Spotlight on CETC Members
Bill Acton, william.acton@twu.ca, Langley, British Columbia, Canada
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. How are you connected with the world of TESOL?
I grew up in a small farming community in Michigan. After almost completing my BA degree at Central Michigan University in music, I joined the U.S. Air Force and then spent 3 years in Germany as a Russian interpreter. While there, in about 1966, I did my first tutoring in English pronunciation and have been doing L2 pronunciation work ever since. I am currently dean of graduate studies and director of the MATESOL at Trinity Western University, where I have worked for 5 years.
2. What do you especially appreciate about TESOL and/or CETC?
From the beginning, TESOL has been an organization of teachers, for teachers. In the early years, it may have appeared at times as if theory were running “the asylum”; true, but even then, few of the more persuasive voices were not first of all classroom teachers. Coming to a TESOL convention was still always your best barometer as to where the field was and where it was headed. (After being in the field for about 35 years now, and having attended at least 24 conventions, I tend to see a lot of friendly faces there every year!) But when I come to a TESOL convention now, my truest connection is with my colleagues in CETC. There are, of course, many reasons for that, but one of the most striking changes in me (and I think in Christians in TESOL in general) has been learning how to better see our profession through an integrated, Christian worldview.
3. Is there a relevant joy or challenge you experience that you could share with CETC Newsletter readers?
The great joy and challenge, working in a (relatively new) Christian TESOL teacher-training program, is helping graduate students locate themselves in the field today, so that they are equally comfortable and conversant in communicating both faith and theory. Just recently we have begun to see some of our Christian graduates quickly distinguishing themselves in the field. To paraphrase a well-known quote from John Wooden, former basketball coach at UCLA (“I can train most anybody to play basketball, but I can’t teach them how to be 7-feet tall”), we can train most anybody to teach ESL well, but we can’t teach him or her how to be a great teacher. The Lord continues to send us extraordinary material to work with.
4. What is your favorite Bible verse, and why?
That is a difficult question. My “favorite” is so often one of the verses from the morning’s Bible study. This morning, in fact, I came upon one in 2 Samuel: “For by thee I have run through a troop, by my God have I leaped over a wall!” As a long-time distance runner that verse spoke to me, of course, as I’m sure you can imagine. But it also resonated with me as a wonderful reminder that, because as believers we will always be “standing out” in our field, we must also always be overcomers in the best sense.
5. Is there a book, article, or individual related to TESOL that has influenced you and/or your teaching? If so, could you explain how?
My initial “connection” to TESOL came about in 1971 when I was taking an undergraduate methods course at Michigan State University. One of the textbooks that invited me in persuasively, Adapting and Writing Language Lessons, was written by some guy named Earl Stevick. The next set of milestones for me was being trained by Shigeo Imamura, Alexander Guiora, and Joan Morley in the 70s, during my MA and PhD work. The first taught me how to do great pattern practice and understand students; the second, that accent is based in identity; the third, that the path to intelligible pronunciation must always begin with the body. Earl’s book eventually led me to the man, who became my model of a Christian educator and intellectual.
Brad Baurain, bbaurain@wheatonalumni.org, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. How are you connected with the world of TESOL?
A Wheaton professor of English, Wayne Martindale, first pointed me in the direction of an opportunity to teach English in China with a Christian organization. I was soon hooked. For about 15 years, I have taught literature and ESL, but mostly ESL, at the college level in China, Vietnam, and the United States (Chicago). This fall, I’ve (finally?) returned to school and begun to work on a PhD in education/ESL at the University of Nebraska. (Great program and faculty; come join us!) My wife, Julia, is also an ESL teacher, though these days she works in the home with our three young children, Kristen, Caroline, and Isaiah. Being her husband and their father is more important to me than teaching, much as I love that.
2. What do you especially appreciate about TESOL and/or CETC?
What I appreciate most about TESOL—and this is hardly original—are the multiple opportunities for professional development. When it comes to the CETC, I continue to benefit from the example and mentoring of the senior scholars and leaders in the group, and from the fellowship and networking that has grown over the years. True academic fellowship is not to be underestimated!
3. Is there a relevant joy or challenge you experience that you could share with CETC Newsletter readers?
The challenge for me these days (hopefully one day it will be a joy) is that of becoming a Christian scholar-teacher (as in George Marsden’s The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship and other books, which I’ve been reading). For a new but older PhD student at a state university, the pressure to kowtow to alternative ideologies, epistemologies, and moral values is tremendous. And indeed, I do want to be humble and teachable, but also to go about my learning and writing (there’s a lot of it in grad school!) in a way that is true to the core distinctives of my Christian faith. This is something I’m puzzling out on a daily basis.
4. What is your favorite Bible verse, and why?
I’m not one of those people with a “life verse,” so my favorite verses keep changing. These days it is Hebrews 12:1-3. Having recently returned to grad school with a family of five, I find the Christian race or pilgrimage particularly arduous these days, and the need to fix my eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, desperately necessary. I am comforted that the race is “marked out for us” by God, and that the energy for running comes from him (Col. 1:29).
5. Is there a book, article, or individual related to TESOL that has influenced you and/or your teaching? If so, could you explain how?
Yes, far too many to mention, but to single out one, Bill Johnston’s Values in English Language Teaching. While reading it, I thought to myself for the first time, “Perhaps I would be interested in doing a PhD in TESOL after all, if I could focus on these sorts of issues.” Though we have many differences in beliefs, I continue to agree with him concerning the essential relationality at the heart of teaching and learning and the moral choices woven moment by moment into the fabric of every classroom.
Jan Edwards Dormer, jan.dormer@gmail.com, Indonesia (soon in Winchester, Indiana, for an upcoming 2-year furlough)
1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. How are you connected with the world of TESOL?
I graduated with an MA in TESOL in 1986, and subsequently taught ESL at the college/university level in Ontario for 8 years. In 1995 my husband and I moved to Indonesia with our two young daughters, which was the beginning of our overseas ministry career. In the ensuing years I developed both elementary and high school ESL programs for an international school in Indonesia, spent 5 years developing an English school in Brazil, then returned to Indonesia in 2004, at which time I was engaged in research for my EdD in teacher development at the University of Toronto. I currently direct a master of education program in Indonesia.
2. What do you especially appreciate about TESOL and/or CETC?
Being a member of TESOL has helped me to develop as a professional. I appreciate all the resources that it provides, such as a recent webcast on “English As a Global Medium of Instruction.” CETC has helped me to connect my professional life with my life of Christian service in a concrete and visible way. The caucus was still young when I joined, and I’ve seen it try to chart a path through both theological issues and political correctness in our profession. Though in many ways I think we are still trying to “find our way,” especially as we try to figure out what we will become when we are no longer a caucus, I have been proud of the paths that have been taken. The positive examples of others in this caucus have helped me to chart my own course of Christian professionalism in TESOL.
3. Is there a relevant joy or challenge you experience that you could share with CETC Newsletter readers?
The challenges of TESOL in Indonesia are certainly great, but the joys are equally great. The students in our MEd program are mostly Indonesian teachers teaching in “bilingual schools”—they teach content in K-12 schools through the medium of English. Most of these teachers have degrees in other areas, such as engineering or computer science, and most have no background in either general education or teaching English as a foreign language. Added to this is the struggle faced by Christians here as a minority. Talk about a challenge! But those whose needs are greatest are also those most appreciative when their needs are met. A teacher recently closed an e-mail by saying, “Jan, thank you for reading this and listen my worry, thank you for praying, thank you for tutoring me not only in grammar, but in my faith. I know that I am in the right path to learn more about Him and education under your guidance.” I feel very honored that God has allowed me to meet some of these needs.
4. What is your favorite Bible verse, and why?
Psalm 51:12: “Restore to me the joy of my salvation, and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.” In my life and work I often feel as if I need restored joy and an increased “willing spirit” to go on. I have kept this verse on my fridge throughout my overseas ministry career, and it has led me back to my Source of joy in many difficult circumstances!
5. Is there a book, article, or individual related to TESOL that has influenced you and/or your teaching? If so, could you explain how?
My doctoral research was on nonnative/native English-speaking teacher collaboration in Brazil and Indonesia, and I would say that books and articles on this topic, including Non-Native Educators in English Language Teaching, edited by George Braine, and Learning and Teaching From Experience, edited by Lia Kamhi-Stein (who was the external advisor for my dissertation) have been most influential in my recent thinking. They helped me to grapple with these issues as a native English-speaking teacher, and I continue to explore this topic, especially in contexts like Indonesia, where nonnative English-speaking teachers often do not fit the profiles put forward in much of the current literature.
