Connecting to Figure Out How to Teach ESOL: A Grounded Theory

What can we learn from people who taught themselves how to teach ESOL? This PhD research explored how teachers who started teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) in post-secondary education without teaching or applied linguistics qualifications or prior teaching experience figured out how to teach. Grounded theory was used to explore the social context and guide cyclic, flexible research processes. Seven participants shared their perspectives during semi-structured interviews. Constant comparative analysis was used to identify properties, concepts, categories, a basic social process, and a grounded theory. The substantive grounded theory of Connecting to Figure Out How to Teach ESOL explains how teachers who started teaching ESOL in post-secondary education without teaching or applied linguistics qualifications or prior teaching experience discovered and determined how to teach ESOL. Connecting to Figure Out How to Teach ESOL is an informal and holistic learning process that includes four interdependent and interconnecting parts: becoming (a) Willing by initially acknowledging not-knowing how to teach and taking responsibility for students’ learning; (b) Reflecting by recalling learning experiences, and evaluating language, learning and teaching; (c) Engaging by building relationships with students, collaborating with teachers, and using learning resources; and (d) Adapting by engaging in interconnected cycles of monitoring students’ responses, determining students’ wants and needs, and experimenting with teaching.