Teaching ESL: Introduction

Second semester of the summer session has begun, which means that I will now write about "how to teach English as a second language". As I've confessed in previous entries, I do not think there is a special methodology that will work wonders. Education is not magic.

I am convinced that interest and commitment are fundamental to learning in general and second language acquisition, specifically. And so, there are two primary categories of students: those who are and those who are not motivated. Those who are have a reason to be motivated. These reasons range from need (in many cases, employment requires it) or interest (one wishes to live or study abroad or simply appreciates the language). Motivation is requires for second language acquistion because without practice one will not learn a language.

The teacher must assess the motivation, know the students reasons for learning. And for those who are there out of obligation, they will need motivating. And so the teacher must adapt his or her style accordingly.

The guidance a teacher provides must be structured and engaging. The guidance a teacher provides must take into consideration the students, his or her strengths, weaknesses, and learning styles. This, in turn, requires a special attention to the social dynamic that is teacher, student.

What comes with knowing the student is the concept of "funds of knowledge". The student comes into the classroom with an entire history that plays a part in shaping his or her perspective. She has cultivated certain strength and apprehended the world in unique ways. To this end, the smaller a classroom is, the most effective the instruction can be.

My experience in Brasil offers both cohort groups and individual classes. There are books for both groups, or a private student, if proficient, can elect for a "handout" class, which means that no book is used, but materials are provided by the teacher. In this case, there is a lot of opportunity to tailor lesson plans around the intersts of the student. This makes keeping the student engages a bit easier.

The challenge of keeping students engaged is greater the more students there are. Furthermore, the content of the book and the length of class place important restrictions on the learning and teaching process.

Being that language acquisition requires a great deal of practice and repetition, the classroom alone may not be enough for fluency or even passable communication. For this, I emphasize that interest in or need to speak the language is fundamental to second language acquisition.

The obvious answer to second language acquisition is "move to the country that speaks the language you want to learn, live with people from that country who do not speak your language, and supplement this emmersion with a class to provide structure for what you are learning in your environment. The fact is, fluency is demonstrated by that which can only be learning from contemporary dialog. What one learns from the books is function for communication, but books cannot house all the details that compose fluent speech.