Cover letter
Dear Prospective Employer,
I would first like to thank you for your interest and time spent visiting my performance portfolio. I am a graduate student at Ohio University and will be graduating in May 2015. Upon graduation, I will have received my Master’s of Arts in Applied Linguistics and Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certificate.
My great interest and active practical experience in the English language teaching have begun since my Bachelor’s degree from State University of Malang, Indonesia, in 2005. During the time spent in the University, I volunteered as an English teacher for orphans in the Humanitarian Network of East Java. It was something I greatly enjoyed, as I was able to give contributions to the community through the language teaching as well as was able to work closely with others. I also worked as an English teacher in one of the private courses in which most of the students were planning to study overseas. That working experience greatly opened my understanding that students could only fully master a language by having both linguistics and social competence. Therefore, I was also trying to incorporate the culture into the language learning itself. In addition, in 2011, I got a great chance to be an assistant lecturer in my former University, teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in various disciplines. All of those experiences are of great significance for my professional work as an English teacher.
My teaching opportunities at Ohio University began when I took LING 4920, a requirement course for my Master’s as well as for the TEFL certificate. As a student in this course, I became a practicum teacher for the English for All (EFA) program. I was responsible for teaching a group of ESL adults through the group teaching, with two other classmates, and through the individual teaching. The program was held over the course of the semester, or 14 weeks. It was a very great experience of teaching through a formal classroom style, producing materials, and creating lesson plans.
The group I was assigned to in EFA was the beginner level. Teaching beginner level was considered to be the most challenging one since we were expected to be able to teach English to students who had little or no knowledge of English at all.
One of the benefitting opportunities that I got through EFA was the opportunity to learn different teaching styles or strategies from other teachers through group teaching or teaching observations. I was being exposed to various interactive materials, teaching approaches, and teaching methods, all of which contributed to the improvement of my own language teaching. I also learned how to work collaboratively from the group teaching activity-something I had never experienced before. That allowed me to gain valuable time management skills in the classroom and learn how to balance the lesson and materials among individual teacher. Another thing that I benefitted from the practicum was the ability to make lesson plans and materials which were suitable for the level of the students. Throughout the course, beside using the traditional grammar teaching method, I also used the communicative approach, eliciting more production from the students. I did not want to burden the students with a pile of grammar rules and vocabulary without them really using those rules and vocabulary in a real and communicative context. I also always made sure to explain any new concept to the students as clearly and as simple as possible. Making the beginner students understand even a little was more important than burdening them with a lot of materials they themselves could not even bear or remember.
Although EFA introduced me into the many amazing aspects of English language teaching, I was also faced with challenging aspects. Yet, those challenges were of great importance for my improvement as an English teacher. In my class, I encountered two types of students, true beginners and false beginners. Handling this issue, I implemented pair or small group works in my class in which the students could work and assist each other. I also made myself available to help my students individually when they faced some difficulty. Another challenge I faced was getting familiarized with the timing and lesson plans. Sometimes, I put too much materials in my lesson plan and did not have enough time to cover all. Each time I faced this problem, I always made sure I addressed it in my following lesson plan and I tried to make a better plan for the next one.
In overall, the teaching practicum afforded me many opportunities to grow personally, academically, and professionally. I hope with my passion in language teaching, I will be able to continue growing and learning and, more importantly, connect myself with the students and help them develop their interest and enthusiasm in language learning.
Thank you,
Yustika Sari
