TEIS Newsletter - March 2021 (Plain Text Version)

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In this issue:
LEADERSHIP UPDATES
•  LETTER FROM THE CHAIR
•  LETTER FROM THE GUEST EDITORS
ARTICLES
•  AN EXPLORATION OF THE PEACE CORPS TEFL VOLUNTEER TRAINING PROGRAM
•  LEARNING TO TEACH LANGUAGE AS SOCIAL PRACTICE: CONCEPT-BASED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR ADULT ESL VOLUNTEERS
•  LEARNING FROM VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCES DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC LOCKDOWN
•  THE SUPERVISION OF VOLUNTEERS
COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE
•  PROVIDING A SPACE FOR VOLUNTEER CONNECTIONS AND LEARNING
•  SUPPORTING COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE AMONG VOLUNTEER TEACHERS
ABOUT THIS COMMUNITY
•  CALL FOR TEIS NEWSLETTER SUBMISSIONS

THE SUPERVISION OF VOLUNTEERS

Sophie Johnstone and Linda Ulrich, Merton Home Tutors, London, United Kingdom

Sophie Johnstone

Linda Ulrich

This article aims to offer suggestions for good practise in the supervision of volunteer English teachers. Supervisory support has been offered to the volunteer teachers who provide home tutoring and community classes in our charity for over 10 years. Volunteers in ESL both welcome and deserve continual supervision. The supervision is not necessarily one of checking what has been done, but is often in supporting what the volunteers themselves would like to do. For example, in the move from face-to-face to online teaching this year as a result of the pandemic, a volunteer provided help to all staff by embedding learners’ phone numbers in WhatsApp groups for ease of communication. As the volunteer had shown her proficiency in digital skills, she was offered the role of developing a new “Gaining Access to Computers” course, thus demonstrating the mutuality of the supervisor/volunteer relationship.

Volunteers can support ESL programs in a range of ways, from taking part in a conversation club to experienced teachers leading a full class. The volunteers’ main characteristic is diversity – home tutors teaching one to one, teaching assistants in the classroom, befrienders aiding new arrivals, and accredited ESL professionals facilitating learning with a regular group. An Erasmus project carried out in four European countries in 2018, called Volunteers in Migrant Education (VIME) provides both a breakdown of the roles volunteers play as local experts, and a toolkit to aid volunteers in the preparation and delivery of language skills (see East London Advanced Technology Training, n.d.). Volunteers will offer various skills and have different needs; supervision will mean asking the right kind of questions in order to make sure that the volunteers meet the gaps available with what they personally can offer.

Most organisations will support volunteers with a paid professional co-ordinator. This person can offer resources, detailed curricula, feedback, advice and guidance. The co-ordinator will usually be responsible for initial learner assessment and therefore will have met learners personally. In this position, supervisors can provide instructional material adapted for each volunteer’s particular group. A professional supervisor is usually an experienced ESL practitioner who has knowledge of the material available and can give advice about a possible curriculum. The training given to volunteers starting with an organisation is frequently 10-20 hours over a period of months – though with the understanding that not all volunteers are starting from an equal point, and that very few will be starting from zero. In-house training will involve subjects such as lesson-planning, micro-teaching, the parameters of basic literacy, and where to go for resources. Volunteers will bring their own life skills, and they have often experienced learning a language as an adult themselves.

The relationship between supervisor and volunteer is built on mutual trust. Volunteers know that the supervisor’s role is not that of a government inspector, but that of a helping hand. The supervisor knows that her volunteers are passionate, flexible and professional. Trust does have to be built up over time – with a supervisor popping in to lessons or groups briefly, informally and often. Feedback sessions where 4-6 volunteers debrief regularly, where volunteers help each other and the supervisor only offers resources or suggestions when necessary, can be helpful to both sides. A supervisor also needs to understand, and to fill-in for classes, when volunteers have their own responsibilities and holiday plans to be accommodated.

The learners being taught will also have differing reasons as to why they are in this particular group. It is valuable for the supervisor to acquaint ESL facilitators of these reasons and to assure them that the demands made in higher education, such as 96% in learner attendance and retention, will rarely be enforced with their learners.

There is, however, a tension inherent in a supervisor’s role, positioned as she is between trustees, CEOs and funders on one side, and volunteer practitioners on the other. The supervisor may have to say, “No, my volunteers will not have to do that. I’ll do it myself.” Likewise, a supervisor may have to encourage volunteers to collect data; to plan, assess, and register learning; and to consider attendance and retention. It can be a delicate balance!

And who supports the supervisor? It is extremely important, both professionally and socially, for supervisors to exchange good practice, new ideas or just gossip with others who are involved in the sector. In the UK, the National Association of Teachers of Community Languages (NATECLA: https://www.natecla.org.uk) has recently set up an online forum specifically for volunteers and those working with them, in order to exchange resources, suggestions, questions and answers.

A supervisor is part of the outward assurance that volunteers, and the volunteer sector, maintain a professional image; this is both to recognise and to validate the important role that volunteers play in language acquisition. Feedback on progress, abilities and areas for improvement is valuable, and, in fact, is often required by grant providers; this should certainly take place but with care – a supervisor’s role is to support and cherish the volunteers who offer their time to facilitate learners’ skills.

References

East London Advanced Technology Training (ELATT). (n.d.). The VIME project. https://www.elatt.org.uk/projects/the-vime-project