Filed under: Methodology, professional development | Tags: developing a teaching approach, English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, learning goals, students' needs
The transition to a new calendar year is an opportune time for reflection. Language learners can be made aware of their progress and be reminded of the responsibility they share with you, their teachers, for a successful learning outcome. One way to do this is by writing observations and goals. Ask students to consider the following questions and share their thoughts with you in writing.
GOALS SHEET
1. Where my English WAS
· Describe your English 6 months ago.
2. Where my English IS
· Describe your English now. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
· What have you done or what have you been doing to improve your English?
3. Where my English WILL BE
· What do you want to be able to do in English in one year?
· What will you do to reach your language goal(s)?
· How can your teacher(s) help you reach your language goal(s)?
So far, I’ve only mentioned how the Goals Sheet benefits the language learner. However, there are certainly advantages for the teacher, too. Knowing how your students view their language learning experience can help you develop your general approach to teaching ESL and plan lessons on a day-to-day basis. You’ll be better able to modify your set of teaching strategies to accommodate their learning preferences, and you’ll be more aware of their wants and needs as you choose topics and activities.
Filed under: Vocabulary | Tags: connotations, English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, Pearson Longman, Vocabulary, vocabulary activity, vocabulary games, Vocabulary Power, word association
Here’s a good use of those final minutes of class time. Review key vocabulary via a word association game. It not only reinforces knowledge of definitions, but also sharpens students’ understanding of connotations and contexts in which vocabulary is used.
STEP 1 – If this is the first time you’re playing the game, you’ll need to model the task: Write two key words on opposite sides of the board. Example (from Chapter 17 of Vocabulary Power 1):
LOCAL LOYAL
Next, think out loud and write a word you associate with the key word on the left: “When I think of LOCAL, I think of things in my NEIGHBORHOOD.” Write this word on the board to start forming a chain of associations:
LOCAL – neighborhood… LOYAL
Continue the process until you finally get a word associated with the key word on the right:
LOCAL – neighborhood – neighbors – friends –- LOYAL
“When I think of NEIGHBORHOOD, I think of the people in it: NEIGHBORS. When I think of NEIGHBORS, I think of FRIENDS. FRIENDS are LOYAL.” The goal is to form the shortest chain possible with each association being clear and logical.
STEP 2 – Have students work in pairs. Assign two key words to each pair of students. Allow them approximately one minute to form a chain of associations.
STEP 3 – After the allotted time is up, ask students to share their associations with the class. The other students must listen and either approve or challenge the associations.
VARIATION: If you literally only have one or two minutes left, you can play the game as a whole class. Just write two key words on opposite sides of the board and have students call out associated words to link the first to the second. Keep playing the game with new pairs of key words until you’re out of time.
Filed under: Listening, Pronunciation | Tags: accent reduction, American accent, American pronunciation, American speech, communicative activity, English pronunciation, English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, minimal pairs, North American English, pronunciation activity, pronunciation game, Sound Search, vowel sounds, vowels
Vowel sounds can be troublesome for all language learners, beginner to advanced. The use of minimal pairs in classroom exercises helps develop recognition and production of vowel sounds. Some pronunciation textbooks offer exercises based on minimal pairs, but they are often limited to controlled practice. With the help of minimal pairs lists, such as the ones offered by John Higgins (based on English RP, but useful regardless), you can create communicative activities of your own. Here’s one idea:
“Sound Search”
Targeted skills: Vowel sound discrimination and production via minimal pairs.
Level: High intermediate to advanced
Number of students: 9+ (If you use my lists. If you use your own, you can set the number.)
Materials needed: Index cards
STEP 1 – Prepare two stacks of cards in advance: role cards and item cards. You can use the nine role cards BELOW or create your own. Each role card should list four items (things that the student will search for). Each item is part of a minimal pair – each on a different role card to ensure the need for discrimination between the two given vowel sounds. Some role cards may be duplicated so that there are enough cards for each student in the class. You need to have a separate stack of cards with the individual items listed (one per card). Note: If you duplicate a role card, say “Baseball Player”, then you’ll need two item cards for “a ball”, two item cards for “a bat”, and so on.
SUGGESTED ROLE CARDS:
Baseball Player Cook Nature Lover
a ball a bowl an owl
a bat some pepper a boat
a cap a cup a tent
a good pitch a good peach hills
Seamstress Hairstylist Doctor
collars curlers a pain
a curtain a tint cotton
a cuff an oil heels
pants a new cut a cough
Writer Jewelry Maker Hotel Manager
a pen beads beds
some paper a disc paints
a desk a pin a new cot
tales tools towels
STEP 2 – Pass out the role cards. Ask students if they have any questions about vocabulary. Then explain that they must assume their assigned roles and search among their classmates for the items on their list. They may inquire however they’d like: I’m looking for…/ Do you by chance have…?/ I could really use…
STEP 3 – Now pass out four item cards per student, making sure they don’t receive items on their own lists. These are the cards they must give away to the appropriate person. When asked about an item, one student must confirm the other’s request: Did you say a PEN as in P-E-N? / A pen? You mean something to write with?/ Etc. If a student has the item requested, then the asker may take the item card. Each student’s goal is to collect all four item cards to match the items on his or her role card. The game is over when all students have collected the necessary items on their lists.
SUGGESTION: Encourage creative dialog among advanced students. They can make, grant, and decline requests with more than one line:
- Hi. I’m a writer. I’m old-fashioned. I don’t use computers. I write with a pen. Do you have a pen?
- A pen? No, I’m sorry. I only have a pin as in P-I-N.
Filed under: Conversation, Pronunciation | Tags: communicative activity, conversation game, English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, online resources, oral spelling, Pronunciation, Spell-it-out survey
There are plenty of times when we must either ask or provide the spelling of a word, so being able to say and identify letter names is a very practical skill. Here’s a communicative activity that gives students meaningful opportunities to use English letter names:
Levels: High Beginner – Intermediate
STEP 1 – Review the letter names. If possible, you and your students can watch an online presentation on this topic. For example, AccentMasterLynn (a speech therapist) offers a four-minute lesson on YouTube. It would also be helpful to demonstrate the use of indefinite articles with letter names, clarifying the rules for use of A and AN.
STEP 2 – Prepare a list of 4-5 questions to learn personal background information. Focus on questions that require only a one-word answer (names, not numbers). Students may contribute to the list. Suggestions:
What’s your last name?
Where were you born?/ What’s your hometown?
What’s your mother’s first name?
What street do you live on?
STEP 3 – Give the students 10-15 minutes to talk to as many classmates as possible. They need to ask one another the questions and confirm the spelling of all answers. Remind them of appropriate ways to do this: How do you spell that? Do you spell that with a C or a K? Etc. Answers should be recorded in their notebooks.
STEP 4 – Gather as a whole class again. Check their findings by asking volunteers to answer your questions about random students in the class: “Who knows Frank’s mother’s name? Can you spell it for me? …Is that right, Frank?”
STEP 5 – Remind students of sources they can use to hear correct letter names. Many online dictionaries provide this audio feature. For example: Dictionary.com
Filed under: Classroom Tips | Tags: Classroom Tips, English With Jennifer, grading, homework, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, partner swap, Pearson Longman, portfolios
You’d think that adults would be more consistent about doing their homework because they can handle more responsibility than young language learners, but in my experience, I got more homework from elementary school children than working professionals. Perhaps it was the struggle to find time. Attending classes already took up a large portion of students’ day (or evening, as was the case for some). If the adult learners also had work and family commitments, it was understandable that homework was a low priority, relatively speaking. Regardless, independent study is a crucial component of success in language learning, so here are five ways to encourage students to do the take-home assignments:
- Make some assignments an integral part of the next lesson. For example, in my previous entry I wrote about an activity called “Partner Swap”. Students must prepare a short composition in advance for another student to edit. While it’s possible to make time for this preparation in class, you could also assign the writing as homework. Those who don’t complete this initial step can’t participate in the main activity; this communicates the need to be prepared for class. I’m not suggesting that an unprepared student sit out and be denied a learning opportunity. You can offer similar solo practice (such as editing an authentic text or a text you composed). This way the student still works on the targeted skill, but your main attention is directed toward the group activity.
- Hand back homework in a very public way. Peer pressure at any age is a powerful agent. Let the less diligent students see you pass back corrected assignments and hear an occasional compliment paid for a job well done. The idea isn’t to make anyone feel bad, but to teach through example. Without even uttering a word, you can let the studious efforts of some positively influence others.
- Assign homework at key times. Don’t fall into the habit of always assigning homework at the end of class. You can explain what needs to be done at home when it’s most relevant. For example, if you’ve just finished Exercise 1 and you’re skipping over Exercise 2, then before going on to Exercise 3 tell the students that Exercise 2 will be part of their homework. Briefly state what the task will reinforce: “Be sure to complete Exercise 2 at home. It will give you additional practice forming wh- questions. We’ll correct it tomorrow in class to make sure you’re comfortable doing this. Now let’s go on to Exercise 3…” You can remind students at the end of class of the task(s) assigned as homework, but having heard the information once before, the students should remember to follow through.
- Make homework count towards their grade. If you’re teaching in a school with a traditional grading system, be sure that homework is a percentage of a student’s final grade. Communicate this fact to the students at the start and end of the semester. Make them aware that the course requires practice in class and at home.
- Show them the value of doing homework. Language learners can be their own worst critics. It’s helpful to show them their progress rather than simply tell them about it. You can do this through a portfolio of assignments. Explain at the start of the course that corrected homework assignments are to be kept in a portfolio. (Specify the format, for instance, a three-ring binder.) You can take this a step further and require students to rewrite corrected assignments. (We had to do this in my first year as a grad student in Russian grammar class. Before we could begin that day’s assignment, we had to rewrite yesterday’s assignment incorporating the teacher’s corrections. It was time-consuming, but effective.) Assignments should be filed chronologically. Encourage them to look back periodically and review old mistakes. With each review, those old mistakes will seem more obvious and the volume of corrected assignments will be more convincing of their ability to produce in the target language.
Filed under: Methodology, Writing | Tags: Academic Writing, authentic editing, English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, news writer, partner swap, Pearson Longman, punctuation, writing skills
A buzz word in language instruction is “authentic practice”. Materials writers strive to include authentic sources in their works, and teachers try to maximize students’ communication for real purposes. Authenticity coupled with frequency can make an approach to language instruction very effective. In the writing classroom, frequent practice with authentic texts can develop students’ understanding and use of punctuation. Here are two editing activities to promote good writing skills:
1. News Writer
Choose either a very short article or a brief excerpt from a news source. (My all-time favorite for personal and professional use is The Week Magazine.) Be sure to select a topic that is appropriate for your students in terms of age, interests, and language goals. Hand out copies of the article that have no punctuation. It’s best if you type this yourself instead of simply using correction fluid to erase punctuation marks. By preparing the article yourself, you can use all lower case letters, indicating no sentence breaks. Have students work in pairs to edit the text. They must identify complete statements, capitalizing the first letter of the first word and inserting final punctuation marks. Commas, quotation marks, and all other marks should be added as needed. Finally, hand out copies of the article in its original format. Discuss differences between students’ choices and the choices made by the writer.
2. Partner Swap
This activity is similar to the one above, only instead of you selecting a news article, each student prepares a short original text for another student to edit. Students may write one or two paragraphs, but they should all write the same amount of lines (8-10 lines, for example). Ask them to use block letters and no punctuation. When they “swap” papers, the editor must then use upper and lower case letters appropriately in a rewrite. Once the composition has been rewritten without block letters and with punctuation, the author should read the new copy and either approve or reject the editor’s punctuation. Encourage discussion between partners. The author should submit a final copy to you. Teacher corrections to the final draft can be shared with both the author and the editor.
Filed under: Grammar | Tags: Christmas activity, comparative and superlative structures, English With Jennifer, grammar game, holiday activity, holiday shopping, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, Pearson Longman
HOLIDAY SHOPPING ON A BUDGET: Activating comparative and superlative structures
Are you looking for a last-minute holiday activity? Try getting your students to do some shopping together. In the process they can activate grammatical structures for making comparisons.
STEP 1: Gather catalogs in advance. (Look through all your junk mail…your neighbor’s, too!) You’ll need at least three catalogs per department or category: toys, electronics, clothing, household goods, etc.*
STEP 2: Prepare shopping lists that small groups can work from. MODEL:
SHOPPING LIST A
BUDGET: $500
1. Sally (15 yrs.) – sweater
2. Ron (25 yrs.) – camcorder
3. Tim (40 yrs.) – tool set
4. Matt (3 yrs.) – toy train or truck
5. Natalia (8 yrs.) – dress
As an alternative, you could use the names of classmates and teachers. You could even allow students to create their own wish lists (one item per person).
STEP 3: Review the grammatical structures you wish to target. (…more than, the most, less than, the least, etc.) More advanced students can also use equatives (as good as, not as expensive as, etc.)
STEP 4: Break students into groups of 3 or 4. Each group will receive a shopping list, a budget, and access to a common pile of catalogs. Remind students that all groups are sharing the catalogs, so unused ones should go back in the common pile. The goal of the activity is to buy a gift for each person on their list without going over the budget. In making their choices, students should use comparative and/ or superlative structures. EXAMPLE: “Let’s get a sweater for Sally from L. L. Bean. Their prices are cheaper than Talbots.”
STEP 5: Each group should present their choices to you in writing. (One student in each group can be the designated writer.) EXAMPLES: “We bought a sweater for Sally from L. L. Bean because they had the biggest selection. It was only $20.” / “Circuit City has better prices than Best Buy. We chose a camcorder for Ron for $299.”
*VARIATION: If your school makes computers accessible in the classroom, you could use online stores in place of paper catalogs. Prepare a list of addresses in advance so that students spend time searching within sites and not for sites.
SUGGESTION: Although I’ve presented this as an activity for the December holidays, you could always modify it to suit another occasion (e.g., multiple birthdays in a given month).
Filed under: Pronunciation | Tags: accent reduction, cultural activity, English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, making toasts, Pearson Longman, Pronunciation, public speaking, speaking skills
I often say that learning a foreign language involves learning a foreign culture. However, there are good reasons and, well, not so good reasons to teach culture in the foreign language classroom. For example, my six years of French studies, though done with great diligence, did not yield success due to the shortsightedness of the language programs at my junior high and high schools. Foreign languages at those schools were taught as academic subjects, not as practical skills, and information about a given foreign culture was presented to enrich our language lessons, not to arm us with knowledge applicable to real life. In college my experience learning Russian and Japanese was quite different, I’m happy to say, and when I made the decision to start the teacher certification program in the state of Pennsylvania, I vowed that I would teach my future students language and culture for the purpose of effective communication, not merely to “enrich” them.
As ESL teachers, we must agree that cultural information shouldn’t be the equivalent of a footnote, but rather an integral thread in language instruction. Cultural information should extend beyond the pages of a textbook and be shared as something real and practical. There are fun ways to do this. Here’s one example from my past:
For a long stretch of time, I was challenged to create pronunciation lessons from scratch on a weekly basis. The students had no textbook. Frequent visits to the local library often stimulated my creative thinking, and I found a wealth of material upon which to build my lessons: children’s literature, documentaries, books on tape, and more. When browsing titles for collections of speeches, I hit upon a delightful idea: making toasts. I was working with a group of adult learners at the advanced level. We had already covered some suprasegmental features: thought groups and intonation. Even a short toast would take a speaker beyond phonemes, and so I decided to plan a lesson that would integrate students’ knowledge of phrasing and intonation and give them some practice in the kind of public speaking the average Joe has to do at least once in his life.
How did I plan this pronunciation lesson? I used a book of speeches and toasts for all occasions, but should you decide to plan such a lesson, you could find material on the Internet. A quick search led to these sites (you’re bound to find more):
From the library book I copied a few ideas for a number of events. You can choose whatever is most appropriate for your students. Will they role play a retirement party or a bar mitzvah? I chose a few special occasions, but the lesson highlight was a wedding. It gave me the chance to explain common elements in American weddings. The students assumed roles, and they had time to assemble a toast based on my handouts, prepare notes for phrasing and intonation, and…with the help of sparkling apple cider and some disposable champagne glasses…get in the mood for a wedding. Each student took a turn standing, raising a glass, and making a toast. The lesson was an exciting and memorable one, but more important, I was able to make cultural information relevant and practical.
Filed under: Writing | Tags: editing, English With Jennifer, Jennifer Lebedev, JenniferESL, proofreading, student compositions, teaching writing skills, Writing
Because writing, grammar, and vocabulary are interconnected, it can be easy to lose focus during the writing process. This is particularly true when we’re correcting student compositions. As soon as you accept a student’s paper, do you read the composition once through and comment on content first? Or do you concentrate on language skills? Does your mind automatically start replacing common words with higher level vocabulary? Do you take out your pen and start making proofreader’s marks? What should be your focus? I don’t really think there’s one right way of correcting compositions, but let me offer some suggestions for developing a consistent and effective approach:
- Focus first on the targeted writing skill. When a student places a composition before your eyes, your attention may immediately be drawn to grammatical errors or a poor choice of words. Remind yourself what the lesson objectives are. Have you been working on sentence variety? Spatial descriptions? Topic sentences? Focus on the lesson objective first. Provide feedback that lets the student know if he or she has met the objective or what corrections need to be made in order to do so. After that, you may comment on other aspects of the composition.
- See the whole composition before looking at the parts. Even if students are only writing sentences and not paragraphs, you can still focus on form first. For example, are they starting sentences with capital letters? Is their handwriting limited to block letters? Do they end sentences with proper punctuation? At the paragraph level, check to see that students indent the first line and they don’t make the habit of starting each sentence on a new line. Within an essay, is there good paragraph division? If time allows, you can ask that a first revision tackles problems with the targeted skill and/or formatting. A second revision could then make changes to improve grammar and vocabulary.
- Ask for a reasonable amount of revision. Some students may have a lot of weaknesses in their writing, from spelling to grammar to organization. You could address these weaknesses in turn, asking for additional revisions. However, trying to rectify all the weaknesses may be both unrealistic and overwhelming. It may be enough to raise the student’s awareness about some problematic features, and then leave them alone for now. It’s not unlike the way we correct speech in the conversation classroom. Do we really correct every single error uttered? No. Doing so may inhibit communication.
- Praise the writer’s strengths. What is done correctly and effectively in a given composition? Identify these elements not just to make the student happy (although a kind compliment can counterbalance a load of corrections in red ink)*, but also to make the student aware of what elements he or she has mastered and what can be repeated in future compositions.
- Take the time to understand the writer’s message. Correcting student compositions is very time-consuming, but you really should take the extra minute to comment on the content. We often ask students to use writing for personal expression, so their compositions reflect their opinions and values. Avoid treating a composition as something to dissect and reconstruct. It’s a form of communication. The student is communicating with you. Communicate back.
*Do you use red ink to correct? Some students react strongly to this color. Try a softer one such as green or blue.
