Our Classroom Environment (Unit 7)

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs suggests that students need sustenance, shelter, safety, security, and friendship as some of the basic needs to allow personal development (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs).  This also applies to their ability to learn and be creative.  As educators our students look to us to create an environment in our classroom (whether it be physical or web-based)  which will allow these needs to be meet.  

Think of a time when you entered an unknown environment, not knowing what to expect. Were you fearful and anxious? Were you excited and eager?  What difference did the person at the door make in those first few moments?  How did you become more relaxed and less anxious? 

I think back to a very negative experience in my education.  I entered grade one late because I had moved from a different province where we didn’t have kindergarten and you had to actually be six years old to start grade one.  The stern principal greeted me and my dad and I was left alone sitting in the grade one class waiting for the teacher.  She was not particularly welcoming, and I’m not sure if I was even expected.  I was terrified.  At recess I was taken under the wing of a very friendly face. I felt accepted and she guided me through intricacies of school. She became a lifelong friend, and is still a great support.  It was a hard but good lesson for me.  I try to be aware of people who are anxious in new situations, and to help them feel comfortable. 

A friendly smile and welcoming demeanor go a long way in putting people at ease.  Some of us come by this very naturally and others have to work a bit harder at it.  Classroom management goes well beyond this, and involves the physical environment of our class, teacher-student interaction and student-student interaction (Brown and Lee 2015). We want to create an environment where every student feels comfortable interacting and learning, where they feel encouraged, accepted, supported and respected. 

It’s also very important to understand who each of are students are.  What is their background? Are they a refugee and have they or their family suffered any trauma?  Who makes up their family? Are they living in poverty? Do they need extra social support?  Why are they missing or late for classes? Could they feel marginalized? They are all real people with real problems, and often have a much greater difficulty in solving their problems because of language barriers.  Many language programs employ or have access to help with social services, but as a teacher we are often the first observer of those problems. Some of the things we might notice are quite varied.  Are they falling asleep during class?  Are they having difficulty paying attention and are very distracted? Do they look unhappy most of the time? Are they having difficulty seeing the board? All of these things and many more may warrant us to gently ask questions in a private meeting, or to refer the student to some professional who may help them.  We must recognize that we cannot solve all their problems.  Our primary role is to teach. But we can be vigilant to ensure that if we can help to create an easier life for them outside the classroom, they will be better learners inside the classroom. 

Reference: 

Brown, D. & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language
        pedagogy(4th ed. revised). Chapters 13 and 14 Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.

Planning Our Lessons Properly (Unit 6)

 I think lesson planning can be one of the most difficult and time consuming aspects of teaching, especially for new teachers. 

     I have had the privilege of teaching in many different situations, from university lectures, to science labs, to teaching children and young adults in informal environments and even some on-line teaching.  The one common element to all of these is that they require some kind of lesson plan.  All need some organization to ensure that all the information is understood and the objective and goals are met. 

     ESL lesson plans fall somewhere in the middle. They need structure, organization and flow to ensure the goals and objectives are met, but they also need to be engaging and authentic. Brown and Lee  (2015) further describe objectives as terminal objectives (overall objectives) and enabling objectives (objectives of activities throughout the lesson). We need to incorporate a wide variety of activities so we are not boring our learners with the same types of activities over and over again. And we need to have some fun and laughs too. 

     As new ESL teacher it will be very important to ensure that we plan all the details, know what we are trying to teach (goals and objectives), but also expect what pitfalls we may have, be adaptable (tangents can be good learning moments), and make sure we reflect on what can be improved. An experience teacher told me that when she first started she had every minute detail written out, down to exactly what she was going to say, and then rehearsed it.  A good idea when you are first starting, to ensure you are comfortable with the material.  However, after many years of teaching, her lesson plans are now often six lines on a piece of paper.   With experience, it does become much easier! 

      Once we have established our objectives, we can now create the skeleton of the plan. The first activities should always be a review, or quick assessment of what the students know and to introduce what the lesson will be about.  Then the lesson needs to give some new information.  This can be the basis for the next few activities in the lesson. Activities should reinforce and build, but use different kinds of activities.  The class usually ends with an activity that brings it all together, and maybe challenges the students, or assess what they have learned.

      When the skeleton of the lesson has been established, the actual activities can be filled in, and adapted to the enabling objectives. There is a huge resource of activities on many websites, in textbooks, and from our PLN, as well as our imagination. Brown and Lee (2015, pp. 226) list a large table of all types of activities. But beware that many activities must be modified or adapted to fit our needs, and may have errors or confusing aspects. Activities must also be chosen that fit your particular class and situation.  Activities for a large in person class will be different than for online teaching, or tutoring. And also know your students, and what works for them. 

      One very important aspect to lesson planning is to prepare materials and technology.  Materials must be practical and accessible (easy to read and see). Teachers also have to work within budgets, so you may not be able to print everything! Technology can be what you are using for presentations, or what you will teach to the students. I have been caught many times with technology that doesn't work. The same applies to ESL classes if you are using a computer for a video, an overhead projector, a cell phone app, etc. Students are not impressed if you are trying to demonstrate how to use a program, when you can't use it yourself! 

    Timing is everything, and this is certainly something that has a learning curve. Even experienced teachers have difficulties estimating time for activities, because it depends a great deal upon the class.  An experienced teacher can have two classes at the same level, but abilities can vary greatly overall, and within different types of activities. So what takes one class 90 minutes can take the other class two hours. So we must be prepared with extra activities, and to be adaptable. 

     There are so many things to consider when planning a lesson, so no wonder it seems scary. So ask for help from experienced teachers, practice, review and reflect for improvement, and don't be hard on yourself! 

Brown, D. & Lee, H. (2015)  Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language 
       pedagogy(4^thed. revised) Chapter 10 Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education

ESL Methods for All (Unit 5)

Teaching ESL is not a 'one method for all'.  One of the foremost important aspects of deciding what methods to choose is of course context.  Who are your students, what are their needs and what is the best method to help them accomplish their goals.

Historically methods for teaching language have been based on a number of theories, which do not translate well into the practical needs of the classroom (Suggestopedia, Grammar Translation, the Audiolingual Method, Community Language Learning, the Direct method, the Silent Way, and the Total Physical Response) (Brown and Lee 2015) .  But the evolution of language teaching is now a stage where it is research focused and this has refined methodology to Communicative Language Teaching, where a wide range of proven methods can be chosen based on the teaching context.  Some of these are strategies-based learning where learners develop strategies to enhance their own learning; experiential-based learning (my favourite) where students learn through real experiences and hands on situations; theme-based instruction which chooses real-life issues incorporating reading, writing listening and speaking skills; and task-based instruction where students are given tasks to accomplish and are guided through to completion of the task.  I believe that good teachers will use all of these, by may emphasize some more than others depending on the class.   Other types of adult ESL classes are specifically designed for workplace language learning, or may be for academic or business purposes. In Canada we are very familiar with French immersion schooling for children which teaches all subjects in French except English. Some programs may also offer bilingual programs.

So how do we choose what is best for our learners?  Or in some cases how do learners choose what might be best for them?

We must combine what we know about teaching and learning with what we know about our students.  We must think about the what, when, where, who and why.  We must think about our own capabilities. And then we must choose the methods which will attempt to meet all of those needs.

Reference: 

Brown, D. & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language 
     pedagogy(4th ed. revised).  Chapters 2 and 3 Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.

Principles of Learning (Unit 4)

     I enjoy volunteering with adult ESL classes.  I've had the honour of working with some very experienced and excellent teachers.  They make it all look so easy. They are organized, fun, energetic and keep the classes attention, all the while effortlessly incorporating the principles of learning into their lesson.
    While I was reading Chapter 4 of Brown and Lee (2015) on Teaching by Principles, I was thinking about all the ways these principles have been incorporated into lessons that I've seen.  The first and foremost principle is agency, which is really the basis for all the others. Brown and Lee (2015) describe agency as "the ability to take action with intention" (p. 88) and encompasses identity, choices, control, self-regulation, goals, transformation and self-actualization.  It's huge!  But really its all these things that allows the learner to learn, or act to learn.
     Brown and Lee (2015) go on to delve into these principles of learning more deeply.

1) Self-regulation requires learners to set goals, and be creative. They must also be self-aware and 'put themselves out there' to be good learners.  I've seen students that don't have goals really founder in classes.  They tend to not apply themselves, or do homework, and often lag behind their classmates in promotion to higher levels.

2) Identity and Investment encompass their imagined community (who they communicate with) and deals with power issues that might exist.  Learners need affirmation and support, but they also need to be able to make choices and invest in their own learning. I've seen many a first year university student do very poorly because they don't know why they are there.  The same applies to ESL students.  They must understand who they are, what they choose to learn, and teachers need to affirm and guide them along the way. If a student is not ready to be there, they will not invest the time or energy in what needs to be done.

3) Interaction is a necessary part of L2 development. This should be socially and culturally mediated. They need to work on collaboration and negotiation, necessary skills in communication. Using scaffolding, learners can build on skills from easy to more difficult. Good teachers seem to do these effortlessly, but I think it takes some experience in knowing how to do this well.

4) Languaculture emphasizes that there are many differences in the culture of language, even within the language.  Learners must first be exposed and orientated to the language culture of English that they will actually use and then integrate and adapt to it.  If you even listened to TV shows from Australian, you'll know that their English pronunciation is very different from Canadian English. And there are differences in pauses and questions etc, between English and other languages. Even our posture, how close we stand, etc is very different.

5) Automaticity deals with what we focus on when we learn a language.  Children focus more on function, whereas adults focus on form.  It is necessary then when teaching adults to ensure that there is also a function focus, so that they will know when and how to use the language they learn, in real life situations.  Functional language learning is extremely important.  I find that students who have learned English in another country often focus more on form and less on function, and find it very difficult to carry on real conversations.

6) Transfer of language to real life skills is very important for adults.  It is important that teachers use authentic and meaningful learning, so that it is easily transferred into their real life. Teachers must remember that students are learning English so they can actually use it in their everyday life, in their job, or in education.  They need to learn the vocabulary and how to incorporate the vocabulary into real conversations and situations.

7) Reward can be either extrinsic or intrinsic motivation.  But intrinsic motivation (from within) is the best for adults, and their reward is to accomplish their own goals, with the help of the teacher to break them down into reasonable goals. Students goals and motivation are highly variable, and we need to understand what they are for each individual and help them attain their goals, and not what we think they need to attain.  Ensuring they see their own rewards along the way is also very important.

As ESL teachers, we must always focus on these learning principles, but I think more experienced teachers intuitively know many of them, and build their lesson on them without consciously thinking about them.  As new teachers, reminding ourselves of them from time to time would be a very good idea!


Brown, D. & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy
      (4th ed. revised). Chapters 4 and 5 Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.

Translating Grammar in ESL (Unit 3)

     This week I have had a taste of how overwhelming English grammar must be for ESL students.  I consider myself to be a fairly competent writer of English, but it has been many years since I have had to recall rules of sentence structure, and define the words that make up our complicated language.     Delving into the rules of grammar in Harmer (2007), has made me feel vastly incompetent at this point to teach an ESL class, especially at a more advanced level.  While doing some volunteer teaching with a class, I asked the students what they would like to learn. One person asked about phrasal verbs.  Very embarrassed, I had to ask what he meant.  The lesson learned was that in order to be able to teach properly, we must fully understand the language of grammar, even though we may feel we are competent speakers and writers of English. 

     As babies and children we assimilate the language, slowly building on our grammar knowledge, testing new competencies, and correcting our errors. And then our formal grammar training begins in school, while our reading and writing catches up to our verbal skills. For many, our writing skills will continue to evolve up to high school and for some, beyond that. As ESL teachers, we must try and condense and concentrate this learning of grammar, often into just several years or less. So what's the best way to pack these grammar rules into our lessons without overwhelming our learners? 

     Through my observations as an ESL classroom volunteer, the best way to teach grammar, especially in lower levels of ESL, is to keep the lesson simple, only incorporating one new thing at a time, but constantly reviewing what the students should know.  Correcting common errors is an ongoing part of every lesson.  Students will also ask questions, but its often the teacher asking the students what might be wrong with a sentence.  Their recognition of the errors is an important part of their learning process.  Often, ESL students learn to speak English with many errors, probably for many reasons. So these errors are then incorporated into their writing.  Correcting them, without embarrassment, and without interrupting the lesson too much,  is a real skill that all ESL teachers need to learn.  

     Over the course of the next year, as my TESL training continues, I hope to review my English grammar, and build on my classroom skills for translating it into a useable form in the ESL classroom. 

Brown, D. & Lee, H. (2015). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language pedagogy
      (4th ed. revised). Chapter 19 Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.

Harmer, J. (2007) Describing Language in How to teach English (pp.59-80). Essex: Pearson
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