Student blog: What it's like volunteering to teach English

In this student blog, one of our Level 4 BA Linguistics and TESOL students, Siham Clarke, describes her experiences as she teaches English to speakers of other languages [ESOL] who come to the University for their classes. 

I have now been volunteering at the ESOL classes for approximately one month. The ESOL classes are run by the Access and Widening Participation Team's English Café project. The English Café classes take place at both City and Telford campuses on a weekly basis.  This was arranged through my TESOL lecturer at university, who is aware of my interest in teaching English as a future career plan.

The lessons are delivered using various teaching practices. Those that I have assisted in so far often include a variety of activities, where we build on vocabulary, grammar exercises, speaking practice, listening comprehension, and sometimes reading and writing tasks. The tutor has at times used the communicative approach, emphasizing real life communication skills through interactive activities and tasks, using both online and paper resources. Other times, she has delivered lessons using the PPP approach (Presentation Practice Production) where she begins by introducing new language items such as new vocabulary, using pictures, realia, explanations, or demonstrations. She then reinforces this by designing activities that the learners engage in, including controlled practice exercises and structured activities where they get the chance to apply the language in a guided context. After this, she puts them into small groups, giving them either discussions or creative tasks that encourage them to apply what they learnt independently in more open-ended, real-world situations. The lessons sometimes incorporate cultural discussions to help learners understand in context, collaborating amongst each other to complete tasks, promoting cooperative learning, language use and peer interaction.

In this class, I have noticed many different barriers to learning for the students. These can vary from a lack of confidence to difficulty producing new sounds. For example:

• Fear of making mistakes: This I have noticed stops the learners who lack confidence and are afraid of making errors from participating in class, both in group tasks or interacting with the teacher.
• Environmental factors: These can create additional barriers to consistent language learning. For example, mothers who cannot attend every lesson due to childcare issues, or poverty/affordability making it difficult for some to be able to afford travel to and from class on a weekly basis. The Access and Widening Participation Team support with these issues through help with bus travel and also allowing small children to accompany their parents to the classes.
• Lack of exposure: Some of the learners tend to live in their own communities, with people who speak their mother tongue. In class also, they choose to sit in their own groups which limits their exposure and use of the target language.
• Phonetic differences: English pronunciation and phonetics are difficult for Chinese learners since certain English sounds do not exist in their language.

Volunteering in these classes has been immensely beneficial to me. It has given me practical experience in classroom management techniques and learner interactions and has provided me with valuable insight into the needs, challenges, and learning styles of ESOL students. It is allowing me to make a meaningful contribution to the ESOL community while preparing me for a future teaching career.