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 * (*#$_)!*#$*_#$+)%* and Talk about ESL[[image:DAIVA_WATER.jpg width="108" height="123" align="right"]] **

** This blog is a place for personal ESL teaching reflections and other ranting..... **

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The following was originally published July 2, 2010 at http://daivaberz.blogspot.com/2010/07/methods-and-materials.html

Literacy development in the L2 classroom is a crucial component of second language acquisition, especially in regards to CALP. As studied this past semester, I have realized that in order to teach literacy development successfully, I must promote literacy not only to my students themselves, but also go beyond the classroom and reach out to their families and their communities. I must educate myself more in my students' L1 backgrounds if I hope to teach phonemic awareness and phonics successfully. If I have an understanding of their language, it might help me to help them understand the L2 language with more accuracy.

Phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, fluency, and reading comprehension are the key components in achieving literacy. There are many strategies that are available to meet the varying needs of ELL students; however, each classroom environment is unique and each student has his/her own varying level of English language proficiency and comfort in varying teaching strategies.

In my classroom, I believe that in order to be successful, reading materials should be chosen wisely. They should be complimentary to language level, contain relevant vocabulary, and include content that is of interest to the student. In instruction, incorporating word building activities, writing prompts, and anticipatory guides that promote metacognition and demonstrate comprehension in the L2 language guarantee. These tools provide results. My students like to know that they are acquiring acquisition and that their language skills are progressing. Including organizers and building off background knowledge that help students come to new conclusions helps them to see that they are in fact learning. It is my responsibility as an instructor to create language learning strategies and develop materials successfully for second language acquisition.

I have noticed that a lot of instructors who begin teaching English as a Second Language begin this journey naively. They think, "I speak English. This'll be easy." However, teaching ESL is one of the hardest subjects I have ever taught. It is more than standing in a classroom and talking about content area subjects. You can't do that with ESL students because first they have to understand the language with which you are using to communicate. Memorize the Theory of Gravity! That's easy to say, but not to an ESL student. You have to provide the structure and components to help the understand the sounds, the words, the sentence structure, etc. to comprehend that. Teaching someone a whole other way to communicate in a different language can be frustrating and exhausting. However, I say don't give up. The key is educating yourself in methods and strategies and learning how to do implement them successfully.

This course has been useful in teaching methods that facilitate to work along with the language backgrounds of ELL students. In the future, I plan to do work harder to familiarize myself with other language structures while utitilzing multiple approaches of ESL instruction in my classroom. I plan to create guides that promote literacy that not only recall reading content, but which also call for more reflection from behalf of the student. Also, I plan to create materials promoting comprehension in a more visual style by using word maps and utilizing various types of graphic organizers.

The following was originally published June 29, 2010 at http://daivaberz.blogspot.com/2010/06/what-should-we-read.html

I've noticed that in teaching ESL, reading comprehension is one of the most difficult skills to teach my students. I struggle with it daily. Where I teach, our curriculum uses books that as the levels of acquistion progress, reading incorporated into the coursework is intended to promote Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) -- meaning vocabulary becomes more difficult and students are asked to use reading comprehension skills to answer questions which compliment the text, both literally and reflectively.

I run into a variety of problems here. First of all, I really do not care for the readings that the textbooks provide. They don't at all help my students due to lack of relevance and interest. For example, one unit is themed "//Have all the heroes died//?" The unit begins with introductory reading materials taken from books, and magazines; however, they are always dated - extremely dated. This particular chapter focuses on Lou Gherig, Babe Ruth, and their "heroic" deeds. Personally, I don't really think Babe Ruth was any kind of a hero. I know it doesn't matter what I think, but it does matter what my students think. They really don't care about Babe Ruth because they don't even know who Babe Ruth is. They are not even interested to know who Babe Ruth is. My students are internationals --they don't play baseball. The next reading talks about Lee Iacoca. Okay, enough said! The first point I think that should be considered when choosing reading material is: **INTEREST**! When it's interesting, students are more likely to pay attention. If they're paying attention, they're engaged in what they're learning.

Next, the vocabulary in these texts is obsolete. Units include content that includes things like: //pushing their wares//, //feet of clay, junkies//, etc. This type of vocabulary appears at the advanced intermediate level. It's just at the point when the world of the English language is opening up to them. This material frustrates and closes the doors for many. It takes me a long time to reach them again. I notice that when we're reading in class, they're just reading the words. When I ask them to respond about what they've just read, they have no idea. The second point that should be considered is that reading materials should use vocabulary that we are likely to see or hear in our EVERYDAY speech. I can honestly say that in my life, I have, if ever, only once heard someone use the words, "//pushing their wares//." By the way, that statement in the text is used in an article that's not even talking about drugs or places where it is more commonly used and likely to be heard, but with Native Americans in gambling casinos. Seriously!

When they get to master's level, they start reading //Newsweek//. There really is nothing wrong with //Newsweek//, but it's a hard read. I think it's good to choose literature that includes current events, but why not maybe //The// //Tennessean,// or maybe even //Time//. Periodicals that use more simple text.

The reason I believe this is is from my own experience. I grew up speaking Lithuanian fluently at home. I studied it academically in my primary and secondary years at a Saturday school, but that was 15 years ago, and it wasn't enough. I only have Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS). I struggle reading the newspaper and writing intelligently. I can have conversations. I understand everything someone tells me, but I read and write like a 6 year old. I see this in my students. At master's level, I have students who read and write like 6 years olds, too. It's frustrating for them because they think they know English, only to discover that they don't. The curriculum we use uses content that doesn't do much in helping them overcome this hump.

I believe language materials should primarily be interesting and use vocabulary that is relevant. In my situation, my primary goal is to teach them the language first, not content, so I believe materials should be chosen in this manner.

Promoting literacy in Second Language Aquisition is extremely important, especially if the goal is promoting CALP, which in my case it is. Choosing effective and relevant materials needs to be considered in order to make that happen. While I was taking SPSE 6800 last Spring, I was at a point of frustration with the reading materials, and the fact that my students weren't always getting it. They weren't always going to have someone like me standing there -- exhaustively interpreting the texts for them. Reading aloud definitely was not working. It was just then that I had read a text advising that L2 learners are more likely to be comprehend texts when reading silently, rather than aloud. So, I did a test. We read one text aloud, like I had been doing, with comprehension questions that followed. The chosen text was one of the required course texts I had described above. Result: none of the students had any clue about what they had just read. Next, I had them read a reading silently with comprehension questions that followed. Result: they at least got some of the questions right.

In conclusion, I think with proper material and effective implementation literacy is a necessary and achievable goal for all L2 learners.



The above was originally published June 8, 2010 at http://daivaberz.blogspot.com/2010/06/on-teaching.html

I started teaching ESL in 2005 when I worked as a Social Studies teacher in Rome, Italy at AMBRIT (American British International School). I picked it up for extra money.

When I retured to the States, I moved back to Cleveland and started teaching Social Studies again in the inner city, and I hated it. I missed my international life. I missed the international students. I liked history and still do, but wasn't particularly interested in teaching about the Oregon Trail anymore. The students were bad.

So, I quit and moved to Chicago and started working in publishing again. (I used to work as an editor for Thompson and Gale before becoming a teacher.) When I got laid off, I went back to tutoring ESL for extra money and started to teach ESL courses at Xilin Chinese School to Chinese speaking students. I loved it! I loved my students! I loved the curriculum. I loved the rewards.

Rewards? Well, being an ESL teacher is far more gratifying than being a history teacher. Currently, I teach ESL at ELS Language Centers at MTSU. All of the students are academic bound. Classes range from beginner to masters. It is such a great thing to run into a student who had spoken little to no English upon arrival that is now a proficient and fluent English speaker. I got to take part in that journey.

My students are older. They are expats basically, and often times they need help adjusting in this world. For example, I just had a man come in here whose wife is studying here. She is depressed, and he asked me if maybe I could talk to her. Another student asked me if I could go to the hospital with her because her husband is there, and she doesn't understand what the doctors are telling her.

Is all of this a drag? Sometimes. Is teaching them frustrating? Sometimes. However, I love it.

I love this program I am studying in now because it's teaching me how to be a better teacher. It's making me aware of students and their situations. It's helping me practice patience when I feel I have none.

Teaching ESL is really the only thing I can imagine doing anymore. I still travel, but I prefer living stateside and vacationing elsewhere on my freetime. I like the international students and the rewards it brings. I like when I close the doors to my classroom, not much else matters. I have an important job to do. I feel the students need the skills that I am teaching them, more than they need to know about the Oregon Trail.



Daiva Berzinskas ESL Instructor: daivaberz@gmail.com