Teaching to the Test: Thoughts on preparing learners for the U.S. Citizenship Test

I’ve never taught a preparation course for the U.S. Citizenship Test. As an English language teacher, I’ve only been asked once to help a learner study for the naturalization interview — and that was just last month. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve become more familiar with the English test and especially the civics test. I even looked at the translation of all the questions and answers in Russian to remind myself of the challenge of taking such a test in a foreign language.

My particular challenge as a teacher is rooted in the fact that the vocabulary and grammar of the civics test is high for my student. Nevertheless, it hasn’t been an impossible task. Perhaps if anyone else is ever faced with a similar situation and the pressure of an approaching interview date, these ideas might be of some help:

1. Look for repetitive words and learn them. There are 100 questions on the civics test. Often the applicant must only provide one or two short answers, but there could be a dozen possible answers. For example, Question 6 asks the applicant to name one of the freedoms given by the First Amendment. Among the five possible answers is religion. This is a longer word compared to speech, but it may be worth learning religion since the word is used again later. Question 10 asks the applicant to explain freedom of religion, and the expected answer is: “You can practice any religion, or not practice a religion.” (Provided by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.)

2. Look for cognates and take advantage of them. The logic here is clear. There are many new words to learn for this test, from declare to amendment. I tried to select the easiest answers to learn in terms of pronunciation and the ease of recalling word forms. Question 36 asks the applicant to name two Cabinet-level positions. One of those answers can be Secretary of Transportation. Although “transportation” is a 4-syllable word, “transport” is easily understood in many other languages. Compared to Transportation, other alternatives like Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs are a mouthful. Based on the ideas I’ve listed so far, I went through the list of 100 questions and highlighted the answer choices I felt were easiest to learn.

3. Practice the pronunciation that matters most. What counts during the interview is being understood. For that reason, I’m not correcting  slightly inaccurate vowel sounds right now. I’m focusing on problematic consonants for my student, like the /n/ in defines. We laugh when I remind her of the meaning of the words her pronunciation might cause the interviewer to perceive — defies, defiles!  After all, we don’t want to say that the constitution does anything other than define the government. Also, we work on word stress (as in DemoCRATic and RePUBlican) and proper rhythm (as in WE the PEOple).

4. Choose the resources that fit your schedule and budget. If I had had more time to prepare lessons and work with this learner, I might have suggested the purchase of a textbook with an audio component. However, the USCIS does provide a number of free resources online for learners and teachers. There are even free training seminars for adult educators. For those who plan to run a program or course on U.S. Civics and Citizenship, there is also a free toolkit. In recent days, I poked around on YouTube and found a number of training videos for the naturalization interview. I sent links to my student so that she could hear other speakers ask the same questions with different accents and at different speaking rates.

Has anyone else taught for the U.S. Citizenship Test or any other citizenship test? Please feel free to share your ideas.

Fun Lessons with Funny TV Ads

The connection between language and culture is very evident in TV ads, especially funny ones. What’s the humor? Is it funny to everyone? What exactly is the message and who is it intended for? These questions can lead to very thoughtful discussions.

There are a number of sources from which you can select appropriate commercials for your students. Here are just a few to get your search started:

• Very Funny Ads
• Best Ads Ever (click on Funny Ads)
• TV ads View
• YouTube (You can find single ad videos and videos with a collection, for example, Super Bowl Ads.)

What can you do with the ads? Follow-up speaking or writing activities balance the listening practice done when students view the ads.

1. Discuss the intended message. Work in infinitives of purpose or conditional clauses. Example: (Based on an Old Spice ad.) The man says that Old Spice can be used to attract ladies. If you use Old Spice, you’ll smell great and be more attractive.

2. Discuss the intended audience. Work in relative clauses. Example: (Based on an Eggo Waffles ad.) The audience can be anyone who loves breakfast. They want to convince people that their waffles are the kind of food (that) people love and fight over.

3. Discuss symbolism. Teach appropriate vocabulary: represents, stands for, signifies, symbolizes, suggests, reflects, or  makes us think of. Example: (Based on Fed Ex ad.) I think the dominoes represent the idea of delivery. You send something at one point, and Fed Ex takes your package to another. The paths stand for all the possible routes. The music suggests an upbeat attitude, so the company wants us to believe they’re happy to do their work.

4. Write dialog when none exists. Review punctuation for direct speech and offer a short list of appropriate reporting verbs for the ads you select. Example: (Based on a Yorkie candy bar ad.) The man enters the the home, tired but proud. He announces, “I’m home.” His wife looks at him and then back at her magazine. “Can you take them to the kitchen, hon?” she says in a bored voice.

5. Do voiceovers or re-enact ads. Find an ad with a short text, such as this other Eggo Waffles ad. Have students work together to transcribe what the narrator says.  Help them practice reading smoothly and at the right time and pace.  You can have students take turns being the narrator as you play the video on mute.  Another idea is to have them perform the dialog they wrote for a silent ad (see number 4 above).

Suggestions: You can select one video and base your lesson around that, or you can create a playlist of several videos which students should be able to access before and/or after the lesson. For example, if you practice using relatives clauses with one ad in class, you can assign additional videos to be watched outside of class for students to write about using relative clauses. Who is the intended audience for each ad? At the next lesson, ideas can be shared and additional work with those same ads can be done as a whole group.

Alternative ideas:

1. You can work with more serious TV ads, but the good ones are hard to find. Here’s one about safe driving by Sussex Safer Roads. It would really prompt students to explain the action on the screen using the simple present and present progressive. The symbolism is clear and should touch on universal values.

2. Students can create their own ads. Infomercials promote collaboration. Click for more details.

The Secrets of Poetry

This month I’ve chosen to highlight a poetry collection on my YouTube channel. I’ve taken quiet moments here and there for my own pleasure and listened to poetry readings by Tom O’Bedlam of Ireland. The one that I enjoyed most recently is The Secret of the Machines by Rudyard Kipling. The poem in plain text can be found at the Poetry Foundation.

Kipling’s poem lends itself to a number of uses for teaching advanced ELLs. The most obvious choices are the traditional practices of reading and interpreting. But what else can be done with these verses? As a teacher, I love to get the most I can out of materials. I think it’s a good exercise for us to consider all the possibilities, and then we can select the forms of practice that best suit the needs of the students we’re currently teaching.

Would you like to join me in exploring The Secrets of the Machines? Here are my ideas. Feel free to add more.

• Speaking or Writing about the Theme. Identify how the poet views the relationship between people and machines. Do you agree or disagree with this viewpoint?
• Speaking or Writing about the Message. Do you think Kipling’s verses offer some kind of teaching to us today in the digital age?
• Matching Machines to Their Uses. Carefully read the verses and identify as many machines as you can by their purpose. For example, Kipling is referring to the telephone when he writes, “Would you call a friend from half across the world?/ If you’ll let us have his name and town and state.” You can ask students to use specific structures for this exercise, such as infinitives of purpose or relative clauses. (We use phones in order to place calls. / The telephone, which can be used to call someone halfway across the world, is mentioned in these verses.)
• Interpreting the Attitude of the Machines. Read the first stanza. Underline all the passive verbs and circle all the active verbs. What relationship between the machines and people do these lines express?
• Creating More Voices of the Machines. Use patterns from the poem and machines that didn’t exist in Kipling’s time and create additional statements of purpose or questions. Model: We can text and search and Skype and use Wi-Fi,/ We can wash and rinse and steam and then blow dry.
• Doing a Blend of Solo and Choral Reading. Once the verses are familiar and understood, you can assign lines to students. The poem is long enough for each student to be charged with learning a small part of it. Ask them to practice their lines well. In the correct order, students will stand up and deliver their lines. The class will then repeat those lines as a group.
• Creating a Dialog. In pairs, students can use selected verses and add their own lines to form an imaginary conversation between a machine and a user, a news reporter (or biographer) and a machine, or two machines.  Example: Where did you come from?  - “We were taken from the ore-bed and the mine,/ We were melted in the furnace and the pit—” You can focus on rising and falling intonation in this exercise.
• Having More Fun with Personification. Create a speech  as a representative of the machines. Your purpose can be to gain appreciation from your human users or to rebel against their mistreatment. Note: students can work alone or in pairs and deliver their speeches to the class.

Bringing Focus to Independent Study

My beginner student, Natasha, was recently swept over by a wave of determination and decided to do more studying than usual. Unfortunately, her ambitions, though admirable, were not realistic. When she expressed frustration and admitted to being overwhelmed to the point that nothing was making much sense, I asked questions to identify the problem. It turned out that she was sitting at the dining room table with all the notes from every lesson we ever had along with our current textbook and other books from her collection of English language resources.  Her laptop was there, too.

In my Study Tips for independent learners, I stress the importance of setting realistic goals and choosing resources wisely. I’ve also shared a Goals Sheet on this blog in the past. The problem is that Natasha’s level doesn’t allow her to easily read my Study Tips or answer the questions on my Goals Sheet. I thought we had settled on a plan for the time being, so I didn’t consider the possibility of there being difficulties during her independent study time. We’ve been working with a reading-vocabulary textbook for the past few months, and I’ve assigned a few extra speaking and listening tasks. I’ve also made suggestions for extra practice. For instance, I encourage speaking aloud while doing housework, that is, narrating what she sees, what she’s doing, what she plans to do next.

After realizing that Natasha was trying to accomplish too much in too little time with too many different resources, I understood that we needed to develop a clear study plan right down to the the number of minutes and the sequence of tasks I wanted her to do each time she sat at the table to study. We began by acknowledging that weekends were out. Then we agreed that a minimum of fifteen minutes each weekday was realistic. Many days she would be able to do more, but given that sometimes her children get sick, errands outside the home pile up, etc., we agreed that even on a challenging day, finding fifteen minutes was possible. I then requested that she limit her resources for the next month to our current textbook and a few videos that I would assign. I explained how she would use readings in her book for those 15 minutes. We also agreed on goals that she would meet by the end of next month. One of those goals is to learn two children’s songs, which she can sing with her younger children. Of course, it’s possible to learn more, but I stressed the importance of setting a goal that was manageable. “Within one month,” I asked, “can you learn just two songs?” She confirmed she could.

I feel Natasha and I are on the right path now at a pace that is realistic. Based on this recent experience, I offer my Individual Study Plan_handout to other teachers who must guide the independent study of learners. I hope it makes your shared path clearer.

Aspect vs. Tense: Do we teach the difference?

There can be no question about the importance of teaching the different verb forms in English. However, the debate begins when we consider terminology. On YouTube, I titled one playlist as Verb Tenses and I’ve included lessons on the present progressive and the past perfect. Now I’m moving on to future verb forms.  Was my title a mistake? I think not. I had to give preference to convenience and practicality.

First of all, if I had used “Verb Forms” as my title for that series, viewers might have expected to see lessons on gerunds, the passive voice, and more. That title was too broad. Also, I’m aware that many resources use “tense” loosely and broadly, so most users doing a search would more likely use “tense” rather than “aspect” as a keyword. In the online word, content creators need to make their materials easy to find.

But is it misleading to group verbs in the progressive and perfect aspects in my discussion of verb tenses? I find that aspect is helpful to understand,  but not until the higher levels. It’s somewhat like teaching adjectives such as interesting and bored to basic students and then later at a higher level pointing out those are really participial adjectives. By that time, they’ve also learned about the passive and understand the role of the past participle in other structures. Similarly, I teach the present progressive to beginners, but I don’t use the term aspect in my instruction.  The concept makes more sense, I think, when students have been exposed to more forms. Then there are more pieces to build the puzzle and  greater readiness to step back and see the larger picture.

Only now in Part 2 of Lesson 7 in my series do I plan to acknowledge the term aspect. I’ve chosen to limit my discussion, though. I simply introduce the term so that students are aware that it exists and that some sources might label forms they know by other names.

My main goal is to make the grammar clear to learners, and sometimes that means simplifying. Even without talking about “verbs in the progressive aspect,” a student can understand that progressive verb forms generally express ongoing actions or even a temporary situation. Likewise, learners might not be able to identify a verb form as an example of the “perfect aspect,” but they understand that those perfect forms express a relationship between two points in time.

What do you think? Take the poll.

Should Teaching Syntax Be So Taxing?

Both in private lessons and on my community forum I face the challenge of helping students learn syntax in English. Simply correcting their written errors is never enough. I try to promote discovery and reflection, but learning syntax is a two-part process. Sure, there’s the output. After all, to become a better writer, one must write. That’s why we ask students to practice writing, apply feedback, and revise. The other part, however, is the input. Students must read. This exposes them to good models.

The question then is how should students read? How can we help them work with a text so that it can begin to influence their own output? How can we help students internalize some of the structures they read? What’s your approach? Do you have any special noticing tasks or reconstruction activities? Please feel free to share your ideas.

In the meantime, here are just a few of the exercises I’ve been asking students to do lately.

1.  Sentence scrambles. After reading an article and discussing it with students, I like to take complex sentences from the text and scramble them in chunks for students to unscramble. In other words, I do not separate a sentence into individual words. I usually keep phrases together or sometimes I deliberately break up a logical phrase, and then I challenge students to recall the original word order as well as any other acceptable word order. Variations are discussed. For example:

their best efforts / little / there was / despite / to stop the destruction / they could do (One variation: Despite their best efforts, there was little they could do to stop the destruction.)

2. Multiple vocabulary encounters. I like to include at least two forms of practice with key vocabulary from an article. Each time I try to keep the same grammar in place. For instance, if we read about diminishing arctic ice (See VOA article.) and encounter detriment, I continue using the whole phrase that the journalist used in the article: “to the detriment of (low-lying areas).” I know I’m not the first to promote learning language in chunks, but I really do think it helps students construct their thoughts more accurately. It’s certainly easier to build a 25-piece puzzle than a 100-piece puzzle, right? In the case of to the detriment of (something), I might pose a question using the same structure but in a new context: Some people regularly take work home and have little time for relaxation. What other things do some people do to the detriment of their own health?

3. Sentence completions. On my forum, I like to take a structure, create a sentence gap with it, and invite students to complete the sentence with their own thoughts. They read one another’s ideas and my feedback, learning what works and what doesn’t and why. I try to make the statement lend itself to discussion. For example, to practice use of despite, I could post: Despite ___, there is little ___, in my opinion. Students are free to agree or disagree with posted statements. This activity could be done with structures students were exposed to in recent texts. You might do this in class or on your own online forum.

Insights from Materials Writing

I’ve worn a few different hats in our field, and I like to draw from one experience and apply it to another. For example, I couldn’t have begun materials writing without having classroom experience, and what I’ve gained from being a materials writer has helped me become a better teacher.

In my opinion, every teacher is a materials writer to a certain degree. We all design materials and activities for our students either occasionally or regularly. I embraced this aspect of teaching early on in my career, and I learned through trial and error what worked well. I’ve been fortunate to be able to contribute to a number of published materials, and each collaborative experience has developed my ability to construct exercises and activities. As I continue to write, I grow even more sensitive to the needs of the students and the teacher. There are still hits and misses, but I feel I’ve become better at the getting hits and reducing the misses!

Do you feel the same way? Do you gain something from creating your own materials? Speaking more concretely, I see parallels between materials writing and designing lesson plans. Here are just a few  insights I’d like to share. My lessons plans are stronger when I remember to apply this knowledge.

• Context is key. It’s harder for students to be engaged, to understand the lesson, and to recall the language points if both presentation and practice lack a context.
• You need to choose your contexts wisely. Just because you contextualized the grammar, the pronunciation, or the vocabulary, doesn’t mean your exercise or activity will be received well. Topics have to match students’ ages and interests. What’s interesting to you may not be interesting to all students. There also has to be enough variety in your choices in order to keep students engaged and allow them to apply language points to new situations.
• It’s worth putting some thought into your “hook.” Many student textbooks open units with a quote, a question, a riddle, a photo, or some other means to provoke thought and stimulate interest in the upcoming theme(s). Lesson plans can use the same strategies.
• Consistency in format helps. I enjoy developing a relationship with private students. They come to know my teaching style and the kinds of exercises I design for them. When I come up with something new and it works well, I make a point of repeating the format in the future. Our lessons run more smoothly because of this kind of familiarity. My lesson plans are consistent enough to allow us to share expectations and varied enough not to be boring.
• Scaffolding is a necessity. Don’t throw students your curve ball right away. A good lesson might be like a roller coaster with rises and falls in degrees of intensity, but you need to go slowly uphill before you can accelerate at top speed.

Overcoming the First Fears: Tips for New Teachers

Every so often a new teacher reaches out to me and asks for advice.  Am I in a position to give it?

Although my own teaching career began many years ago, I by no means feel that I am at the top of my game and have little left to learn. Actually, as the years pass, I grow more amazed at the truth in the saying the more you learn, the less you know. And while I may never feel at the top of my game, I’ve acquired enough confidence to know I can handle almost any situation as a language teacher. That kind of confidence comes from overcoming a set of fears. They include the following.

1. What do I do if I don’t know the answer?

Relax. Don’t panic. Can you think it through and arrive at the answer?  You can enlist the students’ help and try to form a conclusion through discussion. Are any resources readily accessible, such as a learner’s dictionary or a grammar reference book? If you can’t manage to answer the question in class, promise the students to research the question and get back to to them. Consult with colleagues to confirm your knowledge about particularly tricky language points.

2. What do I do if I make a mistake?

Admit it and fix it. If it’s a small mistake, you can smile your thanks and turn it into a game. Give a lucky penny to any student who catches your typos. If you discover you’ve given wrong information, offer students an updated explanation. Explain that you’ve had more time to think and you’d like to present information to make their understanding more accurate. It’s more important to provide quality instruction than to save face.  Learn from any mistakes you make and be sure to study a topic in more detail if you have doubts when you’re teaching it.

3. What do I do if my instruction doesn’t go as planned?

You’ll learn from experience. First, pay attention to your students’ needs. You might have to adjust your learning objectives for the day if students are having difficulty with the material.  Second, pay attention to the time. If you never finish your lesson plan, you’re planning too much, spending too much time on certain tasks, or digressing too often. If you have too much time to kill at the end of every lesson, you might not be maximizing the potential of your materials. Have some short activities ready to go for when you have a little extra time. You might keep a collection of jokes or poems that can be read quickly and easily, so you can send students out the door with a lasting thought in English. In the back of your mind, store a few quick games that can help students review vocabulary and grammar recently learned.

4. What if students don’t like me?

Hopefully, if your desire to teach is genuine and you do your best to establish a supportive atmosphere, students will respond positively to you. However, no teacher is going to be everyone’s favorite. Accept this. Our role is that of a teacher, not a rock star. I encourage new teachers to read about the likability factor and remember my words: “Teach from your heart as much as from your brain. Competent teaching combined with genuine passion is powerful. At the very least, students will respect you if not like you.” (From Part Two of “The Likability Factor”)

5. Is this the right profession for me?

Only you can answer this, but don’t throw in the towel just because you had one bad day.  Remember what it was that originally drew you to the profession. Find an analogy for teaching (like my comparison of teaching to dancing) and explore it.  Any professional should be able to form a clear picture of what the job is all about. That vision should excite you and motivate you.

If any of you would like to add to the list of fears or to my advice for dealing with the teaching jitters, feel free to post a comment!

Instilling Confidence in Older Language Learners

To listen to this post click here.

Well, I’ve hit a rough patch in my efforts to teach my friend, Natasha. She needs an immediate injection of confidence and determination to continue her English studies.

One of my earlier strategies to help Natasha develop oral communication skills was to set up conversation practice with another non-native speaker, who is more advanced, doesn’t speak Russian, and understands the challenges of learning the language as an adult. The conversation partner I selected has set Natasha at ease, encouraged attempts to express ideas, and sympathized with the difficulties of balancing studies with family obligations. These conversation sessions have helped, but because they are limited (as are our lessons), progress remains steady but very slow. This is understandably frustrating for a person who must function within the target culture on a daily basis.

This week I’ve been able to schedule more lesson time than usual, so Natasha and I are reviewing and expanding. I believe that a well-planned review can serve several purposes. First, it helps me identify what has been learned well and what requires further study and practice. Second, it strengthens the existing knowledge and skills of the student. Third, it can demonstrate a level of proficiency which the student can take pride in. “I know how to say that in English” or “I can do that exercise” are thoughts that should please the learner because past efforts have indeed led to progress.

As I look to the coming weeks, I think about how to apply larger ideas on a smaller scale. We’ve seen, for example, the inspiring performances of the students at Kaplan Omotesando Center. Could I guide my beginner to deliver a performance of her own? Her first audience can be the ones she’s most comfortable with, her friends and family. Natasha is a creative mother, and I’ve seen her turn picture puzzle pieces into magnets and then make up funny tales with her children. I want to encourage her to make up a tale in English that she can tell her children. I will help her arrive at a final product and rehearse it. Then I will ask her to tell the tale to her children.

It is my hope that if Natasha becomes comfortable reading simple stories in English, it can become an ongoing practice that she can do in her home and possibly at her children’s schools. Preschools and kindergartens welcome parent readers, and with adequate preparation Natasha could manage this. I’ve already encouraged her to submit her application as a school volunteer, and I hope the coming school year will put her in new situations that will welcome her efforts to contribute in English. It’s one of my beliefs that helping others and giving pleasure to others through language increases a learner’s confidence. Let’s hope in Natasha’s case I prove to be right!

Do you have any thoughts on working with older learners? I’d like to hear about them.

More Ways to Use Authentic Texts

I’ve suggested activities in the past to target reading and pronunciation skills. They are relatively easy to incorporate into a lesson with advanced students because they require you to prepare exercises based on authentic texts. This means you don’t have to generate any content. You are simply reformatting the content. I like to get the most I can out of a text, especially a news article, and the exercises and activities I create based on any given article usually span two and sometimes three lessons. It takes that long to focus on all the different skills, from reading to grammar to speaking.

• To target vocabulary or syntax I like to take about half a dozen sentences from the given text and ask students to paraphrase either each statement or parts of each statement (which I then boldface).
• To review vocabulary I sometimes use the synopsis and omit key words. This results in a gapped text and students must fill in the blanks. If you wish, the missing vocabulary can be written on the board.
• To target syntax I create a set of sentence scrambles. For long sentences, I don’t section off each word but rather key words and phrases. For example, I might keep a noun phrase or adjective clause intact. Example: a lifelong herder/ in the middle of the Gobi / 47/  is /who lives in a ger/ Bat-Erdene/ or a yurt/  Answer: “Bat-Erdene, 47, is a lifelong herder who lives in a ger, or a yurt, in the middle of the Gobi.”(Langfitt) Variations should be discussed.
• To target grammar I create  set of sentence errors. In the past, I’ve focused on one type of mistake, for example, subject-verb agreement.  You can copy a half dozen sentences from the text (with tricky subjects) and make half of them incorrect. Ask the students to identify which ones lack subject-verb agreement. This week with an advanced private student, I decided to do a review and I’ve copied a dozen sentences from our current article and purposefully placed one error in each sentence. There are different kinds of errors, and they each address topics previously studied.
• To prompt discussion it’s interesting to make use of quotes. News articles are always full of them. Here’s one idea for articles on controversial issues. Collect the quotes from an article, mix them up, and show them to the students. Have them recall who said what and identify the positions of all the speakers. Then ask them to state which position they support and why.

Sources

Langfitt, F. (2012, May 24).  Old ways disappearing in the new Mongolia. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2012/05/24/152842270/old-ways-disappearing-in-the-new-mongolia