Hello colleagues, Have you found the perfect ESL textbook yet? If so, please let us all know!
I'm curious how many members use ESL textbooks in their teaching and which textbooks are being widely used. In my experience, most classrooms have textbooks at their disposal. I often tell novice teachers that a theoretically sound textbook can be a useful tool to help one learn how to teach ESL. Good textbooks present language in understandable ways and are filled with a wide range of activities that recycle language through a variety of meaningful activities..
At the same time, it's clear to me that no textbook ever gives learners enough practice with the vocabulary and grammar they are learning. Therefore, it is helpful to build in additionally activities to give students more practice in actually using the language in authentic and engaging ways. For those who are using textbooks in the classroom, what activities do you integrate into your teaching to build on the textbook to give students more practice?
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, English Language Acquisition
Comments
I work with English Language Learners who are NRS 2 and above. I have found the books Word by Word Picture Dictionary by Steven J. Molinsky and Bill Bliss and Teaching Basic and Advanced Vocabulary by Robert J. Marzano to be extremely useful with my ENL students.
The Word by Word Picture Dictionary provides clear pictures for the vocabulary words.
The next book I wish to share is amazing. I do not sell it but I do heartily recommend yet. I will do my best to summarize it and how it has become so important to my instruction. It allows me to identify weaknesses in a student's vocabulary (which I take to be a weakness in my instruction). It is brilliant! If anyone uses this resource I'd welcome the opportunity to hear how they use it. This book is only 250 pages long.
Marzano provides an assessment tool and groups of vocabulary words that are organized into 'semantic clusters' that are organized from basic to advanced. The test is given, as I understand it and use it, in a 1:1 setting. I am able to conduct this assessment in about 10 minutes while I have the class engaged in another activity.
This is an informal assessment that I use after a student has reached an NRS level of 5. I stop the assessment when the student cannot answer four words in succession.
The assessment tool is comprised of a list of 420-pairs of words. I ask the student to use the words in a sentence orally. If the student cannot I write the words for the student to read. If the student correctly uses both words I go to the next pair until I reach the last pair. Words the student misses indicates the 'semantic cluster' the student needs to learn.
It looks like this, "Please use the words 1. can and 2. will in a sentence." I typically get a response like, "I can do it. and He will go to the store." Both are correct. I proceed according to Marzano's directions through the assessment until the student misses 4 words in succession.
What is a semantic cluster? A semantic cluster is a group of words organized by meaning and/or function. For example cluster #41. Ownership/Possession has 12 words arranged from basic-1 to advanced-5. The words in this cluster are: have, belong, own, possess, custody, maintain, occupy, ownership, possession, property, heirloom, and monopoly.
I use this tool helps me to reflect on how I teach, have my students practice and use the vocabulary I use present in my lessons. During the 2017-18 school year, I saw a disconnect between vocabulary words and their compliments. For example, too many of my students learned the names of food but did not know or demonstrate the ability to use the verbs 'chew' or 'swallow'. They knew the word happy and sad but did not know the words 'grin or frown'.
The English language has upwards of 600,000 words depending on how one decides to count words. My students are usually new to English and must survive and thrive using our perplexing language. Like any assessment tool, Marano's Snapshot Assessment of English words can be useful in attempting to determine weaknesses in a student's working vocabulary.
If I can be of any other assistance please just ask. I believe that this book Teaching Basic and Advanced Vocabulary by Robert J. Marzano would be a good choice for an online book club type discussion.
Hi Lisa, Thank you for this post. I'm familiar with the work of Robert Marzono, but not with this particular book. I'm curious how the vocabulary in these semantics sets is then taught. Would you be able to give us some examples of the way Marzano's text approaches teaching the vocabulary?
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
English Language Acquisition CoP