One of the biggest challenges trainee ESL teachers face is identifying how they were taught and realizing when they’re teaching the same way.
While the teacher-fronted PPP model works fine for elementary and secondary school students; today’s adult ESL students require their learning to be both self directed and embracing of their prior experiences.
Attached is a powerpoint I used to introduce the concept of teaching ESL to adult learners. lnkd.in/aPP3Yx
Feedback is welcome.
Simply: Have them create their own content.
I adapted a textbook exercise on giving advice about moving back home with your parents to use with my intermediate listening/speaking class. Students completed the following steps to create their own advice video:
By recording, viewing, critiquing, and re-recording the videos, my students had much more speaking and listening practice that they would have by just reading an article and answering some questions.
When students create their own content, it creates great buy in! To view the videos, please visit the American Culture & Language Institute’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/aclialexandria
A major hurdle for ESL student’s developing language proficiency is academic vocabulary use. Using a fun and familiar language task, such as a crossword, as a form of alternative assessment, engages students in using both memory and problem solving/exploratory learning skills to solve the task. In addition, crosswords can scaffold students’ participation during the task as identification of known words helps students identify less familiar ones.
I created the following crossword using a Mac App called “Puzzlemaker Lite.” The task helps me study the terminology used in my language assessment class. I’m hoping to use the same software to create crosswords for a vocabulary and spelling class in NVCC’s non-credit ESL program.
What’s the Best Pronunciation Diagnostic Tool?
Finding an authentic, practical, valid, and reliable assessment tool for pronunciation is a bit of a struggle. I’m torn between wanted to used a controlled method by having students read a paragraph or a semi-controlled method by having students read a first part of a story and then use pictures to finish it in their own words.
Controlled Vs. Semi-Controlled Methods to Generate Speech
Both have pros and cons. Controlled methods have students produce speech acts that they may not do on their own, i.e. pronounce multi-syllable words, ask questions, use reported speech, etc., but the act of reading aloud doesn’t produce natural speech in NES, let alone NNES. With the cons in mind, this semester I’ve opted for the semi-controlled method.
A “complete the story task” has students produce authentic speech and reading acts so that the teacher can assess students’ reading comprehension, fluency, and pronunciation accuracy. By assessing interrelated language skills, the test is integrative. The task is communicative in that it produces an authentic speech act: telling a story, and an authentic reading task: reading for information. The task is an example of alternative/formative assessment in that it assesses students’ developing English language skills and the feedback would later be used to inform both the teacher’s identification of strengths and weaknesses and foster students’ independent learning. The tester uses the same story task with each student and evaluates students’ responses using a rubric, thereby aiming to promote inter-rater reliability. The rubric insures that the tester assesses students’ reading comprehension, fluency, and pronunciation accuracy; not their consistent use of tense, agreement, etc., thereby making the assessment valid.
I’ve put together a quick powerpoint on the ways I’ve used technology and social media in ESL instruction. Feedback greatly appreciated. Will use it to train teachers in my ESL program.
Disclaimer: photos are taken from the web and this powerpoint will be used for educational purposes only.
While using “critical literacy skills in a digital world” may seem like just another new skill for students to master, it’s important for teachers and students to remember that they already perform similar critical literacy functions when they review non-electronic media, such as books, newspaper articles, reports, etc.
Just finished viewing my listening, speaking, reading students’ debate on whether plastic surgery benefits outweigh the risks. I recorded the debate on a flip camera and saved the files on my ePortfolio using Evernote. Recording oral presentations helps me in ways similar to my ELLs listening to recordings; in that I play and replay as often as I need to until I’m confident I have found the items I was looking for.
I evaluated my students on a 3-point scale on the following items: clarity of argument, opening and closing statements, delivery, organization and research (planning), following debate rules, and time.
Apart from the fact that my students were totally invested, and did a great job in debating each other in front of an audience, the best part was an aspect that is often the “icing on the cake” for this type of pre-academic exercise. While watching my students’ debates, I began to notice how often they were using signpost language to signal agreement, disagreement, and sequence of points, in addition to topic-specific academic vocabulary.
The content vocabulary was great, but not unusual for this high proficiency level. The class had spent a lot of time preparing for the debate. They had researched the issue on the Internet, listened to interviews about plastic surgery, and conducted in-person surveys of other community college students’ opinions about plastic surgery and the perceived benefits of being physically attractive. I had also given them explicit instruction on signpost language, but their exposure to this was not as extensive as it was to the content of the debate. My reasons for focusing more on content than on form was to improve my students’ background knowledge in the subject, and therefore improve their fluency.
What I wasn’t prepared for was how often they were using the signpost language so necessary for debates to work both for the opposing team, but also for the audience who are evaluating them. My students were saying things like, “for these reasons,” “in addition,” “to the extent that,” and “this is why I believe…”
Wonderful job! I’ll post the video soon.
Finally got a handle on de.li.ci.ous. Looking forward to adding new people to my network. #esl #edtech #digitalliteracy
My 1975 class gathers for a post-debate photo.
Just watched the video from my students’ debate on the pros and cons of plastic surgery. My videography skills need a lot of work 😦 I’ll probably need to edit it a bunch to make the wobblies go away. The Flip camera is easy to use, but it has such a short depth of field, leading me to zoom in and out. Once I figured out how to stop doing that and just film it, the quality got better.
ESL Teaching and Learning 