TESOL organization offers online certificate

The Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) organization has just started an online training program.  While many online certificate programs are unpredictable in quality and reputation, the TESOL organization carries an excellent international reputation, and I would foresee it being more reputable than other online certificates (though I still hold that face-to-face courses are most effective).  However, if face-to-face courses are not an option for you, TESOL program looks like a valid option for training.

Demand for English language teachers

The New York Times has a great infographic on the growing need for ESL teachers over the past decade:

Read the accompanying article here.

Why I love Oxford Picture Dictionaries

I thought I’d take a post to expand on one of my must-haves for ESL teachers, the Oxford Picture Dictionaries.  I’ve always LOVED picture dictionaries, so I’m naturally biased toward this type of material, BUT some of the more recent materials Oxford has developed to supplement the picture dictionary itself are quite impressive.  If you haven’t looked at these materials yet, it’s worth some time to see if it would be a useful resource for the setting in which you teach.

Oxford Picture Dictionary Interactive

From the website: Oxford Picture Dictionary Interactive features easy navigation and provides practice opportunities for every word in the Oxford Picture Dictionary, Second Edition . In addition, video clips, readings, conversations, and writing activities provide hours of contextualized language practice.

Features

• Contextualized language practice and activities to reinforce new vocabulary.
• Immediate access to target words, promoting language autonomy.
• Tab-style navigation that provides a clear, intuitive interface even for novice computer users.
• Flashcard Maker that enables students to print a word and picture cards based on their individual needs.
• Vocabulary Notebook for students to actively create an electronic notebook of words and images, facilitating independent learning.

Highlights

If you have access to smartboard technology in your classroom, the OPD also has interactive presentation software that you can use along with the text book.  The OPD is also available in bilingual versions in Farsi, Japanese, French, Urdu, Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, Russian, Hatian Creole, Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Oxford Picture Dictionary for Kids

This is an excellent alternative for working with children learning English.  In this series, Oxford offers a workbook, a teacher’s guide, many reproducibles, CDs and a battery of readers for student use.

Oxford Picture Dictionary for Content Areas

Designed to ‘accelerate academic development’, this dictionary is designed specifically for the ESL student in American content based courses.  Topics covered include geography, US history/government, the human body, living things ,the physical world, earth science, math, and technology.

The Business of Language

Bill Fisher, the CEO of EF Englishtown, talks about the prospects of teaching English around the world.  His organization is the largest English teaching company in the world.  His interview with FOX news is very insightful about ESL job prospects around the world!

Tips for teaching large, multilevel ESL/EFL classes

It is not uncommon for ESL classes around the world to be quite large and contain a wide range of student language levels (see this thread’s comments).  Oftentimes this situation occurs in developing countries with volunteer teachers.  If you are a teacher in this situation, where do you even begin?  Here are some ideas[1]:

1. Assess student needs. Find out what students want/need to learn.
2. Make time to plan.This will take awhile, but the payoff will result in less frustration from you and the students in class because you will be teaching to all levels rather than just the middle.
   1. Create an overall plan. Decide on the big picture of what you’re going to teach.  For ideas of what to teach, peruse ESL texts’ table of contents appropriate to the age level on Amazon See Inside or look on ESL publishers websites (Oxford, Cambridge, Heinle, are among the largest).  This will give you a direction for the class.
   2. Determine a consistent class structure.This will depend on what works for your context, but it should include a consistent approach to each class session that helps facilitate what you’re teaching.  For example, each day, the class period may look something like this:
      1. Song
      2. Daily Quote
      3. Large group work
      4. Small group work
      5. Pair work
      6. Closing game
      7. Use groups. Plan for whole group, small group, and pair work during class.  Make sure to assign roles to group members (especially when working with mixed-ability groups) so that one person doesn’t end up doing all the work.
   3. Create opportunities for independent self-paced work. This may include crossword puzzles, flashcards, board games, magazines, art supplies.  It will take some time to set up and communicate expectations to students, but it also allows students to work at their own level.

Types of Activities

• Whole group activities: daily warm-ups, singing, brainstorming, daily quotes
• Small group activities: activities appropriate for similar skill or interest level
• Pairwork: information gap, interviews, role plays
• Activities appropriate for groups at similar levels: problem solving, writing exercises, grammar work
• Activities appropriate for groups at different levels: board games, art projects,

More Resources

Teaching Large, Multilevel Classes by Natalie Hess.  This book provides useful information on topics such as activities for getting to know students, keeping students motivated, and doing written and group work.  You can view a preview of the text here.

Teaching English as a Foreign Language to large, multilevel classes. This is a guide written for Peace Corp volunteers – although it’s old, it’s thorough and has some excellent information.

Teaching Large, Heterogenous Classrooms. An in-depth power point by leading TESOL scholar Penny Ur.

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[1] Information based on:
Shank, C., & Terrill, L. (1995, May). Teaching multilevel adult esl classes. CAELA, Retrieved from http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/SHANK.html
Bowman, B., Larson, M, Short, D., & McKay, H. (1992). Teaching english as a foreign language to large, multilevel classes. ERIC, Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED358702.pdf doi: ED 358 702

Resources for teaching English to refugees in the US

When refugees arrive in America, their orientation often includes some survival English language.  This instruction is often done by volunteers with little training and materials.  Here are some helpful places to look for resources if this describes your current situation:

General Sites

Bridging refugee youth and children’s services (BRYCS)

CAL: Refugee Resources

Refugee Educators’ Network

UNHCR Teacher’s Corner

Articles

Children’s books on refugees

How to support refugee students in the classroom

Teaching Preliterate Adult Refugee Students

Teaching the alphabet effectively to adult ESL students

Books

Understanding your refugee and Immigrant Students byJeffra Joanne Flaitz

The Middle of Everywhere: Helping Refugees Enter the American Community by Mary Pipher

Examples of language focused learning

A language classroom should be filled with many different kinds of opportunities to practice language or deep learning is unlikely to occur.  Here are some practical ways to provide a wide variety of practice for your students:

• Distinguishing minimal pairs
• Focusing on sounds, intonation, and stress
• Learning vocabulary on cards
• Re-arranging words in the right order to make sentences
• Getting feedback on errors
• Sentence combining and transformation
• Guided composition
• Dictation
• Listening for particular words or phrases
• Repetition and substitution drills
• Memorizing dialogues and poems
• Analysing cohesive devices
• Learning to guess from context clues
• Sentence-completion activities

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[1] S., I, & Macalister, J. (2009). Language curriculum design. New York: Taylor & Francis.