Inside the Foreign Language Classroom and the Social Studies Classroom by Kenan Le Parc

                  Most ELL students in Alabama just like anywhere else in the country, are probably going through culture shock. (Brown p. 194)

In order to understand how our ELL students feel, every teacher in the state should go through shock language lesson. (Samway & McKeon p. 16-19) Can you imagine yourself in a classroom where you are being taught a subject in a language other than your native tongue? Someone going through this probably gets frustrated pretty easily. We have to understand that our English Language Learners might be frustrated when they do not understand what we are teaching them.

In my certification area (French) it might be easier as every student in class will start with the same knowledge of French. In a foreign language classroom, the teacher should use a lot of images and a lot of motion to make the students’ task of learning the target language easier. By making motions with our arms (i.e. going from close together to having your arms spread apart and extended can show that it means big), the students might understand words of the targeted language through our motion. This technique could be used in other content areas when dealing with ESL.

For example in a History classroom, a teacher could have videos and pictures along with the readings for the students. The images will speak for themselves and the students who might not get all of the information from reading the textbook might grasp the message through watching the video and knowing the context. As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. This might be beneficial to non-ESL students as well as some of them might be visual learners.

Another technique that can be used is to pair ESL together if they have the same native language. One might understand more than the other and they can help each other out in their native tongue. Being able to use their native language in class will allow them to put meaning on new words in English. (Samway & McKeon p. 16-19)

References

Brown, H. Douglas. 2007. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. White Plains, NY: Pearson Education.

Samway, Katharine D., & McKeon Denis. 2007. Myths and Realities, Best Practices for English Language Learners. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.