Teaching beginners using cell phones and other digital tools

Hello colleagues, I am thrilled to let you know about an upcoming event focused on teaching beginners, including emergent readers (!), using WhatsApp, Google Meet and Google Classroom. Nan Frydland will be sharing with us how she transformed her culturally responsive classroom during the pandemic to address the needs of low-level English learners. This session will feature lots of practical tips for working remotely with beginners!

You are invited to join this highly interactive webinar on Wednesday, June 9 at 3:00 pm ET.

Here's the link to register.

Please share your own story here in our community of how you adjusted your instruction during the pandemic. 

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP

 

 

Comments

Hi, Susan et al, I just rejoined and I wanted to mention that WhatsApp is very useful for Beginning students. I have found that it is especially important for students who may not be able to participate much, such as working mothers. I look forward to the conversation.

Passive learning or 'Latent Learning" is learning that takes place all the time, without any obvious evidence. We could compare it to learning to drive a car. First, we observe to get an idea. Then, at a certain point, we have to get behind the wheel and...make mistakes. Then our passengers or "teachers" correct our mistakes and then.....we drive the car!

In any case - I have found that my approach to teaching English via WhatsApp and Facebook works quite well ...based on an understanding of latent learning. 

In other words, I stopped expecting immediate feed-back from the students. At the same time, when someone makes an audio or writes something on WhatsApp, I can see or hear the improvement. 

So now I am posting short lessons on four Facebook groups and two WhatsApp groups. Facebook groups are membership groups and each person must ask to join. Ihave at least 5000 "students". My lessons consist of many texts I have written and short videos I produced. And I include reading essays or short stories. I post "quizzes" from time to time, but do not grade anyone. I enocurage questions, which I can then turn into a lesson.

I do not know if these observations here are of any use to teachers in formal programs which are locked into test results and evaluations. It would be interestng to find out.

Paul Rogers

1. Bandura, Social Learning Theory

https://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html

 

2. Tolman - Latent Learning

https://www.simplypsychology.org/tolman.html#:~:text=Latent%20learning%20is%20a%20type,but%20he%20developed%20it%20further.

 

Paul Rogers 

WhatsApp: 805-258-3310 

PUMAROSA.COM 

Facebook.com/paulrogers 7509836 

YouTube: ingles con profe pablo 

Google-wix: inglesconprofepablo.com

If you are interested in websites that are useful to teach English as a Foreign Language, below is a summary from the director of a program in San Jose, California who incorporated my website in his program. In my opinion it is a good idea to provide a variety of resources for the students to use to help them learn English.
"I used Pumarosa as homework assignment material with my students. Students received a 2 hour per week in-person session and 2 hours of homework assignment per week. Our Literacy Program uses CASAS to measure students' performance. It would normally take 1 year for students to improve 1 grade level. In my class students would jump 1 grade level every 3 months." 

Pumarosa is a free and easy to use bilingual ESL website designed for Spanish speakers.

 

Most of the students in my program are working mothers. WhatsApp with Pumarosa and other lessons are perfect for them - mainly because they are just too busy most of the time. I often send lessons and YouTube videos of songs with lyrics.

Last year, during the Covid crisis, I visited a friend who is a grade school teacher in Guadalajara. She was teaching 300 kids via Zoom using Pumarosa and Starfall, a website to teach childen English phonics. She encouraged the mothers to help heir kids with homework and at the same time learn some English.

The response was amazing. The kids were doing well, and the mothers were asking for more homework...for themselves!!!

In my opinion, the future of ESL lies in this kind of Blended Learning.

 

I have made a lot of video lessons and once, when I got on a bus, I saw one of my students listening to her phone. She told me she was reviewing my lesson on the past tense! 

A few years ago a student told me he listened to the lesson on the numbers on his phone while he was cutting the grass of his employer...Oprah Winfrey!!!!!!

I started making my "audio/videos" about six years ago. I bought a "flip-phone" and was delighted to learn that I could send a two minute audio to the group of students I had. So I sent them the lesson on the alphabet and then when I went to the class, I asked everybody if they received it ok on their phones, They said yes and some showed me. Then one of them said: Teacher, why don't you make a video and send it to us? I said: Huh? You see, my flip phone did not have a video camera. They all showed me their big Smart Phones! I felt a little embarrassed. So I immediately bought something with a video camera and started to experiment. So far I have made ove 150 short videos, and am going to do more and more and ....

Susan and group:

I have made a lot of video lessons for my beginning students. Once when I got on a bus, I saw one of my students listening to her phone. She told me she was reviewing my lesson - the homework - on the past tense!

A few years ago a student told me he listened to the lesson on the numbers on his phone while he was cutting the grass of his employer...Oprah Winfrey!!!!!!

I started making my "audio/videos" about six years ago. I bought a "flip-phone" and was delighted to learn that I could send a two minute audio to the group of students I had. So I sent them the lesson on the alphabet and then when I went to the class, I asked everybody if they received it ok on their phones, They said yes and some showed me.

Then one of them said: Teacher, why don't you make a video and send it to us?

I said: Huh?

You see, my flip phone did not have a video camera. They all showed me their big Smart Phones! I felt a little embarrassed. So I immediately bought a new-fangled smart phone with a video camera and started to experiment. So far I have made ove 150 short videos, and am going to do more and more and ....