INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR ESL INSTRUCTORS QUESTIONS ABOUT YOURSELF

1. What coursework have you taken that you feel has made you an especially competent teacher?

2. Why do you want to teach?

3. What can you contribute to this program/institution? Why are you a good match for this job?

4. What do you think are your strengths/weaknesses as a teacher?

5. What do you think are the strengths/weaknesses of a teacher you had in the past?

6. What levels have you taught? Which do you like/dislike? Why?

7. Have you experienced culture shock? How did you deal with it?

8. Why should we hire you?

9. Do you have computer skills? What applications are you familiar with?

10. In what other languages can you speak, read, and write well?

11. What are the qualities of an excellent teacher? Which of these qualities do you have?

12. How many years have you been teaching ESL?

13. What do you do for your own professional development? What do you hope to be able to do, as part of your job, for your own professional development?

14. What do you think makes an excellent teacher (in general)? an excellent language teacher?

15. What are your conceptions of language learners?

16. What are you interested in researching, if anything? How does this relate to your teaching?

17. What is something you've learned in your study that you would like to try to apply to your teaching?

18. Are you looking to advance your credentials as an ESL teacher (an MA degree, RSA certificate, etc.)?

19. Do you have any exposure to second language acquisition? (Have you ever studied a second language?)

20. What 2 or 3 things are most important to you in your job?

21. Suppose a Supervisor asks you a question that you don't know the answer to? What would you do?

22. What level do you prefer to teach?

23. Are there other subjects that you could teach?

24. Why do you want to be an ESL/EFL teacher? (similar to what do you like best about teaching).

25. Why are you applying for this job?

26. What could you contribute to our program?

27. What is something you've learned from your students?

28. What do you like best about teaching?

29. What sort of administrative experience have you had?

30. Why did you leave your last (teaching) position? How would you characterize your relationships there with other faculty and administrators? May we contact them for references?

31. Tell us about your training (psycholinguistic, sociolinguistic, theoretical linguistic)

32. Do you have much research experience? In what areas?

33. What is your philosophy of teaching?

34. Tell us about your teaching experience.

35. How would you describe your teaching style?

36. What qualities do you think make a good teacher? Which do you have?

QUESTIONS ABOUT YOURSELF 37. How do you deal with a large class?

38. Have you worked with people of a different culture to your own? What did you think of this?

39. How do you deal with deadlines?

40. Has your teaching changed in the last X years?

41. What aspects of your teaching would you prioritize for development?

42. Tell me about yourself.

43. Why should I hire you?

44. What is your long-range objective? Where do you want to be 10 or 15 years from now?

45. How has your education prepared you for your career?

46. Are you a team player?

47. Have you ever had a conflict with a boss or professor? How was it resolved?

48. What is your greatest weakness?

49. What qualities do you feel a successful manager should have?

50. You say you're good at handling difficult students, can you give me an example? 51. How do you feel teachers can get better at what they do?

52. If you were asked to conduct a staff development workshop in your area of expertise, what would it be and what would the workshop contain?

53. If you could start any kind of ESL program of your dreams, what would it be like?

TEACHING QUESTIONS 54. How will you assist your students in meeting the state standards in reading, writing and math?

55. Explain how you would use technology in the classroom.

56. What materials have you used that you find most effective for the slow learners? The quick learners?

57. Describe the ideal classroom.

58. Some of your students always finish their assignments early. How would you deal with the free time that they have?

59. How would you work with students who perform below grade level, especially those from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds?

60. What kind of experience/ideas do you have with/about curriculum development?

61. If students are having difficulty learning a skill or concept, what do you do?

62. How do you individualize your teaching?

63. What are the rules of your classroom? How are they established?

64. What classroom activities and skills for reading have you implemented in the classroom?

65. How do you start teaching writing to second language learners who have no knowledge of the English script?

66. Do you use cooperative learning in your classroom?

67. What specific school and community resources are available to your second language learners?

68. Is there any particular theory of second language acquisition that influences your teaching methodology?

69. How do you plan for differences in prior learning and in students’ differences in cognitive learning styles?

70. What methods do you use to develop English Pronunciation and Listening to spoken English?

TEACHING QUESTIONS 71. In your class is spoken English the principal objective in language learning?

72. What do you think is the most important issue in language teaching today?

73. How do you think people become good at conversation (or reading, or writing, etc.) in a second language? How does instruction help? How can materials help?

74. What would you do if a student comes to class regularly late?

75. If I were to ask your supervisor about your teaching, what would they say? (if you were your supervisor, what would you say about your teaching?)

76. Think of an activity you used that you feel was both successful and a good reflection of you as the kind of teacher you want to be. What was it about the activity, and the way you implemented it, that made it so?

77. How do you establish rapport in your classes?

78. Think of an activity that bombed in the classroom. Why do you think it didn't work? How would you change it and/or the way you presented it? Why?

79. How do you go about motivating students?

80. How do you feel about grading? How do you go about deciding what grades to give students?

81. What do you think are important attributes of successful language learners?

82. If I were to ask your students about your teaching, what would they say? (if you were one of your students, what would you say about your teaching?)

83. What activities would you do on the first day of class with students who had absolutely no knowledge of English? (e.g. absolute beginners)?

84. What teaching texts are you familiar with? What texts/materials do you like to use or have you used in the past?

85. Suppose a student keeps making the same mistake over and over again despite your corrections. What would you do?

86. What if a student refused to take part in some classroom activity, what would you do?

87. What are several ways you foster motivation in EFL/ESL students?

88. Tell me about your worst day teaching.

89. Describe a problem you have had in the area of class discipline and how you solved it.

90. Could you develop individualized instruction packets? Would you? How would you go about it?

91. How would you motivate a class of students?

92. What would you do in the first ten minutes of your first lesson with a new class?

93. How do you decide whether a lesson has been successful or not?

94. What course books or materials have you used in the past? Then probe by asking: What did you think of them?

95. You taught a mixed-level class, how did you handle it? What went well? Is there anything that didn't go so well? What did you learn from this?

ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

96. Describe the types of quizzes and tests that you give. In a quarter, what types of evaluations compose your quarterly report?

97. How should a student's educational achievement and progress be measured?

98. In the beginning of the year, what kinds of assessments are given to help plan instruction?

99. What subjective and objective testing techniques do you use?

100. How do you link the Standards to your types of assessment and instructional planning?