Teacher Discussion Forums

You said, "I feel this workable presence of the first language is something that speech pathology would not respect." Unfortunately, there are indeed SLPs out there like that. But they are not following best practices. And I don't think they represent the majority. Accent Modification, also frequent...

I didn't really know how I was pronouncing words, much less how to explain the process to students, until I took courses in articulation/phonological development and disorders as part of becoming a speech-language pathologist. You might want to look for books and online courses for SLPs to help you ...

You should probably take another look at the other 'r' and 'er' threads on this board. The advice will transfer pretty well to a Korean student even if it was originally written for Japanese speakers. If that doesn't help, then write back again with more questions and I'll be happy to do what I can....

The other people had really great suggestions. One more: Don't overlook children's books! As long as you present children's books in a positive way, they can be extremely helpful. Tell the students that you know this isn't their intellectual level, but that the book is really cute (and non-stressful...

When it comes to discipline, the key concepts are explicit rules and consistent consequences. Write some basic classroom rules (1-5 total) down on a poster and put the poster on the wall. Go over it with the kids. Tell them what the punishments are for noncompliance, and what the rewards are for bei...

If the company has sanctioned it, by all means teach the adult students to argue in forceful terms. These guys are going to go to a foreign country and are going to be training the locals, right (i.e., telling the locals what to do--which no one wants to hear, and which is going to result in some di...

She's feeling superior (she's on time/they're not; she knows grammar/you're not sure). But she won't be happy until that feeling is acknowledged and goes away. Two things you can do: 1) Give her an outlet to show her "superiority". Let her do something that makes her feel special. Maybe she could gi...

It could be that he just needs more motivation. In which case, find out what he likes best (and hates most) and use rewards and occasional punishments systematically. Rewards can include special priviledges, edible treats, small toys, etc. Personally I recommend the special priviledges idea. You nev...

Oh dear! I hadn't meant to provoke any umbrage taking... Am I the only one who used to dread diagramming back in middle school? Perhaps I overgeneralized from my own experience. I strongly remember completing hours upon hours of diagramming homework and still having no earthly idea of what I was doi...

There's a great program called Framing Your Thoughts, which is the written expression portion of Project Read (www.projectread.com). I've actually used it only for oral sentence formation practice (with ESL students and with special education students), not so much for writing, but it works for both...

Calm down. You'll be fine in Taiwan, being a white female (well, I was, and most are). It's not a scary place. Yes, ask your employer for specific help, when needed. But be prepared to try things on your own as well. English is less important than you think when it comes to face-to-face communicatio...

First of all, don't expect miracles of yourself. First year teachers have a lot to deal with besides this one ESL issue, and you will be overwhelmed, and you will *not* be able to make a native-like English speaker out of this student before the school year is out. But you can make a difference. Her...

Aha! The students are moms. That helps you figure out what sort of topics would be especially relevant. You could work on lessons like: pediatrician visits (and paperwork), parent-teacher conferences, oral reading of children's books (if they can read to their kids in any language it will help the k...

First of all, give yourself a pat on the back. It doesn't get much harder than a multilevel, multinational class with some literate and some illiterate students. If you're surviving at all you must be doing something right! You didn't mention how many students you have... Ideally, you would find a t...

There are a lot of ways a student can mess up spelling, and each type of error demands a different remediation technique. Your first step is to figure out exactly what sort of mistakes are being made. I recommend a standardized spelling test. The Test of Written Spelling-3rd Edition (TWS-3) is one I...