstudent engagementlanguage proficiencyteaching strategiesESL challenges
