Letter of Self-Introduction
As a Chinese student, I have seen thousands of students in China struggle with countless tests —— the uppermost criterion for educational selection, which has forced those students to concentrate more on exams rather than on personal development. As a result, students feel overwhelmed and confused about their futures. Although Chinese society has a long standing Confucian tradition with respect to education, people often forget the objective of education nowadays: to shape personalities and beliefs, as well as to gain knowledge and skills. Typically in China, adolescents are not encouraged to acquire self-awareness and independence. I felt that this push-to-learn style is hardly to develop life-long learners.
Dissatisfied with that education and with a dream to change it, I started to pursue a Master’s degree of school counseling at USC. While doing internship at different schools with multi-grade students, I encountered groups of ESL students who were struggling with language, academic progress, and self-development. Through the counseling process, I noticed that students’ school performance improved dramatically when their English improved. I felt that language is the very first obstacle that they need to overcome. They will gain confidence and ability to fit into American life. One thing I learned from counseling program is that students themselves are the ones to finally identify their obstacles, find solutions, and make changes. Hence, I started to think that integrating counseling into ESL curriculum would develop life-long learners.
Working in a private language school, I happened to substitute for an ABC level class. Students were all adult immigrants and they all expected to learn some English that could be used in daily life. With bare language teaching experience, I simply delivered the lesson in the way that my English teachers did---focusing on grammar and language translation. Soon I realized that this didn’t work for those students, since they were faced with real life communication situations not standardized tests. I tried to tailor the teaching materials to be more daily usage but always went back to the old teaching ways. This experience really aroused my curiosity and interest in ESL teaching.
Faced with questions about being a good language teacher and limitations in ESL teaching, I applied the 15-Unit TESOL program with passion and curiosity. I am expecting a systematical training from this program to become a qualified ESL teacher. My ultimate goal is to explore and find a method that can help ESL students acquire English in a more smooth way. To be specific, I want to know how English is taught nowadays comparing to the old times, like teaching methods, teaching skills, and students evaluation. In addition, I want to learn how do teachers motivate students and to find ways to combine counseling and teaching in order to cultivate life-long learners. Last but not least, I want to learn lesson preparation, like how to choose and organize teaching materials and how to engage students to learn actively. I am excited to explore the TESOL world and to find the key for ESL teaching.
Dissatisfied with that education and with a dream to change it, I started to pursue a Master’s degree of school counseling at USC. While doing internship at different schools with multi-grade students, I encountered groups of ESL students who were struggling with language, academic progress, and self-development. Through the counseling process, I noticed that students’ school performance improved dramatically when their English improved. I felt that language is the very first obstacle that they need to overcome. They will gain confidence and ability to fit into American life. One thing I learned from counseling program is that students themselves are the ones to finally identify their obstacles, find solutions, and make changes. Hence, I started to think that integrating counseling into ESL curriculum would develop life-long learners.
Working in a private language school, I happened to substitute for an ABC level class. Students were all adult immigrants and they all expected to learn some English that could be used in daily life. With bare language teaching experience, I simply delivered the lesson in the way that my English teachers did---focusing on grammar and language translation. Soon I realized that this didn’t work for those students, since they were faced with real life communication situations not standardized tests. I tried to tailor the teaching materials to be more daily usage but always went back to the old teaching ways. This experience really aroused my curiosity and interest in ESL teaching.
Faced with questions about being a good language teacher and limitations in ESL teaching, I applied the 15-Unit TESOL program with passion and curiosity. I am expecting a systematical training from this program to become a qualified ESL teacher. My ultimate goal is to explore and find a method that can help ESL students acquire English in a more smooth way. To be specific, I want to know how English is taught nowadays comparing to the old times, like teaching methods, teaching skills, and students evaluation. In addition, I want to learn how do teachers motivate students and to find ways to combine counseling and teaching in order to cultivate life-long learners. Last but not least, I want to learn lesson preparation, like how to choose and organize teaching materials and how to engage students to learn actively. I am excited to explore the TESOL world and to find the key for ESL teaching.