interview questions

Could you describe a particular strength related to your teaching?

Could you describe a particular weakness related to your teaching, and how you're working to improve it?

Could you tell us about any innovative assignments or activities you've used in the classroom?

Which linguists have most influenced your teaching, and can you describe how?

Would you use case-based or project-based approaches in our technical report writing (service) course? What projects or cases might you use?

Could you describe what strengths you'd bring to our new ESL writing major?

Could you tell us how you'd design an "introduction to ESL writing" course for new majors?

Tell us about your research data and your timeline for completing the dissertation

Tell us about your research

Follow up to the previous question: how do you teach identity in a writing classroom?

What connection have you made between your research and teaching so far?

Name some theorists who influenced your teaching

Tell us how you teach writing process in one of the classes you taught

How would you teach workplace and scientific writing?

Where do you see or would like to be in 4-5 years in terms of career goals and how do you see our program and the school helping you with that?

How do you help new teachers learn to teach with technology?

Tell us about your dissertation is usually first [you should talk for two-four minutes on the points that follow, pause and ask if they want you to elaborate], what problem it attacks (and why that problem is significant to the field), how you are doing it, some preliminary findings, what you hope it will contribute

What grad course would you most like to teach?

If you could design a new course what would it be?

How do you teach new media (or some other course they see on your vita)?

How would you develop an undergraduate major in this area (might be technology, might be mentoring)

Explain my philosophy of teaching.

Name three theorists who have influenced my work.

Explain my philosophy of program administration.

Explain how I teaching culture without essentializing (yikes!)

Tell them how I'd set up an undergrad major in ESL.

Tell them what I thought about distance learning.

Tell us about this "massive undertaking" (your dissertation) and how you see it influencing your teaching.

Tell us about your teaching philosophy, specifically with regards to teaching first year composition.

Tell us about your research agenda. What projects do you see emerging from your dissertation? Do you see those as being article-length or book-length projects, and what's your timeline for them? What interests will you be pursuing in the next five years?

Besides computers and composition, what are your favorite or most used ESL theories or SLA theorists? What areas of ESL do you find most interesting in addition to computers and composition?

What do you like to do for fun?

How would you approach teaching entry level technical writing?

What Web design programs do you use with your students and in your work?

How do you include technology in your teaching, particularly in first-year composition?

Are there any innovative or interesting activities that you've done in your first-year composition classes?

Do you know Jon Bush?

Could you tell us about your work in the Writing Lab, and how you feel about writing labs in general?

Our graduate program is expanding, and we'd like to focus more on professionalism with regard to our students. Could you tell us about one thing from your graduate career -- something you had or didn't have -- that you think would be useful for graduate students here?

Can you tell us how your research [on nuclear bomb makers] might fit in with our new RC grad program which has a very strong emphasis on intercultural communication/rhetoric?

If you had to pick one class to teach as the first class in a new undergraduate major in writing, what would that class be? (Then they backed off and went for the more standard "What's your dream class?" question)

How do you see internships fitting into our major and/or graduate programs and how would you develop an internship program?

What's the purpose of a Ph.D. program? (that one was a beaut!)

Could you describe a particular strength related to your teaching? Could you describe a particular weakness related to your teaching, and how you're working to improve it?

Could you tell us about any innovative assignments or activities you've used in the classroom?

Which linguists/theorists have most influenced your teaching, and can you describe how?

Would you use case-based or project-based approaches in our technical report writing (service) course? What projects or cases might you use?

Could you describe one of your most successful strategies for teaching writing? Could you describe one aspect of teaching writing that you feel like you're still working on?

How do you make the concept of audience real to your students?

How do you manage authority in the classroom and in marking papers?

Which courses in our new writing minor could you teach?

Which courses would you be interested in developing for our new writing minor?

What attracts you to this place?

How do you feel/how will you manage the transition from a large research institution such as Purdue to a small teaching institution such as our school?

How has your dissertation research shaped your teaching?

Which composition theorists have been most influential to your teaching?

What is your five year research plan?

The person we hire will likely take over as Director of ESL in the future; how do you feel about this?

How would you go about building community in a composition program and putting a positive public face on that program.

If we were to start an MA program in professional writing, what courses should it require and what experiences do you have that would help in building this program?

How does your experience and education qualify you for this job?

How could you use team teaching to provide your students with a better education?

What are the pros and cons of team teaching?

In what ways can you use technology in your teaching?

What role should technology play in the classroom and in the curriculum?

What is your philosophy on discipline?

How do you keep up with innovations in education?

What is your teaching philosophy?

Tell us about the most difficult student that you've taught. What did you learn from that experience?

One of the students in your classroom is misbehaving. How will you address the situation?

How does your education qualify you for this job?

Why did you choose to attend the college that you are attending?

What aspect of your education applies to this position?

What training have you received that qualifies you for this job?

What have you done outside of formal education to improve yourself?

What training opportunities have you taken advantage of and why?

What were your three greatest accomplishments on your last job?

What are some of the things on your current job you have done well?

What is the most difficult assignment you have had?

What accomplishment on the job (or publication) are you the most proud of?

Describe yourself.

What do you know about our organization?

What skills and abilities do you have?

What did you like best about your previous job?

Recall an incident where you made a major mistake. What did you do after the mistake was made? What did you learn from this mistake?

What is the greatest failure you've had? What would you have done differently?

What action on the job are you the least proud of?

Tell us about a difficult situation that you encountered and how you resolved it.

What role does error correction play in your teaching?

What textbooks would you use to teach …(x)?

Describe for us a typical lesson in your…(x)…class.

How would you handle a class with diverse proficiency levels?

Why are you interested in working with us?

How did you get into teaching?

What is your view on the role of grammar instruction?

Do you have any concerns about handling a class as far as classroom discipline is concerned?

How would you handle a class with diverse backgrounds?

Describe a challenge you’ve faced in the classroom and how you solved it.

What are some of the challenges that you’ve encountered in your last teaching position?

How do you feel about relocating in order to take this position (If overseas…cultural adaptation?)

Tell us about the students at your last school. (Did you enjoy working with them?)

What are your greatest strengths in the classroom?

We see that you don’t have that much teaching experience…can you tell us about the experiences that you have had?

What role(s) do you think a teacher should play in the classroom?

What (other) types of courses would you be interested in teaching?

I see here on your resume that you have lived/traveled in…(foreign country)…Can you tell us about that experience?

What is one of the best classes you’ve ever taught? Describe it to us.

We’re interested in incorporating more technology use into our classrooms…How do you use technology in your classes?

What types of professional activities do you/have you engaged in?

If I called this reference, what would he/she say about you?

We need someone to teach…(x)…I see that you haven’t taught this course yet. Would you feel comfortable teaching it?

Can you tell us about the curriculum design/testing project you did?

What is one of your biggest strengths?

How will you bring cultural instruction into your classroom?

Thanks to Scott, Xiaoye, and a lot of other people for these questions! I found some online too. If you have some more, please tell me :)
PS. Some questions are about rhet-com. i've try to change some for ESL.