More Helpful Teaching Tips

Back to: Resources Main Page

ESOL Successful Strategies and Tips

Successful Adult ESOL Strategies

  1. Get acquainted with the previous and following student placement levels' (SPL) material to learn your student attained competencies.
  2. When speaking, face students and speak clearly and correctly. They are watching your mouth and are hearing with their eyes as well as with their ears.
  3. Use body language, especially arm gestures and facial expressions, to reinforce what a student hears with what he sees.
  4. Student Performance Level (SPL) 200 and below - Use plenty of pictures.
  5. Student Performance Level (SPL) 200 and below - Write all instructions on the board (homework and upcoming holidays).
  6. Realize that when you ask a question, if a student understands, a "yes" answer doesn't always mean yes. A timid or polite student may be simply agreeing with you.
  7. When teaching new vocabulary, the teacher should speak, ask for repetition, write it on the board, and have students read it out loud.
  8. Vary activities during a class-listening to teacher, speaking, reading, and writing. Use games in SPL level 200 and below.
  9. Use competition occasionally to create interest in an activity.
  10. Give positive reinforcement for efforts. Otherwise YOU are the only one who knows their answers are good.
  11. Learn what your students' skills, occupations, and interests are and use them to aid in the lessons.
  12. SPL 200 and below - Teach all new vocabulary and structures before encountering them in the text. This gives the students a sense of success when they can understand the book.
  13. If asked to repeat what you have said, use exactly the same words as you used the first time. To change the explanation when they are expecting to hear what you just said is confusing for them.
  14. Take time. Be relaxed.
  15. Promote an atmosphere that encourages their questions and conversation.
  16. Be a good listener. The question the student is asking may not be as simple as it appears to be.
  17. Be flexible enough to meet the student's needs that day. Change plans if necessary.
  18. Be kind. These are adults. Some of them had highly respected careers in their countries and coming back to school is difficult for them.

Source: ESOL Instructors Susan Eckhart and Pam Fulton, Florida Community College at Jacksonville, 1999.

Tips for Making Your ESOL Class More Interesting

Listening/Speaking Activities:

Listen and Do
Play taped conversations and have students listen to understand the conversation. Play a second time and ask the students questions about the conversation or have the students perform a task such as underlining, circling, etc.
OR
Have students look at a paper with several pictures. Describe one of the pictures on the page. Students must choose from the pictures on the page.

Chain Drills
Have the class form a circle and the first student asks a question of the second student. The second responds and asks the same question of the next student, etc.

TPR-Total Physical Response
This activity is excellent for beginning classes. Say new vocabulary words or phrases in command form. For example, "Touch your head." The students must respond. (Similar to the game Simon Says).

Think-Pair-Share
This technique is a cooperative learning activity that allows learners to share information. Using any visible stimulus, have students think about the vocabulary associated with the picture or item. First, learners think to themselves, then form pairs and discuss their lists or ideas. The pairs then share their combined lists with the class. The instructor can write the vocabulary words or ideas on the board or overhead.

Information Gap
Information gap activities are appropriate for more advanced learners. Students are paired and each student in the pair is given information the other student does not know. The student must ask questions to fill in the missing information. (Similar to 20 Questions)

Round Robin
One student starts a story and the story is continued by a second student. This continues until the story is complete.

Role Play
Role Play activities always add variety to your classroom. Effective role plays for adults are ones that also involve problem solving. The problem should be relevant to the learners and to the topic they have been studying. For example: You just returned from the store and found the shirt you bought is too small. What should you do?

Substitution Drills
Ask students to replace certain words in a sentence. For example: Today I feel ...angry, happy, hungry, or sad.

Reading/Writing Activities:

Language Experience Stories:
The students' own words are used for reading and writing - the learners will provide stories within their language capabilities. All learners in the class can participate by adding to the stories. The instructor may choose a variety of methods to facilitate story telling by the students.

  1. Hold up a picture that learners may find interesting and go around the room giving each student a chance to contribute a sentence to make a story about the picture. Write what the learners dictate on the board or overhead. When the story is finished, read it aloud to the learners. Have students repeat the words. Students can copy the story or the instructor may have the story typed and distributed at a later class meeting.
  2. Stories may be based on a learner's experiences, such as vacations, celebrations, etc.
  3. Many activities may be produced form the learner-generated stories: - Make sentence strips and rearrange the order of the story.
    - Use vocabulary to write learner-generated dialogues.
    - Make stories into close activities.

Dialogue Journal
Dialogue journals are written conversations between student and instructor. Students may write to teacher on any subject and the teacher will respond. This is a valuable activity for getting to know your students.

Strip stories
Strip stories may be done in pairs or small groups. Students have one piece or strip of a story, a set of instructions, or a conversation. The students must work together to put the pieces in their logical order. The students can also read their reconstructed stories to the class.

Source: Teachers Edition of Life Prints, ESL for Adults. New Reader's Press

ESOL Teaching Cautions

  1. Remember that your students have an urgent need to learn English in a short period of time in order to survive. Course work should be as job-oriented as possible in a language class. The ability for your students to communicate is your goal; structural perfection is not.
  2. When speaking, speak at normal speed and with normal intonation.
  3. Be very familiar with the structures and vocabulary you intend to teach. In other words--PLAN AHEAD.
  4. The speaking that you do in class should be minimal. This means that the language you are teaching is carefully controlled. If you are tired from talking when class is over, you must make sure that the students in your next class are the ones to be tired from speaking, not from listening.
  5. An oral lesson is taught based on a topic and competency. It should include selected vocabulary and structures which are presented by the teacher, practiced by the students with the teacher, and produced by the students individually.
  6. Lesson topics should include relevant vocabulary that students can use in relevant situations. The classroom is designated for using the language.
  7. Most of your time should be dedicated to oral work. This does not mean oral reading only.
  8. Be careful when using materials (books, dittos, etc.) written for native speakers, regardless of the level. They are usually teaching language in a way that is not relevant to the needs of ESOL students.
  9. Don't divide the class into ability groups during oral lessons. Each student should practice and produce to his/her ability in the group.
  10. A two or three hour class should be divided into three or four different language activities.
  11. Greet each new student individually and with enthusiasm. Old students should introduce themselves to new students, (an ongoing language activity). The more you build the feeling of belonging to a group, the more stable your class will become.
  12. Take a moment to READ your Curriculum Guide before you begin teaching, and read it frequently throughout the year. Each time it will make more sense.

Helpful Hints

  1. Show sensitivity to individuals' personal lives and interests. Show them respect and courtesy and be sensitive to their feelings and concerns.
  2. Remember that you are the student's primary contact with a new country.
  3. Allow your students to know you as a person.
  4. Be aware that your students are usually from traditional educational systems and are accustomed to the following: memorization, rote learning, teacher directions and passive learning.
  5. Review student information (e.g. age, educational background, etc.).
  6. Learn to pronounce each student's name correctly.
  7. Be aware of each student's native country and culture.
  8. Provide a classroom orientation that includes an orientation to the school.
  9. Use a "Buddy System" - Assign/Appoint a student who speaks the language of a new student as well as English to serve as a culture facilitator, The Buddy.
  10. Don't underestimate ability. Determine a student's level and then teach at that level.
  11. Allow students time to complete a response; don't give them the words.
  12. Don't overcorrect. It can do more harm than good.
  13. Speak with normal speed and intonation.
  14. Emphasize listening and speaking skills.
  15. Teach pronunciation, grammatical structures, and vocabulary in context.
  16. Integrate all four language skills in each session.
  17. Vary classroom activities and change materials frequently.
  18. Develop or adapt materials according to your students' needs and levels.
  19. Capitalize on "real life" situations experienced by your students.
  20. Use your students and classroom as teaching resources.
  21. Utilize community resources available to you.
  22. Arrange seating so that students have eye contact with each other and the instructor to facilitate classroom interaction.
  23. Teach for a purpose, either by competency, topic, and/or situation.
  24. Make sure that subject matter is relevant. Your students should leave class with everyday language they can use.
  25. Help students set small goals.
  26. Review everyday.
  27. Remember that there is no perfect text.
  28. Be flexible and innovative in teaching activities.
  29. PLAN AHEAD!!! Be very familiar with what you are teaching.
  30. SMILE... It is a gift that lasts forever!