Teaching

Part of the purpose of this blog is to share my experience with future ETAs and to give prospective ETAs an idea of what the position is like, so I am devoting this entry solely to my work responsibilities here.

I teach 5 English classes per week (2 beginner, 2 intermediate, and 1 advanced class). They all meet once a week for about an hour and a half. The majority of my students are studying “Letras”. In this field of study students take various classes taught in Portuguese (i.e. Brazilian and Portuguese literature, language, linguistics) and choose one foreign language to study (English of Spanish). When they graduate, the students are qualified to teach Portuguese/English/Spanish language and literature. The problem with the system, however, is that the students are rarely exposed to native speakers, and they generally do not speak fluently by the time they graduate college because they only have 60 hours of English per semester. Then, the graduates go on to teach English in public schools, teaching poorly spoken English to students, and thus exacerbating the problem. 

The main goal of my classes, then, is to expose the students to a native speaker (myself!) and focus on cultural language and communication. Since most of their teachers/professors (starting in public schools) are from Brazil, the students rarely have the opportunity to learn about cultural nuances or focus solely on everyday communication. Most of the teachers (according to my students) drill them with grammar- grammar- grammar, so they know grammar rules, yet lack oral skills.  

There are many challenges to teaching at UESC. The main challenge is something I definitely was not expecting- my beginner students speak only a few words in English (they are taking Spanish as their foreign language, but also want to learn some English), so I have been teaching in English and translating everything to Portuguese. In these classes I rely on some Spanish, a lot of body language and gestures, and students for translations. 

Another challenge is something I was expecting: students are always late, leave early, or simply don’t show up at all. It is difficult, therefore, to have a productive class and follow my lesson plans, but I am hoping that as the semester progresses, things will change.

My other responsibilities as an English Teaching Assistant are to hold office hours twice a week. Unfortunately, office hours have been poorly attended thus far, so we may decide to do something else during that time.

My other responsibility is a side "research" project that Amalia and I are working on with some Letras students.  In 2007, a UESC professor wrote the project proposal, and it is just really getting off the ground now (almost everything takes a LONG time to get started here). Its main goal is to create an online forum for public school English teachers – a place for them to get classroom resources, lesson plans, interactive activities, share their teaching experiences, etc. We are in the process of creating a website: projetoforte.wrodpress.com. Eventually, we will travel to the public schools and give workshops about how to utilize the site.

The classes, project, and office hours consume my 20-25 hours of ETA work per week, but a new academic/work opportunity arose last week. A UESC English professor is working on a manual for teaching English and he asked Amalia and I if we would edit it or be co-authors. Well, of course! So, we will be helping with a published manual that will (hopefully) eventually be used all over the state of Bahia.

CRISIS

However, now things are changing becuase yesterday professors in Bahia state schools announced that they are striking because the government slashed their salaries and took away some of their autonomy. http://www2.uol.com.br/aregiao/2011/04/entry_4132.html According to the article, the strike will last an undetermined period of time. It could last anywhere from one week to a year, but most students I have talked to think it will last 2 months. I am worried about what the strike may mean for my position here - my classes will be canceled (I may be spending a few months on the beach...). We will have to see how long the strike lasts...and hope that I can find another way to do what I came here to do!