SUPPORTING ESL TEACHERS WHEN THE UNEXPECTED OCCURS
SUPPORTING ESL TEACHERS WHEN THE UNEXPECTED OCCURS

Summary/Abstract: Teaching is a special profession that requires dedication, passion, alongside expertise and investment in skills development. Teachers know they have to conceive a lesson plan, a strategy before appearing in class, but they also know it is crucial to be able to deal with the unexpected. Given our teaching experience, which has often placed us in situations requiring immediate adaptation, this work was initiated as a means of supporting fellow educators who may feel that certain moments during a lesson risk becoming unmanageable. Thus, we got motivated to investigate the concept of “emergent language” (the primary material teachers work with when they teach by request) analyzed in Richard Chinn and Danny Norrington- Davies’ volume “Working with Emergent Language. Ideas and Activities for Developing your Reactive Skills in Class”. In addition, as we are generally interested in teacher development, in growing and expanding professional abilities because it helps us become more alert to students’ needs, we believe that, first you ought to focus on our own progress as teachers in order to provide support for your learners thus, this is the pivot of our research in the present paper. Overall, this article explores how ESL teachers may effectively navigate unexpected learning scenarios by cultivating mindfulness, engaging in reflective observation of others, and fostering self-awareness regarding their own weaknesses and strengths.

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