Principles of Second Language Teaching: Planning, Implementing, and Managing Instruction

Identify Factors that may affect Learning

I will be describing an adult ESL class which I will be teaching in a community in West Chicago (a city thirty miles west of downtown Chicago).  This community has a high population of Hispanic and Latino immigrants.  My class is comprised of mostly Mexican students and one or two students from Guatemala.  Some of the students have been here for many years and others have been here just a few months.  Many of the students are employed in manufacturing or landscaping. Others are stay at home mothers.  The educational background for my students, ranges from two years of schooling to university education in their native country.  The average length of time in school is eight years.  Several of the students lack literacy in Spanish making it considerably more difficult to learn English.  The English proficiency is level 1 per the NRS levels and based on the BEST Oral testing.   Print literacy is quite low for most of the students, possibly in both Spanish and English.  Many of the students have quite large extended families in the area and a good sense of community.  Students, particularly the males, are passionate about FIFA soccer and playing soccer on local teams.  Religious affiliation is mostly Catholic.  Goals for the students are primarily to become fluent in English and in the current political environment, some students are now feeling the urgency of passing the US citizenship test.  To somehow learn English quickly without much effort is the hope of my students.  After long days of work, family responsibilities and very little available down time, committing to study English lessons is difficult.  Living in a primarily Spanish speaking community speaking English outside of the class is not necessary and the need to learn English is not reinforced.  Finally, many of the students do not have adequate study strategies and progress is slow.  All the factors I have mentioned, need to be considered in planning a lesson.

The Lesson Focus

The lesson focus, for the first class with the students, will be personal information including:  first name, last name, country, area code, and phone number.  In addition, students will focus on the communicative task of asking others for personal information and responding to questions about personal information.   The life skills for the lesson include:  writing names, saying and writing numbers, saying and writing the date, reading a calendar, saying and writing addresses, completing school applications and other forms with personal information.  Language functions include asking for and giving personal information and asking about and answering questions about the date.

 

Plan lesson objectives, activities and assessments

Objective:  Learn vocabulary used in personal information and use the vocabulary and sentence structures to ask questions or respond to questions.

1.  I will introduce the topic of personal information in a vocabulary PowerPoint in which images will be shown from real-life.  The PowerPoint is used to elicit prior knowledge the students have about personal information vocabulary and personal information form familiarity.  The PowerPoint “assessment” of prior knowledge will indicate which vocabulary words need to be studied in particular.  The PowerPoint also gives an opportunity to assess the ability of students to read and write the words.

2.  After practice with the PowerPoint images and single words, the students will make flashcards that can be studied outside of class easily.  In class, students will practice the words with a partner or in a small group.  In subsequent lessons, the students can match the words on their flash cards with the image in each PowerPoint slide as a means of review.  Additionally, students will be shown Quizlet.com in which they can practice hearing, matching and spelling the vocabulary words.  As the unit on personal information continues, students will also be able to play memory games matching images to words.  An additional practice will be using Kahoot.com, in which students select the right word for the image displayed, and practice using correct grammar and sentence structure.

3.  Once students are familiar with the vocabulary words for the topic, we will work at learning to read and understand questions on authentic forms.  Students will then complete real-to-life forms such as information on a registration form for the class, a driver’s license information, a library card form, an employment or medical form.

4.  When students feel they have mastered the vocabulary words, we will learn how to use the words in a structured statement and question form.  At first students can complete close sentences (using the correct pronouns his/her) or matching written questions and answers. Following completion exercises, students will practice writing the correct vocabulary word to complete a sentence.  Calendar review of months and numbers will also be practiced with the When …? questions. This will be followed by reading stories (short paragraphs) with personal information and attempting their own story, with the teacher’s help using their own personal information. 

5.  The most important aspect of this unit is becoming competent and confident in asking and answering questions about personal information.  With a partner or in small groups, students will play a board game I’ve developed using personal information.  I also have other games to practice the lesson conversation.

6.  The assessment primarily is about being able to have a personal information question/answer conversation with me or a fellow student.  Students will reflect on their own success at using personal information at the end of the lesson, by completing a short self-evaluation.  Students will also be given a listening test of an authentic conversation on the topic and a written test for the vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure.

4. Implement learner-centered instruction practices.

The physical space of the class lends itself to learner-centered instruction.  The class is located in an elementary library with round tables.  Students sit around the tables in groups of four.  There will be some explicit instruction, but it will be followed by students working with a partner or with the group at the table.  The games will be with partners or in groups.  The conversation practice will be with a partner or in groups.  Students will also consider other times that personal information is used and bring such forms from their homes.  The lesson should mostly be self-directed, with my role as assisting as necessary as I move from group to group.  Because all the students are at a very low English literacy level, I will need to be more involved with the learning and hands-on than if I am with a more advanced English literacy group.  They depend on me for correct pronunciation, sentence structure, validation, and encouragement.  It is a challenge to make it really as student-centered as I would like.

5. Apply classroom management strategies.

Management strategies include:

1.  Having a sign-in sheet to record attendance and perhaps an additional question to respond to on the sign-in sheet about personal information, such as answering the question, “When is your birthday?”

2.  Students will create name tents with colored markers and will display them at their table.

3.  I sometimes use a conversation ball to toss around the classroom to different students asking them to respond to questions requiring personal information.  I will also have the students toss the ball to other classmates and ask questions and receive responses.  This ensures that the more talkative students are not the only ones monopolizing class time.  This is a great opportunity to build community.

4.  I will also play a memory game in which some students are given an image and others a word and they need to find each other in the classroom and ask questions and answer questions in response to the personal information vocabulary word involved.

5.  Using the PowerPoint for the unit allows students to continually review the vocabulary words and become more and more comfortable with them and then use them in questions and statements.