On Being a Language Teacher: A Personal and Practical Guide to Success

404 Pages·2014·5.65 MB·English

On Being a
Language Teacher
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On Being a
Language Teacher
A Personal and Practical Guide to Success
Norma López-Burton
University of California at Davis
Denise Minor
California State University, Chico
New Haven and London
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Copyright © 2014 by Yale University. All rights reserved. This book may
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w ritten permission from the publishers.
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To my husband, Thomas P. Burton, the love of my life
Norma López-Burton
To my family, the Milgrams and the Minors
Denise Minor
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To view the videos indicated by the symbol , please go to
yalebooks.com/languageteacher. The password required to
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Contents
To the Reader • Denise Minor ix
Introduction: Impressions Left by Teachers • Norma López-Burton xiii
Acknowledgments xvii
PART I • IN THE CLASSROOM
1 • The First Day of Class and Lesson Planning •
Norma López-Burton 3
2 • Introducing Grammar and Vocabulary • Norma López-Burton 21
3 • Communicative Tasks • Norma López-Burton 39
4 • Teaching Culture • Norma López-Burton 77
PART II • THEORY
5 • History of Second Language Acquisition • Denise Minor 97
6 • Standards of Foreign Language Teaching: The Five C’s •
Denise Minor 115
7 • Factors Impacting Second Language Acquisition •
Denise Minor 124
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v i i i C O N T E N T S
PART III • BEYOND THE BASICS
8 • Types of Teachers; Dos and Don’ts • Norma López-Burton 141
9 • The Captain of the Ship: Classroom Management •
Denise Minor 178
1 0 • Heritage Language Learners • Denise Minor 202
1 1 • Including Students with Disabilities and Learning Diff erences in a
Language Classroom • Denise Minor 222
1 2 • The Use of Technology • Norma López-Burton 236
1 3 • Assessment • Norma López-Burton 257
PART IV • THE FUTURE
1 4 • Hitting the Job Market: Getting a Job at a University •
Norma López-Burton 297
1 5 • Hitting the Job Market: Getting a Job at a High School •
Denise Minor 316
1 6 • Surviving the Political Jungle • Denise Minor 338
Appendix A: Chapter 3 Sample Task Activities 355
Appendix B: Chapter 12 Sample Lab Exercises 364
Bib liography 371
Index 377
Illustration Credits 385
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To the Reader
D E N I S E M I N O R
It has been almost three decades since I fi rst stepped into a classroom as a
language teacher. I can still see the stairs leading up to the tiny language
academy on the second story above a clothing shop in downtown Irún,
Spain. I can still picture the bespectacled receptionist sitting at the top of
the stairs monitoring the comings and goings of the students and teachers.
I clearly remember my classroom with its half-size blackboard and fi fteen
wooden desks jammed into a space that probably had previously been a
living room.
The Academy of Irún had hired me to teach a one-hour English class four
nights a week based on one singular skill that I brought to the bargaining
table: I was a native speaker. The reason I had not been hired at any of the
more prestigious language academies in nearby San Sebastián (where I
lived) was based on one singular characteristic that I did not possess: I was
not British. Almost everyone wanted to learn the “real” English of England.
Apparently, the students of the more economically priced Academy of Irún
were not so picky.
The textbook we used told the story of a lackadaisical young man named
Arthur who rented a room from an aging landlady somewhere near London.
Arthur was good-natured but forgetful and was always getting into trouble.
Each day before class I sat in the cafés of San Sebastián studying the British
vocabulary of my book about Arthur. One took a “lift” instead of an elevator
and used a “rubber” to erase a paper. If I ever messed up and used an Ameri-
can word, I could count on the twelve-year-old boy with the pale red hair
who sat in the back of the room to correct me.
ix
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