1. I thought it would be just like
mainstream
Learning and unlearning in the
TESOL praxicum
Michele de Courcy

2. The context
 Graduate program in TESOL*
 Reflective journals/reports
 Experiences of the teachers
 What they had to learn
 *Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

3. Reflection

4. The research questions
 What do novice ESL* teachers experience
during the “praxicum”? (Pennycook, 2004).
 What do they have to learn in order to
experience success in the ESL classroom?
 What do they have to unlearn?
 *English as a Second Language

5. What do we know about
language teachers?

6. Stories

7. Beliefs

8. How different can it be?
 Direct experience…..
 Dewey, Smith

9. The data
 Eight former students
 Journals kept while on placement
 Lesson plans
 Observation notes
 Self-evaluations of lessons taught
 (sometimes) mentor comments
 Reflective reports

10. The teachers and their contexts
 May - ELICOS
 Taylah - HS for international students
 Brooke - ESL class in multicultural HS
 Victoria, Dana, Linda - adult ESL classes in
TAFE
 Colleen - NAP class in language PS
 Paul - senior secondary international ESL ss in
a private HS

11. Findings
 Focus on self as teacher
 Focus on the learners

12. Findings - about self as teacher
 It’s not like mainstream
 Timing
 Adapting teaching style
 Importance of rapport

13. Findings - about self as teacher
 I thought it would be just like mainstream
 Timing
 Adapting teaching style
 Importance of rapport

14. Findings - focus on the learners
 Visuals
 Differentiation (levels)
 Clear and short instructions
 Silence/ wait time
 Group work and L1

15. Findings - focus on the learners
 Visuals
 Differentiation (levels)
 Clear and short instructions
 Silence/ wait time
 Group work and L1

16. 3 competing domains
 Knowledge and ideas
 History, beliefs and embodied practices
 Constraints and possibilities

17. The praxicum
 “in which teacher-learners develop the
continuous reflexive integration of
thought, desire, and action”
 (Pennycook 2004 p. 335)

18.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=lpvgfmEU2Ck