My Reflections of ESL Course #3 – Teaching ESL Grammar & Vocabulary

This course introduced Csikszentmihalyi’s elements of flow and how they can be applied to lesson planning and teaching in order to keep students engaged in learning. Teachers can increase the likelihood of students being “in the flow” by informing them of the lesson’s goals; designing meaningful, fun and relevant learning experiences within students’ zone of proximal development; creating a comfortable learning environment where students are encouraged to take risks with new language; viewing mistakes as part of the learning process in order to decrease the fear of failure; and providing formative feedback.

Planning lessons was an important part of this course. Lesson objectives focused on developing grammar points and vocabulary while integrating the four language skills; receptive and productive practice; different learning styles and grouping strategies; inductive and deductive learning; ideas to consolidate learning; and multi-levelled student practice within the context of the communicative approach. Developing lesson plans provided opportunities to incorporate a variety of planning and teaching aspects into ESL learning activities.

Error correction techniques and guidelines were interesting and informative. I currently teach elementary school aged children and often reflect upon and discuss with colleagues when and how we should correct students’ reading, speaking, and writing errors; and how many errors and which ones should be corrected. I like to limit the number of errors corrected, and focus on errors related to the lesson objectives. Providing feedback on one or two errors is not overwhelming and the students are more likely to remember those corrections, thus eliminating the errors in the future.

The most challenging part of this course for me was selecting and sequencing grammar points for a particular group of students and then matching those points with themes and topics. Information from the Canadian Language Benchmarks: ESL for Adults document and the scope and sequence of grammar points from textbooks was used as a guide; however, the large number of grammar points made this task difficult.
In the later part of this course I had the opportunity to review materials from two ESL textbook series (Side by Side and Interchange) and two ESL dictionaries (Collins COBUILD Student’s Dictionary Plus Grammar and Oxford ESL Dictionary). I was surprised to learn that these well-developed materials existed. I like the idea of using a textbook and its supplementary materials in an ESL course, especially if they are similar to the Side by Side or Interchange series. Some units may need to be supplemented with vocabulary, grammar points or communicative activities in order to meet the needs of a particular group of students. One or both of the dictionaries stated above would be helpful resources in an ESL classroom. Besides the regular dictionary features, they also have “usage” or “note” charts which state how to use the entry words and when not to use them; and a section of labelled pictures organized by themes. The Collins COBUILD dictionary has an extensive, but concise grammar reference section.

For the final assignment, I reviewed a unit from Grammar Dimension 2 (4th ed.). Many learning activities in this textbook could be used as described while some may require changes and/or supplements. I especially like the organization and contents of the focus charts, the variety of learning tasks and the inclusion of communicative activities. In my opinion, the lack of explicit vocabulary instruction is the greatest weakness. Overall, this is a text that could be well-used in an intermediate ESL classroom.

Teaching Grammar Deductively and Inductively

My teaching experiences have been in elementary schools. I have used deductive and inductive teaching strategies and am comfortable using either. My decision to use a particular strategy is usually based on factors such as the ability of the students to discover the skill or strategy within a reasonable amount of time, the attention span of the students (what learning activity will keep students motivated and engaged in the task), inclusion of a variety of learning styles and modalities, the skill or strategy being taught, resources available and the time allotted for the lesson. I will probably use these same factors when deciding which strategy (deductive or inductive) to use when teaching grammar rules to ESL adult learners.

ESL beginners may not have enough language to express a rule when they recognize it or they may not feel confident enough with English to offer suggestions. Therefore, teaching a grammar point such as using pronouns with the correct form of the BE verb may be taught more efficiently with an explicit explanation along with examples related to students’ lives. The majority of class time could then be spent with the students working in groups completing an information gap activity.

This same group of ESL beginner students may benefit more from learning some grammar points inductively. An example is teaching how and when to use simple present verbs with a learning activity such as the ‘lost bag’ collection of objects. In this activity students need to identify the items in the bag and state the information each article provides about the owner of lost the bag. Items in the bag include commonly used things such bus tickets and a novel which would prompt students to say, “He rides the bus. He reads.” As students say a statement the teacher writes it on the board so students have a visual representation of the simple present verb along with the aural and oral examples. When this activity is finished, the teacher leads students to the discover a rule about the simple present; that is, it ends in a ‘s’ and the activity is one that usually or always exists. This activity is interesting and authentic which encourages students to complete it to identify the owner, not to learn more about simple present verbs. Time may be a factor in how often inductive approaches are used since they tend to be more time consuming than using the deductive strategy.

The above examples of deductive and inductive lessons include a variety of learning styles (visual, oral and aural) and language modalities (listening, speaking and reading). Resources for the learning activities are readily available, minimizing preparation time for the lessons.

The anticipated level of student motivation and their cognitive engagement in various learning activities are factors that I consider when determining which teaching-learning strategies and activities to use with a particular group of students. Students’ motivation and engagement are often heightened by using a variety of learning activities within a unit and designing lessons so students can connect the learning to their own lives. Variety and authenticity can be incorporated into a unit by including realia, (as in the inductive activity above), situational learning, as well as oral and written examples that relate to students’ goals.

Grammar points taught inductively using a situational approach can be tailored for each particular group of students. If the students are agriculture workers, then the topic could be related to tasks and problems they will encounter on the farm. This approach can include pictures, graphics or other sources of realia. Situational learning is cognitively engaging because students have a need to learn the grammar point when it is presented in a context that is connected directly to situations in their lives.

To conclude this discussion, I think using both inductive and deductive teaching strategies in each unit provides variety and enables the teacher to incorporate the most appropriate and efficient strategies and creative learning activities in the lessons while keeping in mind the students’ language levels, goals, and learning styles; as well as the grammar points being addressed, and the available resources and time constraints.

Elements of ‘Flow’ and EAL Lesson Plans

This post is a discussion of how Csikszentmihalyi’s elements of ‘flow’ apply to EAL lesson plans.

Clearly stated goals/objectives provide a focus to lessons and inform the teacher’s decisions when planning learning activities, when to give students feedback, the best assessment tools to use and when to assess students’ performance. Clear objectives lets students know the skills they will learn and be assessed on. Students can also monitor and assess their own progress when they know the skills that need to be learned. When students are in the process of monitoring their learning against the lesson objectives, they will be focused and in the ‘flow’.

Immediate feedback from the teacher about the use of the new skills lets students know if are using them correctly. If a student is incorrect, he has an opportunity to restructure the response with the teacher’s assistance. A feeling of accomplishment and success is encouraging to students and keeps them engaged in the learning and in the ‘flow’.
Students’ interest will be elevated when the learning is meaningful and relevant and serves a purpose outside the classroom. They will be able to connect the learning to some aspect of their lives. It may be a grammar skill and/or vocabulary they can use for a hobby, at work, in their daily activities or to improve social relationships. For example, if lesson objectives are to learn how to ask questions about someone’s activities, and answer in complete sentences, students will be able to apply these skills to most daily activities. Planning lessons objectives around skills students can use outside the classroom will keep them interested and focused on the task at hand.

Good planning can minimize the fear of failure by designing lessons that are within the students’ zone of proximal development and by scaffolding the difficulty level from one learning activity to the next. Students will be engaged in the lessons when there is a balance between challenges and skills.

A safe and comfortable learning environment and atmosphere reduces stress and self-conscientiousness and promotes engagement in the learning activities. Students feel comfortable speaking to others in class and taking risks with new skills and vocabulary.

Fun and enjoyable learning experiences will keep students interested and the activities are more likely to be enjoyed for their own sake. Using a variety of learning strategies and resources such as role playing, songs, games, pictures, realia and graphics adds variety and interest to lessons. For example, if students are trying to figure out who has lost a bag of items by identifying the items; they will complete the activity for the sake of trying to identify the owner of the bag and won’t realize the grammar skills and vocabulary they are practicing.

I think good lesson planning and ‘flow’ go hand-in-hand.

Teaching Grammar – Is It Good or Bad?

Task: A student in your class approaches you and tells you she is very bored with the grammar lessons, and that she feels she can learn English without learning grammar separately. Write a script explaining what you would tell this student. Also write what you may do differently in your instruction as a result of the conversation.

Student: I think grammar is boring to learn and I can learn to speak English without learning grammar.

Teacher: It is possible to learn to speak a certain amount of English without learning grammar rules. However, you will reach a certain point where memorizing words and phrases may not be enough for you to express the message you want to say or write. When you learn a rule you can use it make your own sentences using any vocabulary you know. This helps you in many different situations. You will also know if the phrases you are saying are correct. For example, learning rules about when and how and to use pronouns will help you be able to use them correctly in many different places without memorizing a phrase for each situation. People will better understand your message.

Student: I will know if people understand me by what they say.

Teacher: They may be able to understand the main point in your message, but it may not be spoken correctly. Learning grammar rules will help you speak and write English with fewer or no errors.

Student: I don’t care if I’m not saying or writing everything correctly. I can say the message in another way if people don’t understand me.

Teacher: Learning grammar rules will help you organize a correct sentence in your mind so when you speak to someone, they will understand you the first time. Knowing rules will also help you notice how other people use them correctly or maybe use them incorrectly. Do you have any suggestions about what we could do in class to make learning grammar more interesting?

As a result of this conversation I would do the following:

-Ensure this student is not more advanced than the others. Maybe she isn’t being challenged enough.

-Strive to make the grammar lessons authentic and meaningful for students.

-Ensure there are a variety of teacher- and student-centered activities, and the activities are meeting a variety of learning styles. Include some presentations by the teacher followed individual practice as well as task-based learning and information-gap activities. These latter activities would involve the use of all language modalities and authentic learning activities which would facilitate learning and memory of the rules.

-Reread the students’ needs assessments. Have the students review and make changes to the goals they stated at the beginning of the course. If necessary, adjust the lessons’ content and activities to accommodate the students’ goal changes.

Memories of Grammar Classes

Most of the grammar that I learned was taught by the teacher presenting rules along with a few examples written on the chalkboard or reading the examples that were presented in the textbook. Then the class was assigned practice exercises. This involved either copying sentences from a textbook using the correct word(s) to fill in the blank or rewriting a sentence and incorporating the newly learned grammatical concept. These practice exercises were corrected the following day in class. Most of the grammar rules were fairly easy to learn and apply to the exercises that we were assigned. However, the practice exercises were seldom directly followed up with writing our own examples or applying the grammatical rules to a written composition. When the class was assigned to write a story, we were not provided with a rubric or suggestions on how to use specific grammatical concepts to improve our written compositions. I think this would have facilitated my learning of and ability to apply grammatical concepts.

Adding partner and group learning activities that involved all four language modalities would have facilitated learning and made it more enjoyable. I find that learning a rule is easier if I can associate it with a meaningful event or situation and have opportunities to verbalize it as well as write it.

Grammar and Vocabulary ESL Course

I have never taken a university course that focused on grammar and vocabulary and look forward to this one. I anticipate learning meaningful and interesting ways to teach grammar rules at the same time as learning the rules myself.

I think grammar has had a bad reputation in the past because it has often been taught in isolated situations where memorization of rules has been the primary way to learn them. Applying the rules to relevant and authentic situations has often been missing in the learning process which results in forgetting the rule.

As an elementary school teacher, I have thought of learning vocabulary as acquiring new concepts. However, this would not necessarily be the case for many ESL students. They already have a vast amount of knowledge in their first language. Therefore, learning vocabulary would involve associating the English word with the corresponding concept in their first language.

My Reflections - ESL Course #2 (An Introduction to Second Language Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening)

The role and value of the Canadian Language Benchmarks for Adults in assessment and program planning was an important part of this course. Other CLB documents that I became aware of and/or used during this course are Additional Sample Task Ideas, A Guide to Implementation, Companion Tables, “Can Do” Checklists and ESL for Literacy Learners. These documents are informative and will be used extensively.

Designing needs assessments and administering one to a student was a great learning experience. This initial assessment is useful for determining students’ approximate benchmark levels, interests, goals, and learning preferences. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing samples completed at the needs assessment session can be used to measure students’ progress throughout the course. Interviewing students individually may be time consuming; however I felt that I had learned things that I would not have known about the student had the assessments been completed in a group setting.

Another part of this course was developing a professional development plan. This was interesting and will be useful in providing a focus for future PD. The first step in making this plan was to research various ESL job descriptions. The next step was to list the key knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to do the job well. After that I highlighted all the skill areas that I already possessed. Anything not highlighted were skills that could become part of my professional development plan. After selecting fours skills, a plan was made to develop each which included the specific skill to be developed, actions that will be undertaken to learn the skill, resources that may be accessed, target completion date and how I will know when I have learned the skill.

This course continued with on-line viewing of ESL lessons. I enjoy watching and learning from these videos.