Intl Conference 2008: The Role of Mentors in TEFL

Candy Veas Faundez, Universidad de Playa Ancha
Isabel Vásquez, Universidad de Playa Ancha,
Enzo Pescara, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso.

Candy Veas Faundez graduated from the TESL MA program at the University of Minnesota, U.S.A. in 2004. At present, she is a full time faculty member in the English Teacher training program at Universidad de Playa Ancha in Valparaiso. She teaches writing and methodology, and has recently become involved in the field of mentoring, due to her participation in a government-funded Diploma course for mentor trainers.

PRESENTATION ABSTRACT
In recent years, Chilean education authorities have become concerned about improving English teaching in Chile, due to the low level students achieve in the subject in government-funded schools, after seven years of formal instruction in the language. In this context, the Ministry has implemented a number of initiatives to promote and support successful language teaching, such as continuing training courses for in-service teachers, as well as offering English pedagogy students grants to spend a semester abroad, in English speaking countries. Recently, the Ministry has focused its efforts on supporting pre-service and newly qualified teachers through mentoring. The main objective of mentoring is to accompany the new teachers during the early stage of their career, and help them integrate theory and practice through self-reflection and the development of problem-solving strategies, in order to become effective in their practice, thus improving students’ learning. Successful mentoring programs for teachers have been put into practice in various countries across the world, such as Israel, Canada and England, becoming a powerful tool to foster teacher professional development and enhance students’ learning (La Tercera, January 20th, 2008). Following this, the Chilean Ministry of Education has taken concrete steps towards the institutionalization of the role of the mentor in our educational context. In 2004, a mentor training course was funded by the Program English Opens Doors, in which a group of English teachers were trained to become mentors for less experienced peers. More recently, the Ministry has organized a Diploma course on mentor training, aimed at the development of effective mentoring courses in universities across the country, which constitutes a primary part of the ongoing macro-project to improve teaching-learning processes in Chilean educational establishments. This paper is the result of such initiative, and presents the theoretical background and needs analysis for the design and implementation of Mentor training courses to be carried out at the University of Playa Ancha and the Catholic University of Valparaiso.

http://tesolchile.cl/conf2008/postconf2008g.php