Room 20: EFL Thoughts

Hello. I’m JoAnn Miller and I’ve decided to start this blog in order to share my over 35-year experience as an EFL teacher in Mexico. I’ll start with a brief introduction. I originally came to Mexico City from San Diego in order to get my Master’s degree in Spanish at the National University, but fate stepped in and I was given the opportunity to teach an EFL course in exchange for a discount in my tuition. It was a terrifying experience. First of all, I had had no previous experience teaching English and when I asked what textbook they were using, I was advised to go to the nearest bookstore and choose any text I wanted. Thank goodness, back in 1971 there weren’t many texts on the market…I chose one of Robert Lado’s classics. I remember my first day of class I was shaking so much I couldn’t take role. I guess the course wasn’t a complete disaster because some twenty years later I met a wonderful high school teacher who told me she had been in that class and I had inspired her to continue studying English and become an EFL teacher herself.

I can’t say I continued in EFL from that course onward. I didn’t. I went to the University of Wisconsin to continue my Spanish studies for a few years and I taught Spanish (a good experience, being a non-native language teacher, but more about that in the future). Little by little I found myself studying fewer literature courses and more linguistics, and then I started a minor in English. When it came time to do my dissertation, I knew I’d be returning to Mexico sooner or later. My thesis director was into dialects and wanted me to describe a Mexican dialect, but that topic just didn’t seem to be “me”.

I returned to Mexico and began an 18-year stint teaching and coordinating at the Binational Center in Mexico City (Instituto Mexicano Norteamericano de Relaciones Culturales on Hamburgo St.) I abandoned my dissertation, becoming a permanent ABD (All But Dissertation). When the Institute closed, I moved on to a multi-campus private university and after teaching a year, I became Institutional English Coordinator and helped organize English language programs at some 15 campuses throughout Mexico. I quit a few years ago and have dedicated myself to materials writing for the Macmillan Company.

During the time I was teaching, gave many talks both at our local MEXTESOL affiliate conventions and TESOL conventions, I edited the MEXTESOL Journal for some seven years and a few years ago I was elected to the Board of Directors of TESOL (I’m in my final year of service right now).

In the future, I plan to write about my experiences and give hints for classroom activities. I have specialized in teacher training, on-line teaching activities and assessment and I imagine these will be some of the topics I’ll hit upon.

I’d welcome any comments or suggestions.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 7th, 2005 at 3:13 pm and is filed under Reflections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.