What
Every Teacher of an ESL Student Needs to Know
What
Every Teacher of an ESL Student Needs to Know
First of all, the content teacher needs to understand that the ESL student community has the same amount of diversity that the general student body has; a variation in general intelligence, in subject-area familiarity, in maturity level, in motivation, and in economic background is to be expected throughout any given cultural group. When you have a concern about an ESL student, therefore, English language level is only one factor among many which influences the student's classroom performance.
Nevertheless, some performance factors that are unique to ESL students in general are caused by cultural issues. Textbooks and teaching techniques used in the home country may be very different from the ones we use here. Many textbooks have no illustrations, charts, graphs, glossaries, or homework exercises. Teaching techniques are often deductive rather than inductive. Students may be encouraged to memorize information. Often teachers, not students, do laboratory experiments in science classes. Sometimes students are not used to working in groups; sometimes students have only worked in same-sex groups. When a particular ESL student seems very disoriented in your class, consult with the ESL teacher for available background information. Allow for a period of adjustment.
The language factor is of course of primary concern. When an ESL student first comes to NNHS, the student is given extensive testing in English. English language level, home-country course background and level of motivation and organization are all taken into account when choosing classes. The head of the math department and when appropriate, heads of other departments, are consulted about placement. Nevertheless, remember that often foreign student transcripts read "science" in general and "math" in general, rather than specific courses within those disciplines, as we teach here. It is, in fact, unusual for countries to teach kinds of math or sciences separately as we do. For this reason, placement is often the result of our "best guess." Your own input, as you experience a particular student, is greatly appreciated.
The teacher should understand that language refers not just to vocabulary, but syntax and organization. When you ask an ESL student to write a paragraph in English, you expect the paragraph's main idea in the first sentence, for example, not the Chinese pattern which has the main idea in the middle, nor the Persian which has a parallel idea pattern. From ESL intermediate on, ESL students know how to present material in the American way. Likewise, when a teacher expects an essay on a given topic, the American teacher expects the Communication Arts model, where the thesis statement is at the end of the introduction. From ESL Advanced on, ESL students have been taught how to write a five paragraph American essay. Deviating from essay expectations as required in Com Arts will confuse an ESL student.
Tips
on How to Modify Lessons for ESL Needs For the most part, modifying for ESL needs enhances a lesson for any student. Keeping your subject-matter vocabulary consistent, rather than using synonyms, is helpful. Requiring students to keep a glossary of subject-matter terms helps the students organize for test taking. Split page note instruction is given by the Literacy Center; knowing what's important in a chapter helps a student organize and using question format helps the ESL student syntactically to put a concept into a question which might later resemble a test question.
More than anything else, perhaps, illustration using realia or pictures is essential since the ESL student might not have had the experience that other students have or the cultural background necessary to understand a concept. Giving examples of what is meant is also helpful. Printing these examples on the board (rather than using handwriting) is greatly appreciated. Some teachers have suggested at Literacy Center sharing times that having examples of what the assignment should look like, before the student begins, insures that the ESL student understands a project's instructions. The ESL student should be told outright that his project should be his own unique work following the pattern.
Increasingly, teachers use the internet to make lessons relevant to students. Because language used on web sites is often beyond the reading level of an ESL student, it is necessary to pre-select appropriate web sites rather than have ESL students try to identify ones that will answer class questions. When a teacher doesn't do this, the ESL student typically spends too long in a hopeless search and ends up copying a web site verbatim.
Teachers often have questions about expectations of an ESL student as regards assignments involving listening (such as a video) or speaking (such as a class presentation). Video worksheets should be given to the ESL student a day or two ahead of time so that the student can look up unknown vocabulary in questions and so that the student can highlight key words to listen for in the video question. In this way, an ESL student will, while unable to understand everything in a video, at least be able to understand what you think is most important. In class presentations, ESL students need a prop to lean on; beginning in ESL intermediate, students are taught how to make a Power Point presentation for this reason. In this way, pronunciation difficulties can be overcome when accompanied by the written word on the screen. Whenever possible, putting an ESL student into a group with sympathetic native students is the best way to go, rather than grouping ESL students together.
How can a teacher accommodate the ESL student on class tests? Paying attention to syntax in questions helps any student understand what you are really asking. Make sure that you have put the question in the simplest of terms. Often test questions are unnecessarily wordy. Avoid using double negatives, asking which example is NOT true. Remember that "distracter" answers which the American student can easily eliminate often fascinate the ESL student whose vocabulary and cultural background is different. When you send a test to the ESL room, we can often have the test translated into the student's native language so that you can be assured that the test will test not the student's English ability, but the student's subject-matter knowledge.
Finally, look upon the ESL student as a possible contributor of unique experience for the whole class. While the student's formal or historical knowledge of his culture is no better than the typical American student's of his own, still the ESL student can accurately portray daily life and culture of his country. Looking at a subject from a world perspective benefits everyone.
Countries
ESL Students Represent (updated yearly)
Cultural
Spot Lights by ESL StudentsESL students explain on this page concepts in their culture which Americans often misunderstand