The Development of Two Units for Basic Training and Resources for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages : “Developing a Successful Teaching Personality” and “Managing Classes of English Language Learners”

The Development of Two Units for Basic Training and Resources for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages: “Developing a Successful Teaching Personality” and “Managing Classes of English Language Learners” Department of Linguistics and English Language Master of Art A team of graduate students from Brigham Young University under the supervision of the main author, Dr. Henrichsen, collaborated on creating a book as well as a website, Basic Training and Resources for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (BTR-TESOL). The entire project consists of ten main sections with nearly fifty units addressing topics that novice teachers should know before teaching English to non-native speakers. The BTR-TESOL project answers the need for material for untrained novice teachers that will help them to be better prepared in a very minimalistic way to face the challenges and responsibilities that teaching of English as a second language (ESL) brings. This master’s project describes the creation of two units of section three, “Fundamental Teaching Skills”, titled “Developing a Successful Teaching Personality” and “Managing Classes of English Language Learners.” The first unit, “Developing a Successful Teaching Personality”, educates novice teachers about the importance of nine major characteristics of a good teaching personality that were compiled by the author of this unit after extensive research of teachers’ and students’ attitudes. Moreover, the unit explains how each characteristic contributes to the overall challenge of being a successful teacher. In the second unit, “Managing Classes of English Language Learners”, novice teachers are introduced to basic classroom management issues, possible reasons behind students’ behavior, and tips on how to solve common classroom management issues. Both units include a short introduction to the content, an opening scenario, a video segment related to the theme of each unit as well as reflection questions, objectives, explanatory text, and a section that directs readers to places they can go to learn more about the subject.