Global Voices – Erin

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Erin, UK

My experience in teaching began over ten years ago in June 2013 when I went to China to teach in an English language centre. At this stage, I was teaching children as young as three years old, mostly using play to immerse them in English, alongside purposeful instruction in vocabulary and grammar. In China, I quickly fell in love with living overseas. I dashed back to the UK after three months to embark on formal teacher training (the PGCE) and then I was off again. Initially I went to the Middle East, where I taught at a British international school with a large population of local pupils, for whom English was a second language. Inspired by this, I went on to complete an MA in Education (Applied Linguistics), the thesis for which was centred on language instruction for rhetorical writing. I then moved on to teach in Hong Kong, where I continued in my role as a high school English teacher, but a large part of my job continued to be supporting the development of English for my pupils.

For the most part of my career, I have taught pupils who already have a fairly good grasp of the English language. As such, my challenge has always been perfecting misconceptions and challenging the pupils to attain a deeper understanding of the language. Using literature has always been critical in achieving this. I believe in fostering language development through literature, as literature provides a platform to explore a myriad of historical and current voices, many of which have uniquely impacted the English language. I have written for various publications about EAL strategies in the English teaching classroom, including how Latin and structured debate can be used to help pupils to develop their skills in English.

After nine years of teaching overseas, I have recently returned to the UK, where I am working in a sixth form college. Whilst I love my new job and moved home for family reasons, I am missing working in an international context with more language learners and I could see myself returning to this one day. But, for now, my next ambition is to pursue an EdD.

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