Teaching Pronunciation as a NNEST in an Intensive English Program in the U.S.: A Professional Journey

Le résumé fourni par la source

BackgroundI am a nonnative English-speaking teacher (NNEST) in an English language program at a Midwestern University in the U.S. I was born and raised as a bilingual in India.I spoke Hindi at home and began learning English in school.India is a linguistically diverse country, but because of its colonial legacy, English is considered as an important part of Indian higher education and is usually seen as the language of power and prestige.English was spoken by the ruling British government, so the laws were written in English, and the government administration was also conducted in English.Additionally, English became the medium of instruction in public schools.After India gained independence from the British, the Constitution of India named both Hindi and English as the official languages of India.Thanks to the foresight and liberal ideas of the then national leaders, most Indians who now graduate from a university have a good functional knowledge of general English, which is expectedly influenced by the local language(s), resulting in Indian English.Upon graduating with a bachelor's degree in elementary education, I moved to the United States and started working toward getting a master's degree in education with an emphasis in TESOL.I started working at the Applied English Center (AEC) at the University of Kansas as a lecturer in 2012 after spending a year as a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA).The AEC is an English language center that houses the Intensive English Program (IEP) among other language programs and courses for nonnative English-speaking students at the University of Kansas.In the IEP, there are five levels of instruction and two main classes in the curriculum for every level: Reading/Writing/Grammar (RWG) and Listening/Speaking/Grammar (LSG).Over the years, I have taught all language skills at different levels.Earlier on in my career, I taught a Grammar for Communication class where grammar was taught separately from reading and writing.I spent a great deal of time learning the rules and how to teach them concisely to students.Although I received my education in English, I did not have much grammatical instruction in school.At that time, grammar was "caught and not taught" at school because the focus was on the whole language philosophy, which de-emphasized grammar instruction.I must admit that I valued learning the grammar charts myself first and then finding a way to teach them in the classroom.Eventually I moved on to teaching integrated RWG classes.My educational background in TESOL helped me gain knowledge in second language teaching methodology and second language acquisition theories for teaching these skills at an IEP.Because of positive feedback from peers and my students, I felt confident as an RWG teacher.Watching my students making progress and advancing in their language learning journeys motivated me.I enjoyed being a successful RWG teacher, so I mostly requested a teaching assignment that included teaching reading and writing as I wanted to continue doing something I was good at.Being a nonnative speaker, I assumed that I would not be seen as an adequate speaking teacher in an LSG class.

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