ESL Teacher

Although I now teach in a mixed-culture ESL classroom, I’m still always on the lookout for newspaper articles that are relevant to one of the countries of origin of my students. As I often have a large proportion of Korean students in my class, I tend to use interesting (and often quite unusual) stories about happenings in Korea – it helps the quiet Koreans have something to tell the rest of the class about, and my other students are also usually interested because Korea has such a different culture to theirs.

Recently, for example, I used an article about “smile training” that was a great success – I’d already heard from some of my students that their companies had given them special training on smiling at their customers. And this week I found an article about the pretty inappropriate behavior of Korean politicians which also amused both parts of my class. But in the past I’ve also used stories about famous pop stars in Colombia (and of course the famous (and beautiful) Shakira was included there) and the lack of small talk in German companies; the key is just to pick something that is unique and therefore interesting for most of the class.

One of my favourite games to play in the ESL classroom is a form of “Pictionary” - not least because I can’t draw to save myself and it makes the students laugh.

Coming up to Christmas, I like to teach a fair bit of Christmas-related vocabulary, both for activities we will do in class as Christmas gets closer and because students seem to be motivated by it to understand Christmas songs and perhaps simply because it’s a fun topic.

So once I’ve done some work on Christmas vocab, the best way to revise it is to use a drawing game. I’ll demonstrate the first one by drawing (badly, of course) a simple object that they have recently learned. The first student to guess the correct word (and spell it correctly, if necessary) can be the next to draw. I’ll show them a word (with the difficulty level of the word dependent on the student) and get them to draw it. If necessary, they can check with me first that they’ve understood the word. When a student guesses what that is, then they can take the next turn drawing, and so on, with some teacher intervention if it looks like the same people will always be guessing and drawing.

Alternatively, in a bigger group, you can arrange the class into teams and rotate who will be drawing through the groups, and when another group guesses it they can score a point. The main objective is to increase the students’ exposure to this vocabulary, and of course to have a bit of pre-Christmas fun.

A fun way I like to review new tenses and also get the lesson off to a relaxed start is to play one of my favourite games – a version of the true/false game. Whichever tense you’ve just been studying, you can adapt the sentences to suit. Here’s how it works:

1. Write five sentences on the board. I always like to write personal sentences because I like to involve my own life in my teaching, so I might choose topics like what I did on my weekend, or my plans for the holidays, depending on the tense I want to practice.
2. At least two of these sentences should be lies. I never tell my students how many are true and how many are false, because then at some stage they can just use a process of elimination.
3. Ask the students to work in groups to decide which sentences are true and which aren’t. They should write down their decision so that they don’t change their mind when they hear what other groups say.
4. After they’ve all decided, ask the groups to tell the class which sentences they think are true and which are false, and write this in a table on the board next to the sentences, so you can see what each group decided.
5. Finally, spill the beans! I usually start with the sentence that everybody guessed correctly (one point for a correct guess) and then jump around to make a bit of a cliffhanger about which group guessed the best. When the sentences are false, I get them to speculate why. Throughout the game they’re using the target tense without even knowing it’s a tense revision!

As an extension, you can also allow students to ask you questions during their decision-making period. I always say that I’ll answer any question but I don’t promise to tell the truth, so they have to try and figure out if I’m giving them a real answer or not. It’s a lot of fun!

Whether they want to or not, I always figure it’s part of my job to teach students about other cultures – or perhaps teach is the wrong word, I want to say that I help them learn about other cultures. In my multicultural classroom here in Perth, where I might have students from eight or nine different nationalities and three continents sitting together, they’re all keen to learn about other ways of life and I’m more than happy to facilitate it.

One activity that’s always a lot of fun is to divide the students into groups according to the continent they come from. Usually I’m trying to separate them all so the element of surprise when I ask the Asians to sit at one table, the South Americans at another and the Europeans at yet another already gets them intrigued.

Next, I give each group a blank piece of paper (or two) and ask them to draw each other’s continents. So the South American team have to draw a map of Asia and a map of Europe, trying to fill in some country details and get the basic shape right. It’s important to give them a time limit because some students who have a good geographical knowledge could otherwise spend hours getting things accurate.

One usual result is that the maps each group draw are utterly different. It’s fun to compare them. Then you can break up the class into mixed continent groups and get them to explain the geography of their continent to each other, or segue into many other kinds of activities – for example, reviewing spelling and pronunciation of nationality adjectives. Whatever you do, keep it light and fun so nobody feels bad about not having the knowledge – focus on acquiring it now because the local experts are all there.

I’ve had great success of late by inviting guest speakers to visit my ESL class. Students love the chance to speak to a “real” native speaker – apparently teachers don’t quite fall into this category! – and if you set it up well with an interesting activity to match it can be something they talk about for weeks.

If you’re living in an English-speaking country like I am, it’s absolutely easy to find a guest speaker – I’ve used several of my friends who happen to have interesting careers that are relevant to parts of my current Business English textbook. And the speakers themselves get a lot out of it by having a class full of students so genuinely interested in them – plus I always get them to each write a short thank you note to the speaker and handing over a collection of these is always fun.

So I think the key points when you’re preparing for a guest speaker are:

• Incorporate an informal small talk and introduction session at the start to make both your speaker feel relaxed and at least some of the students to have the chance to talk one-on-one with them (they’ll ask more questions later then). I usually put on some cookies and drinks and monitor it to make sure at least four or five students have the chance to talk to the guest speaker.
• Give your students an activity to do connected to the guest speaker’s presentation. For example, I had a guest speaker who had worked in many different countries and the students needed to try to note down an outline of her CV – where she had worked and when.
• Get them to brainstorm possible questions before the guest speaker even arrives. I like to collate the questions and then write them out on a page to give to all the students, and then if they get shy there’s a question in front of them to fall back on.

I love teaching students in the lead-up to Christmas, and wherever I’ve been teaching I always like to tell them all about Christmas in my home country, Australia. I’ve got a few favourite activities that I have to admit to using year in, year out because they’re always such a success. You could adapt them to reflect your own nationality and customs at Christmas time:

• Australian Christmas quiz: I wrote a multiple choice quiz of about a dozen questions about typical Australian Christmas customs, with a lot of funny answers thrown in (you’d be surprised how often students pick the wrong one!) – about the food we eat, the songs we sing and what temperature it is on Christmas Day, to name a few
• Australian Jingle Bells: Instead of teaching them a normal Christmas carol – many students know these already – then I use the funny version someone wrote about Santa “dashing through the bush” in a “rusty Holden ute” instead of a sleigh. There’s also a version of the “Twelve Days of Christmas” featuring Australian animals that is a lot of fun, and easy to do even with beginners because there’s so much repetition.
• Kris Kringle: Getting students to pick names out of a hat and then finding a small (anonymous) gift for another class member is a lot of fun – I usually set the value limit small at $5 but brainstorm with them about different ideas on how to get an interesting present for a low price. And just to be safe I usually bring a spare gift or two so nobody misses out if a student is sick or forgetful!

I love to sing – remember, I lived in Japan for two years, so I became addicted to the karaoke experience. Now, I know not all of my students will share my love of singing, but pretty much everyone enjoys listening to a song.

One of the most successful activities I’ve regularly done in an ESL classroom is listening to English pop and rock songs and teaching students about the lyrics, in various ways. It’s motivating for them – I even know students whose main reason for learning English is to understand the lyrics of their favourite singer – and it always creates a fun atmosphere. Different activities I’ve tried include:

• Play the song and get students to write down any words they hear (this works well for lower level students who will only understand a dozen or so words)
• Give students the lyrics with some gaps, and get them to fill in the missing words as the listen to the song – the higher the level of the students, the more gaps you can leave
• Make flashcards with words from the song on them, plus a few “red herrings” (especially words that rhyme with those you hear in the song, or sound similar) and get students in groups to “grab” words when they hear them – you can make a competition out of it where the student who grabs the most correct words wins
• With rhyming songs, give students a verse as dictation, but leave off the second rhyme each time and ask them to predict it
• At the end of a song lyric activity, especially if you have Japanese or Korean students who love karaoke anyway, make sure all the students have the complete lyrics in front of them then play the song again, encouraging them to sing along. Just warn the other classes nearby that it could be noisy!

Not too many people would argue on the question of giving homework to high school students. But once you get into the adult education world, then it gets a bit tricky.

As a basic principle, I think that homework for students learning English as a second language is totally essential. A key part of learning a language is, unfortunately, revising and remembering new words and practicing grammar structures, and repetition is a really important part of this – the kind of repetition that homework provides.

However, it all depends on the circumstances. For example, in Germany I taught high level managers who had English lessons twice a week before they started working (from 7.30am to 9.00am). These people worked long hours, had children and partners and houses to take care of after work, and barely had time for a hobby of their choice, let alone doing more English homework. Sure, they would’ve learnt faster if they’d been able to spend ten minutes a day revising their vocab lists, but I didn’t expect it.

On the other hand, students who come to Australia to study English full time often have some time each day to do some homework. Not all of them, however – those who need to work to support themselves might go directly from school to work and then only get home at midnight – at which time I’d prefer they got some sleep so they could stay awake in class the next day, rather than staying up later doing homework.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that being a strict teacher and demanding students complete their homework no matter what is not the way to deal with adult English learners. Be realistic, discuss the pros and cons with the students themselves, and perhaps provide optional homework for those that have the time.

If, like me, you’re lucky enough to be teaching a multicultural class of students who are living in an English-speaking country, then taking your students out into the “real world” is an absolutely justifiable way to improve their English. Getting a change of scenery and providing a place for them to put their English skills into practice in an environment where you can help them out can be a really productive time out of the classroom. Some of my favourite excursions in Perth include the following; adapt them for similar places in your local area:

• Caversham Wildlife Park – they can get hands-on with a lot of Australia’s amazing native animals, and the shy students are often able to get over their anxieties about speaking to native speakers because they want to ask the handlers questions about the animals.
• Swan Brewery – for a multicultural bunch of adult students, there’s no place that brings them together more than a place where they make beer. And since the brewery also gives tour groups the chance to taste a few of the beers, the students are able to relax a little; and the same thing applies about asking questions. Students in their twenties are pretty much universally fascinated by beer.
• Penguin Island – this is an island just off the coast south of Perth, and the best part from an English-learning viewpoint is it’s crawling with elderly volunteers who give their time to help conserve wildlife – and to chat with English learners about the penguins, pelicans and daily life there.
• The pub – for a quick hour or two at the end of the week, nothing beats getting the students around the corner to the pub where they’ll socialize with each other, practice ordering beer and as they get a little drunk and therefore bolder, start flirting with the bar staff – perfect English practice!

One of my all time favourite games, and one that my students often ask for, is the tried and tested game of Hangman. In fact, it surprises me just how much my students like it, but I’m pleased because it’s a great way to fill in a spare fifteen minutes or so at the end of the day and it does wonders for their spelling and vocabulary.

For me, the key part of having a successful Hangman game in my ESL classroom is to hype it up a bit. I always put them in teams (two or three, depending on the number of students) and give them a minute to come up with a team name. I use these team names regularly throughout the game and keep a points tally, encouraging each team to try to win this round, and doing tricks like giving double points for the last round if it means another team has a chance to win then.

When I’m choosing my words, I start out with some of the new vocabulary we have studied in class recently. At some stage I’ll throw in a red herring to make the class laugh a bit – “chocolate” is a favourite of mine (although when my students know me too well, then it’s also too obvious!), or something about the weekend, or even a hobby of one of the students or something!

Occasionally, especially with more advanced classes, I get the students to play the role of game master. I might let each one choose a word from a list, or get them to simply choose their own, but I only do this if it’s a class which is already accustomed to my style of Hangman.