Effective Teaching Practices for ESOL

Professional Development Workshop Series

Presenter, Lynda Cavazos

July 11, 2015

About Me

• Classroom teacher for over 20 years• Adjunct Instructor at Texas A&M & U of H Victoria• Courses: Education, Bilingual Education, Curriculum and

Instruction, and Early Childhood • PhD Candidate in Org Leadership at UIW• Educational Consultant • Texas State Certified Teacher Mentor

Objectives

• How to incorporate language rich lessons• How to create effective language activities • How to implement effective teaching practices

for ESOL• How to create a goal plan of effective ESOL

teaching practices

• On chart paper, write a group name

What to say instead of “I don’t know…”

• May I please have more information?• Could you please repeat the

question?• May I please ask a friend for help?• Could you please rephrase the

question?• May I please have some time to

think?

Learning to Read and Write

• On chart paper, each member draw a visual of how you learned to read and write

• Rocking chair

Numbered Heads Together

• At your tables, number off from one to four

• Think of how you implement language activities

• Please stand when you can finish this phrase:One challenge English language learners face is. .

• All the same numbers get together and share

Research Article

• Motivation and Motivating in the Classroom

Talking to your students

Mutual trust

Enthusiasm

Relaxed

Learning is Relevant

TESL JournalDimitrios Thanasoulas

Comprehensible Input

Listening, speaking, writing, and reading

Scaffold to provide support and knowledge• Ask many questions to check for understanding

Communicate slowly, directly, and clearly

Review constantly

Be animated

Comprehensible Input

Low level LANGUAGE proficiency does NOT mean low level THINKING proficiency

Pronunciation

Goal is not to eliminate an accent

Model clear speaking

Demonstrate how each individual sound is produced (placement of lips, tongue and teeth)

Clap or count syllables

Pace speech

Oral Element

Warmers and Fillers for the first 5 minutes

All lessons should include time to talk

See handout, Vocabulary Warmers (Guess the Word)

Review and discuss

Wait Time

It takes more than 1 to 2 seconds to process a question

One second or longer to formulate and produce a response.

When students are allowed 3 or more seconds to answer:

-  Saying “I don’t know” drops

-  Students produce longer and more correct answers

-  The length and correctness of their responses increase

-  They will want to volunteer more responses

Eating Elephants

You eat an elephant one bite at a time.

Break the lessons into chunks

Teaching verb tense• Do 1 lesson• Later, review the first lesson • Introduce a second chunk.

Focus on Consonants

• Comprehension depends more on recognizing the consonant letters than the vowels

• The vowels are ommitted from the brief text:Whr r y lvng nw? Pls snd m yr pstl ddrss whn y hv tm.  wld lk t snd y cpy f  bk tht  jst bght.

• By contrast, the same text with the consonants omitted is impossible to decipher:ee ae ou ii o? eae e e ou oa ae e ou ae ie. I ou ie o e ou a o o a oo I u ou.

• The comprehension of spoken English depends largely on the recognition of consonant sounds as opposed to vowel sounds

Disco dance activity

Tell me About

• "What are you going to have for lunch?“ or "What did you do last night?"

• Start your prompt with the three most useful words :

"Tell me about ..." If you say "Tell me about what you did last night?" or "Tell me about what you're going to have for lunch?"

• They will begin to reply with full sentences and use more language

Numbers Count

• Instead of saying “Talk about your home country,” say “Tell your partner 6 things about your home country.”

• Instead of saying “Make some sentences from this picture,” say “Tell each other 5 sentences from the picture.” 

Accountable Talk

Teachers

Why do you think that?

Why do you feel that way?

Can you tell me more about that?

Students

I notice…

I think..

I wonder..

I agree because..

I disagree..

I like…

Conversational Skills

• Having everyday conversation

• See Conversation handout

• Make a postcard

• In pairs, practice talking about yourself using your postcard

Friends or Acquaintances

• Most of the words you have met are acquaintances

• How you can turn students’ word acquaintances into word friends?

• Teach and practice them, and then recycle them again and again over a period of time

• Most ESL course books are not constructed for vocabulary recycling.  

• A good rule of thumb is to recycle words after one day, after one week, after two weeks, after one month, etc .

5 minute activity (warm up or filler)

Grammar

• Cartoon strip

• Change the tense

Spoon Feeding Correction

• Students need to hear their own speech• Student A makes a mistake: He says

"Yesterday I go to the bank.”• You shake your head to indicate

something is wrong, and you say "Try again.”

• Student A repeats the incorrect sentence.

• You shake your head again and prompt the student by saying

"Yesterday you?" (Or by saying "Go or went?" or "Go in the past?")• Student A says "Yesterday I went to the

bank."

TPR (Total Physical Response) by James Asher• Language teaching method• Based on coordination of language &

physical movement• Brain compatible• Begins in infancy for developing L1

acquisition• “Pick up your toy” “Take my hand”• Critical period/Internalizing sounds and

patterns• Respond to commands• Learn directions

TPR Activity (Government)

• Model • There are 3 branches of government (3

fingers)• The Executive branch (salute) carries out the

law) rock arms together• The Legislative branch (L sign) creates the

laws (write with hands)• The Judicial branch (hands on waist) judges

the law (puts arm in front like giving something)

• Practice together• Practice in groups

The Art of Government

TPR Activity (Driving a Car)

• In groups, practice the TPR activity

• I take my car key in my hand• I walk to the car• I unlock the car door or I use my remote to unlock the

door• I open the car door• I get into the car• I close the door• I put on the seatbelt• I place the key in the ignition• I start the car• I drive off

TPR Activity

• As a group, come up with a TPR activity for a theme you are teaching

• Be prepared to share

Checking for Understanding

• Language rich lessons need __________

• Effective language activities need _________

• Comprehensible input involves _____________

Role playing

• An excellent way of providing students with oral practice

• A script is helpful

• Provide students with a series of written prompts, organized in the form of a visual (flowchart)

• Something physical to hold on to

• Gives them direction

• See handout and practice

Music

Schoepp, Kevin, Reasons for Using Songs in an ESL Classroom, TESL Journal, Vol. VII, No. 2, February 2001

• Human experience• Integral part of language experience• Reasons – linguistic, cognitive and affective• Processing: Bottom up (sounds into words, sentences and meaning) Top down processing (background knowledge to understand the meaning of a message)Skills: language lexicon (vocabulary of person, language or knowledge) listening skills attitudes and feelings creativity and imagination relaxed classroom atmosphere

Music

• Brainstorm the title. Create a graphic organizer or a thinking map.

• Without reading the lyrics, listen to the song twice and write down thoughts about the song.

• What words do you hear?• What do you think the song is about?• Is this song happy or sad? Why?• Introduce vocabulary and its meaning.• Do a cloze activity with filling in the blank for every

5th word.• Using the lyrics, circle the verbs or adjectives.• Discuss the grammar is it more present or past tense.

Was the grammar correct? • Make connections to the students’ lives and

classroom themes.

Music

http://www.eslcafe.com/idea/index.cgi?Music:

Music Activity

• Discuss the title. What do you think the song

is about?

• What is the message of the song?

Vocabulary

• Focus on approximately 4-7 core vocabulary words per lesson.

• Tie vocabulary to relevant experiences in the students' lives.

• Practice an example • See handout

Vocabulary (Window Paning)

Conveys much information through visuals and little print

Cut into parts and reassembled again to demonstrate comprehension of a process

Organizes steps for a process

Helps to remember important concepts or vocabulary words.

Vocabulary Window Paning

Frog eggs Tadpole Tadpole with legs

Froglett Adult Frog

Work from Meaning to Word

Using the word “chicken,” ask: “What’s the bird/animal that gives us eggs?”

Have a discussion about chickens.

More efficient to work from meaning to word.

Create visuals/graphic organizers

VisualThinking Maps

Pinterest Thinking Maps

Graphic OrganizersComprehension

Herringbone or Fishbone Organizer ..Enchanted Learning Story Map.. Enchanted Learning

One Sentence Summary Frame Activity

This article/information/story about _______ begins with the idea that __________ , develops the idea that ___________ and ends by saying _________.

Comparison Frame

______ (is, are) the same as ___________ in several ways. First of all, ______________. Secondly, ____________ . In addition, _______________. Finally, _______________. It is clear that __________ and ___________ are alike in many respects.

Questions

Last thoughts???

Goal Plan and Reflection

List 3 goals

Share goals

Reflection