TESOL Fundamentals:

The Least You Should Know about ESL Learners and Methods

Los Padres CATESOL

October 9, 2004

Randall Rightmire

UCSB Department of Linguistics / ESL Program

Santa Barbara City College ESL

UCSB Extension Language & Culture Program

rightmire@linguistics.ucsb.edu

http://www.esl.ucsb.edu/people/rightmire

Acknowledgements: I would like to thank the participants in the Los Padres CATESOL 2004 workshop whose attentive feedback helped make this presentation a success. In particular I would like to express my gratitude to Bev Schwartzberg who provided valuable consultation in my attempt to help meet the needs of my audience. Thank you all!

I. Modeling

 The teacher provides a model for the student to imitate.

Examples of modeling:

· Mouth movements used to pronounce a word

· Correct order of words in a sentence

· Hand movements used to write a letter or numeral.

Another example:

T: Let’s practice sh words.

Washing.

S: Watching.

Discuss: What are some other examples of language/literacy tasks that ought to be modeled?

II. Scaffolding

Hetherington and Parke (1986)

Even before the learner is able to complete a complex task independently, we can help “by skillfully structuring the environment to make it easier for them.” Scaffolded instruction “serves as a temporary and adjustable support for students to develop new skills and abilities”

Adapted from Edwin S. Ellis, Lou Anne Worthington, and Martha J. Larkin (http://idea.uoregon.edu/~ncite/documents/techrep/tech06.html)

S: What do I suppose to do?

T: Let’s try that again. What am I…..

S: What am I supposed to do.

T: Okay.

Discuss: Imagine a language/literacy task that would be too complex for some learners. What “scaffolding” could you build around the task so that the learner could successfully fill in the blanks?

III. Correction

When we identify a learner’s errors and model the correct form, we help the learner toward independent self-correction.

S: She is watching her higher.

T: She is washing her hair.

S: She is washing her higher.

T: Right.

Discuss: Relate a recent experience when you applied correction in an ESL learning situation. How did the learner respond? How much or how often should correction be applied? What kinds of learners work better with more correction or less correction? What kinds of learning tasks/environments lend themselves better to correction?

IV. Fluency

We temper our use of correction so that the learner is building fluency, not just accuracy. In other words, the learner can produce a lot of language at a natural pace, without necessarily being completely error-free.

Develop Fluency in Reading

· Select a text in which the learner can achieve 95% accuracy.

· Select text in which there is overlap in words (i.e., words show up multiple times in different text).

From “Big Ideas in Beginning Reading” (http://reading.uoregon.edu/appendices/references.php)

Encourage Fluency in Speaking

· Probing questions

S: … and I guess my supervisor was too busy or something.

T: What was she doing?

· Listener behavior (minimal responses, eye contact)

S: So then I was working two jobs….

T: Umm hmm. Go on.

Develop Fluency in Writing

· Free Writing

· Journal writing

Discuss: What fluency-building practices have been successful for your learners? What mix of activities can allow us to balance accuracy (correction) with fluency?

V. The Affective Filter

Krashen (1982)

Optimal input occurs when the “affective filter” is low. The affective filter is a screen of emotion that can block language acquisition or learning if it keeps the users from being too self-conscious or too embarrassed to take risks during communicative exchanges.

from “Glossary of Second and Primary Language Acquisition Terms” (http://www.earthrenewal.org/secondlang.htm)

S: I’m sorry teacher, I can’t do it.

T: Don’t worry. Let’s just take it word by word. Now take a deep breath.

What can we do to make our learners less self-conscious and more comfortable?

Discuss: Relate an instance in which you observed that a learner was uncomfortable in a learning situation. What did you do, or what could you have done, to make her or him more comfortable?

VI. The Noticing Hypothesis

Schmidt & Frota (1986); Schmidt (1990, 1993, 1994, 1995)

“What learners notice in input is what becomes intake for learning.”

adapted from Jeremy Cross (http://www-writing.berkeley.edu:16080/tesl-ej/ej23/a2.html)

This implies that much in second language input that goes unnoticed, and so won’t be learned. What can we as language teachers do to make a form more noticeable?

T: She is washing her hair.

S: She is watching her higher.

T: Wassssshhhhhhhing.

S: Wasshhing.

Discuss: Relate an instance in which you changed the way you wrote, pronounced, or presented some bit of language differently because you wanted to bring attention to a certain aspect of language form or use?