ABSTRACT
I am teaching a workshop for graduate students in an MA TESOL program. The course is designed to help them “further develop their academic reading and writing” so that they can successfully undertake the other courses in the MA program. The class is multinational, with students from Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, and the U.S. Some of the students from the U.S. are immigrants; some are native speakers of English. What all have in common is the need to improve their academic reading and writing. Michiko studied English for eight years in Japan, where the school used a grammar-translation methodology and all the teachers were Japanese. She completed her BA in English at a Japanese university and began teaching English in Japanese government schools. She decided to complete an MA TESOL so that she could return and work in a private school. In order to gain entrance to the program, she took several general English courses to prepare her for the TOEFL examination. Like Michiko, Noy studied English in school in Thailand. However, she attended an international school, where most of the instruction was in English and the instructors were British. She completed her BA in accounting in the U.S. and decided to become an EFL teacher on her return to Thailand. So, she enrolled in the MA TESOL program. Joyce, from Taiwan, also studied English at school, completing her BA in English in Taiwan before coming to the U.S. for the MA TESOL. In high school, her parents sent her to an afterhours school to practice her English with an American teacher. She plans to open a private English language school on her return to Taiwan. Patricia’s family emigrated to the U.S. from Mexico when she was 12. She had studied no English during her schooling in Mexico. Her parents still speak limited English. She graduated from a California high school and received her BA in linguistics from a university in California. On receiving her MA degree, she plans to teach in a community college or adult education center in California. Adileh came to the U.S. with her parents as refugees from Iran when she was a baby. She completed all her education in the U.S. She plans to seek admission to a doctoral program in language education once she’s completed her MA TESOL. Rosario is an older student, having gained admission to the MA through a special seniors program. She emigrated from the Philippines with her husband and two children. Now that he has died, she is taking classes for interest only. [Murray, research notes]
Task: Refl ect
1. Noy was exposed to British English; Joyce to American English; Rosario to Philippine English. How do you think that affected their reading and writing for academic English at a US university?
