Useful Tips and Advice for ESL Teachers

[charlotfernandez]

ESL conversation teachers stimulate conversation in English among their students, help students with English usage, and evaluate student participation. These tasks are your main responsibilities. Students learn by doing, and your classroom provides a safe place for them to expand their verbal skills in English.

Here are some suggestions for additional activities which have been successfully used in ESL:

* Start a lesson by selecting a question (e.g. What's your native country? How long did you live there?) and having each student tell his response to the class.

* Ask each student to tell the class a proverb from his country and explain it.

* Select a word with multiple purposes in English (e.g. play) and identify with them the differing definitions of the word. Students can write a sentence for each of the meanings.

* Select a common English word (e.g. play) and help students create a list of rhyming words (e.g. play, say, stay, day, bay etc.) and use the words in sentences.

* Identify a common prefix and help students create a list of words with this prefix.

* Identify a common suffix and help students create a list of words with this suffix.

* Have students create a word search using at least seven of the vocabulary words from a lesson. Students may then exchange these word searches with others in the class.

* Divide the class into groups of three or four and assign a quotation to each group. The group discusses the meaning of the quotation for 10 minutes and then a representative of the group reports back to the class as a whole.

* Pick two quotations with opposing points of view. With the help of students identify the meaning of each quote. Ask students their responses to each quote. Then take a class vote to determine which quotation seems most apt to students.

* Ask students to identify a situation in which they might use a proverb or quotation.

* Have students role play a situation in which they might use a proverb or quotation.

The possibilities are endless. Build on your successes. Relax and have fun. Remember, the greatest motivators in your classroom remain your encouragement, enthusiasm, and example.

SOURCE: http://www.compellingconversations.com

[silencedobetter]

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