Wendy McConkey

Who is The TESL Trainer?

My name is Wendy McConkey. I am The TESL Trainer. I have been teaching ESL for more than 20 years and teaching ESL teachers for almost as long.

My TESL certificate is a Masters level diploma from the University of Toronto. I also hold an Honours B.A. in English Literature and Women's Studies from Trent University. I am a current member in good standing of TESL Ontario / TESL Canada. Training ESL / EFL teachers is my greatest joy these days because it gives me a chance to talk about my other great passion, which is Teaching English as a Second Language. Quite frankly, this work is hardly like work because it is infinitely interesting if you have any passion for language or culture, or, if you're like me and just enjoy people - each one, a shining star, given the right circumstances.

This is what I try to bring to my work; the ability for each one of my students to find their own special light and make it glow. Sounds pretty hokey but honestly, I have found that folks from all over the world just want that chance. If you're the one who helps them achieve that, well, there can be no sweeter moment that seeing the once shy student, stride proudly to the front of the class, ready, willing and able to share some personal treasure, in English! I have seen students achieve linguistic miraculousness right before my very eyes and I can't help but share some of their light in the process. It's all about the sharing in the communicative English language classroom and I am a communicative English language teacher. I will help you to become one too.

This joy is what I promise to share with you and lead you to help facilitate with your students in your own English language classroom. Each TEFL group I teach gets a taste of that glory, first as a student, and then as a teacher, when you create 15 minutes of TEFL magic delivering your first mini- EFL lesson!

What more is there to say? I can tell you that there are at least 90 - 100 thousand EFL teaching jobs - that�s 90,000 - 100,000 English language teaching jobs in the world every year, that need to be filled and that each school wants a native speaker of English with at least a TEFL certificate. I can also tell you that, not in more than 20 years, have I ever looked back. This is the fastest growing industry on the planet and we haven�t even begun to reach the 'critical mass' stage of development yet!

If you want to travel and you want to share something of value with your fellow humans on this planet, I recommend you help give them access to the English language. It opens the doors to the first world for them, without which, those doors will remain closed and their options will remain limited.

If we are moving toward one world; one people, and I believe in many ways we are, then one language must we share, at least as a handy second language to use in the marketplace, the way Swahili is used in Africa. In fact, this is exactly what English is for many of our students. English was once a creole, born of low German, and, through aggression, rape, pillage, slaughter and dominance, it has become the most preferred, if not the most necessary second language of the world. I am not proud of how we got here, but yet, here we are. In my own small way, I offer up a sweeter version of this language than did my forefathers. I share the beauty and flexibility that the English language affords its speakers. I offer a view into the English speaking world that holds out hope for peace and life beyond mere survival. I have never taught an ESL class, that did not, at some point receive a listening exercise using John Lennon's Imagine.

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