Shaping teacher profiles through overseas teaching

Abstract

This paper presents the Work Integrated Learning (WIL) experiences of seven Master of Arts in TESOL students of Griffith University in Brisbane Australia. Two of the core courses of the Masters program have an embedded teaching practicum. The students had the choice of undertaking their teaching practicum either in Australia, teaching English to new migrants and international students or as a foreign language overseas. In the investigated cohort, seven students decided to complete their practicum in Vietnam, two in Switzerland and ten in Australia. This paper reports on the Vietnamese teaching experience of seven students. They taught English as a Foreign Language at three diverse universities in the South of Vietnam. The data for this project were collected from the students' reflective diaries and from semi-structured interviews that were carried out and recorded after the completed practicum.