Being a “real” teacher—I mean facilitator or instructor other than a mere lecturer, is such a fantastic dream I have been longing for. For one thing, besides 5 years of teaching in NOS, I have been acting as an English imparter since I was a sophomore. Growing a bit bored at one-way inputting, I regard TESOL or ESL certificate as a milestone for a creative perspective and more liberal characteristic of modern teaching. During Dr. Liu’s demonstration of the development of TESOL and relevant aspects, I not only am clearly informed of the synopsis of the sophisticated criteria of being a qualified teacher, but grasp more confirmative consciousness of my career path. Like Liu has mentioned in his class, 2-year MA plus 3-4-year Ph D and relevant certification make you a superlative teacher, which I called in my class, the ultimate soul mate and spiritual friend of students. I am on the drive for it and surely the sun will rise on the bank of success in one day.

With a sense of guilt for being a literature animal during my college years, I have never been so frantic about pondering over stuffs on literature or so for so many years. This afternoon reminds me of the passion and fervor with the classics in my university studies. In a nutshell, Chinese and western approaches to teaching literature are a bit different, which can be exemplified by the explanation of the poem listed above. Western way is more relaxing, sort of making you engrossed in cultural carnival rather than wandering on the Ocean of Atlantic, immune to the manipulation or supervision posed by your tutor. American way is so liberal, not those “to-be or not-to-be” patterns accustomed for Chinese students. I really appreciate it and am impressed by Dr. John Ulreigh.

What I concern most is the writing-related courses, since I teach IELTS writing most of the time. Thank goodness! There are oceans of writing courses during the two-week seminar, among which The Writing Program and the teaching of writing by Dr. Anne Marie and How writing is assessed in American universities by Professor Ed White are highly impressing in my lasting memory. Dr. Marie’s special way of leaving students space for feedback on writing a specific topic really inspires me a lot. In traditional NOS writing, we regard one-way lecturing as the most “efficient” way to make students understand the gist of exams and skills needed, while neglecting their ingenuity and motives to be part of it. This is still prevalent in almost all NOS classes. One of my reflections of the trip is to enlarge the proportion of interaction between teacher and students and even themselves. We shall never underestimate the power of mutual imitation from students. Sometimes it is much worthwhile than imparting from teachers. More, Prof. Edward White gave us a vivid presentation of American ways of assigning, responding and evaluating students’ writing. He used 6 pieces of writing of different levels for our assessment. Actually, it is not a demanding job for me because I check students’ writing from my BLOG everyday. What I have never tried in my class is to let students be the judge of themselves and let myself be the jury. What a fantastic thinking I am breeding with! I have to admit this USA trip is not the table-dancing journey (fancy on the table but ugly under the table). It is really like a cactus to me (common and tedious from appearance but so energetic from the bottom).