When
we think about the difference in ESL/EFL contexts, we want to sieze the
ESL advantage and compensate for the EFL disadvantage. What are some
practical ways we can do these two things?
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Some practical methods of seizing the advantage in an ESL setting are to make use of the available resources by:
ReplyDelete--Giving students assignments that encourage them to interact with the native speakers around them (ex: Interview an English speaking student this week, check out at the grocery store and speak to the cashier in English)
--Talking about culture and entertainment that is available to your students (“I saw a great movie last weekend!”)
--Setting up conversation clubs, partners, and events that allow your students to interact with native speakers.
To compensate in an EFL setting you can:
--Assign authentic material to read/watch/report on for homework assignments.
--Make use of media on the internet (news reports, music, movie trailers).
--Create occasional, fun, English-only events (English parties with English games, movie nights, competitions, etc.)
Does anyone have more ideas?
Some ways to overcome the EFL disadvantage would be:
ReplyDelete1. Providing access English literature, movies ect. through a class "library" or English Movie/TV nights
2. Encouraging or assigning snail-mail or e-mail pen pals from English speaking countries.
3. Encouraging students to switch their cell phone and facebook and other online media to English.
4. Setting up Skype or other voice/video chat with willing native English speakers for the students.
5. Organizing outings to locations where English is more commonly spoken in the area, or if that is not possible, organizing class get togethers where only English is spoken.
Some ways to take advantage of an ESL setting are
1. Class trips/after school meetings to restaurants, movies, stores ect, where English can be practiced
2. Encouraging students to take advantage of the library and helping them find level appropriate material.
3. Assigning homework that requires interaction with the community, such as shopping or attending local festivals or events.
4. Encouraging students to watch English TV, and perhaps have a particular show that the class watches and discusses.
5. Setting up conversation partners with native speakers.
6. If at a university setting, encouraging students to get involved in campus organizations that will let them connect with the community and culture while practicing their English.
Kailey Watson
Some ways to seize the "ESL advantage"
ReplyDelete1. Encourage students to seek out opportunities for practice. Some great opportunities could be:
- Shopping: students can practice negotiating prices, asking questions about an item, or simply navigating a store.
- Eating out at restaurants: practice reading menus without dictionaries or ask your server about specials
- Getting together with friends and ONLY speak in the target language
2. Give homework that involves a specific speaking task with a person outside the classroom
- Parents talking to their children's teacher(s)
- Talking to a teller at the bank in the target language
- Grocery store check out line, talk to cashier
3. Plan and carry out field trips (museums, movies, restaurants, library, volunteer work..)
4. Arrange a social "mixer" with native English Speakers
- You can mix it up with different "themes" to make it fun
- Students can take turns "hosting" and learning the customs of what a host should or should not do in the U.S.
- Provide games played in english (charades, pictionary, word games, bingo, etc.)
5. Invite speakers into your classroom
- Each speaker should provide a different topic that the students may be interested in. This will help build certain vocabulary that they may not hear otherwise
6. Ask your students to not rely on L1 advantages in the area. Never ask for someone who speaks your native language (at the bank, for example). Force yourself to practice the L2 as much as possible, even when an easier option is available.
Some ways to overcome the EFL disadvantages:
1. Don't waste class time on work that can be done as homework. Utilize the class time for real speaking and interactive opportunities. Reading and writing activities can easily be done at home and checked the next day.
2. Help students see genuine uses for English in their own lives.
- seek out "English Speaking" places in the area (restaurants, bars, stores, etc.)
- Possible job opportunities or "resume boosters" for bilingual speakers
- Tv shows, movies, or music in English that students could possibly enjoy
- Possible volunteer/charity work opportunities
3. Provide plenty of extra-class learning opportunities
- Assign an English-speaking movie, TV show, or radio program then have an in-class discussion on it.
- Assign students an English conversation partner to practice inside and outside of class
- Assign reading assignments in English: news, magazines, books, short stories, poems, etc.
- Have the students keep a journal in English. Encourage creative writing
- Challenge the students to set their phones, facebook, internet, etc to English instead of their native language.
4. Play down the role of tests and emphasize more intrinsic factors.
- Encourage the students to actually use the language being learned, other than memorizing what is necessary to pass a test.
- Teach for long-term retention, not for short-term goals in the form of exams or quizzes.
5. Use class time as an opportunity for interaction.
- Plan several activities, discussions, conversation time, and games that students can do to practice both speaking and listening skills in the target language. These are skills they can practice nowhere else but the classroom. Utilize the classroom!
With English, the EFL disadvantages are minimized if you have access to the internet. You can provide students with websites with access to other English learners. YouTube has great instructional videos (and some not-so-great ones) with explanations of grammar points. With google maps, you can zoom in to a street in Kansas or London and see the storefront windows. Movies, music videos (clean) and other media sites provide access to English-speaking culture. The disadvantage of the internet is that the interaction is limited to listening and viewing. However, e-mail pals and skype-type cafes provide an opportunity for interaction.
ReplyDeleteEnsuring class activities are relevant and focused on what learners need to reach their goals can minimize the EFL disadvantage in a non-internet setting. Spend as much time as possible in class interacting. Leave reading and writing assignments for homework if possible. Assign language activities outside of class, for example, watching a movie or English news or TV.
In an ESL environment, you can encourage students to look for opportunities to practice their English. Have them to go to English-speaking stores and ask for assistance (directions, price check, etc.). Ask students to keep a log of words or phrases that they encounter outside class. Invite others to come into class to give informative speeches. Discuss free activities and cultural events happening in the area that students can attend to expose them to more English.
Lynn Vara
The ESL advantage is the ample opportunity for students to practice the L2 in their own communities! The trick is finding ways to motivate students to expose themselves to more language outside of class. It’s also an advantage for the teacher to have so much ready access to authentic material for use in-class. It’s harder, but not impossible (provided there's internet access), to have ready access to authentic materials in an EFL context. To maximize the ESL advantage, we can begin by bringing those authentic materials to class for activity use –local media, advertisements, and menus are a place to begin. Other ideas (many listed on p. 135) are: assigning out-of-class tasks that require English use such as watching TV/movies, asking questions in a shop, attending a local event, class excursions (to museums or other local places), connecting students with conversation partners, or arranging a social “mixer” for the students to meet native English speakers.
ReplyDeleteIn the EFL disadvantage, students do not have as many opportunities to practice English outside of class. To compensate for the lack of communicative situations, we should direct students toward opportunities to experience English outside of class. The ideas I like best are: assigning as homework English language media (via the internet, most likely), connecting students with conversation partners (in person if available, or over skype), penpals in another school, chatroom use, outside reading with magazines or newspapers, writing a journal or diary, or forming a language club.
The text also lists encouraging the use of learning strategies outside of class. I think this deserves time in class. By discussing the many ways we can continue to learn and maintain our L2 outside of class, we set the students up as independent learners beyond our classroom.
ESL classes typically take place in a culture where the society speaks the second language which the students are being taught. Students need to be encouraged to take the risk of stepping into the English speaking environment and trying to communicate. One of the easiest is to go to an English speaking food establishment and order their meal in English. Others include going to social events, especially where English speakers will be supportive. These might include civic or church related events. Encourage students to request feedback and accept it willingly.
ReplyDeleteListening to English speaking television, movies and radio are also great ways to listen and develop understanding. Reading skills can be developed through reading books where the students have a particular interest. Writing skills can be developed by sending emails to the teacher or others who are willing to give feedback. The opportunities to communicate in English are out there but the student must find the time, be willing to take the risk, and just do it.
EFL students may overcome the disadvantage of not being in the second language culture through using the internet, skyping with English speakers, and searching out periodicals, books and tv programs in English. They can also form study groups and search out English speakers who are willing to help them. In some ways there is an advantage for the EFL students in that they do not have to experience the social stigma or shame of not speaking the common language. Their efforts are likely to be more creative because of that.
To take advantage of an ESL setting...
ReplyDelete1. Take students to grocery markets, shopping malls, cafes, theaters, libraries and give them tasks to accomplish (or let them come up with their own tasks) that require them to communicate in English to accomplish the task.
2. Find a language partner who wants to learn your student's native language and will teach your student English. Have them meet regularly to teach one another.
3. Have students act as news reporters and go to local events, concerts, worship services, fairs and interview workers and bystanders about the event.
4. Discuss popular topics in the news and culture, showing video clips and news articles if students aren't aware and pose an interesting questions to let them discuss it.
5. Organize mixers for your class to interact with groups of people with whom they will have to use English to communicate.
To overcome the EFL disadvantage...
1. Have students access videos and articles on English websites.
2. Invite friends who are native English speakers to come visit and run english camps for your students.
3. Organizing class field trips to English-speaking places such as to watch an American movie or to visit an international grocery store.
4. Invite friends who are native English speakers to host an English corner where students can come and practice their English with native speakers.
5. Expose students to English TV shows and have a library of English materials they can check out and use.
Other people already presented a lot of good techniques that English teachers can utilize to overcome the restrictions in ESL/EFL contexts. On this comment, I want to introduce come programs that are used in Korea in order to give more English input to students in EFL environment.
ReplyDeleteFirst, there are some short-term English camps. These English camps usually run in summer or winter vacation when school students take part in these camps without the disturbance of their own schoolwork. The programs of English camps are very intensive and diverse.
Next, regional governments have established many ‘English Village’ or ‘English Town’, an artificially built culture island. In this area students can be exposed to kind of authentic English by interacting with native English speakers. Signboard, directions, and cautions are written in English, and even structures are built in western architecture style.
Lastly, most elementary and secondary schools have ‘only English zone’ in school. In this zone students should speak only in English, and there are a lot of English books and computers for students. Usually, English classes are taught in this zone or other English classrooms, and students can take part in some afterschool activities in this zone.
Even though it is difficult that these programs can be implemented on a teacher level, many countries where English is a foreign language are making efforts to present better English learning environment for students.