future adult esl teacher
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Bethany.Blaine
- Posts: 24
- Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2011 4:19 pm
- Location: New Jersey
future adult esl teacher
I am in graduate school getting my certificate to teach ESL and somewhere down the road I'd like to get myself involved in adult education. I am aware that adult bilingual/EO education must be approached in a different manner than with elementary or secondary bilingual/EO education. What I would like to know is, does it make sense to start out teaching in an adult student's L1 (especially if they have zero English)? Would it be very hard to teach an adult ESL class if the teacher is not bilingual?
I taught many many classes over the years in English with adult students at a very beginning level. I used a smattering of different languages (none of which I was fluent in) to occasionally get a little rapport ("Don't worry." "Little by little" etc.) but it was a mixed class and I certainly didn't know all the language backgrounds of my students. Most of them were literate in their own languages and had some idea of the sound/spelling correspondence in English, but some did not.
You can do a lot with objects and demonstrations. "Realia" was an important thing. I had collections of plastic fruits and vegetables, plastic utensils of many colors, combs of different shapes and colors, pens, cups, bowls, etc. You can do things with "Do you want a pen?" "Who has the red pen?" "Give me the book." and so on. I taught parts of the face and checked their understanding by giving them directions such as "Put your hand on your head." and later, "Put your right hand on your left ear, and you left hand on your right ear." There was a lot of laughter, and no one minded looking funny. I taught numbers, and then taught the linking in English by dictating phone numbers, making special note of the linking between a number before 0 (oh) or 8. (sick so in stead of six...oh for example) I did a lot of dictation of words too, so they would learn the letters.
Anyway, there is a lot you can do even if you don't know the native language. I always thought it was good that I knew a little of some languages, enough to make the students relax, but not enough to translate or use it to explain anything in depth.
You can do a lot with objects and demonstrations. "Realia" was an important thing. I had collections of plastic fruits and vegetables, plastic utensils of many colors, combs of different shapes and colors, pens, cups, bowls, etc. You can do things with "Do you want a pen?" "Who has the red pen?" "Give me the book." and so on. I taught parts of the face and checked their understanding by giving them directions such as "Put your hand on your head." and later, "Put your right hand on your left ear, and you left hand on your right ear." There was a lot of laughter, and no one minded looking funny. I taught numbers, and then taught the linking in English by dictating phone numbers, making special note of the linking between a number before 0 (oh) or 8. (sick so in stead of six...oh for example) I did a lot of dictation of words too, so they would learn the letters.
Anyway, there is a lot you can do even if you don't know the native language. I always thought it was good that I knew a little of some languages, enough to make the students relax, but not enough to translate or use it to explain anything in depth.