#6

This chapter really made me realize how many aspects of TESOL there are to consider. For example, the size of classroom affects how teachers should approach their teaching methods. They need to make sure that not only are they covering the agenda promptly, they also need to make sure that they are connecting with their students and making sure that the students are all on the same page. However, students in a language-learning class might be more difficult to handle than any regular classes because are there not only different levels of knowledge among students, there are also different beliefs and assumptions that may be conflicting with Western values.

Going from my experiences, I'm really grateful for the school I went to during middle school. In the Philippines, learning English was just another class for me. There was a barrier between myself and the language. Speaking it didn't nearly matter as much as passing the class because all my other classmates felt that way. When I came here as a teenager, I became that girl who simply watched from the window. Most of the time, it was hard to connect with other students; there was always that doubt that I would be able to communicate what I wanted to say. But when I was in the ESL class, that barrier was gone. I was with a teacher who had a tremendous amount of patience, someone who encouraged me to find the right words. It also helped that she only had two other students along with me who occupied her attention. She was able to dedicate her time and made sure that all of us understood the language and the culture that came along with it. I know that if I was in a ESL class with twenty other students, I wouldn't have felt as comfortably as I did then.