Suarez 1

Valeria Suarez
Olivia Rines
UWRT 1101 002
18 Feb 2015
Micro Ethnography

Commented [ag1]: Add a thesis statement to the title, or

at least add what the ME is about to cover.

Nowadays, English has become a really extended and universal language, even thought
is not the most spoken one around the world. However, a lot of people from every corner of the
world are deciding to learn English because of the advantage that means to have two or more

Commented [ag2]: Is there a way for you to back this up

with fact or a stat?

languages in this modern world. I think that is admirable that people from any age are deciding to
learn another language and expand their horizons. But, to be honest, I think that the most admirable
thing of all this situation, is labor of those who dedicate their lives to teach a language to people
that can have absolutely none knowledge on it. I believe that the only way to do that is to be
passionate about education and about providing others with the knowledge that you already have.
For this reason, I decided to study teachers of English as a second language (ESL).

Commented [ag3]: At some point ad a thesis to either

the first or second paragraph explaining why you even did
this ME.

For my micro-ethnography, I selected a small group of this large discourse community. My

observation group is formed by the teachers at the English Language Training Institute (ELTI) of
the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, United States. This project will be based on the six
categories that Swales describes on The Concept of Discourse Community to make it
understandable for everyone that is not familiarized with this kind of teaching, because it is actually
different to teach a language to people who doesnt know anything about it than teaching any
content to people who shares the same language.

Commented [ag4]: I would suggest including what those

six categories are so that the uninformed reader will know
what to expect later

Suarez 2
Common teaching goals
Based on my observations, the teachers that are part of the ELTI community want to help
the students to learn English, even if they are looking to use the language for different purposes.
In the time I spent doing this research, I had the opportunity to interview two of the teachers that
work for this program. Stephanie Wallace, teacher and coordinator of the level six on ELTI,

Commented [ag5]: What levels? Is there a max number

of level and what does each level reflect.

explained to me that the main goal she believes that all the teachers usually have in common is to
help students to highly improve their English and become proficient on it and to provide them with
knowledge about the educational institutions in America. I believe that these professors usually go
farther than just teach about educational topics, but also about the American lifestyle and culture.

Commented [ag6]: Is there a common posted goal for all

to see from the ELTI department?

Communication is the key

While working with such a large community, communications is such a fundamental thing
that I cant be left aside. The English Language Training Institute is considered one solid
community, but I has a different organization from inside. Ill present them in three categories:
Directive staff, Teachers and coordinators and the students. To being able to have a good
communication system between this three parts of the community there are several methods that
can be used and result in a success. The most common one is the email. Every individual that is
part of the community has a reachable email where it will be possible to contact them, which turns
this into the first communication line between anyone in the community. In addition, telephone is
commonly used among community members that belong to the directive staff and teachers,
because is not used to contact students unless is a special situation.
In the main office of ELTI theres a mailbox for each one of the twenty-seven teachers that
is part of the institute. This is a place to communicate easily between anyone that wants to reach

Commented [ag7]: I see where youre going with this,

but I dont think you presented them as much as you could
have. Perhaps change this a little to make it more
understandable.

Suarez 3
the teachers, is simple but efficient. Students can bring homework and place it there or the staff
members can give any information needed to the teachers through these mail boxes.
Opinions count
To manage the program, there are mechanisms to receive feedback from the three parts of
the community. The teachers have coordinator for each level, to keep the information on track
between the directive staff and them. Also, there are student evaluations that are provided to have
record of how the teachers are directing their classes and the opinion of the students about each
course.
On midterms, the teachers have meetings to evaluate the progress of their students. In some
particular cases, they might even consider promoting students that show excellent development in
their level and that are able to manage the pressure of the next level for the rest of the semesters.

Commented [ag8]: Does the promotion effect the class

they are in now or does it only effect the next semester?

Meetings are common in among the members of the institute for a variety of circumstances, which
makes easier to provide information and receive feedback.
Genres for English teachers?
All these communications skills and teaching ways are directly associated with the ELTI
community. In the same way, they have genres in common that are used every day in class. Emails,
class schedules, Power Point presentations, Moodle, books and in class activities are some of the
genres that all the parts of the community use, but mostly teachers and students in their classrooms
on an everyday basis.
However, most of these genres have their own variations depending on the class, the level,
the teacher and the student. They can be considered genres because of the common use that they

Commented [ag9]: What do you mean? I dont know

what variations youre referring to.

Suarez 4
receive in the institute. Moodle is the special tool inside of all these genres, because is widely used
to provide any kind of information, assignments, grades or any important announcement.

Commented [ag10]: Make sure to define this at some

point so other people know its a student assignment
website

What to know if you teach

Teachers need to have a really extended knowledge of the content they are teaching. As a
consequence, ESL teachers need to possess knowledge about everything they can. In this point, I
mean that they know everything they need grammatically and about their class goals, but they also
need to know a lot about their own culture. Considering my observations, teaching a second
language means that the students can have questions about anything related to the country or the
new culture they are living in. Education cant be limited by a frame where the students are only
allowed to ask about a large variety of topics.

Commented [ag11]: Do they devote time to teaching

culture, or is it a question only basis?

How to qualify
As I interviewed Ms. Stephanie, she explained a little about the requirements that people
who want to be part of this community of teachers. To qualify, they must have at least a masters
degree in a major thats related to linguistics or another field that could be related to language.
Also, two years of experience teaching ESL are considerably important for the institute. Its not
necessary but a good advantage if they have had a living abroad experience. Casey Shirey, teacher
in the ELTI and my second interviewed, explained to me how good is to have a living abroad
experience as a ESL teacher because it helps you to understand better the situation that your own
students might be living at some point in the semester.
Anyone who is a teacher in this community is free to leave at any time they decide,
following the proper legal ways but they are not restricted to stay for a specific time. Its not
common for teachers to leave in the middle of the semester, but if it was necessary, is possible.

Commented [ag12]: Ad some kind of transition here, it

just changed subjects fast.
Commented [ag13]: What proper legal ways would they
have to follow?

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ESL teachers are a really interesting community to observe because they have the ability
to provide class content to their students and at the same time discuss cultural related topics. As
both Casey and Stephanie told me, teachers never stop learning from their students, and in this
particular case I can see why. These teachers love education and are ready to find any way they
can to teach their students, knowing that sometimes it can be harder than others, they still taking
the risk. It is an admirable labor and while I observed this community I realized that everyday
these teachers seem to have more passion for their work.
Overall I think you definitely put a lot of information out in your project. Before your
second draft there are several grammatical issues to be addressed that way the paper can flow a
little easier, but overall it flowed well. Concentrate on finding the typos that Microsoft Word will
not be able to find for you, it seems that a few times you just placed a synonym accidently in a few
places. Spend a little more time building up key parts of different arguments or points that way
people that dont attend UNCC and dont know different parts of systems can understand what
you are doing, ie levels of students and teaching devices. I would also suggest that you make sure
to point out if the community is meeting Swales requirements for a discourse community. The
internal structure of your essay seems strong however, and I would not adjust it much. I believe
you also made good use of your information from your research, however make sure not to assume
people already know all about Swales like I said before. I think you will need minimal editing in
order to have this paper ready for 2nd draft. Very informative paper overall.

Commented [ag14]: Does the community meet the

Swales community requirements?

Suarez 6

Appendix A
Reading & Writing, Level 6: Monday - March 9th, 2015 ( 9:30am 10:25am )

Teacher sitting in a table close to the students, not in the desk

7 students in the class

Students talking about different topics

Stephanie closed the door

Theres music in the back round

They were in 10min break form the class

Stephanie gives tips for the test and explains general things about it

Homework assigned for reading

Grammar review for the test

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Student came late from the break

Stephanie is really expressive with the students

She explains the topic with examples related to the students

She comments news while explaining

The group gets out of topic for a minute or two about people owning lions and cheetahs in
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait

Theres no music anymore

Most of the students are constantly participating

The examples round is long about the same topic

They are discussing possible new policies with the program

Girls sit together and boys sit together

The students and Stephanie are preparing for a meeting on Thursday, they are selecting a
speaker

They are volunteering other people

The students are avoiding it

The class is not full

They are selecting the person by numbers

A guy who says that doesnt want to be the speaker got selected

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The students proposed say hi all together instead of one

They got back on track to talk about the grammar

They are talking about only if and giving examples about it

Stephanie is in a good mood, she involves and engages the students with the class

There are 3 girls in the class

One of the girls, who wears a hijab, is the only one that has not said anything yet in the
class. She has played with her phone and with her paper.

They are discussing the changes in the salary of students from middle eastern countries

They compared the life of students in America that are Americans and that are from middle
east, discussing differences, advantages and disadvantages

They started talking about cultural differences in marriage

Stephanie checked the clock but it hasnt change the time in there yet

She is asking about the essay that the students have due, she will answer questions and
concerns

She is telling some students that are saying they didnt know about the essay or dont have
it done, that they skipped class when she explained because it was national day of Kuwait

They will make an activity, there are two groups and each one will create questions based
in a page in the book and then they will ask them to the other group.

The students got together and are asking questions to Stephanie about the activity

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Group one is already creating questions, group two still getting organized.

Group one: 3 guys and one girl, they are working like a group, discussing ideas an etc

Group two: 2 guys and two girls, they are working in pairs and not as a group.

Both groups asked a question, Stephanie made a call to remind group 2 that they need to
work as a group but they havent done that yet.

Stephanie went to her desk and stated typing in the computer.

Group 2 is speaking in Arabic instead of English for 1 minute but they still working in pairs

Group 1 is organized and creating their group questions

Both groups ask questions to Stephanie

Stephanie says its time to start the activity, group one asks first question and then group
two made their own questions and so on

The girls that did not talk in the class was asked to say one of her questions and she did.

Group one is using one page with all their questions.

Group two has their own questions each person.

Stephanie is finishing the class, she is giving final instructions and reminders on what the
students have to go.

She is explaining the schedule of the week for the class and what content are they going to
study.

The students are paying attention, only one is packing.

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Students ask questions about what she explained.

Stephanie finished the class and the students are packing everything.

They joke and she wishes them a good week.

The class finished 5 minutes early

Some students leave and some ask personal questions to Stephanie and she replies to them
in the classroom.

The girls that didnt talked in the class went to talk to Stephanie at the end of class when
all the students where gone about her essay. Stephanie replied to her and left when it was
done
Appendix B

Reading & Writing, Level 5: Tuesday March 10th, 2015 ( 10:35am 11:45am )

Casey is talking in the front, carrying the book to explain the activity

The students interact openly in the class

Students volunteer to answer the questions to the class

15 students in the class

5 girls in the class, 2 of them interact frequently

Casey finished the activity and moved to the computer to go the next activity

The lights were turned off

Casey is continuing a power point presentation to explain the vocabulary of the class

Suarez 11

There are 3 guys that constantly intervene

Theres a pause in the class to select the speaker of the reception

One student volunteered, Casey asked him to show her the speech

They are back in the class topic to explain the vocabulary of the course

They spend some time in each word, trying to find examples

Some students comment something in Arabic

Another girl started to participate

The students make fun of one of the examples

Casey is very energetic, she is always standing and walking in the front or around the
students sometimes

They are explaining the concept of figurative meanings

The students will finish an activity in their books now

Casey is explaining the difference between suffix and prefix

After finishing with the book, the students started a pronunciation of the vocabulary
practice guided by Casey

Casey checked for questions in the pronunciation

Now, they will start a reading activity but Casey has a preparation slide with some
questions to introduce the students to the topic: Money.

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The students are expressing their ideas to answer each question and spent about 7 min
discussing one answer

At this point, 2 more girls joined to the discussion, first intervention of one of them

7 students are asked to volunteer to read one paragraph each

Once the students volunteered, the reading starts

Casey helps the students with their pronunciation during the reading, they also ask if they
are not sure about the word.

The students joke sometimes about their mistakes or their friends mistakes

Once they finished the reading, the students will start to do an activity in the book related
to the lecture.

Casey explains different words and idioms from the reading that she thing that can be
confusing

Now, Casey is asking a few questions about the content of the reading

The students are assigned to get together in groups of 2 or 3 to answer the question on the
activity from the book.

After 3-4 minutes, Casey intervenes and ask the students to answer the questions out loud

Casey assigns homework, and explains that not everyone got the homework done.
Therefore, she is assigning more and if everyone has it done by tomorrow they will get
100. If they are absent, email it.

She dismisses the students after the announcement.

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Appendix C
Reading & Writing, Level 7: Thursday March 11th, 2015 (09:30am 10:25am)

Students are coming back from break

Jackie started to explain what is the next step in the class

While she talks, some students are still coming to class and having small talk with their
partners

The class will start a new reading, Small change and Jackie is explaining that it will be
a hard reading for the level but they will have steps to do it

She asked the students to take a page out to begin an activity to warm up for the reading
and explained what they have to do

Students have small conversations

14 students in the class

Jackie gives a small explanation about the video the students will watch to do the activity

One of the students is asked to close the door and turn off one of the lights

Jackie starts playing the video for the activity, it talks about the Greensboro counter lunch
and the color segregation

All the students are quiet and paying attention, no background conversations

There are 3 girls in the class

The video finished

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Jackie says that is time to write down the answers for the activity

The students have some small talk with their partners, if they have one, while answering
the questions

The class is generally quiet

After about 5-6 minutes, Jackie started asking the students to answer out loud the questions

One of the students volunteers constantly to answer

Jackie asked the rest of the class to intervene

Discussion about the video keeps going on while a few more students join into it

Jackie gives a few comments about how the reading connects to the video that the students
just watched

A new video will be played, also related to the reading that the students will do

Jackie plays the video and again the students watch generally quiet

Jackie stopped the video after 50sec because the person that is talking I the video speaks
really fast and that can be difficult for the students. They might not be able to get everything

The lights go off

Stops the video again to explain that a new person will talk and he has a really strong
accent, maybe hard to understand

She played the video for 6 more minutes and then went back to a clip at the beginning for
about 1 minute

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Jackie asks the students to answer the same questions for this video

Small talk with partners, some in Arabic, start between the students

Jackie walks around answering questions and/or doubts that the students have

After 5 minutes, Jackie opened the conversation about the activity and started asking the
questions that the students were supposed to think about.

More students are participating in the discussion than before

Jackie is explaining idioms that were in the video and some references that international
students might not understand

The students are quiet as long as Jackie is students, she is explaining how violent the
American society was during the period of the civil rights fight

One student intervenes when she asks if someone has questions, Jackie answers

Jackie sits in a table in the front middle in the room and explains what is the next thing to
do, she gives instructions to the students so they can start the reading

She calls one name and the student started reading.

She named the next student and he reads, it takes him a little longer to get on the right
reading speed

Jackie calls the next name and so on with 3 more students

The reading stops to show a pictures of the conference flag because it is mentioned in the
reading and the students dont know it

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After explaining, the reading continues and another student gets called

Small pause to explain something about the reading

Student continues reading for 230 sec and the reading stops

Jackie gives a page with vocabulary and a study guide for the reading

Students pack up while she gives the homework and are dismissed