In classrooms and community centres across the UK, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses are a lifeline to migrants and refugees whose potential is trapped behind a language barrier.
Those charged with unlocking that potential must deliver the curriculum intelligently and sensitively. Their classrooms have to be sanctuaries, and their methods as diverse as the backgrounds of learners in front of them.
ESOL teachers, such as Sam Pepper, don’t just teach the language; they actively support learners in establishing themselves in the UK despite underfunded services and a sometimes hostile atmosphere.
His success as an advanced learning practitioner at Camden Town’s WM College, including designing an ESOL IT course to give learners computer skills, earned him the ‘inspirational tutor of the year’ gong at the Mayor of London adult learning awards.
He tells Jessica Hill what a busy Monday looks like for him.
7am
I wake and have coffee with my wife who, like me, has a passion for languages.
She’s from Tajikistan, where they speak Tajik Farsi (Persian), and Russian because they were part of the Soviet Union. I’m trying to learn both, and Uzbek, her dad’s language.
I also speak French and I’m an Arabic translator, although translating jobs are scarce.
I’m very much a Londoner, and my grandfather was a tradesman in Camden. Many people travel overseas to make an impact on the world, but I’m proud to work in the place where my family are from.
9am
I cycle to Camden’s Gospel Oak Primary School as part of our community outreach work to teach an ESOL IT class with mums of pupils. These classes are for the hardest-to-reach learners who need English language and digital skills but may not have the family circumstances or self-confidence to come to our college. For them, the school is a familiar place.
Learners come from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Syria, Egypt and Venezuela. Our aim is to build their confidence to support them with their ESOL journey.
At first, they were unsure about having a male teacher, so it took me time to build rapport. Because my wife is from a Muslim background, I have a good knowledge of that aspect of their culture, which helped me build trust. In my job you have to appreciate cultural sensitivities.
The course was hard to teach initially because of the two-factor authentication you need on phones to log in, then it’s tricky accessing Microsoft Teams and Office 365. Now we’ve got going I enjoy seeing their progress.
11.30am
I cycle on to WM College to teach a self-study workshop, which is a chance to teach learners about the computer and phone tools they can use to study at home.
At school, I was told to sit down, be quiet and work hard, but if I emulated that teaching style in adult education it wouldn’t work. I treat people as equals, empathising with their abilities and inabilities. If they can’t do a task, I ask what I can do to support them.
That’s doubly true with people who sometimes don’t know how to use a mouse.
Our ESOL learners, by and large, have had a difficult struggle to be where they are today. I learn about the human condition working with people from diverse backgrounds, and my patience has improved 100-fold since I started working here.
Our Afghan learners in pre-entry classes are often women who were unable to attend school as children. They’re not just learning English; they’re also learning how to organise their time, how to use a pen and paper and how to formulate letters.
Teaching literacy is totally different to the training I’ve received through my English teaching qualifications, which are all about language acquisition and communicative language teaching. I was out of my depth at first – you need a lot of patience to help people formulate letters when they don’t necessarily have the motor skills to write.
One Afghani learner, a mum of five in her 40s with no education background, has come to classes for two years. She’s super persistent. We’ve never had a conversation of more than three words but I like to think her inclusion is progress.
Our classrooms are quite unique human creations. We live in one of the most diverse cities on earth, but having all those people vulnerably share a space in a room is unusual and special. It’s an inclusive space.
12pm
I have my weekly catch-up meeting with my line manager, Felix, who, like me, is interested in language generally and in social inclusion and community learning.
Like many ESOL teachers, I learned the craft because I wanted to travel the world. After graduating from the University of Essex with a degree in history and politics and teaching English for six months in India, I got my Celta (certificate in teaching English to speakers of other languages) in Prague before working for the British Council in Cairo for five years.
Cairo is a chaotic, lively place where people constantly communicate with each other, making it easier to pick up Arabic quickly.
I started teaching at WM College in 2021. Although the name stands for Working Men’s College, nowadays, 70 per cent of our learners are women, so there is a discussion about changing it.
12.30pm
I run an optional book club where learners read chapters of graded reader books. Then we meet and talk about the vocabulary themes. We’re currently reading Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Noughts and Crosses by Valerie Blackman last Black History Month didn’t go down well with some of my Ukrainian learners, who requested we read something happier!
The best way to teach language is to boost autonomous self-study, so the purpose behind the club is that learning also takes place when they’re at home.
1.15pm
I have seafood rice for lunch, which I made with my wife yesterday. Learners always say hello when they see me at lunchtime, but I avoid detailed conversations because I don’t want to break boundaries.
Over lunch I see unlikely friendships forming between people from very different cultures. In one class, a learner from Venezuela gets along really well with a Syrian lady. Although both have very limited English, they support each other a lot.
Sometimes learners who speak the same language prefer to sit together in class, but I try to pair stronger and weaker learners to support each other.
Learners sometimes stop me and ask for recommendations for British restaurants. I’ve told them that British restaurants are everywhere because our cuisine is international – although I also tell them about the nearby pie and mash shop which only takes cash.
2.30pm
I have an online class with level-1 learners, who join me from home.
All our learners are given a form at the beginning of the term, asking them about their education background, first language, interests and employment plans. That helps me work out what learners are into, and what they want to focus on.
The more I can stimulate class communication, the more their learning cements. So, I’ll show learners pictures from my own life, for example of my brother, who works in a music shop with his cat. My other brother is 12, which challenges their views of what a nuclear family should be.
Real life works better than a canned EFL textbook, which is often not well-pitched to learners’ lives.
3.30pm
I spend time preparing classes for tomorrow. I look at my scheme of work – the bigger picture of what I’m teaching, with a weekly theme – and think about what we did last lesson, what we need to recap and who struggled.
I also try to develop individualised material to motivate my learners.
I recently taught a lesson on Donald Trump. We didn’t talk about the US election result but looked at his biography. Learners really want to express their opinions, and there are some honest and sometimes amusing comments from people which it’s important to hear.
Last week I prepared a reading task on environmental issues, drawn from press articles. I used AI to adjust the language level to grade it to our learners. The articles were about Amazon rainforest deforestation, high levels of a dangerous particle in Honduras, and climate activists in Munich banned from protesting. They read the articles in groups, then fed back and presented to each other.
I use AI more and more. It saves me about two hours a week in preparation time. It’s good for summarising information, but if you ask it to pick out 10 language items in a text, it will give you 14. So you really need to check it.
We try to bring in as much cultural learning to lessons as possible – what the government calls ‘British values’. Many ESOL teachers are critical of that label because these are shared values for everyone. But some cultural knowledge is important. I recently planned a lesson on Bonfire Night. Learners who didn’t know about it might have been shocked by the noises coming from outside their window, so providing that knowledge was helpful.
I taught about Armistice Day as a factual lesson and as a chance for my learners to reflect on their own histories and how war has affected everyone’s lives, while also being sensitive to avoid triggering people.
4pm
I was asked to write a job reference for one of my learners who has applied for a volunteer shop assistant role at Mind. I suggested he write on the application form about why mental health is important to him. He’s a really optimistic guy who is one of several refugee learners who has slept rough on the streets.
We take safeguarding seriously at the college, so these things are escalated, and we try to provide as much guidance as possible.
We try to empower learners to use English to help themselves, but in difficult safeguarding situations where they don’t have the fluency, I step in to interpret.
5pm
After work, I’llgo for a swim in the local lido or do some yoga.
After eating some chicken soup for dinner, I’ll sometimes watch The Big Bang Theory on TV with my wife – she likes it, but it’s not really my cup of tea.
Then I’llread a book in Arabic or Russian to relax before sleep. Tomorrow I have an evening seminar at SOAS university, so I’m thinking about how to prepare for that.
It’s a busy life, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
If you have a suggestion for a future day in the life of article, email jessica.hill@educationscape.com
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