By Kerrie Turcic
Velocity Contributor
Susan Spencer had achieved what most people dream: a long, successful business career. But in 2003, the tech bubble was about to burst along with her future plans in the industry.
“You want a career change and you evaluate what you think you want to do. I started to look into the area of teaching English to speakers of other languages,” Spencer says.
CityU's ESL Faculty (front row from left to right): Karen Dong, Susan Spencer, Lana Zaher (Director) and Carol Shafer. Back row: Lauren Douglas and Sterling Smucker.
She also hoped to combine her teaching desire with worldwide travel. Then one day, Spencer left the U.S. to become an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher.
“Off I went to China in August of 2004,” says Spencer, adding that the experience was her first time living and working abroad as well as teaching.
This 2008-2009 school year, Spencer is one of City University of Seattle’s three new ESL teachers. She joins teachers Abram Bergstrom, Karen Dong, Sterling Smucker and Carol Shafer - also new this year. They make up the program’s staff along with Lauren Douglas, an ESL teacher of four years, and instructor Ekaterina Vulkova-Kardasheva.
CityU’s ESL instructors are unique in that they teach more than English. The program is part of the School of Management and classes integrate business lessons. Students take six levels of English training. Beginners start at level one and advanced students graduate at level six. Those with prior English language instruction often may skip classes according to their skill level.
Ekaterina Vulkova-Kardasheva, ESL faculty
CityU has been offering international students ESL courses as part of their college education for nearly 30 years. Lana Zaher, CityU’s Interim Director for the English Language Program, says each quarter between 15 and 25 students enroll into the university’s business focused ESL program because they want to complete bachelor or master’s degrees in business. Most of the ESL instructors also teach in the Assisted Master in Business Administration (AMBA) program, which provides non-native English speakers with a language specialist to assist them as they work toward their MBA degree.
“We try to include the language, writing and study skills that they’re going to need,” Zaher says of the English instruction.
While Zaher’s native language is Russian, the one-time ESL student has spent 18 years teaching English, beginning as a bilingual teacher’s assistant in 1991 at a middle school and then advancing to the college level. She taught at the University of Washington for two years while she was working on her master’s degree in Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) before joining the staff at CityU.
“English is a tool for people internationally to achieve what they want to achieve…it opens doors for greater socioeconomic opportunities and better lifestyles,” she says.
Like Zaher, the ESL instructors say they are enthusiastic about their jobs.
“I love working with international students. I also love to travel. What better job could there be than teaching English to international students?” says Shafer, a language-assisted MBA and ESL instructor who has spent time in Asia, Europe and Mexico.
Douglas shares Shafer’s passion for travel and international education. From 1996 to 1998, Douglas taught English in Indonesia and speaks the native language fluently. She joined CityU specifically to teach the language-assisted MBA courses.
“It can be very rewarding, watching students change and grow and benefit from the classes. The student body at CityU is wonderful so I really enjoy seeing them every day,” she says.
Coworker Bergstrom also speaks several languages fluently other than English. They are: Tagalog, German, Spanish and Italian.
“I also speak French and Japanese conversationally,” says Bergstorm, who taught English for a year-plus stint in Japan.
After his recent introduction to CityU, Bergstrom says, “I enjoy having group discussions with the students about current events in America.”
ESL student Lei Pei says she appreciates lessons on local culture and news. Pei moved to China about four months ago with some high school English classes under her belt. Still, she’s taking level five ESL classes.
Pei says her CityU ESL class has helped her with writing skills - an important test-taking asset - and to understand conservational words and phrases used by native English speakers.
These basic language tips are important along with the various perspectives students bring into the classroom, Spencer says. She adds that holding a connection to another culture is important.
“The students…constantly remind me that no matter how superficially different we may seem, we all have so much in common and so much to share with each other,” Spencer says.