Musings from a First Time TESOL Convention Attendee

by John Bandman

For those who missed out on the National TESOL Conference 2012 in Philadelphia, here are a few things that I gained from my first time attending the national conference.

First, there were a number of seminars that aligned directly with both my ESL teaching position and several classes I take at Hunter. One such seminar was on ESL vocabulary instruction. Some of the activities discussed assessed understanding of polysemic (multiple meanings) words. In this case, two sentences were given, but with the same word bank. While more than one word from the bank successfully completed the first sentence, only one word completed both sentences. Those who were looking to polish their reading, writing, and pronunciation instructional skills had a smorgasbord of seminars to attend.

Second, there was a great diversity of presenters ranging from graduate students presenting on topics they researched, all the way to well-accomplished authors who are superstars in ESL world. One recurring theme is not every grammar rule that exists needs to be explained. Each presenter provided a market-driven approach in their discussion about content delivery in the classroom.

Third, numerous publishers came together and provided wide displays of the latest ESL books. While Hunter College has me trained to not depend on the presence of books, it amazed me to see the creativity that went into designing them. For example, University of Cambridge had some textbooks that focused on multi-level learners. Oxford University Press featured a number of books that focused on ways to teach grammar and vocabulary – never to think there would be a book on how to teach collocations.

Finally, there were numerous employers and recruitment agencies ready to share with us a future in many facets of ESL. Even those who already have a teaching assignment, interviewing is excellent practice. I went on two interviews, and from that experience emerged a better understanding of what employers look for when hiring ESP teachers – they want us to be willing to adhere to pre-set curricula. I would recommend getting a side job teaching online so that you can fulfill your creative satisfaction, while at the same time be ready to carry out responsibilities in a most diligent manner without being concerned about any loss of academic freedom.