Compelling Conversations

Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics for ESL learners and teachers

Posts Tagged EFL

The Crazy Alphabet Game of Teaching English Here, There, and Elsewhere

Dec 22

Posted by Eric Roth in ESL | 2 Comments

Confused by the long litany of acronyms in our fast-growing field? You’re not alone. English teachers, linguists, and school administrators must navigate an Amazon River of changing acronyms and cold, clinical terms to describe common classroom situations.

Our field is called ESL, EFL, ELL, ELD, ESOL, and VESL. We are often known as ELT, TESOL, TEFL, and TESL, and our students prepare for standardized exams known as TOEFL, TOEIC, GRE, and SAT. This alphabet soup sometimes seems a tad absurd and more than a bit annoying. Partly inspired by the need to quickly summarize information, partly used to define insiders from outsiders, and partly mandated by government bureaucracies, education seems more prone than many other fields to creating overlapping, often puzzling acronyms. I prefer to consider myself an English teacher who helps fellow humans express their ideas and perceptions in English.

Yet despite this sentiment, I also know that acronyms provide efficiency and often make clear important distinctions. The World Language Assessment website, a group of Wisconsin educational agencies devoted to effective language instruction, has created this useful glossary of emerging terms and even more acronyms. Do you know the Five Cs of World Language Education? Or what FLES stands for? What about the difference between a “portfolio” and “LinguaFolio”? As a longtime English teacher and ESL instructor, I found the list a useful glimpse into evolving goals, assessment language, and educational jargon.

Enjoy!

http://www.ecb.org/worldlanguageassessment/Vocabulary.htm

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What is your word of the year for 2009?

Dec 18

Posted by Chimayo Press in ESL | 1 Comment

What would be your word of the year? Why?

The New Oxford Dictionary chose “unfriend” as its word of the year, but that clever choice is not the first, only, or last word.
This excellent article from Ruth Walker’s outstanding “Verbal Energy” column in the Christian Science Monitor looks at the choices of Oxford American Dictionary, Dictionary.com, Webster’s New Word Dictionaries, and Merriam-Webster dictionary. Reviewing the choices and possibilities, Walker wonders how any one word could be chosen above other choices.

An excellent article for English teachers, word mavens, and linguists, this column also reminds readers that even “objective” dictionaries make editorial decisions. One editor chooses “unfriend” and another “sexting” and “distracted driving” while yet might choose “Obamania”. Other popular choices include: admonish, hypallage, and befriend. Choices, voices, and perspectives differ.

Of course, one of the pleasures of teaching English is that we often rediscover vocabulary words – or at least a new appreciation for the vividness of American idioms – from our students. Like many other ESL teachers, I often ask students to develop their own vocabulary logs with ten words each week and select a new word of the week to build their working vocabulary. Students, who have often been trained to memorize vocabulary words for TOEFL or other standardized exams, usually embrace the homework assignment. Sometimes students can surprise me.

This semester, for example, I learned the word “laicism” from a Turkish graduate student. This vital legal concept stating that religion and state should be separate, so woven into American culture that is not even debated, remains a major debate in Europe where many flags include a Christian cross. In some countries, the term is used to justify suppression of religious symbols (veil, yarmulka, cross) while other countries use it to subsidize many religious traditions and schools. Given the recent Swiss vote to ban new mosques being built in Switzerland and my own vocabulary lesson from a student, I’m chosing laicism as my word of the year. (By the way, Dictionary.com doesn’t list the word yet!)

What’s your word of year? Why?

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What will I learn today?

Jul 17

Posted by Eric Roth in ESL | 1 Comment

Consider me psyched. I’m going to a huge conference of ELT, EFL, and ESL professionals today in Vietnam’s White Palace. The 4th-annual VUS-TESOL conference program is full, and I expect to hear many more teaching tips for working with Vietnamese students who want to learn English, but are often reluctant to speak.
I’m particularly interested in hearing about successful transitions from grammar-based EFL classes to communicative philosophies, and talking with other English Language trainers and ESL professionals who have enjoyed teaching much more than administering programs.

Naturally, I’m also looking for “good mistakes” that don’t seem to transfer from the United States, Australia, and England to Vietnam. As Octavio Paz notes, “To modernize is to adopt and adapt, but it is to also to recreate.” What will work for Vietnamese students? What materials will most effectively encourage more Vietnamese adults to speak more in adult courses? What techniques work best here?

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Standardized Exams: Ends or Means?

Jun 21

Posted by Chimayo Press in EFL, ESL, English class, English curriculum, Teaching matters, academic matters, adult education, educational philosophy, language debate, language schools | No Comments

We Just Want a High TOEFL Score!

Students often need solid TOEFL scores to study abroad, including the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Naturally, this need – and ambition – often makes reaching a certain number on the TOEFL exam as the goal of their English studies.

Unfortunately, sometimes these imperfect standardized exams – all attempts to measure language ability of English language learners – become a goal in and of itself. Consequently,  some students and stressed parents want all their English classes to primarily focus on test preparation. “We just need a good TOEFL score” mantra can lead to pressure on private high schools and language programs to exclude material unrelated directly to the influential ETS exam.

Let me suggest that this worshipping at the altar of standardized test scores can distort, even pervert, English language instruction. While excellent, specialized test preparation courses serve a vital purpose, they should be small parts of a larger English curriculum. The main focus of language programs, especially in high schools,  should be helping students develop authentic language skills so they can actually read, write, listen, and speak English – both inside and outside the classrooms and away from multiple choice exams.

Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare, John Steinbeck, and Jack London may or may not appear on the next TOEFL test, but high school and older English students should be exposed to their writings. We do not want to throw away our humanistic cultural heritage and reduce our English and ESL classes into mere test training. The TOEFL exam is a means, not an end in and of itself.

Likewise, we need – as English teachers – to remember that ideas matter, celebrate our dynamic language,  and avoid the temptation to become grammar fundamentalists or mere language technicians. Learning English, a global tongue, allows students to move beyond the narrow confines of their local language and more easily join the global village. Let’s keep those larger goals – and the humanities – in the English curriculum.

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What do you look for in an apartment?

Jun 11

Posted by Chimayo Press in ESL | 1 Comment

What do you look for in an apartment? How do you turn a physical space into a home?

Everybody lives somewhere. Yet, as we know, not all homes are created equal – especially in the developing world with vast inequalities. Since I don’t speak the local language in Ho Chi Minh City, I have become far more reliant on fellow English teachers, co-workers, new friends, and real estate experts than usual in finding housing.

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So following my philosophy of seeking information through conversation, I’ve been asking many Vietnamese for advice as I hunt for a new apartment. Here are some useful questions.

– What districts/neighborhoods do you suggest? Why?

- What seems like a reasonable price for a two-bedroom?

- Can I walk around at night?

– Is the area safe?

– Should I pay in dollars or Vietnamese Dong? Why?

– What do you look for in an apartment? Why?

– Do you have a checklist of essential services? What’s on that checklist?

These last questions, by far, have lead to the most interesting conversations. One young office assistant instantly blurted out “money!” emphasizing the importance of price in her decision. Another young assistant focused on “privacy” and warned against renting a room with a family. ”What if you come back late at night? Will they give you a key? Will they say you make too much noise?” She proceeded to share some personal stories emphasizing the advantages of a private apartment. Note: she lives with her cousin now and can’t imagine living with her nuclear family or non-relatives. Interesting.

A rental agent offered some other advice. “You can change a home, but you can’t change a neighborhood so you choose the neighborhood first.” This agent, a friendly upworldly, mobile woman felt safety, quiet, and the comfort of living with international workers and “high class people”  were most important.  I agreed about safety, but observed that not all wealthy people were good people. “Yes, but they safe.”  I later noted the luxury hi-rise seemed quite quiet. “Are you afraid of quiet?” she asked in surprise.  In noisy Saigon, the idea seemed absurd. The sales agent asserted that this building complex is Vietnam’s future.

Given the humidity and tropical heat, air-conditioning remains a must too. Cable television, providing access to international channels and English language programs from around the world and adequate internet cable access have become defacto requirements too. These modern luxuries were added to my actual housing checklist as I visited more potential homes away from home.

I also like space and often miss the view from my father’s New York fantastic apartment.  So I’ve retained a soft spot for terraces overlooking urban areas. The hi-rise resembles Century City skyscraper in a crowded neighborhood of “traditional” buildings with narrow streets. The second apartment that I saw in the hi-rise offers magnificent views and a warm breeze. The attractive price remains only 10% of my monthly salary. I took the apartment. The place evokes, in an odd sense, a familiar feeling. This could become my home away from home.

What do you look for in an apartment?

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“They know enough who know how to learn.”

- Henry Adams (1838-1918), American historian and educator

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Do You Really Use Youtube in Your EFL Classes? How?

Jun 7

Posted by Chimayo Press in EFL, ESL, English class, Teaching English in Vietnam, academic matters, adult education, democratic classroom, teaching tips, technology and education | 3 Comments

Do you use You Tube in Your EFL classes? How?

Absolutely!

Like so many other English teachers, I begin teaching with student interests and habits in mind. Of course, I also want to take them from the old and familiar to new and unfamiliar while improving their English language skills. You Tube remains a powerful classroom tool to achieve that goal.

I’ve used YouTube to have students research job interview tips, stress patterns, pronunciation problems, and informational interviews. The results have been consistently positive as I have students write concise video reviews and email me their reviews for homework before the next class.

Then I slightly edit the reviews, watch the videos and add my own comments in blue ink, and combine the reviews into a single document that is emailed to all class members. “Use or lose” I say, but here are the reviews from your classmates. Result: almost every student watches every video recommended and spending far more time on the topic than I could allocate in class. It’s both popular and quite effective.

As English teachers, we are truly blessed to be working in the YouTube era.

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Culturally Sensitive Compelling Conversations Created for Vietnam!

May 30

Posted by Chimayo Press in ESL | No Comments

How do you revise a conversation textbook designed for American immigrants and international students in the United States for high school English language learners in Vietnam? Carefully!

Naturally, the new version of “Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics” will emphasize aspects of Vietnamese culture, avoid taboo subjects, and include local folk sayings and proverbs. The chapter called, “Driving Cars” becomes “Riding Motorbikes.” Other chapters get deleted altogether. Religious quotes are lost and some touchy questions remain unasked. So it goes – even in the 21st century.

Today, after weeks of collecting proverbs, talking with EFL teachers in Vietnam, and editing my original ESL for a particular EFL audience, I have a close to finished version. I feel quite satisfied with Compelling Conversations for English Language Learners in Vietnam. The new edition will be out within a month!

Shalom,
Eric
www.CompellingConversations.com
eric@compellingconversations.com

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Finding more practical materials at CATESOL

May 5

Posted by Eric Roth in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Time flies. Or, as the Romans used to say, “tempus fugit.”

Two weeks after the CATESOL 2009 convention in Pasadena ended, I’m finally having a chance to sort through the numerous books, doublecheck website leads, and evaluate materials that I picked up. Sometimes “the eyes are too hungry”, and I went a bit overboard in collecting ESL materials and resources for advanced English language learners. Of course, English teachers love books, new curriculum materials, and free ESL materials. I also have the excuse of working as a consultant for a workplace ESL program so I went hunting for some particular products for healthcare workers.

Here is a short list of promising materials:

VSOE ideas from CATESOL convention

American Speech Sounds program for Healthcare workers. Also www.eslrules.com has powerful training materials for focused workshops for non-native English speakers working in hospital, clinics, and across the medical field.

  1. Effective Practices in Workplace Language Training (TESOL)
  2. Getting Ahead in the US (Living Language) – videotape/textbook series
  3. New Citizenship DVD for future naturalization tests. This free DVD, perfect for adult educators, confirms that the new citizenship test will only require a “high beginning” level of ESL to qualify for American citizenship. Personally, I consider this an absurdly low standard that implies new American citizens can speak worse English than at least a half a billion English speakers outside of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
    Of course, low standards have many fans in the world of adult education and with many immigrant groups. More on this topic later.
  4. The Center for Applied Linguistics www.cal.org continues to offer wider and deeper variety of resources for ESL teachers, especially for adult education.
  5. I had several fascinating conversations about various English competency tests and their possible use in the workplace. The TOEIC test, on its merits, seems the strongest by far. Unfortunately, this test – used by millions in the workplace worldwide – has become almost forbidden due to lawsuits claiming discrimination in the United States. What does this mean? Millions of applicants and employees in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, France, Germany, and other non-English speaking countries have taken this test of English skills. Why? Because English has become a global language and competency in English has become an essential workplace skill.
  6. But not in the United States! So-called labor and civil rights activists have promoted the concept that requiring English proficiency, as tested by the TOEIC, is discrimination unless the ad explicitly states “English skills required.” This strange situation means that American workers can, and so often do , speak at a lower level than educated workers in Asia and Europe. What’s wrong with this picture!!!
  7. Software programs continue to become stronger day by day, minute by minute. English language learners, international ESL students, and adult ESL educators have more choices than ever. I will spend a solid chunk of time researching these language programs during my summer break. So far, however, it’s clear that www.openbookenglish.com and www.spokenskills.com offer great values for administrators, teachers, and students. ESL teachers will also find www.lessonwriter.com a wonderful, innovative, and time-saving site.

More later, but I must return to a large pile of research reports that need grading!

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Vietnam Embraces English Classes – and Looks for Communicative English Teachers

Apr 2

Posted by Chimayo Press in Compelling Conversations, EFL, academic matters, adult education, educational philosophy, language politics, linguistics, miseducation | 3 Comments

My recent trip to Vietnam to meet English teachers and lead a professional development seminar at the American-Pacific University, Vietnam lead to many wonderful moments and a few surprising conversations.

Teaching English in developing countries always poses challenges, and Vietnam falls into that category. Lt me share a few selective details to provide a brief introduction to education atmosphere for English teachers who prefer a communicative approach to grammar drill and kill tasks. Consider the gap between a traditional teacher-centered education philosophy and modern student-centered approaches for teaching English.

- An English language magazine cover story proclaimed: “Let Students Ask Questions.” The two-page article presented the idea of students – even college students – asking classroom questions as an overdue reform.
-Vietnam, the world’s fasting growing economy, has embarked on a rapid expansion of English language classes. The official government ministry of Education and Training has even adopted a new slogan: Friendly School; Active Students. This new slogan presumably indicates that the old approach was something else!
- Several APU high school seniors, in long interviews, indicated that they were forbidden from even talking in their old public high school English classes. These same students informed me that English class in the public high school ranged between 50-70 students. Sometimes the English instructor was believed to be unable to actually speak English. As a result, the class focused extensively on grammar and fill in the blanket tests.
- A few APU students expressed gratitude that they could have actual classroom discussions because this was a new educational experience for them. “We ask questions, and the teacher responds,” laughed one senior. Imagine the possibilities!

These few glimpses into Vietnam’s evolving education system indicate an increasingly awareness that communication skills matter. They also confirm that students, parents, and teachers want better schools and more communicative English language classes.

So let me repeat two favorite themes. Good schools cultivate student curiosity, and English lessons should allow students to display their experiences and perceptions. Further, students who have been forced to take years of English class should be able to speak English – and I literally mean speak English. Conversation skills are not a bonus for excellent students; they remain an essential life skill for international students, entrepreneurs, and immigrants. Therefore, English teachers can and must allow students time and opportunity to develop their speaking skills in class. Why is this still controversial in 2009?

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Three Free Exceptional ESL and EFL Resources for English Students, Teachers, Tutors

Feb 23

Posted by Chimayo Press in ESL | 2 Comments

Learning English, on your own and according to your own wishes and needs, has never been easier. Everyone with internet access can become autotelic, or self-directed, in creating their own educational program. Naturally, innovative ESL educators and EFL schools have embraced these possibilities to enrich their English classrooms.

The endless web continually offers pleasant surprises. This weekend I found new more exceptional free websites for English teachers, tutors, and students: USA Learns, BBC Learning English, and YapPR. I strongly recommend you explore them.

USA Learns – www.usalearns.org This U.S. Department of Education website for adult immigrants and future American citizens combines video lessons and clear written ESL materials. Launched in November 2008, this site has rapidly developed an international audience of English language learners worldwide.

BBC Learning English http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/ An outstanding website with audio, transcripts, and sometimes video of the world news written for English language learners. This excellent resource works for English students, ESL teachers, and EFL tutors.

YapPR – www.en.yappr.com – This innovative public relations site highlights short music videos, amusing commercials, and AP news stories with English transcriptions for English language learners. An accessible, clean videosharing site designed for ESL/EFL students. Does the public relations element bother me? Not really. The transcription feature provides valuable information for students which outweighs the apparent “pay to play” selection bias.

This is the best time – so far – to study and teach English. Never before have we had so many resources available – often for free -to explore and experiment with new technologies.

And tomorrow will be even better!

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