Last month I introduced a new section of interviews to present you some of
the possible career paths related to English. As my first guest, we listened to
Eva, an experienced university professor of English applied linguistics from
Hungary. She shared her appreciation, along with some obstacles, of a career in
the academia. This time I thought of confronting her views with a novice
teacher, who comes from a different environment and faces different career
prospects. Let us see how uniform or unique their experiences are in the
context of college education.
Hello, Enrico. Could you tell us where you work and for how long you have
been there?
Hello, Anna. I am a PhD
student at a university in the UK (the specific institution was hidden by the editor), where I started to work on my
research project in January 2012 in the Department of Linguistics and English Language. Last
autumn I worked as a seminar tutor for the grammar part of a module on English Sounds
and Structures. About 80 students had to attend a weekly lecture given by the
course convenor, and then they were divided into four groups. I took care of
two groups, while a colleague ran the other two. Most of these students are
2nd-year undergraduates majoring in either Linguistics or English Language, and
the vast majority of them are native speakers of English.
As I
understand, these are your first teaching experiences but not your only experience
of what it means to be part of higher education. Where do you come from?
I come from Italy, where I studied Intercultural
Communication at the University of G... and Theoretical and Applied
Linguistics at the University of P... In the first few months of my PhD, I’ve
also been working as a research assistant in both the Department of Linguistics
and English Language and the Department of History.
I see. What do you feel to be the main
differences between the higher education system of Italy and the UK?
Well, we are speaking about two totally different systems. First of all,
the academic environment in the UK is much more informal. Here you would
address professors by their first names, whereas in Italy I have never seen
anything like that. Another important difference is that courses in Italy are
usually structured in series of frontal lessons and and students are assessed
on the basis of final exams, whereas here courses are fragmented into lectures
and seminars, and students are also required to sit tests, take part in group
presentations and write essays, and each of these activities will be taken into
consideration for their final mark (e.g. in our course a 2,000-word long essay
usually counts for the 10%). At a more general level, British universities tend
to be more research-oriented than Italian ones.
How do you like to be on the other side of the
podium, and specifically at a university?
Well, it feels like a big
responsibility, but it was something I have always found fascinating. Indeed,
since my first days as an undergrad, teaching at a university has always been a
dream for me. Therefore, I took the challenge with a lot of enthusiasm,
although it was a big source of stress, since I was an absolute beginner in
teaching.
Well, we all start like that. :-) What do you feel to be the main
challenges for you as a
novice teacher?
Well, I think university
teaching poses several challenges. One of them is that you have to gain your
students’ trust, and it’s not easy because you don’t have the chance to meet
them very often. Nevertheless, it’s something you need to do, because initially
(at least in the UK) most of them tend to keep silent and avoid asking
questions, even though when you insist a bit you will probably find out that there
are topics they have not fully understood. The lack of time is also a problem
for the teaching activity itself, because you have to help students to find
their way through paths which are often full of traps even for scholars, as in
the case of grammar. Once you manage to make them feel you are there to help
rather than judge them, then you have to help them find a reason to come to
your seminars, along with the fact that it’s mandatory. You know, unlike in
many other countries (for instance, those with a classical cultural background)
where the grammar of the native language is taught since the first years of
primary school, in the UK undergraduate students have very little or no
background in grammar, so they approach it with a sort of fear of the unknown.
It is up to you to overcome this problem, and show them that grammar is not so nasty
after all, that it is not an abstract object so detached from everyday life,
and you have to help them develop the confidence that they can succeed in this
subject.
Of course, teaching English grammar to native speakers, by a
non-native speaker, can also be an additional source of pressure, since it is a
quite odd position.
Indeed. To connect your experiences to those of our previous guest, can you relate to what Eva described about the situation in Hungary? Is it
similar in Italy and/or the UK?
I think that Eva described a
situation which is quite similar to what you can observe in the UK, indeed.
Finally, what do you think a good university instructor is like? Who would you
recommend a career as a university teacher for?
Well, I think a good instructor is, first of all, somebody
who is empathetic and patient with their students, and who takes the bother to
try and look at course materials with a student's eye, in order to figure out
the most likely sources of problems for them. Then, I think it is important to
have a nice and humble attitude. Instructors have to be available for
clarifications and open to students' ideas. Ideally, students should live
lectures/seminars/workshops as opportunities to delve into the topics of their
courses and dissipate their doubts in a 'safe' (i.e. not face-threatening)
environment. Indeed, apart from the more strictly 'institutional' aspects of
the teaching process, I think the role of the instructor is that of a tutor,
who provides students with the advice to find their own way to approach the
subject. And I think a good instructor is somebody who never forgets that the
teaching process doesn't go in one direction only: just as they have something
to teach their students, students will have something to teach them as well. I would recommend a career as a university
teacher to somebody who 1) is passionately fond of their research field; 2)
likes being surrounded by (especially young) people; 3) is understanding and
patient.
Nicely put. Thank
you, grazie mille.
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