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Baurain, B. (2012). Beliefs Into Practice: A Religious Inquiry Into Teacher Knowledge. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 11(5), 312–332. https://doi-org.chilib.moody.edu/10.1080/15348458.2012.723576

Baurain,(B. 2018, December 10). Professionalism and Witness in TESOL. ChinaSource, Retrieved October 10, 2020, from https://www.chinasource.org/resource-library/articles/professionalism-and-witness-in-tesol/

Baurain, B. (2015). Religious Faith and Teacher Knowledge in English Language Teaching.

Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Burgos, Francisco. (2017). Using the Bible to Teach a Foreign Language. Journal of Adventist

Education, 4. https://jae.adventist.org/2017.4.6

Dormer, J. E. (2011). Teaching English in missions: Effectiveness and integrity. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library.

Johnston, Bill. English Teaching and Evangelical Mission: The Case of Lighthouse School. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters, 2017.

Keller, Timothy.(2012). Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work. New York: Penguin Books. (pp.20-21)

Lingenfelter, J. E., & Lingenfelter, S. G. (2003). Teaching cross-culturally: an incarnational model

for learning and teaching. Baker.

Mahboob, Ahmar. (2011). Additive perspective on Religion or growing hearts with wisdom. In M. S. Wong & S. Canagarajah (Eds.), Christian and critical English language educators in dialogue: Pedagogical and ethical dilemmas (pp. 187). New York: Routledge

Mambu, J. E. (2017). Addressing Religious Issues and Power in ELT Classrooms: Voices from English Teachers in Indonesia. International Journal of Christianity and English Language Teaching, 4, 6-27. Retrieved October 4, 2020, from https://digitalcommons.biola.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=ijc-elt

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Waterloo, ON: Herald Press, 2001.

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The first work God has ever given to man was just working in the Eden and keeping it (Vv. 15). What God has asked from a TESOL teacher is to be faithful in the little that we have been given (Luke 16:10). It is CELTs' responsibility to teach English. When God asked Adam to name the animals and work in the Garden, it had nothing to do with teaching and preaching but it was a mandate to exercise the power and authority that God has entrusted him for the good of the creation (Gen. 2) and practice obedience-listen and obey.

Motives in light of love (Luke 10: 27)

The Greek word “agape” (love) means the love of action that God uses Christians as channels to fulfill their neighbors' needs. To serve students is to serve God.

a. Teaching As a Sacred Mission

The good Samaritan cared for the unnamed Jew's two primary needs: he saved his life and he rescued him from slavery by promising to pay all the potential expenses to the innkeeper (Luke 10). Caring for his neighbors, he honored God.

All God's people are called to a full-time ministry. Martin Luther and John Calvin pointed out that “all work, even so-called secular work, was as much as calling from God as the ministry of the monk or priest" (Keller 2012, 20). The Calvinist view of Faithful work is to create an environment that honors God and enables people to thrive (2012, 20). Using English as bait to brainwash or proselytize the students is thus unethical (Baurain 2018). Humans are image-bearers who are granted the whole personhood, who think, say, talk, behave, make moral or immoral, good or bad, ethical or unethical choices, who cannot be forced to change their hearts and minds (Baurain 2007).  Teaching is a calling and a sacred mission.

b. Teaching As a Profession

In the Gospel, Jesus is called Teacher sixty times (Today in the Word, 2020, Aug). The word Teacher in Greek is didaskalos, which means someone is acknowledged for mastery in their field of learning (Today in the Word, 2020, Aug).  Jesus is the Master Teacher.

Martha and Sarah are Christians but their primary purposes were to teach English and fulfill students’ academic needs. They would consult and observe the local teachers and tried to learn Chinese, Chinese culture, history, and customs so that they can understand their students better who adapt to the local culture and their learning skills. Whoever is fully trained will be like their masters (Luke 6:40) which was their goal for the students. The job that God gives to CELTs is to teach, and all should teach with excellence. CELTs would miss the target and fail the mission if they ignore the actual teaching.

Lesson plan in light of love (Luke 10:27)

As much as Sarah and Martha wanted to help their students in English, they also wanted to plant the kingdom seeds like Bruce. Using Christian holidays seems to be a common strategy for Christian teachers to compete for such a “mission”. Snow mentioned that Christianity is already associated with Western culture, such an approach created the division between teachers and students as “they” and “us” which may have countereffect (2001).

a.       Lesson planning as a “rebel”

Purgason condemned CELTs who came to the field with a secret agender as she was quoting II Corinthians 4:2 “We have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception” (TNIV) and claimed that from the perspective of Christian teachers who want to talk about their beliefs with students, avoiding a covert approach will help them meet students who are genuinely interested in further conversation” (2011).

Cynthia, a teacher trainer in a nonprofit who taught in China for a long period and did not include Christian holidays into her lesson planning. Her fellow missionaries were very upset and saw it as a “sin”. But for her, such content does not fit into the language objectives, and she considered that there was absolutely nothing that her students needed to know about those holidays in the context of their language learning. One of Cynthia’s jobs within the non-profit was traveling to see if other teams’ members are teaching with integrity and not pushing an agenda (p23). Non-evangelicals have shown concerns about conversion-based and poor academic-focused teaching would bring the field as a whole into disrepute (Johnston, 2017). He further emphasized that high-quality materials, good pacing, and effective use of the classroom can best serve students.

b.      Lesson planning as an Integration

God created all things and His existences are beyond every dimension of our lives. He is much more than the infant Jesus on the stage on Christmas or the stories we need in the Bible. We can feel, touch, smell, and hear Him through our interactions with His creations.

Christian English teachers such as Kitty Barnhouse Purgason (2011) provided several excellent lesson plans by integrating faith into the lesson plan. In one of her lesson plans Message of Love, she introduced different relationships in life for group discussion: husband-wife, parent-child, friend-friend, boyfriend-girlfriend, God-human being. Questions such as “What are some common ways people express love in your culture?” Or “What message of love would you like to receive from someone? Give to someone?”

There is one common message in all these relationships: Love, whether it is the love of attraction “eros”, love of affection “Phileo”, or love of action “agape”. The relationship between God and the human being are embedded in all these relationships and much more. She then provided four quotations about love from a different era, country, ethnicity, and religious belief including atheist for writing practice, and students have three prompts for the quotation to choose from. The time is near Valentine’s Day. The topic would perfectly fit the theme and the content was inclusive: multi-religious and ethnicities were included.

Very often, there will be more than one religion represented in the classroom. Including relevant quotations from world religions on the topic can produce a space where students can learn from one another not just a Christian value, but pan-religious (Mahboob, 2011). Purgason (2016) also provided Christian music-based content catering to different levels of students. Again, the focus of language skills was listening rather than find out students’ ethics or moral beliefs.

Besides, Integrate faith into the lesson plan is more than doing, the being of a teacher, such as showing personal virtues of love and respect as well as humility to students and embracing beliefs other than one’s own (Mambu, 2017) is the living testimony to our Christian faith.

Conclusion:

Even Biblical characters had a life outside of the temple which is not alien to Christian belief. They did not listen to the Word all the time who had a full range of living, from birth, marriage, work, feasting, fighting, complaining to singing and dancing. God’s glory and Truth manifest through every faculty of life. Jesus has passed down the torch to his disciples. It was their time to exercise all the power and authority that were empowered to them. They have been equipped by their Master's teachers. They carried out the missions that Jesus Christ has entrusted them and their transformations exemplified the work the LORD has done in them. This is the calling for all CELTs. It is not just about doing but being. When we are a spiritual being, everything we do in Christ is spiritual, whether it is teaching the Bible, a lesson about work, or chores. Our first allegiance is Christ which means the motive behind every job is for Him. We do it with excellence in the field God has called us to because Jesus Christ has set a perfect example for all of us for being a Master Teacher.

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What were their motives

Among these five teachers, Sarah and Martha who are more experienced TESOL teachers did genuinely care about helping their students’ to improve their English. They were effective teachers cross-culturally who apply the insights gained from cultural observation to practical issues in the classroom (Lingefelter, 2003). They recognized how much their students needed help in improving their English so they created their curriculums catering to their needs by adopting some local topics and themes. For example, Martha learned to cook Chinese food and incorporated into one of her lesson about food. Bruce and Rensy did not go through any interview process and in fact, the hiring process was done through a 5 min phone call. For Daniel, he submitted one paper in French and that was the only requirement. They all had the free pass since there were native English speakers. But communicative competence is insufficient for teaching English to speakers of other languages (Dormer, 2001) and they all had a hard time to teach in the classroom. Bruce’s sole motive was to share the gospel so lacking of such competency did not affect them. He considered his “mission” was rather successful since one student came to faith out of the 50 students that he had and the other one was interested. “We have to share the gospel to the lost and English was my undercover”, Bruce said firmly.

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God’s people all receive the great commandment from the LORD Jesus (Luke 10:27). God’s heart is for all Nations to hear the good news. Christians, like sinners who have been reconciled with God through Jesus Christ, are our primary identity. There is a continuous discussion about whether Christians should integrate their faith into their workplace or not. As an evangelical Christian, I believe the answer is yes. However, our missionary and teacher identity has to be reconciled to faith in the classroom (Wong 2016, 11). After talking to five MTS graduates who have experience teaching TESOL overseas, I discovered their different motives for teaching. The paper tends to discover what CELTs’ motives should be particularly in light of the love of agape in Luke 10:27 and how to integrate such belief into lesson plans. 

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God’s people all receive the great commandment from the LORD Jesus (Luke 10:27). God’s heart is for all Nations to hear the good news. Christians, like sinners who have been reconciled with God through Jesus Christ, are our primary identity. There is a continuous discussion about whether Christians should integrate their faith into their workplace or not. As an evangelical Christian, I believe the answer is yes. However, our missionary and teacher identity has to be reconciled to faith in the classroom (Wong 2016, 11). After talking to five MTS graduates who have experience teaching TESOL overseas, I discovered their different motives for teaching. The paper tends to discover what CELTs’ motives should be particularly in light of the love of agape in Luke 10:27 and how to integrate such belief into lesson plans. 

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The Interviewees:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

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The Interviewees:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

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Who they are:
From holding a Wheaton TESOL certificate to non-trained English NSs, from sending by mission organizations to volunteering overseas, all five teachers have reexamined their motives during the interview.

Sarah is a Caucasian American speaker and she holds a degree in teaching Chinese and a certificate to teach ESL from DePaul. She taught English in China informally and has been teaching Chinese Immigrants in Chinatown since 2012. Sarah was passionate about teaching and she learned some Chinese before she went to China. She helped her students to improve their English inside and outside of the classroom. Her Christian faith was mentioned with her students esp. during Christian holidays

Martha has a certificate from Wheaton and holds a high school education in English. She went to China through ELIC. From 2012 to 2015, she taught English to Chinese undergraduate students who also had all the freedom in her lesson plans as long as she talks about them in American cultural class. The content included scriptures and Christian holidays. She also learned Chinese and her main concern was to understand the culture and her students better so that she can better serve them in helping them to improve their English. She noticed her students were shy in her conversation class so she allowed them to memorize the script first, then performed the conversation in front of others at the beginning. Her teaching methods and techniques changed according to the students that she was teaching.  Many of her students later worked at International companies and went aboard later.

Bruce has never taught English before nor had any training in teaching English. He holds a degree in Music education. Recruited by an organization under CRU, he taught from 1977 to 1988 to postgraduate students in a university in the North. His sole purpose was to share the gospel so did the organization. He was teaching grammar and English literature to those postgraduate students. As he admitted himself, his class was very unstructured that he only used the Bible as the teaching materials and there was no lesson plan. When I asked how Bruce assessed his students, he paused and said, we just talked about the Bible in class. The same answer was given to other questions about his techniques, methods, and lesson plan.

Daniel taught English to middle school students in France. He never had any experience nor training in teaching English and he struggled to live as a foreigner in France from 2012-2013. He never talked about his faith and he chose not to have any relationship with other teachers nor students outside of his workplace since it would be considered unprofessional according to his view. He tried to learn how to teach from other local teachers and the whole time, he was struggling to do the lesson plan.

Rensy taught in Ecuador as a TA and she was helping a local English teacher in 2013. As an exchange students in Ecuador, she wanted to find something to do after her study. She mainly assisted the teacher and she did not feel she had any relationship with the students, who also did not feel she had any techniques in teaching.