ESL Teachig Techiques Alysa Croydo, Seattle Goodwill. Ageda Itro ad overview Warm up Laguage lesso ad debrief Trasferrable teachig techiques: o Visuals o Questio hierarchy o Grids o Dialogues ad Role plays Tips for commuicatig with ELL s Resources Adult learers eed: Relatioship- Create a comfortable learig eviromet so that your studet(s) iteract with each other ad with you Relevace- The cotet of classes eeds to be liked to the adult s real-life eeds ad iterests. If ot immediately obvious, the help make that coectio for studets. Rigor- Adult learers eed to see ad kow that they are learig ad their time is used efficietly. Curriculum (cotet of lessos) should be: Flexible ad resposive to the eeds ad goals of the studets Reviewed ad recycled over time A balace of ew material ad practice Balace skills of learig to uderstad, speak, read ad write Learig activities should: Require studets to produce laguage i a variety of ways Have a cocrete hook Be coected to a real purpose Build from what is already kow to ew material Be demostrated Be used more tha oce Challege the studet to stretch but ot too much Alysa Croydo ESL Teachig Techiques 1
Arabic Lesso Debrief (take otes) Helped Did t help Other Priciples for Laguage Teachig Alysa Croydo ESL Teachig Techiques 2
Techiques ad Activities ESL Questio Hierarchy The followig structures for askig questios are arraged from easiest to most difficult i the rage of laguage required to aswer them. 1. Yes/No Questios Do you live i Seattle? Is this your so? 2. Either/Or Questios Do you live i Seattle or Tacoma? Is this yours o or your daughter 3. Wh ad H Questios What is your ame? Whe is your birthday? Where do you live? How may childre do you have? 4. Iferece/ ope-eded questios Tell me about What do you thik? Alysa Croydo ESL Teachig Techiques 3
Grids Procedure u Itroduce the topic or vocabulary set. u Elicit ad poit to the picture or questio o the grid. u Model the ew laguage. Grids most aturally led themselves to questios/aswer format Do you like pizza? Do you like tea? Do you like ice cream? Do you like crab? u Mark the studet s aswers o the grid. u Repeat for the ext studet. u Wheever studets are ready, they ca take over the role of the questioer. Grids ca also be haded out for studets to complete i groups or as idividual surveys, rotatig the role of askig questios. Do you like tea? Do you like ice cream? Do you like crab? Follow up Activities Lie-up If studets eed more practice with the target laguage i order to complete the grid, set up a lie-up. Have studets lie up facig each other. Have studets ask each other the questios. Move a studet o oe side of the lie from oe ed of the lie to the other. Studets shuffle oe parter to the right, facig a ew parter. Repeat the process util everyoe i the lie has paired with everyoe o the other side. Oce the iformatio o the grid has bee elicited, recorded, modeled, ad practiced i this way, pick ad choose from these optioal practice ad literacy activities: True / False Make statemets about the iformatio o the grid. Mohamed likes pizza. Poit to the squares o the grid as you do so. Have studets idetify it as true / false or right / wrog. Repeat a umber of times. Poit to squares siletly ad have studets produce appropriate statemets. Practice various types of questios ad aswers: Yes/o questios Do you like pizza? Does your daughter like pizza? Either/or questios Does Hawa like pizza or ice cream? Who likes ice cream? Hawa or Mohamed? Alysa Croydo ESL Teachig Techiques 4
WH questios What does Mohamed like? Who likes ice cream? Studets cout, add, compare, cotrast, aalyze, summarize, geeralize, or speculate about the iformatio o the grid. What do most people i your family like? How may people like crab? Do may Somali studets like coffee? Lear words ad phrases to make coectios. I like pizza, but my daughter does t. Mohamed likes tea ad coffee. The grid works as a great cotext to itroduce ew vocabulary ad structures for summarizig. Everybody / obody Nobody likes tea ad coffee. Somali studets like coffee. Negatives My husbad does t like rai. Third perso statemets She likes tea ad crab. Discuss the iformatio i a geeral way to exted coversatio How ofte did you eat it? Where did you get it? How did you cook it? Did you eat it i (coutry)? Ask aythig that the studets ca uderstad i this cotext that helps to exted the practice. Alysa Croydo ESL Teachig Techiques 5
Dialogues ad Role-plays Whe studets have eeds to commuicate i specific situatios, dialogues ad role-plays are a atural way to practice speakig i a cotext for a specific purpose. Dialogues Dialogues are scripted coversatios that respod to a clear purpose your studets have for commuicatig. Your studets may have told you that they wat to iteract at the post-office, call i sick or speak to their doctor. They may cosist of a few lies: Hi, How are you? Fie, thaks or they may ivolve several exchages: Customer service: May I help you? You: I eed to retur this shirt Customer service: Is this exchage or refud? You: Excuse me? Customer service: Do you wat to chage it for aother oe or do you wat your moey back? You: I wat my moey back Procedure: Set the scee. Use pictures or drawigs. Make it clear who is talkig, where ad about what. Model the dialogue. Play both parts or recruit someoe to help Check Comprehesio. What did they say? Why are they talkig, etc.? Model agai if ecessary Teach the studets speakig part lie by lie. Drill for prouciatio ad accuracy Practice the dialogue with the teacher Studets practice i pairs Readig ad writig activities (order the lies of the dialogue, fill i the blak, etc.) Studets may wat a writte copy of the dialogue if they read well. However, dialogues should be practiced ad memorized ot read. If studets wat to see the writte form for security, esure that they also practice without the script. A alterative is to write the dialogue o the board to begi with but erase whole lies ad words as studets become more accurate. Role-plays Role-plays are ope-eded as studets use ay laguage at their disposal to meet the goal of the roleplay. Studets read about their role ad problem o a role-card or situatio card. There is o script. A role-play may iclude several people i a coversatio. They are effective activities to teach some of the cultural rules of commuicatio such as makig eye cotact ad usig a toe ad volume appropriate to a give situatio. Example: Look at the job aoucemet. Thik of questios you wat to ask about this job. Ask the perso at the frot desk your questios Alysa Croydo ESL Teachig Techiques 6
Procedure Set the scee. Iclude studets world ad persoal experiece Has ayoe looked for a job/ what happeed? What did you do? Perform role-play. Teacher circulates ad takes otes of good ad bad resposes Provide feedback o errors ad commuicatio style from your otes Role-plays make a good assessmet. See if studets are able to produce the appropriate vocabulary ad structures you have already practiced to meet the commuicatio purpose without promptig from you. They ca also be used to fid out what laguage a studet lacks i a specific situatio. The role-play ca the be repeated oce teachig of cotet is completed. Tips for Talkig with Eglish Laguage Learers Aythig that helps commuicatio "goes": pictures, drawigs, ad body laguage. Be creative ad good spirited. Do't worry about errors - yours or theirs! Limit your correctio to cotrolled lesso stages Laugh a lot. Humor eases tesio ad makes commuicatio fu. Try to be quiet. Wait at least 5 secods after askig a questio. Speak at a ormal volume. Try to speak at ormal speed but slow dow whe you get a comprehesio block Whe you get a comprehesio block, try rephrasig. Use somethig else. Try writig it dow or drawig a picture Ask perso to tell you what they have uderstood. Do't be afraid to tell someoe that you do't uderstad. Tell what you have uderstood ad where you got lost. Go from the kow to the ukow, from the simple to the complex. Resources Teacher resources: Places to fid activities, games or how-tos http://bogglesworldesl.com http://puzzlemaker.com http://azargrammar.com http://hadouthub.com http://eglishclub.com www.caela.org A archive of useful short articles o ESL teachig topics. www.apsva.us/reep has lesso plas o commo topics www.iteslj.com Has a useful list of coversatio questios www.eslcafe.com/ The ideas cookbook has lots of tasks ad activities Alysa Croydo ESL Teachig Techiques 7
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