Teacher Interview Report

I. Introduction
Actually, this is my second time to do teacher interview. Last time, I went to Shi Pai Junior High School to
interview a teacher and asked something about the class management. From the interview, I’ve learned a lot
from the teacher and her belief of teaching Chinese. Though to certain degree, this time the report is quite similar
to the last report that I’ve done. However, this time, by the demand of teacher Alice and the class objective, my
target interviewee must be an “English” teacher. At first, I was very nervous about how to find an English teacher
in junior or senior high school because I’ve got in touch with all my English teachers for several years. (it may be
very embarrassing to go back and the teacher doesn’t recognize that I used to be her student) Fortunately, one of
my best friends in my night school class, knowing my worriment, introduced me an English teacher in Shilin High
School of Commerce whom she loves and admires very much. Here, I want to say thanks to my dear friend.
Without her, I really cannot finish writing this assignment.
Below, there are some basic info of the teacher and the questions that I’ve prepared for the teacher interview,
Teacher’s name: Ms. Chris Chang
School: Shilin High School of Commerce
Time Lasting: about 1 and half and hour
Date: May 28, 2006

My List of the Interview Questions,

1. The teacher’s learning and teaching background,
(1) educational background
(2) experiences of teaching
(3) the reason of being an English teacher
2. The teacher’s belief and philosophy
(1) the teacher’s belief and philosophy of language teaching
(2) methods of efficient language teaching
3. The barriers and supports that he/ she faces in teaching context
(1) what barriers did you face at the beginning of teaching English
(2) how to deal with the students of different English competences
(3) how to deal with the students who have difficulties in learning English
4. The teacher’s career cycle and professional development
(1) do other English teachers in the school share teaching experiences with each other
(2) what do you do to improve your professional teaching
5. Other
(1) do you have any recommendation to the English teacher to be

II Teacher Interview
1. The teacher’s learning and teaching background,
First, about the teacher’s learning and teaching background, Ms. Chang go bachelor degree in Fu Jen Catholic
University and master’s degree in National Taiwan Normal University and National Taipei University of Education.
Now she is a doctor candidate in Tam Kang University. And she also has been to Ohio in American to go further
study.
Second, about Ms. Chang’s teaching experiences, she has been teaching for 16 years. (10 years in Shilin High
School of Commerce) Now, she’s about 40 years old. So she began teaching English when she was 24 years old
which age is the same to me now. ^^
Third, about the reason of being an English teacher, Ms. Chang told me that it’s because she loves English very
much, especially about the theories, such as linguistics and language teaching. She likes almost all things about
English except literature, because she thinks that sometimes the articles are too over and full of emotions.
2. The teacher’s belief and philosophy,
Ms. Chang told me that as an English teacher what she can bring to students is to let students love English as
she does. In order to make students to be interested in English, Ms. Chang will offer some teaching materials or
activities which are related to the textbooks and daily lives of students, such as recent news, songs, or novels.
Furthermore, she will bring students to the computer classroom to key in the articles that they’ve wrote at home
and compare the articles with each other in order to let students devote themselves to the activities of practicing
English.
3. The barriers and supports that he/ she faces in teaching context,
Ms. Chang said that at the beginning of teaching English, she was very upset because her expectations were far
away from most students’ competence in English learning. And students nowadays have many things to do at the
school, such as joining the students associations or taking part in various competitions which situation is quite
different from the students before who just know to work hard. As a result, in order to fit the students’
competence, textbooks nowadays become much simple and easy.
Although Ms. Chang worries that students’ English competence may not be as good as the students before, she
still has hope. Especially in the world full of knowledge now, Ms. Chang thinks that all that she can do is to teach
the students to apply the knowledge instead of offering them as much vocabulary as she can do. And also in
order to let the students learn English well, she thinks that holding a debate is a good way to train the students to
get more vocabulary by themselves.
And about the students who have difficulties in English learning, not like the other teachers that I know, Ms.
Chang doesn’t give them some other “privilege” to let them get bonus through additional and secret activities. Ms.
Chang chooses to treat these students equally, just like the others, because she thinks that they are not different
at all, and believes that through diligence, they also can get good grades. In addition, to the way that Ms. Chang
uses to make these students to be interested in English learning is to build up good relationships with these
students and encourage them to learn English actively through teaching methods and interactions.
4. The teacher’s career cycle and professional development,
Ms. Chang told me that there are a few interactions with other English teachers in this school. By my observation,
I found that teachers whose seats are next to Ms. Chang are supervisors of other classes, not teachers of the
same subjects. And also Ms. Chang is an experienced English teacher with her own teaching style. As a result, I
think that it may be hard for experienced teacher here to share teaching experiences or have conversations with
each other.
And about the professional development, Ms. Chang said that she often attends many conferences and joins
several workshops of English in order to improve her English competence and know more.
5. Other,
Ms. Chang considers that English learning nowadays could be a kind of fever all over the world. Many schools
overemphasize the English learning and neglect the other subjects. However, all the subjects are as important as
English, such as Chinese which represents our own unique culture. So she wants to remind all the English
teachers that English isn’t everything and is not that important.
And being an English teacher, Ms. Chang thinks that constantly adding new knowledge is very important to
language learning and teaching. Because English is not a dead language, it grows and changes as time goes on.
As a result, in order to be a successful English teacher, constantly keeping up with new things is substantial to
improve teachers’ world outlook and profession.
III My Reflection on Teacher Interview
To my surprise, when I interviewed Ms. Chang, Ms. Chang told me that she knows teacher Alice long time ago.
Suddenly, I began to feel under lots of pressure because I’m afraid that I did a bad job on this teacher interview.
Though, I still learned a lot from Ms. Chang. I especially admire the attitude that she treats all the students
equally. I think that it is quite important for a teacher to be fair enough, otherwise, the students won’t believe you
any more or hate you and the subject that you teach. I also agree with what Ms. Chang does to students with
difficulties in English learning. She chooses to build up good relationships with these students first and let
students like her and also the subject that she teaches. To my concern, I think that except the excellent teaching
methods and interesting activities, good relationships between teacher and the students are also very important
factors for teacher to do good job on teaching.
And concept about teaching the student the ways of how to learn English by themselves instead of offering them
as much vocabulary as one teacher can I think that it is quite right and similar to mine. Especially nowadays,
there are huge amount of English learning ways or conference books for people to learn English by themselves.
As a result, I think that the goal of being an English teacher is to teach students to have the ability to apply what
they learn in class and in the future they can learn more about English by themselves