What motivates ESL teachers to become authors? Why do many of these authors self-publish? What’s their likelihood of success?
Naturally, I’m quite interested in these questions – and hope other English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers will share my interests. The acceptance of this panel discussion by CATESOL for the state conference both surprised and pleased me – especially since I’m the third panelist!
Here is the original 300-word proposal written in third person to make it sound more academic. Elizabeth Weal, the panel organizer and ESL author, wrote the successful proposal. She also chose the catchy title.
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Passion and Persistence: Self-Published ESL Authors Tell Their Stories
In this CATESOL panel discussion, three authors of ESL books will share the pleasures and perils of self-publishing as well as offer tips for those contemplating writing and publishing an ESL text.
Like most sectors of the textbook market, the ESL textbook market is dominated by a few large publishers. But the situation is rapidly changing as increasing numbers of ESL professionals-turned-authors start their own publishing companies, maintaining control over virtually every aspect of the book production process.
In this panel three authors of successful ESL books will recount their experiences publishing ESL texts. What motivated them to put pen to paper? Why did they self-publish as opposed to turning to a traditional publisher? How do these authors define success? What has been their greatest disappointment? What previously unfilled niche does their book fill?
The authors also will touch on some of the key issues self-published authors most address: Concerns about self-publishing and academic respectability, risks and benefits of self-publishing, and steps to follow in the self-publishing process.
Each panelist comes to the table with a different perspective. Diane Asitimbay, author of What’s Up America? wanted to answer the most common and embarrassing questions ESL students asked her; Eric H. Roth, author of Compelling Conversations teaches international graduate students the pleasures and perils of writing and speaking in English at the University of Southern California. Elizabeth Weal, author of Gramática del ingles: Past a paso and English Grammar Step by Step wanted to find a way to explain English grammar to Spanish speakers who knew very little about grammar in English or Spanish.
Ample time will be left at the end of the discussion to take questions from the audience.
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Self-publishing is both a pleasure and a headache, but I’m going to accent the positive. After all, as Churchill noted, “success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.”
Confused by the long litany of acronyms in our fast-growing field? You’re not alone. English teachers, linguists, and school administrators must navigate an Amazon River of changing acronyms and cold, clinical terms to describe common classroom situations.
Our field is called ESL, EFL, ELL, ELD, ESOL, and VESL. We are often known as ELT, TESOL, TEFL, and TESL, and our students prepare for standardized exams known as TOEFL, TOEIC, GRE, and SAT. This alphabet soup sometimes seems a tad absurd and more than a bit annoying. Partly inspired by the need to quickly summarize information, partly used to define insiders from outsiders, and partly mandated by government bureaucracies, education seems more prone than many other fields to creating overlapping, often puzzling acronyms. I prefer to consider myself an English teacher who helps fellow humans express their ideas and perceptions in English.
Yet despite this sentiment, I also know that acronyms provide efficiency and often make clear important distinctions. The World Language Assessment website, a group of Wisconsin educational agencies devoted to effective language instruction, has created this useful glossary of emerging terms and even more acronyms. Do you know the Five Cs of World Language Education? Or what FLES stands for? What about the difference between a “portfolio” and “LinguaFolio”? As a longtime English teacher and ESL instructor, I found the list a useful glimpse into evolving goals, assessment language, and educational jargon.
Sometimes a picture, or in this case, an interactive map is worth a thousand words.
The United States continues to attract more legal immigrants and refugees each year than any other nation in the world. We also have an estimated 10 million immigrants who have crossed the borders without waiting for their official invitations. People travel thousands of miles to start new lives here, and join the long history of our immigrant nation built on ideas rather than bloodlines. Each immigrant has an idea, a hope, and a dream of what their life could become somewhere in our vast nation.
Where are immigrants building their new lives? You might be surprised. The consequences for our public school are quite significant with dramatic increases in the need for English as a Second Language (ESL) – or third or fourth – language classes for both adults and children.
Check out this New York Times’ Interactive Map of English Language Learners across the United States that documents their growth since 1996 – and the side chart on the continuing achievement gap. Personally, I was surprised by the depth and width of new immigrants across the United States, including such places as Indiana and North Carolina.
Consider me psyched. I’m going to a huge conference of ELT, EFL, and ESL professionals today in Vietnam’s White Palace. The 4th-annual VUS-TESOL conference program is full, and I expect to hear many more teaching tips for working with Vietnamese students who want to learn English, but are often reluctant to speak.
I’m particularly interested in hearing about successful transitions from grammar-based EFL classes to communicative philosophies, and talking with other English Language trainers and ESL professionals who have enjoyed teaching much more than administering programs.
Naturally, I’m also looking for “good mistakes” that don’t seem to transfer from the United States, Australia, and England to Vietnam. As Octavio Paz notes, “To modernize is to adopt and adapt, but it is to also to recreate.” What will work for Vietnamese students? What materials will most effectively encourage more Vietnamese adults to speak more in adult courses? What techniques work best here?
Ask more. Know more. Share more. Speak more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com
Students often need solid TOEFL scores to study abroad, including the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Naturally, this need – and ambition – often makes reaching a certain number on the TOEFL exam as the goal of their English studies.
Unfortunately, sometimes these imperfect standardized exams – all attempts to measure language ability of English language learners – become a goal in and of itself. Consequently, some students and stressed parents want all their English classes to primarily focus on test preparation. “We just need a good TOEFL score” mantra can lead to pressure on private high schools and language programs to exclude material unrelated directly to the influential ETS exam.
Let me suggest that this worshipping at the altar of standardized test scores can distort, even pervert, English language instruction. While excellent, specialized test preparation courses serve a vital purpose, they should be small parts of a larger English curriculum. The main focus of language programs, especially in high schools, should be helping students develop authentic language skills so they can actually read, write, listen, and speak English – both inside and outside the classrooms and away from multiple choice exams.
Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare, John Steinbeck, and Jack London may or may not appear on the next TOEFL test, but high school and older English students should be exposed to their writings. We do not want to throw away our humanistic cultural heritage and reduce our English and ESL classes into mere test training. The TOEFL exam is a means, not an end in and of itself.
Likewise, we need – as English teachers – to remember that ideas matter, celebrate our dynamic language, and avoid the temptation to become grammar fundamentalists or mere language technicians. Learning English, a global tongue, allows students to move beyond the narrow confines of their local language and more easily join the global village. Let’s keep those larger goals – and the humanities – in the English curriculum.
Like so many other English teachers, I begin teaching with student interests and habits in mind. Of course, I also want to take them from the old and familiar to new and unfamiliar while improving their English language skills. You Tube remains a powerful classroom tool to achieve that goal.
I’ve used YouTube to have students research job interview tips, stress patterns, pronunciation problems, and informational interviews. The results have been consistently positive as I have students write concise video reviews and email me their reviews for homework before the next class.
Then I slightly edit the reviews, watch the videos and add my own comments in blue ink, and combine the reviews into a single document that is emailed to all class members. “Use or lose” I say, but here are the reviews from your classmates. Result: almost every student watches every video recommended and spending far more time on the topic than I could allocate in class. It’s both popular and quite effective.
As English teachers, we are truly blessed to be working in the YouTube era.
