Teacher Discussion Forums

Babies Read Lips Babies first start to make sounds that are early attempts at real words at around 6 months of age. From a previous study, it was known that babies look to the eyes of an adult for non-verbal communication. But in a study by Dr. David Lewkowicz, a Professor of Psychology from Florid...

...isn't it kind of a cop out? Many parenting and education experts are also coming to that conclusion but don't overlook the dual purpose of such incentives with kids--there's the discipline factor---you can remove points/stickers/stars for misbehaviour. This can works very effectively in maximizi...

My goal is to teach ESL and US History/Civics in tandem, ... Making history relevant to their lives is of utmost importance to maintain interest and motivation. Earlier this week, upon telling Shanghai Scholastic's director their after-school English curriculum is the most ambitious in China, he ad...

I believe that many teachers who do not have an ELL background have low expectations and misrepresent ELLs in their classroom. Many lack the knowledge and/or strategies to help ELLs succeed in their classroom. In N.A., it's all about the cost cutting. The rhetoric of Inclusive Education a decade ag...

Yesterday, I went for an interview with Scholastic English School in Shanghai. Having looked at their curriculum , I told the director they've got the most ambitious children's afterschool English program on the market. But I wondered whether it could work with Chinese children. The director admitte...

I'm trying to get a sense for the users of this forum. It seems the majority of you teach ESL in public schools. I may be the exception as I teach EFL primary students in a non-English speaking country and hardly ever in public schools. I find this forum helpful in terms of getting a sense for the E...

As I've argued, the problem originates in initial teacher training and the industry in general: Did your training adequately cover assessment?

Admittedly, assessing math or any other subject is a much easier proposition than assessing acquired language skills.

Although I have yet to teach in an ESL setting, I have to say that I was surprised to learn how many different tests ESL students have to take. I agree with you, Wendy, that it would be nice to stray away from standardized tests because they do cause a lot of extra and unnecessary pressure. I mysel...

I was just wondering how you get students to be willing to communicate. This type of interaction definitely requires a "can do" and "want to do" attitude on the part of the English Language Learner. This is certainly an important aspect of interacting. What do you do if your students just simply do...

I am usually very supportive of the concept of group work. Me too but teaching the skills of how to work cooperatively in a group is a challenge for even the best of teachers in a unilingual setting let alone in a language classroom where teachers may know little of L1 and C1 (culture 1). I read so...

I am glad you overcame your reservations and are pursuing your dream of becoming a school teacher. I am pleased that research is starting to support the advantages of ESL teachers that are not native speakers. I feel you better understand the difficulties involved. If you happen to be teaching a po...

I think it’s important to get an understanding for both students’ language learning capabilities and their desire to learn ... For me, it's helpful to get an understanding of whether there's any value to such educational initiatives--the product of ivory tower research that our taxes and student de...

I never really liked side by side personally. I don't particularly like Side by Side either but for the type of beginner I mentioned who struggle with the most basic patterns, the book and videos provide plenty of contextualized substitution practice with minimal vocabulary. Interchange 's videos, ...

I teach English to kids in private schools in China. For those of you in the public school ESL world, how do you assess oral ability? In classes of 20+ kids, isn't a blending of peer- and self-assessments along with teacher observations the best method to determine progress? Regarding portfolios: in...

What do you do with adult classes where they want to learn conversation? Beware!!! What you and I would consider (the skills necessary for unrehearsed ) conversation may not be what your students have in mind. For those here in Asia conditioned to years of teacher/text-centric instruction, English ...