My time as an English Teaching Assistant at UCS has mainly been spent teaching business English courses. I have worked primarily with three professors: Professors Elsa Mónica, Maria Valésia, and Magda. The students that I work with have varied levels of English, which range from basic to high intermediate. Consequently, the lessons that I create for these students have to accommodate a range of English abilities. What each class has in common, however, is that I attempt to introduce the students to new topics (franchises in the US, email writing in English, formal and informal language), while still incorporating their existing knowledge, both of business and Brazilian customs and culture.
One of my teaching tactics with my students has been introducing a “theme,” or a set of lessons that all connect to one another. I find that the students enjoy building upon knowledge as lessons progress. In my Business V class, Professor Maria Valésia allowed me to design the speaking portion of the midterm exam. I used one of the many business journals that I brought from the United States, specifically on franchises, to design the assessment. I assigned students randomly to groups and a business from the 10 mentioned in the magazine. Students were required to give basic knowledge about the business, assess the franchise, bring new knowledge into their presentation after reading an outside article, and discus why they would or would not want to invest in the franchise.
While the presentations varied, such as the skill with which they were delivered, not one group failed to prepare a presentation. Students were also made aware of clear guidelines used to grade their presentations. Earlier that week Professor Maria Valésia and I met to design a rubric with which to assess the students. After the students presented, Professor Maria Valésia and I averaged our individual scores to input that part of the grade.
What I enjoyed most about this class assessment in particular was that it allowed for an exchange of knowledge, between myself and Professor Maria Valésia, as well as between me and the students. I discussed expectations with my supervising professor, and what makes businesses successful and able to evolve instead of stagnant with my students. I make an effort to discuss businesses that the students are familiar with or may encounter in their day to day lives in Brazil as well.
As always with my business students, I attempt to expose them to a more “liberal arts” form of education. I studied International Business in college myself, and I find that this discipline in particular has a tendency to think in terms of the bottom line (only). I try to insert consideration towards human issues. For example, I tell my students that the loss of jobs and a subsequent increase in productivity may seem like an overall win for a company, but there are still people’s lives to be taken into consideration. At times, supply and demand or costs and benefits are a too simplified perspective. I feel that these views offer rationality, but not always a clear view of the human perspective.
Another goal that I have as an English Teaching Assistant is to bring disciplines together. I find myself bringing up topics from one class into another, and trying to expose my students to discussions beyond grammar or rigid vocabulary.
Most recently, I’ve had the pleasure to work with high school students (Cetec UCS) and Professors Cristina Pescador, Morgana, and Victoria, as well as letras professor Samira Dall Agnol. I’m only begun to introduce myself to the high school students that I started working with, but I had the pleasure of learning about gaucho and Brazilian culture from presentations that they prepared for my visit.
My work with Professor Samira involves monthly presentations in which I discuss a more complex topic with students preparing to be English teachers themselves. I hope to contribute our discussions and my preparation for these internship courses towards future research about how language instructors approach teaching a non-native language. These presentations also challenge me to think constantly about my own role at UCS. Though my title as an English Teaching Assistant implies that I spend my days teaching English and assisting language professors, my personal (and main) goal to motivate both my students and colleagues. Though they may not be native English speakers, they have many advantages in learning and speaking the English language that a monolingual native English speaker would lack. I find that my greatest strength as a language instructor is the empathy that I have for my students, just because I have studied other languages, and understand the difficulties that come with that process. I try to bring that mindset into all the classes that I help instruct at UCS, both business and letras courses.
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