An Interview with TESL North York

Q. When, where, and how did you get started in teaching?

I’ve always had this profound urge to help the less fortunate so I thought I should work as a volunteer to help educate the Vietnamese refugees in Southeast Asia. My main responsibility was to prepare them for resettlement in the United States, Australia, England, and Canada by teaching them survival English, Western culture, job skills, history and geography. I had no teaching experience prior to that but I went for it and on the first day on the job I fell in love with the teaching profession and have been teaching since then.

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I am sincerely grateful to Dalia Taylor, Donna Laxdall, and Marilyn O’Donnell for strongly believing in me when I was just starting out in Canada. I’m also thankful to my mentor Loretta Meaker, who inspired me to present my first workshop “Look Who’s Chanting in the Classroom” at Peel/Halton TESL Conference, which eventually led me to TESL Ontario. I’ve been a regular TESL Ontario presenter since 1996. I have so far written 10 well-received ESL/LINC books and I’m in the process of completing my eleventh and twelfth, which I will release in the upcoming TESL Ontario Annual Conference in October 2010.

Q. How do you stay fresh?

Well, I stay fresh by being aware of what is going on around me, in my community, in Canada, and around the world, and I incorporate all my day-to-day learning experiences into my lessons. I attend TESL conferences on a regular basis, present workshops to inspire other teachers and/or challenge myself. I put my passion into writing poetry and ESL books. I write books that my peers and my students need and appreciate. I write books that make me proud of myself as a professional.

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Q. What is your inspiration?

I’m truly inspired and grateful to God for giving me the opportunity to make a difference in other people's lives. I am fascinated by the similarities of people around the world regardless of their cultures and races. I don't focus on people's differences; I focus on their similarities. I like to validate people (especially my students) in any way that I can. I strongly believe that it is a natural human nature to long for validation. I like to help. It gives me so much joy and heart's contentment to be able to help other people, especially the newcomers to Canada.

Q. Is there any best teaching tip you want to share?

Inject humour into your teaching as often as you can. Always affirm your students and treat them with respect and compassion. Make suggestions; don’t criticize. Remember your students are adults not children. Show them that you trust them and you believe in their potentials. Treat your students equally regardless of their nationality, religion, gender etc. In my opinion, if you treat someone differently because she’s from a culture different than yours, you are making this person feel she’s different. You think you’re just being sensitive. Unconsciously, you’re making her feel that she doesn’t belong.

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If you’re teaching a full-time class (e.g. 9:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.), do your main Listening/Speaking activities in the afternoon. What I normally do in my classes are:
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(1.) I tell them a short story (about myself, my family and friends, about the traffic, what I did over the weekend, what I plan to do during the long weekend etc. (2.) I teach them a pronunciation lesson not based on what the books suggest but based on their needs. (3.) I use the pronunciation words in sentences and I let each student read the sentences. (4.) Then I introduce and develop my theme (e.g. workplace). (5.) Support my theme with a grammar activity, which is normally focused on speaking. (6.) Then I’ll have a listening activity to support the theme. (7.) Followed immediately by a speaking activity (group or pair-work) to enrich the theme.

Andrew Taylor holds a York University TESL Certification and has been an ESL/LINC for 18 years in Canada. He currently teaches LINC 4 at the Newcomer Centre of Peel and ESL 4/5 at the Adult Education Centre- South both in Mississauga. Andrew is the author of his best selling ESL book I can’t believe I learned GRAMMAR and Thank you for SPEAKING ENGLISH, and 8 other ESL/LINC books all published by his own company ESL Transcend Publications. You can visit his website at www.student-centered.com for more information.