Nikki Ashcraft, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA
Brock Brady, US Peace Corps, Washington, DC, USA

Although TESOL is an established occupational field with professional associations and specialized degree programs, there are several sectors within TESOL that are less professionalized. Sectors, such as community-based adult literacy programs and international development work, aim to support students and teachers with limited resources and depend heavily on volunteers to operate.

ESL programs in the adult literacy sector often have meager budgets and rely on volunteers to register and place students, lead conversation groups, tutor students one-on-one, teach language or citizenship classes, organize cultural events, and provide social assistance. For example, Proliteracy is a nonprofit organization that provides support to over 1,000 adult literacy and basic education programs, including ESL programs, in the U.S. and internationally (Proliteracy, 2021a). In its 2016-2017 survey of member programs, Proliteracy (2018) reported that 96% of the instructors in these programs were volunteers, and in its 2019-2020 survey, that 20% of the programs were administered by volunteer staff (Proliteracy, 2021b). We see, then, how essential volunteers are to the operation of programs in this educational sector.

Internationally, volunteers support host-country teachers in co-teaching or pull-out instruction, often based on a teacher community of practice model so as to build teacher capacity as well as student learning. In addition, outside the classroom the volunteer teacher may facilitate tutorial sessions, English clubs and/or camps, or provide informal English instruction to adults. The number of volunteer English teachers working internationally is difficult to quantify, but well-known organizations such as Peace Corps, the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant program, and British Council each field 2,000 to 3,000 English teaching volunteers annually.

While people who volunteer to teach English as a second or foreign language are usually very motivated to help learners succeed, they may have little or no formal training as teachers, in general, or as language teachers, in specific. They may have little understanding of the second language acquisition process or be unfamiliar with appropriate methods to use to facilitate student learning.

For this reason, we dedicate this special issue of the TEIS News to exploring the different mechanisms by which volunteer English instructors are supported in their professional development. We are pleased to present articles from teacher trainers and volunteer supervisors from Benin, Rwanda, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Through these accounts, we learn how teacher training, and opportunities for mentorship, collaboration, and self-reflection, contribute to enhancing the skills and knowledge of volunteer teachers and strengthening the impact of their programs.

References

Proliteracy. (2018). Annual statistical report 2016-2017. https://www.proliteracy.org/Portals/0/pdf/Membership/Statistical%20Reports/2016-2017-ProLiteracy-Annual-Statistical-Report.pdf?ver=2020-04-27-131606-347

Proliteracy. (2021a). What we do-Overview. https://www.proliteracy.org/What-We-Do/Overview

Proliteracy. (2021b). Annual statistical report 2019-2020. https://www.proliteracy.org/Portals/0/pdf/Membership/Statistical%20Reports/2019-2020-ProLiteracy-Annual-Statistical-Report.pdf