Mentorship Manual for interns in the MA PROGRAM in APPLIED LINGUISTICS [antikvár]

Introduction TESL Internship (TSL 6945) At the English Language Institute at the University of South Florida, graduate students benefit from the decision made in 1978 to require those who are to successfully complete the Master's degree in Applied Linguistics to have a full and authentic practice teaching experience prior to graduation. Specifically, students were to serve a two-semester teaching internship, assuming full responsibility each semester for a single 5-hour-per-week class, planning and delivering instruction, evaluating students' achievement. and tending to a rangé of administrative responsibilities including faculty meetings, attendance reports, mid-term progress evaluations, and MTELP and TOEFL proctoring. While this bold requirement set the Applied Linguistics MA program apart from most others around the country, the attendant heavy responsibilities left interns little time or energy for the kind of deep reflection so vitai to a beginning teacher's growth. Thus, in Spring 2002 the requirement was modifíed; the first semester became the Practicum Internship designed to allow students many more hours of observation, reflection, discussion, experimentation, and exploration. The second semester remained essentially the same, however, as a Teaching Internship. Practicum Internship Normally first semester interns have little or no prior teaching experience, at least not in a university-based intensive English program (IEP). For this reason, they are not given primary responsibility for an ELI class, but instead are assigned an ELI mentor whose class is used as the crucible for practice and reflection. In this way, the Practicum Internship allows interns to gradually integrate themselves into the ELI in generál and the classroom in particular through a series of observations, feedback sessions, micro-teaching opportunities, and reflective exercises. As interns become more familiar with IEP students, the ELI curriculum, and the rules and procedures of the Institute, they are given more responsibility for teaching longer lessons and designing assessment instruments. The extent of the interns' teaching responsibilities depends uniquely on their abilities, comfort level in the classroom, and the assessment by the mentor. Practicum Interns are not paid nor do they receive a tuition waiver. Moreover. they may not advance to the Teaching Internship unless they have completed all assignments stated in their Practicum Internship Contract and demonstrate satisfactory teaching performance. Teaching Internship The contract for second-semester students, or Teaching Interns, acknowledges the growth that has typically occurred in the previous semester and the subsequent need for less guidance and more independence. In the Teaching Internship, interns take full responsibility for a class from constructing a syllabus to delivering the content to assessing student outcomes. Interns may continue to conduct observations of their assigned mentor or other ELI teachers according to