Teacher Discussion Forums

Hi all,

I am a new ESL teacher teaching in a Peruvian bilingual (well, aiming to be bilingual) school. I have one grade 8 class that has two students who have come in from the USA and so speak English.

I wonder if anyone on the forum has had a similar experience and could give me some advice.

I would like to find some way of getting the two English speakers to get involved in teaching the other students. They are not challenged by the English learning tasks and when given a chance to flex their English language muscle (with written task and debates for example) they do just as much as they need to and no more.

Any thoughts on this would be greatly accepted.

Have fun

Russell

Hello Russell:

You can prepare group activities and separate those two students, allow them to lead the activities in their groups; it will create interest and competition because both students will love to show their peers what they know while demonstrating their skills

Carmen

Hi Russel!
Having two bilingual students in your classroom can be very helpful. When you're having class discussions, interacting with those students as much as possible and asking for their opinion is a good way to have them participate. I would suggest that you do not separate them from the other groups. They can help other students. However, it may be necessary if you realize that the other students do not work and just copy what the american kid is saying. Also, having these kids getting involved in your teaching is not such a good idea. Some students may think that they have to achieve perfect fluency and master all the vocabulary and may feel discouraged about learning English.