Download Case study 3

Professional Standards for TESOL Practitioners
Case Narrative 2
This case narrative describes the work of a teacher of indigenous students in the Far North
of South Australia for whom Standard Australian English is an additional language. As a
strong advocate for cultural inclusivity, this teacher highly values what her students bring
to the learning situation and builds on their experiences and knowledge to scaffold their
learning of English.
_______________________________
Accomplished TESOL
teachers…

use learners,
families,
communities and
educational setting
as resources for
classroom activity

understand how
students’
experiences,
knowledge and prior
learning shape their
present learning and
development


The most important tasks I have when I first work with a group of
students is to get to know them individually, and to show that I value
them as individuals and that I value their culture. During this time, I
identify their strengths and begin to plan activities that work with
these strengths. I look for topics and activities they are interested in
and that will be useful to them, and build lessons around these. This
approach to language learning seems to be quite effective in
maintaining students’ interest and engagement and achieving good
language outcomes.
A major strength all my students have is excellent auditory and visual
memory, which is a product of their oral language background, and
this provides a wonderful scaffold for the introduction of written
language. First, we focus on learning an interesting story orally, then
on reading to recognise the relationships between sound and printed
work, and finally on writing their own stories on the interesting topic.
Because we approach texts orally, they naturally remember the texts
extremely well and can almost scaffold themselves to written texts
through repetitive reading. Their auditory memory helps them to
remember the sounds in sequence, and they can then quickly
select and implement recognise, using visual memory, that a particular sound in a word
always looks the same in print. From this starting point, we can
teaching and
assessment practices move to helping them to recognise language patterns, see meaning
in text and the rationale behind the structure of language. In short, I
appropriate for the
work at scaffolding from oral to written language, and to help
learners and
students see the patterns in language and the big picture
educational setting
From a focus on prior knowledge, issues to do with culture come into
play immediately. The scaffolding from oral to written English
involves providing them with information to make meaning from text.
A very good example of this occurs in the story ‘The Little Red Hen’,
which the children love, in which the Hen grows wheat grain, mills it
appropriately select
into flour and bakes bread from it. For my students, the concept of
and sequence
milled flour is new; I do not think they would even have encountered
language and culture it on television. It seems just a small conceptual connection, but the
content to provide for explanation of milling and the connection of milled flour to its use in
and critique meaning- damper, for example, helps them to gain an understanding of a
making in diverse
foreign concept. There are many such connections that need to be
texts and contexts
made for these students in the course of their learning, and if they
were not made, student learning would be far less successful.
I believe that helping the students to develop an understanding of the
concepts and ideas they are exposed to in text has to be given
priority over the actual language used, and although I often do this
consciously, I think many times in my teaching I take on this role
unconsciously. So, in a way, my role is to fill in bits of a jigsaw
puzzle for them, or build a bridge between their existing knowledge
and new concepts. Moving from word recognition and simple
patterning, we begin to look at different genres, which will determine
the structure of text, the functions of various parts of the text and the
ways ideas are developed through text. We will often focus on one
genre and look at how different content, ideas and contexts can be
expressed through that genre. Because we look at several texts to
reinforce student understanding of a single genre, we simultaneously
have the opportunity to expand their knowledge and worldview. This
can all be done using scaffolding strategies that aid development
from oral to written language, and from given to new concepts.



appropriately select
and sequence
language and culture
content to provide for
and critique meaningmaking in diverse
texts and contexts
appreciate the pivotal
role of language and
culture in learning,
teaching and
socialisation
are familiar with and
can critique existing
provisions, policies,
and curriculum and
assessment
frameworks
In choosing examples of genres, I believe it is essential to focus on
the relationship between purpose and language. A role of the ESL
teacher is to identify best examples of language use to suit students’
purposes. I focus on both what my students need to use language
for and what they enjoy using language for. While using stories is a
very good way to get children interested in language, understanding
the structure of a novel might actually be a very low priority for some
of them. Certainly, the structure of language emerges from studying
the structure of novels, but for some children there are more relevant
ways to achieve this: for example, writing a letter of complaint might
be both a viable way to teach these children language structure and
more relevant to their lives than the language patterns that Paul
Jennings uses in his novels. The students see the purpose of such a
letter, can identify situations where such a letter might be useful, and
can use the genre to develop a voice in their community and a
means of social impact. It provides an opportunity to reinforce
essential language features such as, for example, logical cohesion in
that the students quickly see that information needs to be set out in a
manner that aids reader understanding. For these students, writing
for particular purposes and having the flexibility to do this well can be
means of empowerment. My understanding as their teacher involves
knowing what contexts and purposes they might find most relevant.
Another understanding I feel is necessary to bring to this situation is
the link between language and behaviour outcomes. Teachers and
students need to be aware that politeness behaviours are culturally
and context specific, and teachers need to appreciate that these
children may communicate in different ways. I will tell students, “If
you don’t say ‘please’ to the shopkeeper, the service that you get
won’t be quite as good.” These lessons need to be explicit. I am
particularly concerned that these students are not disadvantaged
because they do not know that certain of their behaviours can be
construed as rude in some contexts. I feel it is important that my
students are empowered to achieve the outcomes they want when
dealing with others.
As for dispositions or ways of being, I think that teachers need to
have empathy for these children. I have had students in my
classroom here who have had difficulty trusting new teachers until
and unless they see evidence that the teacher has empathy and
acceptance. Students here work under what we would see as
limitations; for example, students may not have a table to do their
homework on and these limitations can affect the type of work they
produce and the type of progress they make. To me the biggest
mistake teachers can make is to expect these students to be just like
them, rather than valuing and using what these children bring to their
learning situation, such as an active interest in their environment and
their ability to spot tiny differences in things. This may create a
tension between having good SACE percentages and doing good
things for our students, valuing them as individuals and valuing what
they bring to their learning, and capturing their interests and talents
rather than training them for mainstream outcomes.

are sensitive to
students’ cultural and
community
experiences,
including migration
and colonisation, and
the effects of these
on personal and
social development
So, I think the relationship between a teacher and students is
probably the most critical component for a successful learning
outcome here. An empathetic and accepting disposition is essential
for a teacher in this situation because these students must feel
absolutely safe and valued as individuals before they will begin to
interact with the school environment. A major focus in my classroom
is to foster self-esteem and help students to see that they have
something valuable to offer. This is difficult when they go through life
aware that they have inherited unfair labels and that some people
look at them suspiciously. I think in the long term our goal has to be
to help these children to feel good about themselves and to be
resilient to these negative messages. Achievement of this goal is
actually a life or death issue: four secondary students hanged
themselves up here in the last fortnight. It is clear that many of these
children can feel absolutely worthless and it is extremely important
that we find ways to help re-establish their sense of self-worth.
At the individual level, if a teacher does not get along with a student,
the student will be closed to what is being offered to him or her. Also,
if a teacher looks on the children as dirty and smelly, or
unconsciously flinches when they lean on him or her, they will close
down in their learning. Sometimes teachers must consciously stop
themselves from doing this so that the students do not get the wrong
message about how they are perceived.

espouse the values
of cultural inclusivity,
multiculturalism,
multilingualism,
reconciliation and
anti-racism

commit to reflective
practice and program
evaluation that is
responsive to
students’ cultural and
linguistic history and
environment
When I work with other teachers or with people outside the school, I
concentrate on making sure the students are presented in a positive
way. I am very explicit about the strengths of the students, and have
been known to challenge those who present a deficit model of these
students. I consider the advocacy role that I play, where I get people
to see the students in a different way and to value the difference, is
extremely important to positive student outcomes. Many Australians
have never met Aboriginal people and I think it is important to work
on changing some perceptions and to help people to develop
empathy for Aboriginal people. So, for example, when I hear
comments about Aboriginal people and alcohol, I say “Well, I know a
lot of old ladies who have never drunk any alcohol in their lives’. I
believe that challenging racist comments is very important in order for
these students to achieve their best in their lives and for the survival
of the whole generation,
Talking with colleagues is extremely important, particularly to get
different perspectives on the situations in which we are placed. We
all get very frustrated sometimes, and not necessarily because of the
students or the situation in the classroom. It is more to do with the
larger picture, the circumstances of people’s lives and the constraints
on them: historic constraints, health, families, a whole range of
things. Because we do not necessarily interpret situations the same
way, it is so valuable to be able to look at things from different points
of view.

know how language
and culture function
in spoken, written
and multimodal texts
Ultimately, I think that whatever I do in the classroom must be
relevant to my students’ lives. I have to convey my own interest in it
too and I am fortunate that my students and I share similar interests.
Also, I am always open to negotiation with my students and I make
that very clear. Finally, all ESL teachers must have an excellent
understanding of language and how it works. In fact, I think there
should be a lot more training for all teachers to help them to
understand how their own language works.