online teaching – Page 2 – TEFL in Colombia

Today’s interviewee is an experienced teacher and coordinator based in Medellín. We discussed the future of online teaching, approaches to assessment, native speakerism in Colombia, the importance of teaching writing skills, and other topics related to ELT.

Sandra Gaviria has been working for Universidad EAFIT in Medellín since 1992. She started teaching English after obtaining her BA in Modern Languages at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana and MA in TESOL at West Virginia University. Sandra was promoted to her current role of academic coordinator in 2000. She is involved in curriculum development, test design, teacher training, and other activities in the academic area. Sandra also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and a Master’s in Educational Innovation.

Sandra Gaviria: Lesson observation doesn’t need to be a stressful experience

Let’s start with the beginning of your teaching career. What was your main motivation to become an English teacher?

It was kind of an accident. I was fascinated by English speakers, but there weren’t many opportunities to talk to foreigners here in Medellín at that time. I love languages, so I decided to study English and French because I knew that I would enjoy it. I initially focused only on learning the languages and the idea of teaching didn’t really hit me until I did my practicum. That experience helped me find out that I was born to be a teacher, and I have been involved in ELT since then.

You did your master’s degree in the USA. How did that come about?

When I was in the third year of university, a Colombian professor brought a group of foreigners to a summer course at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. They needed a host family for one of the participants, so I volunteered and spent a month with a Japanese student at my parents’ place. The professor then told me to contact him after graduation regarding an opportunity to become a teaching assistant in the US. I worked for a year and a half in Medellín to save money because I had to pay for all of my expenses. Fortunately, everything went smoothly and I was able to do the degree at West Virginia University.

After returning to Colombia, you started teaching at Idiomas EAFIT, which had opened only a year before. What was your experience like and how has teaching English changed since the 1990s?

It was a new programme, so it wasn’t as structured as it is now. I remember that when I became a teacher, we didn’t have any assessment rubrics and I had to design my own tests. The curriculum was provided by the textbook, but the teachers were practically on their own. I spent eight years working as a teacher before my current position opened up. Our programme needed something more official, so I decided to standardise things after becoming a coordinator. It was very challenging at the beginning, but it was absolutely necessary.

By the way, the city of Medellín is often praised for its transformation in the last few decades. What is the most significant change that you have experienced?

As a child, I would go many years without seeing a foreigner. That changed completely, and before the pandemic we would get many students from abroad learning Spanish or participating in exchange programmes at our university. Seeing people from abroad on campus and in Poblado was very common. They became part of the landscape, and I hope we will soon see foreign students return to Medellín.

I see that you have written a lot of blog posts and other articles on a variety of topics, and you have a degree in journalism. Do you think there are any transferable skills between journalism and teaching?

I think that these areas are connected because every English language teacher should know how to write. I mean, it’s not necessary to be able to write literary pieces, but a teacher’s writing skills have to be at a good level. Writing is one of the most neglected skills when it comes to teaching English. Having students write is not just about giving them the topic, but it requires structure as well. It’s also about the flow of ideas, organising paragraphs, etc. Every language has its own rules, so writing in Spanish isn’t exactly the same as in English, and being aware of that can help teachers guide their students.

You also worked as a master’s programme instructor at Universidad de Caldas. How would you describe your time in Manizales?

I enjoyed it very much. I learned a lot because I had to prepare completely new things, and that helped me with my day-to-day tasks. I’m still in touch with some of the people from the master’s programme; one of them is actually working with us at EAFIT. It was great from a professional point of view, but it was very exhausting. I had to travel a lot, so I didn’t have any break for a long time. Also, those small planes that fly to Manizales don’t provide the most comfortable experience.

What can you tell me about your MA in Educational Innovation from Maharishi University?

I was expecting that to be more technology-oriented, but it was a little different. What I really loved about that programme is that every single student needs to learn Transcendental Meditation (TM). We also ate healthy food and did in-class meditation together. It’s a small university, so we all felt very close to each other. They use a block system, which means that you concentrate only on one subject at a time. The institution created an ideal environment for students and I enjoyed every second of my year there.

Let’s talk about March 2020. Schools in Colombia were closed practically overnight, which must have been very tough for you as a coordinator. How did you deal with the sudden switch to online teaching at Idiomas EAFIT?

The most important part was that we worked as a team and made sure that all the teachers received sufficient training to start teaching online. We cancelled classes for an entire week to get ready for delivering lessons through Teams. It was very tough for me because I worked day and night and kept communicating with our teachers and students, so by the time we got to Semana Santa in the middle of April, I was exhausted and needed that one-week break. We got the hang of things a few weeks later, which allowed us to start experimenting with new applications. It’s been a very interesting process because it forced us to make quick progress in online education.

I know that you’re back to in-person teaching at EAFIT. How has it been?

Our classrooms were designed for small groups, so we can have only a limited number of students in them due to the current restrictions. I have to say that it’s great to see our students back on campus. The university also acquired amazing 360-degree cameras and high-quality microphones, which gives us the option to run hybrid courses as well. Of course, working with two groups of students at the same time isn’t easy, so this is another challenge we have to deal with. In addition to that, we continue offering fully-online courses.

Do you think that some students may prefer to attend online courses even when the pandemic is over?

I think so. My prediction is that the working professionals are going to be interested in continuing to study online. Commuting to our early morning and evening classes can be time-consuming, so I imagine that those courses will stay online. On the other hand, the undergraduate students at our university will most likely prefer to learn in the physical classrooms.

One of your many responsibilities is observing teachers and giving them feedback. Would you like to share some tips for teacher trainers who are involved in lesson observation?

I’ve learned throughout the years that the more you help to lower the teachers’ anxiety, the better. I usually announce the observation beforehand and I’m also open to negotiating the date of the observed lesson. The teachers generally give me a lesson plan, but I don’t require them to follow it to the letter. I believe that you need to be able to adapt your lesson based on the students’ needs. The teachers need to show that they can be flexible.

I often think of my role as an observer. My presence in the classroom influences what happens in the lesson because some students may think that I’m there to observe them. Sitting in the corner and taking notes may not always be the best option, so I prefer to write my thoughts down at the end of the lesson. I also think it’s a good idea to break the routine from time to time and do things differently to make the teacher feel more comfortable. Sometimes I enjoy the lessons so much that it’s hard for me not to participate!

In addition, my years of experience have taught me to be more understanding. I know that I’m looking at just one snapshot, so I can’t generalise and think that’s what happens every day in that particular teacher’s classroom. I believe that it’s very important to listen to the teacher during our post-observation meeting to find out what their perspective is. When we identify something that needs to be improved, the teacher needs to come up with a plan with concrete actions that should be implemented into their teaching practice. I think the teachers need to be involved in the process rather than just being told what to do.

You are also involved in testing and curriculum development. What are the biggest challenges in these areas?

Some Colombian institutions claim to adhere to the communicative approach, but their tests are very traditional. That type of assessment is decontextualised and doesn’t really integrate skills, so at EAFIT we decided to move away from it. We don’t give our students paper-based summative tests, but our assessment is more ongoing and involves a variety of activities. There is a project at the end of each unit, and we aim to make our students think beyond English and focus on ideas such as sustainable development, protecting the environment, and helping the community.

Have you had any experience with native speakerism? I think that Colombia is one of the countries where this issue is very common.

This is an issue especially when it comes to the corporate courses because those students often ask for native English speakers. It makes me upset because we are a team of qualified, hard-working professionals who studied hard to become language teachers. I find it really strange that some companies would rather hire someone with no training in language teaching at all. Sadly, sometimes it’s just a matter of having a gringo name. Some students don’t want to be taught by someone born and raised in the USA just because their name doesn’t sound foreign.

We can certainly see some situations that make no sense at all. Is there any way we can change people’s attitude?

Like any other idea that’s embedded in the culture, it won’t change overnight. It would help if people who have hired foreigners with no training shared their experience and compared it to being taught by a qualified teacher. I hope the idea that training is more important than the teacher’s passport spreads through word of mouth. We try to lead by example, so our language centre has a well-defined hiring process and we are very cautious about hiring backpacker teachers who just need a visa. Our teachers are qualified professionals who are proficient in the language they teach, and they also receive relevant in-service training. I believe that emphasising the importance of teaching qualifications and training is the best way to approach this issue.

► If you enjoyed this interview, I recommend that you read More Than a Gap Year Adventure, a collaborative book aimed at those who wish to have a long-term career in our profession.

My next interviewee is a Delta-qualified teacher who moved into TEFL from another career. We talked about differences between private academies and universities, teaching other subjects, his own professional development journey, and other topics related to teaching English in Colombia.

Martin Higgins is an English teacher from the UK. He obtained a BA in International Studies in 2009 and an MSc in European Social Policy a year later. Before moving to Colombia, Martin was employed by Cambridge Assessment in various non-teaching roles. He also worked as a news reporter writing about Colombian politics. Martin started teaching English in Bogotá after taking a CELTA course in 2013, and he has been working at Universidad Externado de Colombia since January 2017. He successfully completed his Delta in 2020.

Martin Higgins: The best institutions are in Bogotá

Let’s start with your work before becoming a teacher. Could you briefly describe how you landed a job at Cambridge Assessment and what your responsibilities were?

I’m from Cambridge originally and had worked for Cambridge Assessment in various roles as a temp during the holidays when I was at university. When I graduated from university, jobs were pretty scarce due to the recession, and I wanted to work in politics, which turned out to be a very difficult sector to work in when you have no experience, no contacts, and no ability to work in unpaid internships for a couple of years.

By fortune, a vacancy came up in the Public Affairs department at Cambridge Assessment where I was temping at the time, and I got the role. At first I did the admin for the events team, but after 6 months I was promoted to the Unit Coordinator and got involved in more things related to my desired career path at the time. My boss was really good to me and supported me with my development, but in time I realised that working in politics wasn’t for me, so I decided to move to Colombia with my partner, who is from here, and to take up teaching.

In your role as a reporter, you dealt with topics such as illegal mining, same-sex marriage, and workers’ rights in Colombia. What was your experience like?

It wasn’t as interesting as it might sound. I was living in the UK at the time and wrote articles in the evenings for a mate who was running the Colombia Politics website. It was essentially churnalism, that is regurgitating news into English from other websites.

What prompted you to make a move into teaching?

Necessity, really. As I mentioned, I moved to Colombia with my partner and I didn’t speak any Spanish at the time, so this was the obvious career move. My father worked in EFL for many years and having worked for Cambridge Assessment, I was aware that the CELTA was the best way to start. After a few months working as a teacher, I realised that it was an enjoyable profession, and luckily I’ve been able to secure some decent roles here in Bogotá over the years.

You did your CELTA at International House Bogotá eight years ago. Looking back, did you feel ready for your first teaching job after taking the course?

I’m not sure anyone is ready after the CELTA, but you’ve got to start somewhere. I started off working with very small groups, so that was an easy way in before teaching large groups in my first university role.

What are the main differences between teaching at private academies and universities in Colombia?

The money and the hours. Working in private academies in Bogotá is pretty poorly paid, and the class times are usually first thing in the morning or in the evening. Not fun, but a rite of passage you have to go through I guess when you have no experience and cannot get a job at a university or bilingual school.

You have also taught subjects such as Diplomacy and International Relations Theory. How does that compare to teaching English?

It’s not entirely different. Most of what you learn in terms of lesson planning and classroom management can be transferred across to teaching other subjects. The key difference with teaching those courses was that I would have to spend a lot more time preparing for the classes by reading.

Have your degrees and experience in non-teaching jobs helped you in any way in your work as an English teacher?

Of course. Working at Cambridge Assessment certainly helped me organise my time better, which is an essential skill for teachers. Plus there are all the admin skills I developed that make life so much easier when you’re a teacher.

You spent four years working as an IELTS speaking examiner. Would you recommend this role to other teachers?

Absolutely. It gives you much more confidence in evaluating students’ level, and it’s a really good thing to have on the CV.

Some schools and universities in Colombia are finally returning to in-person education. How would you describe your experience working during the pandemic?

We are still teaching completely online. I can’t say I’ve particularly enjoyed teaching during the pandemic. Virtual teaching is something that can work, but only if the students choose it. The current situation has been imposed on our students and many of them don’t particularly enjoy it and would much prefer to be back in the classroom, as would I. Here’s hoping next year will see that possible.

Let’s hope so! It would be great to finally see the students in person. By the way, where did you do your Delta? Do you think that it has helped you in your teaching career?

I did it through Bell and their distance programme. I chose that school as I had worked there as a teacher before and I really like the institution. I was fortunate enough to find a really helpful tutor here in Colombia to assist me through Module Two, which was by far the most useful in my development as a teacher. After doing that, I really feel confident about entering any classroom in any environment and being able to teach a principled and interesting lesson.

I remember that you weren’t impressed by the structure of Module Three. If you could make some changes to this module, what would you do?

I would change the word count. It’s far too short and it hinders your ability to really explore the course design element properly, so you end up just trying to tick the boxes that the assessment criteria require, which leaves very little room for creativity.

Do you have any further plans for post-Delta development?

I would like to find some extra work in materials and course design in the long term, perhaps for a publisher. That’s a long term plan and will require more development, but I’m not sure if I’ll do any formal qualifications in the short term.

You have spent many years in Bogotá, so I imagine that you enjoy living there. Have you ever considered looking for a job in another city?

I’m very happy at the Externado and wouldn’t want to work anywhere else in Colombia – Bogotá is where my partner’s family live and the best institutions to work in are here. Who knows what the future holds, though.

► If you enjoyed this interview, I recommend that you read More Than a Gap Year Adventure, a collaborative book aimed at those who wish to have a long-term career in our profession.