Additional Paper


You may wish in studying this dialogue to refer to these two items :

1) an excerpt from the advertisement for the position of Teaching Assistant in an English Language Teaching Department for which Sally is an applicant and in which the interviewer, Mrs. Saunders, is employed.

2) Part of Sally's letter of application .

1) Teaching Assistant : English Language Teaching Department (ref.no.) (Closing date )

Applicants should have a good University degree in a relevant field , preferably in English Language and/or Literature . (Those graduating this year may apply) The appointee will assist in running the Independent Study Unit , a multi-media self-access language learning facility in the process of being developed by staff of the Department . The appointee may be required to work in the evenings and on Saturdays. Appointment will be made on contract for one year in the first instance, and may be renewed for another year, subject to mutual agreement . The appointee is expected to assume duty in August 1996

2) My primary interest in the post relates to an MA in TESL course I'm enrolled in . Presently I'm researching the area of self-access/directed language learning, and am hoping to lay a solid foundation for my thesis in this area. I believe that having the opportunity to be involved in the Independent Study Unit , working directly with the students there , would provide valuable experience related to my study course. In turn, my study efforts and related involvement in the ISU, could enhance and benefit its services and activities .

As shown in my resume, much of my experience in ELT has been with Form 6 age to adult learners, dealing with a wide range of language learning needs. Part of my practical teaching done within the British Council RSA Certificate course involved personalized language counselling with students enrolled in these special classes. This resulted in helping them design their own personalized language improvement plan Also not mentioned in my resume is my present experience of self-access learning. I'm working in an English Centre for the summer programme it is conducting . This involves working with small groups of students in analysing their language learning needs , guiding them is in setting specific objectives for themselves ,helping them to select materials and tasks to meet their objectives ,working with them through these objectives, and taking part in the assessment process.