Category Archives: Techniques
Ways to Improve Adult ESL Learners’ Pronunciation Skills
By Dorit Sasson
One of the most difficult and trickiest areas for language educators to teach and ESL (English as a second language) learners to acquire is that of pronunciation. ESL students new to the States, know the importance of speaking communication yet often their accents get in the way of correct pronunciation and as a result, have an even more difficult time being understood.
Today’s current focus on communicative approaches to ESL instruction and the increasing emphasis on oral communication skills and teamwork are renewing interest in the role that pronunciation plays in adults’ overall communicative competence.
Incorporating Pronunciation in Instruction
Celce-Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin (1996) introduced a curriculum that supports a communicative and cognitive approach to teaching pronunciation. It takes into account features of North American pronunciation and the sound system and builds effective pronunciation lessons and activities.
Teachers who teach pronunciation need to build their lessons on targeted instructional pronunciation goals which include the following:
- Teach the pronunciation feature which help raises learner awareness
- Listeners practice and listen for recognizing the targeted feature
- Provide guided practice and feedback based on structured communication exercises
- Provide communicative practice and feedback on specific pronunciation instruction
A lesson on word stress, based on these instructional goals, could include the following information:
1. The teacher presents a list of targeted vocabulary items from the current lesson, employing both correct and incorrect word stress. In order for English learners living outside English speaking countries to listen to a native speaker’s speech, teachers can run Panopreter text to speech software ( http://www.panopreter.com ) on their Windows 7 or Vista desktops or laptops, then Microsoft Anna will read out any English text clearly at various speed This is a good opportunity to introduce the concept of word stress and model it again and again. modeled.
2. Microsoft Anna can help learners listen for and identify stressed syllables, using sequences of nonsense syllables of varying lengths (e.g., da-DA,da-da-DA-da).
3. Learners go back to the list of vocabulary items from step one and, together, they show the right stress pattern by tapping out the stressed syllabus with a pen or on their laps. They can also clap the stress patterns. Teachers can also add new words to sustain continued practice, if relevant.
4. Pair work – Learners take turns reading a scripted dialogue where most of the words are understood in terms of meaning. As one learner speaks, the other indicates the stress arrangement on a printed copy. This is a good opportunity to provide feedback on the discrimination of sounds.
Teaching pronunciation is probably one of the areas that language teachers least enjoy addressing in the language classroom. But with up to date software for teaching pronunciation and guided interactive practice, learners can acquire pronunciation in a more user-friendly and communicative way.
Works Cited
Celce-Murcia. M., Brinton, D., & Goodwin, J. (1996). Teaching pronunciation: Reference for teachers of English to speakers of other languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Teaching ESL teachers the basics of accuracy and fluency in ESL instruction is only part of a presentation regularly offered by Dorit Sasson as part of her in-service training programs for teachers of English language learners. For more information about speaking engagements and in-service, contact Dorit Sasson at sassondorit@gmail.com or visit the Teachers’ Diversity Coach, at http://www.DoritSasson.com and click on the “speaking” page.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dorit_Sasson
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Instructional Video of the Week: A Superhero Work out to Teach Comparatives
Image by KierDuros via Flickr
After going out trick or treating this Halloween in your Superman costume don’t just consign it to your closet for another year. Release that inner superhero in your class with the superhero workout.
The superhero workout is a great way for your students to learn comparatives and burn off some of that extra energy gained form eating all that Halloween candy. These activities get students involved in the class and gives them visual cues to reinforce their language learning.
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Watch and read about more ways to improve your ESL classes by clicking here.Using Pre-Assessment Techniques to Plan Instruction
By Dorit Sasson
Image by Jixar via Flickr
Assessment that is custom designed to fit a particular classroom situation gives an accurate picture of struggling ELLs and their reading abilities. Pre-assessment and post-assessment techniques help teachers identify a starting point and steps in the process of adapting the curriculum for ELLs in a general education framework. Informal assessment, such as observation and documentation allows teachers to modify lesson plans as needed to make sure ELLs grasp key concepts.
Assessment provides teachers with concrete evidence as they consider what they can do to improve students’ learning. Pre-assessment results can guide teachers as they plan and implement steps to meet instructional goals, including goals to deepen reading comprehension and increase fluency. Informal assessment conducted alongside instruction helps teachers refine learning goals and objectives.
An Overview of Assessment Procedures in an ELL Classroom
Research shows that a system of accountability is necessary for supporting ELLs in general education classes as well as ESLs who receive language support in small instructional groups. “The research on the development of English literacy strongly suggests that adequate assessments are essential for gauging the individual strengths and weaknesses of language-minority students, making placement decisions, and tailoring instruction to meet student needs” (Shanahan and August, Executive summary, page 6). Ideally, a system of accountability should be supported by a wide variety of assessment measures, which have been carefully aligned with the program’s content standards, curriculum, and actual classroom instructional practices (Espinosa and Lopez, 2007).
Assessment Techniques
Teachers evaluate their students prior to, during, and after instruction using a variety of procedures and techniques. In the context of ELLs in a general education classroom, teachers will want to begin pre-assessment procedures with various forms of diagnostic testing to determine what their students can and cannot do. This information will also help the teacher modify and differentiate classroom instruction. During instruction, teachers use informal observations, samples of student work, and other forms of documentation to provide them with current information about student achievement. Reflective learning logs may play a role as educators reflect on instructional goals and what they learn from collaboration about various assessment techniques.
Questions for consideration include:
o What assessment type did you use? Did it contain all elements for the “struggling ELL” definition?
o When do ESL and general education teachers collaborate on joint assessments?
o When and how was your first assessment completed to determine eligibility of students in a general education class?
o How and when do you continue to update assessment to determine progress?
Student performance should be determined by a variety of factors including that of assessment. Struggling learners should be evaluated based upon their progress in general education and ESL classes based on material that is designed for their level. Schools and districts in general, have their own state standard test for intake and placement of entering ELLs as well as exit exams for determining placement of ESL students. However schools do not provide guidelines for determining struggling ELLs’ progress according to standards designed for general education classes or ESL learning groups. This is where ESL and general education teachers can jointly plan assessment procedures in order to ensure that their students are progressing.
One way teachers can effectively do this is to evaluate assessment results in order to successfully engage their struggling ELLs. One major question teachers should ask when planning assessments jointly is: “Do all students fit the definition of struggling ELLs” or more specifically, can all struggling ELL perform all assessment based task?
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Dorit Sasson is a freelance writer, speaker, educator and founder of the New Teacher Resource Center.
Article Source: Dorit_Sasson
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Instructional Video of the Week: Teaching Activities for Speaking
Getting students to speak and participate in class activities can be one of the more difficult aspects of teaching English as a second language. Speaking English in class gives students practical experience in the day to day usage of the language and can become a fun element of lessons. Certain barriers need to be overcome such as shyness or fear of making mistakes however with proper planning many of these issues can be overcome.
Lets look at some of the steps you can take to make your speaking class a success.
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Plan
When devising a lesson set out key the learning outcomes you wish students to achieve. Make sure you provide the necessary tools and resources your students will need to be able to participate in the discussion. Decide how the class will be set up. Will it be a class discussion with the where everyone participates together or will the conversation take place in smaller groups.
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Preparation
Give your students the opportunity to prepare and practice what they will be saying or discussing. Provide them with the vocabulary they will need and help them to use it in the situations that will occur in the discussions. You can also provide prompts to the students to help them to remember key phrases or vocabulary.
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Create involvement
By selecting a topic/s that students are interested in or feel passionately about you create an atmosphere where students want to put across their ideas or views. This can lead to even the most shy students becoming involved in a discussion. By relating the conversation to the students lives you are able to highlight the practical uses of English, encouraging them to implement what they have studied in conversational form. With younger learners adding storytelling and role playing into the class can allow students to practice their speaking in a fun informal way.
Below is a great video from the British Council focusing on making speaking activities effective.
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Top Tips for Teaching Business English
Image via Wikipedia
It’s a common misconception that teaching Business English is a lot more difficult that teaching general English. Granted it will take a bit more research depending on what business sector your students are from, but preparation is the key to seeming confident and knowledgeable in front of your students. The following tips should help you feel more prepared when you take on a Business English class for the first time.
1. English Needs Assessment
Before you start any course I highly recommend a needs assessment session in the first lesson. Not only will it break the ice and get people talking, it’s also imperative to find out what the students are hoping to achieve from the course. This way, with the information you have collected you can pick out interesting lessons in the books (instead of following it from Chapter 1 all the way through). For example, one group I taught was mostly secretaries and admin staff so they wanted to focus on phone conversation skills and email writing.
Another important thing to ask students is about any specialist vocabulary they need in their day to day work that you can teach them. That means you’ll be able to go back and do research straight away and find out similar terminology that they may need in their sector. This comes hand in hand with researching the company your students are from as well as reading up on their sector and finding specialist terms.
2. Books
If you’re asked to buy or choose books for classes I can recommend the In Company series by Macmillan. I found them really good with the audio CDs and the worksheets at the back of the teacher’s book. These worked well from Pre-Intermediate to Advanced, although if you think that your students will be moving up classes a lot, the topics tend to be the same throughout the books. Another series I have used is Powerbase by Longman – this was good for absolute beginners and elementary groups. I had my own material as well of course to complement the book, and the internet is always full of ideas and activities.
3. Areas to Focus On
One area which I would definitely recommend you focus on is Telephone Talk through role plays. What I found useful were role play cards where, for example, one person is a receptionist and the other wants to speak to someone in the company and leaves a specific message. Put students back to back when doing these exercises. It will force them to listen to each other more carefully as in a phone situation. Role play activities are excellent practice too which will allow them to act out common situations such as meeting someone for the first time, or what to say at a dinner party. Make sure that all these activities are as relevant to their real job as possible.
Another very important topic is Email writing. Give your students the tools and confidence to start and end emails in a professional way. Go over phrases that they will come across and get them to practice writing each other emails that they would need to write in their every day jobs.
It’s always more beneficial to tailor the lessons to students’ specific needs rather than follow a book too closely. I recommend you be open with your class and ask them what they would like to learn and get regular feedback about how they feel they’re progressing. During lessons also keep a note of other areas or terms which may need a bit of work on as they come up. I hope these tips have been of use!
About the Author:
Nadia Zehni has extensive experience teaching English as a Foreign Language in England, Malta and France. She is a regular contributor to EnglishForums.com, the world’s busiest EFL community, which receives over 30,000 visits a day. It?s an excellent resource for EFL teachers looking for information about grammar, phonetics, EFL jobs and teaching tips. English students on the other hand can learn English by posting questions and getting help from volunteer EFL teachers, as well as speaking with other learners. To benefit from this fantastic resource sign up for free at http://www.englishforums.com!
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