38 Language Teaching
Teaching Teachers and Principals
TEACHING & LEARNING
An Inter view with Ian Schneider
W
hen we think of English language teaching (ELT), we usually think of teaching language learners and of learners who are still young. But ELT goes beyond teaching English to the young. It expands to the training of pre-service teachers and inservice teachers, and it encompasses school principals, vice-principals, supervisors, and other administrators in ELT contexts. The Jeollanamdo International Education Institute is a training center for such teachers and administrators, and Ian Schneider, a trainer at the Institute, agreed to talk about his teaching experiences there. That interview follows.
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
January 2022
Interviewer: To start off this interview, Ian, could you tell our readers a little about yourself – things like where you’re from, what you did before Korea, when you came to Korea, and what you’ve done in Korea? Ian: I grew up on the west coast of the U.S. – mostly in California. Before coming to Korea, I earned my BA in linguistics from the University of Kentucky and worked as a substitute teacher for K–12 public schools in my hometown of Sacramento. After arriving in Korea in ▲ Ian Schneider 2017, I started as a native English teacher (NET) at Namak High School in the new Jeollanam-do capital district east of Mokpo. After two years in Namak, I moved to Yeosu to work at the Jeollanamdo International Education Institute (JIEI), where I helped Korean English teachers develop greater confidence in their listening and speaking skills. And finally, last February, JIEI promoted me to coordinate a team of five fellow NETs.
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Interviewer: At JIEI, I believe you’ve taught in-service English teachers. What are the differences and challenges in teaching skills courses to them as opposed to the general English learner? Ian: At JIEI, my primary goal as an instructor has been to help Korean English teacher-trainees (KETs) develop greater confidence in speaking and listening. In other words, every trainee I met was exceedingly bright with mountains of language knowledge piled up in their minds thanks to years of formal study. My job was to create a safe and supportive classroom atmosphere where KETs could unlock that stored knowledge through self-expression. However, I didn’t start out thinking this way. When I first started work at JIEI in August of 2019, I felt like an impostor who had to flex his linguistics degree in order to conduct a class that KETs would find worthwhile. But I soon realized that KETs’ advanced language knowledge liberated me to teach topics I found interesting in English rather than teach about English. At Namak High School, my teaching goals were limited to encouraging students to produce English discourse and fostering more positive attitudes towards English language learning. However, with KETs, my focus shifted from teaching English as a subject to teaching communication skills – a topic I’ve studied intensely due to decades of socially awkward feelings and a will to improve my own communication skills. But the freedom to teach more advanced topics also brings more challenges. More advanced learners have more advanced expectations. This shift in learner needs forced me to consider my course goals and requisite scaffolding in greater detail. For example, one of the more popular and useful assessments from my course was podcast interviews – where trainees had to both conduct and give interviews on their topics of choice.
2022-01-06 �� 9:28:17
