I previously researched the impact of service-learning on students’ learning in my Introduction to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) class and found that service-learning can help future teachers:

• acknowledge the likelihood that they will have English as a Second Language (ESL) students in their future classrooms,
• relate to ESL students, by associating real students with the “ESL” nomenclature, and
• self-identify as advocates for their future ESL students.

This research project builds on these prior findings by examining the impact of different types of service-learning partnerships. Depending on their class schedules, students in my fall 2010 Introduction to TESOL class worked in one of two community partnerships: ESL classes at a local high school (an ongoing partnership) or ESL conversation classes for parents at a local elementary school.

Both community partnerships provided an authentic TESOL task, but the conversation classes for parents required TESOL students to work more autonomously, while the high school ESL classes afford TESOL students the opportunity to shadow an experienced teacher for a short period before volunteering more extensively in the classroom.

Jessie L. Moore
Associate Professor, English
Elon University
jmoore28@elon.edu