This week About.com is discussing some of the important concerns about teaching writing skills to ESL/EFL students. I can really relate back to my own learning experience when it comes to writing in English. When I attended the IELTS course for academic purposes, I had no idea how different academic writing is comparing to high school composition writing! I felt like I was writing in a whole new foreign language even though all the words were in English. The structure, the usage of tenses (preferably passive voice) and a whole new set of vocabulary; I never thought I would pass the writing section in the IELTS exams…
Although I have only received four emails from About.com for their online learning – Teaching English as a S2, I have gained some very valuable foundation knowledge in this particular area. When I first enrolled in the Teach English papers for next semester, I had absolutely no idea what would I be taught or what kind of difficulties that I would encounter. But after 4 weeks of reading the About.com emails and reflecting on what they had introduced to me, I’m now more confident and I can say that at least I have some clues of what is to come in the next semester.
About.com is giving an introduction to some of the vital issues related to writing skills for ESL/EFL teachers. A number of examples are included in this week’s introduction demonstrating how to build up writing skills from the sentence level to the paragraph and also a series of examples of teaching essay writing skills.
In order to make the learning experience a long lasting and valuable, students are required to be involved personally in writing exercises. The teacher should be certain and clear on what writing skills they are attempting for the students to develop and learn. Next step is for the teacher to decide on which means, type or exercise can facilitate learning of the target area. Upon defining the target skill area and means of implementation, then the teacher can proceed to focus on the topic s which students can participate in. Both enthusiasm and effective learning from students can be expected when the teacher combines these objectives pragmatically.
A number of factors should be taken into consideration when choosing the target area, for example, the students’ level of English; the average age of the students and any specific goals or aims for students to learn how to write in English. Other important factors in this process are: What outcome is expected from the students to produce at the end of the writing exercise? Will it be a well written letter or basic communication of ideas? What is the focus of the writing exercise? Is it the structure of an essay, tense usage or creative writing? The teacher can then start to focus on strategies to involve the students in the writing exercise in order to build a long lasting and valuable learning experience.
After talking to Darryl this week, he made me realized that we shouldn’t rely solely on the grammar rules set out in the text books when giving lessons on English grammar. We should be more flexible and practical with grammar use especially in our daily life. Nobody speaks like what they read in a textbook and we definitely do not wish our students to be like robots, which are programmed with a rigid set of grammar rules.
Nonetheless, the “grammar banging” (intensive grammar review sheets) method mentioned in this week’s About.com email is both beneficial to the ESL teachers and the students.
Students will become more confident and competent with the use of the passive voice in daily conversations when it is repeated frequently. Bear in mind that the subject area that the students discuss should be limited to a targeted area as not to confuse or make it too difficult for them to comprehend. Students are more likely to produce the targeted outcome when their oral production task is clearly defined for they do not have to concern with the creation of a self-chosen subject.
The Induction Method: Quiz Maze
ESL Inductive Learning and Grammar Review Maze
This learning game helps students to inductively review previously studied grammar.
Instructions
• To correctly move through this maze, students must choose if the sentence is correct or incorrect.
• Black arrows are for correct answers, red arrows for incorrect answers.
• Two numbers are left out of the correct path of the maze.
• If students can't find their way out they know that they have made a mistake along the way and need to check through the sentences again!
Here are the sentence links divided into levels. The final link gives the key to the maze, which is the same for each level. Feel free to print the image out and use the sentences for the appropriate level, or, make up your own sentences - just be sure that the correct and incorrect sentences correspond to the key. :-)
Learning Grammar through Conversation
The aim of this class exercise is to use past forms of modal verbs of probability and advice to reason and discuss difficult issues. The teacher will present a difficult problem and students are asked to use the past forms of modal verbs, for example, must have been, should have done, etc. to discuss the problem and offer suggestions for a possible solution.
• Once the students have discussed the presented difficult problem, divide them into small groups.
• Students then are asked to fill out the sheet including Facts, Conclusions and Judgment and remember to remind them that modal verbs of probability should be used when appropriate.
• Once decisions are reached among the groups, have a class debate and ask each group to share and debate their opinions.
• Keep the conversations going by asking students to think of similar situations that they have heard or been involved with?
The Old School: Grammar Banging
About.com points out:
…“grammar banging” (intensive grammar review sheets) is useful at the end or beginning of the year. The end of year calls for exam preparation and the beginning calls for some review to raise awareness of what has already been learnt and where problems still lies. The sheets provide in these “grammar banging” reviews are very effective because each question focuses on one important, specific area.
The ESL Class Objectives part this week in the About.com email, points out the significance of setting out a clear and concise class plan for both the teacher and the students. From my own experience of attending an English course when I first arrived in NZ was to pass the IELTS exams in order for me to gain access to tertiary education, though I did not end up going to university back then. And because of my specified reason, I worked out a learning plan right at the start of my course; I also had a discussion with my tutor at the time and he provided me with a lot of valuable advices on how to pursue my goal.
My learning experience of the IELTS course was immensely beneficial for my exams and my today’s study at university, especially on the Academic Writing part. I used to write English composition o a secondary school level but never had I imagined learning the knowledge of academic writing, it was so new and exciting to me. Our tutor was so focused on planning an appropriate class for us because our common goal was identified in the beginning of the course.
In this week email, About.com points out that the common purpose of most adult learners is to be able to communicate in English. As a result of this, emphasis is often placed on communicative approaches in the most widespread teaching materials, namely the Oxford and Cambridge University Press Series. It is also beneficial for an ESL teacher to possess the knowledge of a number of teaching techniques and theories in which will assist you to smooth the progress of your students’ learning experience.
Setting ESL Class Objectives
In order to provide your students with a successful learning experience, various reasons as well as language acquisition needs, require to be taken into consideration in the process of planning a class as this is equally significant for both the students and the ESL teacher. Students can only work out a better learning plan when they clearly understand their reasons for learning English. Moreover, once the students have set up their learning plans, it will also assist the teacher to identify their learning needs and desires. As adult learners do not usually have state imposed goals, pragmatic method to English learning is most likely to be the most effective.
I find the information from About.com this week provides me with a basic introduction to the field of ESL teaching. Learning some of the commonly used abbreviations is highly useful if I am to pursue the career path in teaching English.
The advice included in the Basic Theory 1 about acquiring references for English grammar usages is highly valuable for me. At times, I find myself struggling to explain to my friends, non-native English speakers, why certain word forms or grammar rules are applied in particular circumstances. Now I can fall back onto the two books recommended by About.com in order to equip myself with explanations of English grammar rules.
What a wakeup call it is to learn that the best way to teach a language is to Keep It Simple! I was rather disinterested when I first started attending university for most of the ‘academic words’ that my lecturers used were so complicated and foreign to me but when they began to explain them in simple or plain English, my brain suddenly discovered a secret compartment and registered all these new and difficult terminologies in the system!
And talk about creating confusions for the students, I myself despise lecturers skipping from one topic to another within the time span of half a minute; imagine what this situation will be like for non-native speakers when learning a new language?
Lastly, in this week’s introduction on the Basic Theory 2, it seems to me that it is an extremely practical blueprint for the design or building of an English lesson. Since I have been using English for so many years, I am not at all aware that it involves so much effort and time for a non-native speaker to thoroughly understand and use newly learned linguistic functions; six repetitions later they are still like water off a duck’s back!
I am looking forward to the email from About.com for the 2nd Week and see what interesting aspects that I can learn from them
As I am intending to do my minor paper in Language Teaching at AUT University next semester, I have joined up with About.com for their free online teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) or teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL).
In their first week introduction, About.com have sent me an email outlining the basics of teaching English to non-native speakers and also highlighting the increasing demand of English teachers. In this first lesson, we are looking at the issues which are relevant to obtaining qualification in teaching English. In addition, some of the most commonly used terminologies and abbreviations in the ESL or EFL area will be explained in this first lesson.
ESL/EFL Abbreviations Explained
ELT – English Language Teaching ESL – English as a Second Language EFL – English as a Foreign Language
The major difference between ESL and EFL is that ESL means English is taught to other language speakers who are residing in an English speaking country, for example, The United States, Canada, England, Australia and New Zealand. Whereas EFL means English is taught to people who want to learn it for various reasons like, to further their study, for their work or as a hobby in a non-English speaking country.
Some other examples of significant abbreviations in ELT:
AE – American English BC – British Council CanE – Canadian English DELTA – Diploma in English language teaching EAP – English for Academic Purposes FCE – First Certificate in English GPA – Grade Point Average IATEFL – International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language KET – Key English Test (The most elementary of Cambridge’s series of exams) L1 – Language 1=native language (mother tongue) L2 – Language 2=second language being learned MT – Mother Tongue NNL – Non-Native Language OE – Old English OED – Oxford English Dictionary PET – Preliminary English Test (The second of Cambridge’s series of exams) RP – Received Pronunciation-‘standard’ British pronunciation SAE – Standard American English TESOL – Teaching English to Speakers of Other Language VE – Vocational English YLE – Young Learners English Tests-Cambridge Examinations for young learners
Beginning guide to Teaching ESL
Basic Theory 1
Although some ESL teachers possess a great knowledge of English grammar, it is advisable to have some creditable references when providing explanations for exceptions of rules and irregularities of word forms. ESL teachers can consider these two books as grammar reference guide when delivering lessons to non-native speakers; Practical English Usage by Michael Swan published by Oxford University Press and English Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy published by Cambridge University Press.
Another important point to remember is that Keep It Simple! For example, slow down and use easy vocabulary. ESL teachers who are native speakers of English are usually not aware that they speak fairly quickly and most of them need to make a conscious effort to slow down when speaking. And it is more significant for them to become aware of the type of vocabulary and structures when they teach. Another example, it is recommended for ESL teachers to focus on a certain function of grammar and utilise that particular function during the lesson as this will certainly avoid any confusion for the students.
Basic Theory 2
A few essential points to be taken into consideration when designing or building a programme for an English lesson:
1. Language Recycling
Non-native speakers need repetitions of new linguistic functions in everyday conversations in order to remember and use them actively. Studies show that even after six repetitions, students still find the newly acquired linguistic functions to be still simply passively activated.
2. Using all four language skills – reading, writing, listening and speaking
Practising the language through reading, writing, listening and speaking during class is a highly recommended method of Language Recycling. Not only does this method introduce interesting variety to students’ learning process, it also assist them pragmatically practise the language which leads onto the next point in the design of an English class.
3. Getting students to actively practise skills that they are learning
