How to Help Your ESL students
Not another one !!!
We have all been there, we get a new student who is not an English native speaker, What do you do next? Do you ask them how much of the language do they speak? Do they have any prior schooling? how about if its double trouble and they are ESL and Special Education? what do you do now?
ESL
What is this Program and how can I use it?
How hard can it be!!!
Are my student actually trying?
What can I do?
How can I help my student?
In this flyer I will try to provide you with some answers for the questions above
Getting a new students in the classroom at times can be a time consuming task, you have to find out what have they learned in the school where they came from, how much catching up do they need to do and even how much time do I need to spend with this student so I can help them catch up with the class. Now on top of that you find out that this student does not speak the language of if they do they are at a low level of understanding. You may feel lost or even frustrated because you don't have extra time to change your lesson so they too can learn; so what do you do?
ESL
First, know that you are not alone in this battle. You have an ESL program at your school that is very willing to help you out with this new student in the classroom. You may not know this but the ESL program tests students to whom English is not their first language. With this test you can find out at what level the student is in their English progress. The ESL department also has great tool that you can use in your classroom all yo need to do is go to the ESL room and ask for the students information and for some tools that they have to help you teach these students.
How hard can It be!!!
The simple answer is very. The english language is make up of may languages put together the two main ones being Latin and Greek. When you bring these to together you are in for a hard time saying words and speaking.
Look at the pictures above, these pictures show you where the sound of each letter comes form, I bet you didn't know you used your mouth this much in one day. Now try to imagine not only learning a new language but learning how to use you mouth all over again.
This website is a good resource to look over and find out more about learning a new language. http://www.rachelsenglish.com/
What can I do?
Nice thing about this is that you are probably doing many of the things to help your students already. Know that you don't have to change your whole class room curriculum. Pictures that show the vocabulary of your focus, at the board demonstration that show the task that you want the students to do. Simple things like this are big help to those students who do not speak the language but they do know what things look like.
This are just a glimpse to things that deal with ESL, there is so much more that we can do as a faculty body to make sure that the student are getting the help they need. I would be more than glad to share some of the information that we as a class have gathered to help out ESL student body be successful. If you have any questions please ask and if I don't have the answer on the spot know that I will find a solution that best help you and the students.