Use this discussion thread to post your response to the question below from the ELL-U online course, Second Language Acquisition: Myths, Beliefs, and What the Research Shows. Please share your comments and feedback on the course.
What are some teaching techniques that you have used that seem to really promote second language acquisition? What stories can you tell that show that these techniques promote SLA? Any examples of student work is welcome!
Comments
Abbie-- I agree that content of games cannot and should not be random. This is a big error teachers make, especially when they try to use commercially made games, which necessarily have generic content and often random vocabulary, or when they try to use games as time-filing fun activiteis instead of intentional learning activities.
In the centers I teach about, content comes from two primary sources: First, the students' own jobs or interests wherever possible ( e.g. in the classes I worked with in DC, many students had jobs clearning buildings, so a great deal of the vocabulary came from their jobs; in another class, one student had a job as waitress at a country club and needed to know how to pronounce and recognize the names of wine and mixed drinks--her teacher created several activities for this practice; in still another, many of the young men worked in construction, so their teacher created a series of activities using real hand tools and supplies--nails, screws, nuts and bolts., etc)-- and sometimes this is a pre-determined content as when classes are presented at a hotel or at hospital and students have a specific body of vocabulary and phrases to learn,.
The second determiner of content is lessons in a prescribed curriculum. Many of the teachers I work with in NY teach an EL Civics curriculum, so centers are entirely focused on that content. Another teacher is teaching a CNA class for ESL students and created many activities to help the students learn the difficult vocabulary and practice the questions for their final test. In the case of the classes I worked with in DC, the school had a very closely defined curriculum focusing on grammar structures and life skills vocabulary (transportation, health, etc.). For those classes, centers helped students practice the grammar (object pronouns, simple vs. continuous use of verbs, past tense of irregular verbs, etc.) as well as the life- skills vocabulary-- health, etc. To personalize the games and get greater student involvement, I used the students' jobs and names in the games and activities. One such activity was to create sentences using the continuous form and the content was all about the students' jobs: Ana is wiping the tables, Jose is getting clean glasses for the bartender. Carolina is making soup. The cards were color coded so the sentences would come out in correct sentence order, but students had to consult with classmates to be sure meaning was correct. For example, if one student put together a sentence that said "Jose is mopping the table" because he or she didn't know for sure what mopping was, then he had to ask someone who had a cleaning job to find out if it was correct. This created amazing student interactions and a LOT of laughing.
So yes, I totally agree that games are a reinforcing tool about 95% of the time-- sometimes, when students really get the concept, direct teaching/learning can go on in games without too much pre-teaching or maybe no pre-teaching. Largely, though, they are for attaining mastery-- something I am sure many agree is pretty hard to achieve in regular class activities.
Robin Lovrien
Abbie, Robin and others,
I whole heartily agree that ideally games should generally support content of your class. I see that teacher creation of web-based games can be an alternative to face-to-face games. (Although I do see a place for teachers and students to select, for example an educational video game, much like we might do when we select a reading or books. ) I see these games used to pre-teach what learners will do, presently learning in class or as culminating practice activity that can help move students to mastery. I think one advantage of many computer games is they can give additional opportunity to repetition and review.
And so, game creation is yet another skill for teachers. But not all have the time or wherewithal, so I often suggest websites that can help with that. Most of you are probably familiar with http://www.quia.com/ but we have some additional ideas on Tech Tips for Teachers Blog at http://techtipsforteachers.weebly.com/1/post/2012/12/game-based-vocabulary-practice-sites.html
If anyone else has good sites that help ESOL teachers (or students) to create games, it would be great to hear from you.
Steve Quann
World Education, Inc
squann@worlded.org.
Regarding game creation: I'm not sure that for most games that it's a matter of inventing new games but simply adapting those we already know (like Bingo or Concentration) to what we're teaching. It's also not difficult to make simple board games. For example, put questions students can answer in the boxes (either in a rectangle divided into boxes or a sort of track around the "board" also divided into boxes). Use colored paper clips for place markers and a single die to determine how many spaces a player moves. The "boards" can be printed on paper or card stock, one for each group of 3 or 4. Abbie
Abbie-- this is definitely an easy and quick way to make a game. One example of this I have seen was practice of personal information and simple commands: Turn off the lights; open the door, tell someone your address, etc.
Generally, though, I suggest that the game board be generic and the variety of content be done through cards that are picked up or some other means ( a picture to look at and answer a question about, for example.) This is because it is too easy to spend a lot of time making a game board that is devoted to only one purpose; once students are very familiar with it, then it loses its effectiveness.
I certainly agree about not having to invent so many games. As I noted in a previous post, if students are very familiar with how to play a particular game-- or just do a simple game board, then any content can be plugged into it and it is more effective when students do not have to think about the game itself, but rather about using English to negotiate the content and game play.
One advantage to having generic game boards is that a different game board can be used for the same content cards, introducing variety to necessary repetition and practice. I think I mentioned the DC teacher who had a large collection of gameboards on large pieces of tagboard. She made an interesting track ( and soon had students making interesting tracks instead of her) and added pictures cut out from various sources. So one board was "ESL in Space" --with lots of pictures of rockets, starts ,comets, spaceships, etc. Another was "ESL on the farm" and another "ESL at the Zoo" --with requisite pictures of animals and related items.
It is fun to make the track have the usual set backs and advances simliar to Chutes and Ladders-- I add detours, lose a turn, take another turn, move three more spaces, etc. This can be done with a spinner, too--which has not only numbers on it, but a space saying lose a turn or spin again, etc. The game kits I use come with a track already drawn--round or square-- a blank spinner, a timer, money, blank cards etc. These come from Barebooks.com , which has an amazing supply of professional quality game boards and game equipment, which can be purchased in kits or separately, as well as other blank items such as puzzles, books, calendars etc. all at VERY reasonable prices. It is a gold mine for teachers of any kind!!
I also love to use the small Elmer's cardboard trifolds, available in most school supply stores or sections of stores. They cost under 2 dollars and are easy to store. They are mini-project boards, perfect for game boards.
Robin Lovrien
Steve-- yes, quia is terrific for creating games. As I noted in my posting about books good for that, several of those have games completely created already--but of course that does not support targeted content or individual students. They are easy enough to adapt, though.
I have found that just googling "esl games -- body parts" for example, or family members, or some other topic results in some wonderful online games and materials to download.
And ideally, as I noted in my examples, getting students to help with production of games and materials is an even more valuable way to create them for a given class and group of students or specific content.
Some of the very best items I have observed in classes were created by students. Robin
I have used games as one of my learning stations. I have found it more beneficial to make games that reinforced learned material. I have made a standard game board with some squares having specific directions such as: Go back to start, Roll again, Move the player in last place to one space in front of the leader, Get a card, etc. In the center of the game board there is an outline of a square where a stack of cards is placed. These cards can contain a variety of challenges such as: Name a state north of PA, How many nickels in $.30, Name 4 words that begin with the Letter B, When is your birthday, Ask ther person on your right his birth date, etc. Then you have the remaining spaces around the board for whatever vocabulary you want to reinforce. The words are placed on color-coded cards and can be attached to the gameboard with Glue-Dots. This way you can have many vocabulary activities and one game. You could have a set of green cards containing verbs. The player would say the word and use it in a sentence. Another set of cards could have pictures/words of things in the kitchen.
I hope this doesn't sound too confusing and will be helpful to those who are working hard to help others to learn our complicated language.
Hi there, Please send me the Oral Fluency Packet. Getting my students to speak is definitely one of the hardest tasks I face!
Thanks!, Trensa
karamark2000@yahoo.com