Classical Approaches to Teaching English as a Second Language

Having the insight as a former student and a present educator, Linda Christensen wrote about her views on the way English is taught to students in her essay“Teaching Standard English: Whose Standard?” Christensen

Overall, the read aloud lesson was a great experience in which I learned many aspects about myself. I believe that conducting more read aloud lessons would help me improve in tone and fluency for reading. Also, in my opinion, an interactive read aloud is a great way to assess students’ knowledge of the central message of a book. I will use the interactive read aloud lesson in my future classroom ever change I get to help my students be

If they were to mispronounce a word, then the teacher or another student would point it out. The next time this student were to read they would be discouraged because when they read they will relate their mistakes with embarrassment. I agree with this one hundred percent since this has happened to myself in class. Teachers do not give you an option when they ask you to read out loud. If you were to question the teacher or say no it might be just as humiliating. There are always alternative options when reading out loud. You can work in smaller groups or just ask for volunteers to make everyone in the room

For the next read aloud I would definitely do things different. For an examples I would read the book aloud before I do it in front of the class, to see how long it takes. Then I would come up with questions and have the questions simple enough for them to understand whats being asked. But keep the question good enough for them to know if they comprehension the story. And ask questions throughout the story to keep their interest with me. I could tell some of the student was not interesting with the book I reading to them.

Language is the primary way to communicate, learn and express identity. Some language learners are successful by virtue of their sheer determination, hard work and diligence. However, there are other crucial factors influencing success that are largely beyond the control of learners. ' 'Second language is any language other than the learner 's native language or mother tongue ' '(Mitchell pg 5). To be successful in second language acquisition, there are various factors which act as barrier in the process of learning English as a second language.

I remembered as a young child we had phonic drills, spelling tests, round robin reading and silent reading in the classroom. During my elementary years we did a lot of round robin reading and the teacher would provide unknown words and correct miscues to readers. In the classroom we also have silent reading where we were able to choose a book of interest based on our reading levels. Different strategies were also taught to comprehend books. Looking back at what I experienced as a student, I believe both approaches played a part into learning how to read as a student.

I remember whenever the teacher would ask who wanted to read a paragraph in the textbook or chapter I would be the first to raise my hand. I felt like reading out loud in class was practice. My mom also taught me that if I read out loud in the bathroom mirror I would soon be more comfortable to read out loud in front of anybody. So I practiced reading in the mirror and I noticed that my reading did get better. Whenever I would get stuck on a word I would write it down and look it up then I would go back and reread whatever I just read to

Students in the pre-emergent stage of language acquisition have a vocabulary base of approximately 500 receptive words (Hong, 2008, p. 61). However, these students may be experiencing the “silence period” or parrot others thought they produce limited language output. Therefore, the read aloud strategy, a method of reading a book audibly either as a class or in small groups provides English Language Learners the opportunity to hear English spoken in a clear slow manner while participating in a classroom activity (Grand Canyon University School of Education website, n.d., expression 2). By reading aloud, the teacher provides a model of proficient reading and a means to provide content for ELLS who cannot yet read at the level of the text (Levine, Lukens, & Smallwood, 2013, p. 94) Also reading aloud “builds students background knowledge and develops academic vocabulary along” with proper enunciation which is vital for this stage of English development (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2013, p. 76).

Sometimes more than one method is used to bring out the anticipated outcomes in the language classroom where communication develops the key factor of teaching-learning process. Unless students learn to utilise the classroom method to express thoughts and feelings outside into the real world situations, the learning cannot be effective no matter whatever teaching method is applied in English as a Second Language classroom. Teacher- student role becomes the centre in bringing out the maximum within the limited time in a

There are two other techniques that my teacher used to help teach us how to read. One I consider to be a good strategy and the other I am not too fond of. The first approach was using a tape recorder and head sets. We would sit down with a book and follow along with our finger as a voice was reading the book to us in our ear. I think this particular approach works because it releases the anxiety and stress of having to pick apart the words on a page in order to learn them. By following along they are able to develop listening skills and hear the

ESL students are students that speak English as a second language. Presently, there is many different system to characterize this type of students (qtd in Shi, Steen 63). For example, they can be seen as “English Language Learners (ELL), English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), English Language Development (ELD), English Language Service (ELS), and

I started learning English as a second language when I was in first intermediate. I still remember my first classes and my first teachers. I remember that my teachers changed frequently in the first year but all of them have much in common. All of them used grammar translation method. They used to write bilingual lists of words on board, then we, as students, were asked to copy these lists and memorize them by heart. All teaching concentrated on reading and writing skills, but there were no activities concentrating on speaking or listening. In addition, grammar rules were taught in that stage of learning the language as mathematics equations, and we were asked to memorize the rules as we

To teach English as a second language successfully, an ESL teacher needs to engage students in various kinds of activities to improve students’ reading and reading abilities, as well as offer more activities to practice their speaking and listening abilities. He/she needs to teach students skills, strategies, and other knowledge and consider other important issues that may affect their English language learning. Firstly, the teacher needs to design a curriculum that includes various kinds of knowledge based on students’ levels. For students who just started to learn English, the curriculum might focus on developing students’ abilities in decoding words and teach them how to spell words. For middle school students, I might offer more reading and writing activities and help them develop their vocabulary. Also, the teacher had better use various kinds of scaffolding strategies in the class to accommodate the needs of ELLs’. He/she can use visuals and realia to help students visualize complex concepts. And they can use graphic organizers to help students figure out the important ideas of the reading materials.

To enable all students to learn and engage with the learning areas in the classroom, teachers employ a variety of teaching methodologies across all learning areas. Choosing an appropriate teaching methodology will make the process of teaching English as a second language easier and more rewarding for the teachers and students, and increase the likelihood of success. In this research, I will analyses a video clip of an ESL/EFL teacher and class in action for reflection on and evaluating the mythology to promote language learning.

According to Celce-Mursia (2001), teaching English to people who speak other languages (TESOL) refers to a learning process by which people whose native language is not English are taught how to read, write, understand and successfully communicate in English. He notes that different shortened forms are used to refer to the same concept in different parts of the world. Among them, include Teaching English as an Additional Languages (TEAL), Teaching English as a Foreign Languages (TEFL), TESL referring to Teaching English as a Second Language and ELL for English as a Language for Learners. They all have the same meaning as TESOL.