As a future ESL (English as Second Language) teacher, I think its inevitable

for me, under the context of globalization, to teach online English courses some day.
Because one of my belief in teaching ESL, whether in the traditional classroom
settings or online, is to make my classes very interactive. I think my online classes
should include a greater portion of real-time video conferencing. For me, learning
English isnt about reading and writing only (even though I was taught exclusively in
this two sections when I was learning English in China). On the one hand, teaching
reading and writing might be more suitable and easier for teachers to design a course
for the online environment. On the other hand, a lot of students who are learning
English around the world, albeit they can read and write in English, cant talk freely
with other English speakers. I think my ultimate goal for teaching ESL classes is to
help my students build up their own English identity rather than teach English as a
subject like Math and Physics. And the only way to build up the English identity is
through interaction with other English speakers.
In terms of enacting my goals in online teaching, I think in addition to the realtime conference, I may use the following:
I.
II.
III.

Using voice recording tools such as Voice Thread to help my students practice
speaking and also critique their classmates speaking.
Using music and movies to teach pronunciation (and students may write
reflections for the same movies)
Invite guest speakers (native speakers of English) to talk about culture and
identity (e.g. holidays) in the real-time conference
When talking about assessment, I think one of the most important believes of

mine is to make assessment as another opportunity to learn knowledge. As both a

student and teacher, I feel strongly the assessment or more often the test should
provide students opportunities to learn, otherwise it would be just a waste of time

both for students who take the tests and teachers who design the tests. Therefore, I
prefer to have assessment that students can learn knowledge in preparing them.
Taking into the account of the diverse background of students who take online
courses, I think as a teacher, I need to be aware of the cultural differences of my
students. But also, I need to foster the respect of different cultures in my students. I
think this is especially true for students who take online English courses.