[Denis DNT]

It's a common practice in most of the schools. The foreign teacher handles the ESL class together with another teacher whose first language is the same with that of the students.
However the style varies:
Style 1. Some schools put the two teachers in the class at the same time. The foreign teacher is the main speaker while the other teacher a kind of interpreter and also incharge of discipline.
Style 2. Some schools have the local teacher introduce the topic, teach the related vocabulary, grammar and sentence structures. Then the foreign teacher comes in towards the end with oral practice.
Style 3. Some schools let the foreign teacher introduce the unit and teach the general idea. The local teacher only helps in doing a kind of review with the students helping in areas they didn't understand.
Style 4. Some schools have two teachers for the same class but they teach separate course books and evaluate the students separately.

I have worked with styles 1 and 4. Currently I am working with style 2. Honestly, I have not yet found any satisfaction in co-teaching. I had more satisfaction when I used to teach French speaking students without a co-teacher.
What's your experience with co-teaching folks?

[mesmark]

Style 2 is the norm in Japanese JHS.

It's quite difficult to deal with if you don't agree with the objectives. I assume the general reason for English study in that situation is for test prep?

That's the case in Japan, so communicative competence is sort of thrown in there as a bonus for the students, but not really the 'meat' of the course.

[mesmark]

I should say the most effective and satisfying team teaching experience was when I was team teaching with another native speaker.

We were able to model the conversations together, model the students' role, and get around to the students better. However, I had pretty good rapport with the other teacher. I taught with another teacher in the same situation and eventually we just agreed that I'd do the work and he'd stay out of my way. (He actually said in his interview that he didn't like children, yet they hired him for an elementary school position anyway ????)

So, I think chemistry (and again objectives) really plays a big part in satisfation.

[Denis DNT]

Oh! Co-teaching with another native speaker must be a really different experience. How was it?

[Eric18]

In American IEP programs, especially in the summer, co-teaching occurs quite a bit.

Personally, I'm a bit ambivalent. If you respect your co-teacher and they do a fine job, than it's wonderful to have a second voice to help students. Unfortunately, sometimes you can find yourself working with a fine person with limited teaching skills and a rigid ideology. That can complicate matters.

Teaching a course, by yourself, is the easier and often more satisfying option.

[Denis DNT]

A friend of mine had a co-teacher whose job was actually to watch his lessons and send reports to the school administration. He received tons of criticism in several months from the adminstration and found out that his 'co-teacher' was actually his spy only at the last minute when he was about to leave the school.
Sucks really!

[mokhtaraftat]

ESL/EFL co-teaching is a total waste of time. Those who claim having experienced success with it have yet to PROVE what they claim. I don't know how they define successful TEFL/TESL, but to any professional ESL/EFL teacher with basic common sense, having two EFL/ESL both teaching in the SAME classroom at the SAME time is wishful thinking to say the least and is pure bogus.

I know teachers are sometimes hungry for new ideas and new methods to help them improve their students' performance and achieve general goals better. However, jumping to conclusions too soon and giving too much credit to an idea or method once it is experimented with can have dangerous consequences, especially to novice teachers. The bandwagon theory can prove disastrous as a result.

Co-teaching or collaborative/team teaching can be done and can lead to good results OUTSIDE the classroom, not inside. This form of "co-teaching" is part of professional development that can benefit teachers directly and students indirectly. Workshops are an example.

Co-teaching may also work when an ESL/EFL teacher and a content teacher (say a finance teacher or social studies teacher) are involved, where the content teacher is the main teacher. Then, and only if well planned and structured, if their is reasonable communication and mutual respect between the two teachers -- can this kind of team-teaching work.

There is very little research in favor of ESL/EFL co-teaching today when co-teaching means having two ESL/EFL teachers teach in the same classroom and at the same time. Also, if this methodology "works" in some contexts (some Japanese schools apparently), it does NOT mean it will necessarily work in another context, where there is a different caliber of students, different needs, different human resources situations, etc.

I think people should weigh their words when it comes to drawing conclusions and should be humble about what they claim as "working." Once again, jumping to conclusions too soon can be misleading, especially to training teachers, and is in no way a contribution to research.

[Eric18]

A certain degree of humility and self-doubt is always advisable, and hedging language avoids absolute statements and overly broad generalizations. Calling upon our personal experiences and consulting the relevant literature is often a powerful technique, but I would encourage English teachers to share their experiences.

ESL co-teaching does have its success stories, even if my experience is not necessarily one of them. Students often benefit from a lower teacher-student ration, have more opportunities to speak with an English-language authority figure, and receive more feedback from their instructors. Even if the the two ESL teachers disagree on a particular point, their civil and polite disagreement can demonstrate the diversity of professional opinions and how to disagree without being disagreeable. Sometimes these social lessons in teaching tolerance and respecting other perspectives are even more illuminating than a particular grammar point or the meaning of an idiom.

Or so it seems to me.

[mesmark]

Eric - Nicely put.

I agree. It's not really the situation but what you make of it. Even if you don't have the best conditions or you don't really like the conditions, you can still work with what you have and try to do the best for the class.

If someone is in a situation they feel is bad, share it here or on some other forum. There are a lot of teachers out there willing to share their advice and experiences. Teachers are great people and want to help.

[mesmark]

Quote Denis DNT

Oh! Co-teaching with another native speaker must be a really different experience. How was it?

Sorry, I never answered this. It was great! Even when it wasn't so great

Like I said above, it's great to have a partner for conversation modeling, especially when you're teaching conversation. You don't need a CD, because you've got 2 people to act out your introduction. You can make changes on the fly. For children's classes one of us would go and sit in the students section (an empty desk) and pretend to be a student. Then that teacher would model what it was we wanted the children to do. That was really helpful.

Think of how much more you could do if there was another you in the class

[Dave-B]

Co-Teaching?

Oh man, I can only imagine what the owner of my school would say if I told him I was going to start putting two of my teacher sin the class at the same time.

"No big deal, let's just double our paid teaching hours"

This is a luxury I have never had the chance to have, and speaking from a financial standpoint, I can;t imagine it is worth the extra teaching hours.

I would love to hear from an owner who saw this method pay for itself in double the value.