Informational interviews have become a common practice among American professionals, but many English language learners remain unfamiliar with this type of networking and job search activity. ESL teachers can create both compelling classroom assignments and provide opportunities for ESL students to explore their career options by including informational interviews in their courses.
As readers of this blog know, I have given several presentations at CATESOL conferences on “Informational Interviews: A Practical, Multi-skill Activity for High Intermediate and Advanced ESL Students.” Based on my six years of assigning both undergraduate native speakers and international graduate students at the University of Southern California to conduct informational interviews, this presentation demonstrated how this one presentation assignment can lead to an entire month of engaging, demanding, and career-focused lessons for advanced ESL students. Students expand their vocabulary, write questions, conduct an off-campus interview with a working professional in a field of interest, and share the career advice they collected in a short oral presentation. It’s a challenging, satisfying, and popular assignment in my oral skills classes.
A small vocational college in Los Angeles, CES College, asked me to share the exercise with their faculty last week. Would middle-aged immigrants in blue collar jobs find this exercise worthwhile? I’m quite confident that immigrants would learn from all steps of the exercise, and expanding their social network beyond relatives and friends remains essential. Mechanics can interview mechanics and car repair show owners, and construction workers can interview construction workers – or managers. The proof, as the cliche goes, will be in the pudding and let’s see what happens with their students in the next six months.
Would this exercise work in an EFL context? I’m not sure. Many American universities can count on alumni to help their students in their job search, and granting an informational interview is a relatively easy way to contribute. Many American professional organizations also encourage their members to both assist and recruit students into the field. It may be difficult in many cultures for a younger person with less status to directly contact an older professional to seek career advice.
I do know, however, that many American colleges and graduate programs train their students to go on informational interviews to gain more detailed knowledge of their prospective careers. As in so many other areas of American life, white collar professionals have far greater access to both more information and stronger personal networks. This assignment brings a best practice outside of the elite circles.
Informational interviews can also be used with high school students as they begin to focus on their career ambitions. Here is a short list of additional links that I found last night as I prepared my presentation. The links are loosely organized from the most general sites that explain the concept to general audiences in simple English to professional documents for more specialized, often graduate-school audiences. Adult and community college ESL programs would probably find the earlier links more helpful than the later ones. As ever, use or lose.
University of Notre Dame Informational Interviewing – This six-page guide provides excellent step by step instructions for students needing assistance with locating individuals, asking interview questions, writing thank you notes, and professionally networking. http://careercenter.nd.edu/assets/488/informational_interviewing_guide_8.16.pdf
Finally, here’s a 13-slide PowerPoint presentation titled “Networking and Informational Interviewing: Nuts and Bolts” by Scott Turner from USC Marshall School of Business, one of the world’s top MBA schools. Although I’m biased as a USC instructor, I think this presentation captures the practical possibilities of information interviewing. Many Marshall instructors advise MBA students that they should always be networking and conducting informational interviews during their graduate studies.
Given the difficult economic climate in many countries, I would suggest that it behooves more ESL and EFL teachers and tutors to consider adding informational interviews to their oral skills courses for their high-intermediate and advanced students.
“To know and not do is to not know.” – ancient Jewish proverb
Directing a private international high school in Vietnam last year provided many lessons. English might be the subject, but the context, as so often, became paramount.
As English teachers, we often begin by asking simple questions as we prepare our classes. Who are our students? What do they expect from their English teacher? What are their motives, goals, and fantasies? What barriers do they face to improve their English? How will their lives change if they speak fluent English? Do they really need to speak fluent English or just get a high TOEFL or TOEIC score? Context, as so often, determines the most appropriate approach.
Yet the most important question, especially while teaching abroad, might be overlooked. Where are you teaching? Local culture and laws can determine both the substance and style of teaching English. Censorship often exists. Location often matters most in teaching English abroad.
This truism has become exceptionally clear to me during the last few weeks. I’ve been revising an ESL conversation textbook originally developed for international graduate students and adult American immigrants for advanced adult Vietnamese English language learners. Vietnam, which has one of the fastest growth rates in the world, has embraced the study of English with a surprising fervor. The quality of EFL and ELT materials, however, remains rather low, and seldom includes authentic materials for both professional and social conversation. Grammar and listening skills receive far more focus than active language skills like writing and speaking.
This book project, which started over a year ago, has also kept expanding. Writing any book, of course, remains a tricky task in a still opening country ruled by communist dictators. On the other hand, many of the obvious revisions and taboo topics apply to many still opening societies from UAE and Saudi Arabia to China and Russia. You can’t talk about “choosing leaders” and “corruption” in socieities where politics are verboten. While you might be able to discuss personal lifestyle choices in Russia or mention a required holy book in Pakistan, commonsense indicates a similar list of “don’t ask” subjects ranging from almost any activity that is a social taboo, controversial, or illegal in many societies. You might be surprised how long those taboo lists remain.
Perhaps out of both professional judgment and personal aesthetics, I always try to tailor materials to meet the individual needs of my actual students. Given the strong nationalist flavor inside the country, it’s striking how few pedagogical English materials used in Vietnam even mention the country’s existence. That seems disappointing and a missed opportunity.
We can at least include local cultural and national references as we continue to open doors and minds by teaching English to students around the world. When I teach students from eight countries in a university class in Los Angeles, I give a nod to those eight cultures in my course materials while emphasizing American culture. Likewise, tailoring course material to meet the actual adult English language learners in our classrooms while teaching English abroad seems natural. Whether discussing national holidays, geography, or cultural traditions, adding local references can only empower English language learners to share their life experiences more effectively in English.
Teaching students to ask questions – in English -remains a vital critical linguistic skill. Many students find the grammar of asking questions in English quite difficult and hard to master. Let’s remember, however, that some questions, risk opening minds and shutting school doors. Modifying English materials, therefore, poses some significant challenges, and creates many possibilities for developing greater rapport with students. Balance, as ever, remains key.
And location, as most real estate agents and EFL teachers know, often matters most.
Where can immigrants go to practice their English speaking skills in a relaxed, non-judgmental atmosphere? How can American libraries introduce their wonderful resources to new users and provide a vital need? Where can volunteers, librarians, and both novice and experienced English teachers enjoy leading small groups of English language learners in engaging, reflective conversations?
American public libraries are increasingly hosting ESL conversation clubs. Filling a clear unmet need for thousands of American immigrants, libraries can often provide a smaller, less stressful environment than crowded adult ESL classes. Some ESL conversation clubs regularly meet twice a week for two hours, and other clubs less frequently for shorter periods. Members get a chance to share experiences, expand their vocabulary, and actually practice speaking.
I became aware of this growing trend in the Spring of 2010 when an influential blog for librarians mentioned Compelling Conversations as a recommended resource.
Under the title “Great Tips”, a small, but influential American librarian’s blog called eslconversationclubs.blogspot.com shared some ideas from Compelling Conversations. Naturally, I am quite pleased to both be recommended – and to discover an entire community of like-minded educators.
After reading this short post that made me smile, I spent a satisfying hour exploring the deep resources on the blog that dates back several years. Among the excellent resources is a short two-page document called ESL Conversation Clubs Best Practices by Jean Kaleda of webjunction.com that deserves a wider audience. Check it out here: http://eslconversationclubs.blogspot.com/search/label/bestpractices
I’m glad to discover that so many American public libraries already offer ESL conversation clubs. Their apparent growth is even better news, especially as immigration debate heats up. These friendly, informal gatherings fill a vital, often overlooked, need for many American immigrants, adult ESL students, and other English language learners. “Speech is civilization itself,” as Thomas Mann wrote. “It is silence which isolates.” ESL conversation clubs at libraries allow many quiet, hardworking, and often silent immigrants to find their voices and share their experiences in English. These conversations can be simple, moving, and significant.
Naturally, I’m also glad that my little niche, self-published book is considered a valuable, accessible resource.
Sometimes it is good to do nothing and rest afterwards.
That Spanish proverb partly explains the silence on this blog. Exhausted from a long semester, I just want to take some time off, read on the beach, and spend less time online. Balance requires a full life – and sometimes it’s good to soak up experiences, conversations, and ideas without purpose or direction. Reflection also takes time.
Of course, that’s only a partial explanation. The sight had some tech problems, and it’s time to upgrade. Watch for a return to regular blogging on teaching speaking skills and holding compelling conversations in English classrooms in June.
As the decade ends, this 2008 Did You Know videofor a Sony conference seems more relevant than ever. With quick factoids and fast edits, it shows how radically our world is changing. How do we prepare students for a world full of new technologies, new jobs, and new challenges? 2008 Sony Conference Video on Change
Did you notice how dated this celebration of technological possibilities felt with the MySpace reference from just 14 months ago? “Nothing is constant except change,” observed the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus in 500 B.C.E!
From my perspective, this new high ultra-high tech world will demand more attention to “high touch” interpersonal social skills. The ability to critically think, creatively imagine, and deeply reflect will be more important than ever. Our English classrooms should provide space for students to develop their speaking and thinking skills.
One simple method is to make change a topic in our classes. Cities, products, families, schools, and people change. This moment also allows us to ask some “big” questions.
• What changes have you seen in your hometown this decade?
• What changes have you seen in your family this decade?
• How has your country changed this decade?
• How have you changed this decade?
• What changes would you like to see in your country?
• What changes would you like to see in our world?
• What changes would you like to see in your family?
• How would you like to change in the next decade?
Yet change is always relevant in the 21st century. How will our classes change in the next decade? How will the field of teaching English change? How can we, in President Clinton’s classic phrase, “make change our friend”? Here’s change, a free chapter from Compelling Conversations, for you and your English language learners. Visit http://www.compellingconversations.com/pdf/change.pdf
Happy new decade! Let’s make sure the next decade provides more smiles and fewer sighs.
The New Oxford Dictionary chose “unfriend” as its word of the year, but that clever choice is not the first, only, or last word.
This excellent article from Ruth Walker’s outstanding “Verbal Energy” column in the Christian Science Monitor looks at the choices of Oxford American Dictionary, Dictionary.com, Webster’s New Word Dictionaries, and Merriam-Webster dictionary. Reviewing the choices and possibilities, Walker wonders how any one word could be chosen above other choices.
An excellent article for English teachers, word mavens, and linguists, this column also reminds readers that even “objective” dictionaries make editorial decisions. One editor chooses “unfriend” and another “sexting” and “distracted driving” while yet might choose “Obamania”. Other popular choices include: admonish, hypallage, and befriend. Choices, voices, and perspectives differ.
Of course, one of the pleasures of teaching English is that we often rediscover vocabulary words – or at least a new appreciation for the vividness of American idioms – from our students. Like many other ESL teachers, I often ask students to develop their own vocabulary logs with ten words each week and select a new word of the week to build their working vocabulary. Students, who have often been trained to memorize vocabulary words for TOEFL or other standardized exams, usually embrace the homework assignment. Sometimes students can surprise me.
This semester, for example, I learned the word “laicism” from a Turkish graduate student. This vital legal concept stating that religion and state should be separate, so woven into American culture that is not even debated, remains a major debate in Europe where many flags include a Christian cross. In some countries, the term is used to justify suppression of religious symbols (veil, yarmulka, cross) while other countries use it to subsidize many religious traditions and schools. Given the recent Swiss vote to ban new mosques being built in Switzerland and my own vocabulary lesson from a student, I’m chosing laicism as my word of the year. (By the way, Dictionary.com doesn’t list the word yet!)
