"7 things your quiet ESL students don't tell you"

Hi there!

I haven't been writing on this blog for quite a while. Been busy, you know. Also, nothing interesting seems to be happening in the English learning and teaching world any more. Maybe it's me myself: I am really getting old I guess.

But today I found an article worth sharing. The title caught my attention, and when I read the article, it was so true! I am sure any teacher would agree with the article. So here it is, for you to read and think about those quiet students when you teach.

Enjoy!
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Link: http://busyteacher.org/12900-what-quiet-esl-students-are-not-telling-you.html

7 Things Your Quiet ESL Students Are Not Telling You

Isn’t it great when we have ESL students who are very vocal about their needs?

They arrive to their first day of class, tell you all about their English-learning background and describe what they hope to accomplish. When they don’t understand, they tell you. If you’re going too fast, they ask you to slow down. If only all ESL students were like that…

By contrast, we are sometimes met with a quiet room full of blank stares. How do you know what’s going on in their heads if they don’t say anything? If you have students who are too quiet, chances are there is something they are not telling you, which you’ll need to find out – fast!

Important Things Your Students Are Not Telling You:

1. 1

   I’m hearing too many new words.

   Do you give your students long lists of vocabulary words or do you introduce new vocab in digestible sets of five to six words? When you give them instructions, do you use words they may not understand? Students who are too shy or don’t want to be disrespectful may not tell you they did not understand half of what you said or the story you read. Make sure you introduce new vocabulary as appropriate, i.e. before reading a story or giving instructions for a new task. Check for comprehension of the new words, and only then proceed with the task.
2. 2

   It’s too hard for me to do this on my own. Can I work with a classmate?

   Some students are overwhelmed by an exercise or task, and would feel much more comfortable working with another student. Don’t underestimate the value of pair work or team work. Lots of students enjoy it and thrive in this type of task. Of course, not all tasks should be completed in pairs or teams. But they shouldn’t have to do everything on their own, either.
3. 3

   Please don’t put me on the spot.

   Some students love being in the spotlight, the center of attention. Others would prefer to blend into the wallpaper. If you believe a student in particular is having a hard time with an exercise or task, or if they can’t answer a question, don’t insist in front of the entire class. Check back with the student at the end of class to make sure he/she understood.
4. 4

   Please, be patient with me. I’m trying my best.

   You’ve probably seen this happen. A student says he/she does not understand something, and you explain. The student still does not understand, so you re-phrase and try again. The student still does not understand. Under no circumstances must we lose our patience. You try by all means possible to help the student grasp whatever it is he or she is having trouble grasping, and if they still don’t, you set a moment to talk about it, perhaps after class.
5. 5

   I need some time to think before I answer.

   Some people don’t like long silences or pauses, and ESL teachers are no different. But sometimes students don’t answer questions as quickly as we’d like them to. The question dangles in the air, and if the student takes too long, we either answer it ourselves or ask another student to do it. Some students need time to think. Give them a few extra seconds, and then perhaps a clue or a nudge to steer them in the right direction.
6. 6

   I don’t care about “Mr. Smith” from the book. This is boring!

   Nine out of ten times when students are bored, they are bored with the coursebook. But they might not tell you that. They are not interested in some fictional character’s conversations with his boss or family. Though we should use a coursebook in class, sometimes it’s best to adjust it and adapt it to better suit our students’ interests.
7. 7

   I don’t understand your handwriting.

   Students take forever to copy from the board and whisper amongst themselves while they do so.You don’t know that what they are whispering is, “What does question number 2 say?” Some students struggle with your handwriting, but they won’t tell you that. Instead of guessing, it’s far easier to just ask, “Is my writing clear? Let me know if you can read it all.” Try switching from cursive to print handwriting. For longer exercises, you might want to consider giving them copies – it certainly saves time.

Let’s bear in mind that cultural differences may come into play. In some cultures students are taught to respect their teacher, and they don’t want to offend. In others, it is not accustomed for students to make eye contact with their instructor.

Students are also different throughout the world. Some are naturally talkative; others are timid and shy. Whatever the reason for your students keeping quiet, just make sure it’s not due to the ones mentioned above!

 Have you ever had an unnaturally quiet class or student? What did you identify to be the problem? Share below! 

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About the author

Claudia has been an ESL teacher for 20 years and has taught a wide variety of students from pre-schoolers to senior citizens, complete beginners to advanced students. This vast teaching experience has helped her write over 100 articles for BusyTeacher.org. When she is not teaching, she is also a freelance travel writer contributing reviews for V!VA Travel Guides' upcoming Uruguay edition, as well as travel articles and blog posts for a variety of online publications. She is currently living in Buenos Aires, Argentina with her spunky 7-year old daughter and crabby 10-year old cat, Ulysses.

Useful website for ESL teachers

I came across this website when searching for articles about ESP and CLIL. It is really useful for professional development of ESL teachers.  It contains a lot of things that a teacher may need: Teaching tips; Lesson plans; and a Newsletter with articles about English language teaching in the world. Really useful, and free!

The website, however, looks a bit complicated and hard to navigate. But once you have become familiar with it, everything should be fine. One tip: Look at your right side column for the things you need. Forget the front of the webpage; you can never sort out what is there.

Here goes the link to the website: http://www.developingteachers.com/. I hope it's of use to you all.

"Pain in the English"

"Pain in the English" is the name of an interesting and useful website for English learners. I came across it today when I searched the Internet for answers to the question of why "according to me" sounds odd in English, even though we can say "according to her/him/them" and it is perfect English.

The answer provided on the website "Pain in the English" (URL: http://painintheenglish.com/) is detailed and clear. But I should not spoil it for you; better go there and check for yourself.

I am sure you can find tons of other useful answers for your questions about English usage.

Hope you like it. Enjoy!

Genki English: A revolution in English language teaching in Japan?

I came across this website while looking for things to read about teaching English at primary school level.

First time I heard something like that! But to tell you the truth, I was amazed! Things look so simple, but also, it is convincing. Yes, the truth is simple. Children learn by playing. So if you structure your lesson in a game or a song, then you are successful.

Go there and check for yourself. It's here. Genki English is the word!

About the usage of "would"

Dear all,

I got this question sent to my mailbox. Since it might be of use to some of you, I post it here to share the question and my answer to all who have the same question.
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Ở Trường em vừa diễn ra đợt thi giáo viên giỏi cấp trường. Một cô giáo dạy bài Unit 9 trong giáo trình Headway ( elementary). Nội dung của bài là cấu trúc "Would like" cô giáo này giải thích Would like = like very much.

Và Yes/no question của nó là

Would + S + like..........? cô giáo giải thích đây là Polite request. Và không được trả lời là Yes hoặc No.

Hội đồng trong khoa không đồng ý

Would like = like và want

nên Would + S + like = Do you/ they want hoặc like
Does she / she want hoặc like

Đây ko phải là polite request

Chỉ có Would you like........ mới là polite request

Theo như khoa em giải thích vậy có đúng ko cô?
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Below is my answer:

1. polite request đúng là chỉ dùng "would you like"; xem thêm ở đây: http://www.elt-heaven.com/MyActivities/PoliteRequests/PoliteRequests.html và ở đây: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv239.shtml

2. "would she like" là để hỏi về preferences, vậy giải thích như khoa như vậy là đúng rồi.
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And finally, some further references:

1. http://www.freespokenenglish.pakown.com/CE/6.%20Asking-about-preferences.htm

2. http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2123807

3. http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-modal-would.htm

This third link is a real good one. Let me copy this part off the page, which is relevant to the question asked above:

would: Desire or inclination
I'd love to live here.
Would you like some coffee?
What I'd really like is some tea.

would: Polite requests and questions
Would you open the door, please? (more polite than: Open the door, please.)
Would you go with me? (more polite than: Will you go with me?)
Would you know the answer? (more polite than: Do you know the answer?)
What would the capital of Nigeria be? (more polite than: What is the capital of Nigeria?)

Do you know these English words at all?

What words? Well, words like edupreuner, intextication, tweetheart, to name but a few.

But ... are you sure they are English words? I am sure they are.

Hmm... Maybe these are slangs, or teenagers' fleeting language inventions, which are not recognised in the mainstream?

Nope! They are, actually, recorded by ... Cambridge Dictionaries!

Yeah, you can go here to read these and all other newly invented words which appear in the English language every single day.

Before I stop, just to give you a taste of what is in there, let me copy the definitions from the site for the three words listed above:

1. Edupreneur: (noun) edupreneur noun someone working as an entrepreneur in an area of education

Switching sides: prominent educationists now working

2. Intextication: (noun) the state of being unable to drive safely while texting

Intextication Prevention Tools – This SafeCell Android App Credits You Money for Safe Driving [www.trendhunter.com (advert)] 31 Oct 10

3. Tweetheart: (noun) a friend or lover that you communicate with via Twitter

Gathering of Tweethearts at Chili’s [www.iamthewitch.com (headline)] 07 Oct 2010

See, you have to constantly update your knowledge, or you don't know English anymore!

Well, one last word: do you know what sofalise is? You don't? Go there and check for yourself!

For those who think they know English

English is an easy language to learn, right? Well, I don't really think so.

If you are not already confused, here are a few links that can confuse you enormously. They are about English grammar and usage. Read them, and you will learn that you don't know the language at all.

1. http://www.cjr.org/language_corner/ - Very good to read. Read today's entry below just for the taste of it.

LESS IS FEWER

More and more, fewer people use “less” and “fewer” the way the language gods intended. “There are less people here than there were last year,” for example, is commonly heard or written.

Grammar texts are pretty absolute: Use “fewer” when you’re talking about countable things, and “less” when you’re not. So that first example should be “fewer” people, because you can count them. Simple.

OK, then what about this? “The contract pays him fewer than a thousand dollars a week.” Doesn’t that sound funny? But it must be right: You can count those dollars.

Thus the first “exception” to the “rules”: Use “less” when the context refers to a quantity, rather than individual things, even if there are a number of things. Thus, “he earns less than a thousand dollars a week,” but “he earns five hundred fewer dollars than his wife.”

That “exception” is usually easy to follow: Use “less” with singular nouns and “fewer” with plural nouns. (You need “less” salt on your fries, but “fewer” grains of salt.) If you’re comparing quantities of individual things, “fewer” usually works better than “less.” (You earn “less” money but “fewer” dollars than someone else.)

Even so, there are times when you can’t tell if you’re dealing with individuals or groups. In 2008, The New Yorker ran this cartoon of a checkout lane with the sign “10 items or less“ corrected to “10 items or fewer.” After all, you can count each of those items, yes? Except that almost no one says “ten items or fewer.” Maybe it’s one grocery order, so the individual items don’t count? Hey! You have eleven items! Put one of them back, so you have one item fewer.

Except that you should say “one item less.”

Other “exceptions” include distances (“less” than ten miles away), percentages and fractions (“less” than two-thirds of the voters), time (“less” than sixty seconds), measurement (“less” than thirty square yards), etc., etc., etc. (And, by the way, you shouldn’t use “fewer number,” as in “a fewer number of people.” When you say “fewer,” you’re already signaling that you’re talking numbers.)

Lesser mortals have failed to keep those exceptions straight. And Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage points out that the “rule” actually started out as a “guideline,” where common sense, ear and elegance trump “right” and “wrong.”

Perhaps you can think of it as Garner’s Modern American Usage describes it: “Fewer emphasizes number, and less emphasizes degree or quantity.”

Yes, it requires you to think, but there are less fruitful ways to waste a day.

Now, stop and think: which one do you use, "less" or "fewer"?

2. http://motivatedgrammar.wordpress.com/ - Another confusing site, well, I mean it's good, informative, but it doesn't help you in becoming a better English user. Just read the following piece and you will know why.

DONE AND FINISHED

At various points in my life, I finished up a task and excitedly, dutifully, or resignedly announced its completion by saying “I’m done”. And most of the times, this was met with a congratulation, or at least warm indifference. On rare occasions, it was met with a succinct rebuke:

“Cakes are done. People are finished.”

That was all; no explanation given, and me left sitting there wondering why, if the subject of cake was going to be broached, it wasn’t to give me one as a reward. Because the response was so untethered to rational explanation, I would quickly forget about it, only to be reminded each time that I bothered to tell this person that I was done.

Well, I’m done. And so’s the rule. Let me turn the floor over to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage (MWDEU):

“Done in the sense of ‘finished’ has been subject to a certain amount of criticism over the years for reasons that are not readily apparent.”

The reasons aren’t unreadily apparent, either; they simply aren’t. MWDEU traces the prohibition against humans being done to MacCracken and Sandison’s 1917 book Manual of Good English, which offers no explanation for its impropriety. In the near-century since, no one else has found a reason for it either. What passes for a justification is that one-liner I quoted above; for instance, in one professor’s list of “errors to avoid“, we’re given this explanation, posted in its entirety:

“30. If something has been completed, it is finished–it is not ‘done’. Remember, cakes are done; people are finished.”

It looks to me that the real reason why people started complaining about this usage is that it had two signs of the prescriptivist devil: it was a new usage, and it was a non-standard usage. To be done, the MWDEU reports, supplanted to have done for states of being starting sometime in the 1700s or earlier, which on a prescriptivist timescale somehow counts as “new”. Furthermore, the OED classifies this usage as chiefly Irish, Scottish, American, and dialectical, which to a prescriptivist is just a long way of saying improper. And usually finished sounds fancier than done, which no doubt contributed to the distaste for done.

But unless you believe in 300-year-old grudges, there’s no reason to be against people being done. According to the OED, Thomas Jefferson used it, as did Jeremy Bentham (the philospoher, not the Lost character) and others. There’s no grammatical logic why done and finished are any different, either. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if it weren’t for its snappy motto, this injunction would long ago gone the way of the dodo. Let’s try to help it toward that fate.

Summary: Cakes are done; people are finished? Nope. Cakes can also be finished and people can also be done. And stop mentioning cake if you’re only teasing me.

3. http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/ - Very good site, with explanations on confusing things in English grammar.

The only problem: The more you read, the less you know English! Because you will find that there are so many exceptions to any rule in English grammar.

Sorry! But that's why English is interesting, isn't it?