The Vision vs. the Reality:

The Tensions of the TESOL Practicum

Johnson, K.E. (1996). The vision vs. the reality: The tensions of the TESOL practicum. In D. Freeman & J Richards (eds.) Teacher Learning in Language Teaching. (pp. 30-49). New York: Cambridge University Press.

The Instructional Context• 9-12 ESL program in a racially mixed,

urban high school• ESL Literacy Class

– Refugees, Vietnamese & Amer-Asians

• Content-Based ESL- 1st Gen. Immigrants, Czech, China, Korea, Puerto Rico

The Teacher: Maja• B.A. in German• Senior Year - Study Abroad in Austria• 3rd semester MA TESL Program• 15 week practicum• Successful 2LL in/out of classrooms• 1st “real” teaching experience

Theoretical Orientation• Phenomenology

– understand the meaning of events and interactions to ordinary people in particular situations

Initial Research Question• How does Maja understand her initial

teaching experience? – understand the phenomenon from the

subject’s own perspective– gain entry into the conceptual world of

people in order to understand what meanings they construct around events in their daily lives

Theoretical Orientation• Symbolic Interaction Theory (Chicago School - John Dewey, George Mead, Howard Becker, Blanche Geer)

- human experience is mediate by interpretation- objects, people, situations, and events do not possess their own

meaning, rather meaning is conferred on them, and therefore, reality is socially constructed

- the meanings people give their experience and their interpretations are essential to what an experience is

- to understand human behavior, we must understand the definitions and the processes by which these definitions are constructed

Methodology• Case Study - Participant-Observation• Weekly Observations w/ fieldnotes• Pre/Post Observation Interviews• 3 audiotaped lessons w/ stimulated

recall reports• Teaching Journal - open-ended, day-to-

day reflections

Data Analysis

• Inductive Analysis Procedures (Bogdan & Biklen, 1992)

• Grounded Content Analysis:– look for themes and patterns that emerge out of

the data– rely on the language of the subject to define those

themes and patterns– substantiate themes and patterns with further

data

Results: Emerging Themes• tensions experienced between her “vision”

and the “reality” • emerging awareness of talk and interaction

with ESL students • strategies she developed to cope with these

tensions • emerging conception of herself as a L2

teacher

The Vision - “knowing why you are teaching something, what the learning outcome is, and how itfits into the overall goals for the students. I have to know where I am going, and why I am goingthere … and I feel it is my responsibility as a teacher to let the students know where they aregoing too.”

Prediction - “prediction is very important for learning and behavior management… the studentsneed to be able to predict what is coming next, know what is expected of them everyday, and beready for it.”

Learning through English - “learning more than just the English language, but learning all sortsof new things through the English language. It’s not that these kids can’t learn, it’s that theycan’t express what they learn, they can’t raise their hands in class and answer the teacher’squestions, they can’t write up the lab reports.”

Modeling - “It’s important to show them what I expect of them by modeling it first, and thenletting them experience it on their own. I want my instruction to make them feel prepared to beable to learn the things I am asking them to learn.”

Limits - “I have limits on what I think is acceptable - these differ from Joan’s and I’m not surewhat the students’ think the limits are … but there are boundaries that you just don’t cross over.”

The “Vision”

The “Reality”Constant flow of interruption - “knocks at the door, announcements over the loudspeaker, the attendance sheet, students flying in, students’ flying out. This bothersme! There is so much crap going on that has nothing to do with education, the bellrings and I don’t even realize it, and that bugs me . That drives me crazy.”

Time - 38-minute class periods - “There is a real tension between do I cover all thethings I had planned and I know are really important, or do I say a qualitydiscussion is more important.”

“Dummying-down” - “I had to act out, I’m brushing my teeth with toothpaste, as partof a grammar lesson! I felt like a fool, standing there saying this sentence andexpecting the students to take me seriously.”

Unfairly segregated and taught as if they are incompetent - “There is a school-wideperception that ESL students are dumb, that they can’t learn, and that they have tolearn English before they can learn anything else.”

“Vocabulary, This is Just Vocabulary”

[Classroom transcript w/stimulated recall reports]T: OK, Wei, What do you buy in a drug store [another student calls out]S 1: Medicine.T: I’m talking to Wei… Go ahead, anything you can think of?S 2: Drug store…medicine T: Medicine, O.K. like aspirin, aspirin, like if I have a headache…S2: Yea, headache, yeaT: OK, I buy aspirin, OK, that’s what, you buy that stuff at a drug store…OK clothing store? What do

you buy at a clothing store? Maybe you buy a sweater?…pants…shirt…OK, at the bank… what do you do at the bank?

S1: get moneyS3: moneyT: Ah, get money, everybody knows what a bank isS1: You buy a money!T: You buy money at the bank…what do you buy money with?…What do you buy money with?…with

more money?…Yea, you can get money out of the bank, Wei, what do you do at the bankMaja: WORDS, ITS JUST WORDS, THIS IS INTELLECTUALLY DEAD, THIS IS JUST WORDS,

AND THEY ARE MEANINGLESS TOO. I FIND THIS SO INTELLECTUALLY DEGRADING, AND BORING, AND FRUSTRATING, THEY ARE FRUSTRATED AND I’M FRUSTRATED.

‘Finding the Right Gear’[Classroom transcript w/stimulated recall reports] T: So, Hitler, we talked about Hitler, O.K? Who was Hitler? Ella?S: A dictatorT: He was a dictator, O.K., Where was he, where was he a dictator? What country?S1: GermanyT: Germany. O.K. What group of powers did he belong to? Did he belong to the Allied Powers or the Axis Powers?S2: Axis PowersT: The Axis Powers, O.K., He did something, he killed a lot of people, who were those people?S3: Jews

Maja: I’M REALLY TRYING TO USE SORT OF ESL-ESE, IT’S NOT MOTHERSES NECESSARILY, BUT IT’S A KIND OF SHELTERED ENGLISH, AND I’M TRYING TO BE VERY CAREFUL OF THE WORDS I’M USING AND RIGHT HERE I SAID, HE DID SOMETHING BAD AND AS I WAS SAYING THAT, I WAS THINKING, COME ON, THAT’S A LITTLE TOO SHELTERED, AND THAN I SAID TOO MUCH. THERE IS A QUESTION OF INEXPERIENCE HERE, I HAVEN’T HAD ENOUGH EXPERIENCE TALKING TO ESL STUDENTS, SO FINDING THE GEAR, MAYBE IN THE FIRST CLASS, WHICH IS THE LITERACY CLASS, IT SHOULD BE IN FIRST GEAR AND WITH THESE KIDS MAYBE THIRD GEAR, BUT I DON’T KNOW WHAT THESE GEARS MEAN YET, SO SOMETIMES I WATER IT DOWN TOO MUCH AND WHEN I HEARD MYSELF DO THAT, I SHIFT TOO HIGH, IT’S FINDING THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF NEW VOCABULARY THAT WILL BE COMPREHENSIBLE, BUT NOT DUMMY IT DOWN TOO MUCH.

‘The Spit-Back Factor’[Classroom transcript w/stimulated recall reports] T: And the Poles,S$: Slavic, T: O.K., The Slavics, O.K., good and what did you say Pat? You used a word.S2: I said PolishT: No, I think you said another word about the Jewish people when he systematically killed, wanted to kill all the Jewish

people, what was that called? I think you said it, well if you didn’t, I’ll tell you, it was the HolocaustS2: The HolocaustT: The Holocaust, the Holocaust, remember we talked about the Holocaust, the final solution. the final solution like

somehow if he killed all the Jews, then that would be the final solution, all the problems would be solved O.K., and Hitler and Germany, the Nazi’s they started the war, they invaded a country. Do you remember what country that was? What country was that?

S6: PolandT: PolandS2: AustriaT: AustriaMaja: I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH WHAT I’M DOING HERE. THAT IT’S A RECITATION. I TOLD THEM

SOMETHING AND THEY ARE PARROTING IT BACK AND THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT THAT THAT BOTHERS ME. THE INTENT OR OVERVIEW WAS TO CHECK AND MAKE SURE THEY UNDERSTAND IT AND THEY DID KNOW IT AND IT WAS SORT OF REASSURING FOR ME BUT I DON’T KNOW HOW INSTRUCTIVE IT WAS. IT GAVE THEM THE MESSAGE THAT WHEN THE TEACHER ASKS A QUESTION, I’LL SPIT BACK AN ANSWER AND THIS SPIT BACK FACTOR BOTHERS ME.

Strategies to Cope With Tensions

[Field Notes]Developed a literature/social studies unit that centered on the play The Dairy of Anne Frank within the historical time period

of WWII. The unit included a weekly schedule of class activities with daily homework assignments. Each student was assigned a character in the play. Each day they read a short segment of the play, answered a series of questions, discussed difficult aspects of the characters, and designed a collage depicting their assigned character.

[Interview]I don’t want them to just read the play, I want them to experience it from the point of view of the characters. I want them to

share in the the experience of what it must have been like to live in hiding during WWII. I think they can relate to this sort of experience because so many of them have come to the U.S. under harrowing political and social conditions.

[Field Notes]Assigned groups of students to gather information about the personal and professional backgrounds of Churchill, de Gaulle,

Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and Roosevelt and to characterize their political perspectives. She collected biographical information on each leader and prepared reading guides and organizing questions on each leader to help the students understand the information. The groups wrote character sketches of their leaders, illustrated 3 key political decisions that their leader had made, and presented what they had learned about each leader in a formal class presentation.

“My Vision of Good Teaching”

[Classroom transcript w/stimulated recall reports]

S 1: and Roosevelt was the thirty second president. He was elected four terms, that'ssixteen years, but he had a disease and he died. He was president when he died.[Student 2 walked around the semi-circle holding a large picture book open to a photograph of Roosevelt]

S 1: "He had polio, that's a disease and your muscles can't move, so you can't walk, sohe had a wheelchair... he had to sit in a wheelchair.S 5: He was president? He couldn't walk?" S 2: Many peoples think he's O.K., because he was a good president, so it doesn't matter.T: That's right, a lot of people thought he could walk because they used to prop him upwhen he gave speeches...they would stand him up on crutches so people didn't realize hecouldn't walk. That probably wouldn't happen today, with T.V. and everything, but backthen most people only heard him on the radio. They didn't seem him on T.V. like we donow.

“My Vision of Good Teaching”

[poster depicted three major decisions Roosevelt made during World War II and a blow up of a political cartoon ofRoosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin]

S 2: Yea, this picture, yea, Roosevelt smoking a cigar, and here, Churchill smoking acigarette, one of those long things... a holder, you know, and Stalin, he not have anything... They're smiling, like friends, and it say 'Just Perfect Harmony' here.

[The second poster depicted the bombing of Pearl Harbor and a time line showing when the Americans entered the war] S 3: ... America say, their problem not us, so they want people mind their own business, butthen Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor and America say O.K...

Maja: "MY FIRST IMPRESSION IS THAT I'M VERY CONFIDENT AND ON TOP OF THINGS, BUT YOU KNOW, I'M NOT OVERBEARING EITHER. I ENCOURAGE THEM TO TALK AND IREALLY AM INTERESTED IN KNOWING WHAT THEY HAVE TO SAY. I SEE MYSELFWANTING TO CONNECT WITH THEM, AND I GUESS I DO. I SOUND LIKE I REALLY KNOWWHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. THE LESSON WAS SO ORGANIZED, AND THIS IS NICE, THIS

IS MY VISION OF GOOD TEACHING AND I THINK THAT'S PRETTY GOOD!"

Emerging Conception of Self

Conception of herself as an L2 teacher did not evolve separately, but intertwined withknowledge of students, context, and self

[Journal entry]In class [the university methods course] we talk about "the students" as these generic things, like facelessblobs, that are always out there waiting for us to teach them. But now when I think of students I seefaces and names, and personalities, and real people who have real experiences, and I know these people. I know what they like and don't like. I know how they will act and what they will say if I call on them. Now that I know them, I can teach them. Before, it was just a shot in the dark, but now I know what I'maiming at.

[Interview]Joan and I have different limits. She is much more tolerant of things. This was hard for me to deal with at first because I'dobserve her and say, "I wouldn't do it like that" or "That won't happen when I teach." But now that I've been teaching forawhile I see why Joan lets the student do certain things and I'm O.K. with that. There are certain things I won't tolerate, butif students know what these are, they don't seem to cross them. Deep down, I think they want to fit in, they just have toknow what fitting in means.

[Final Interview]I've learned a lot through all of this. Mostly what it's really like out there. I guess nothing prepares you for what it's reallylike, but I got through it, and so did the students. I think I learned more from them than they did from me

Data missing from this case study…

• Perceptions of students• The role of the content & experiences in

the Teacher Education program• Perceptions of the “master” teacher• Perceptions embedded in the institution• Broader educational policy and

social/community issues