Compelling Conversations

Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics for ESL learners and teachers

Posts Tagged IEP

CATESOL Accepts Presentation on Informational Interviews

Jan 19

Posted by Eric Roth in CATESOL, California, ESL, English curriculum, Speaking Skills, VESL, adult education, workplace English, workplace communication skills | No Comments

How can English teachers help adult, college, and university students expand their network of professional contacts while improving their interview skills? What practical speaking exercise includes both off-campus interviews and classroom presentations? How can ESL teachers add informational interviews to their oral skills curriculum? What are informational interviews, anyway? What makes them vital to adult English language learners in 2010?

Thanks to the selection committee of CATESOL 2010 State Conference, I will have a chance to share my answers with fellow California educators in late April. “Informational Interviews: A Practical, Illuminating Speaking Assignment” will demonstrate the importance and relevance of this unusual assignment for a wide range of ESL students. Although officially listed for college/university instructors, the long assignment can be adapted for high school, IEP, vocational, and Business English classes. CATESOL includes California teachers of English to speakers of other languages from all levels of education and many public and private institutions.

Naturally, I look forward to sharing the good news about information interviews, a common practice in the United States where individuals interview working professionals about potential occupations. My presentation will cover the several building block assignments that are used to prepare students to find a professional to interview, conduct a successful interview, and give a compelling trip report in class. Each step covers vital vocational and speaking skills.

Hopefully, this small professional presentation will encourage more ESL teachers to assign informational interviews and help their ESL students find satisfying jobs. Given the relatively grim outlook for jobs in California, the definition of “satisfying” might be more flexible than in the past. Informational interviews, therefore, allow job seekers to meet working professionals in their field, collect detailed information on working conditions and professional practices, and expand their network of valuable industry contacts. Sometimes informational interviews also lead to job leads, internships, and even jobs. Practical and popular, this assignment consistently engages students and provides surprising insights.

More later on informational interviews.

Ask more. Know more. Share more.
Create Compelling Conversations.

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Creating More Student-Centered Conversation Materials

Mar 7

Posted by Chimayo Press in Compelling Conversations, Conversation lessons, EFL, ESL, IEP, academic matters | 1 Comment

We need, it seems to me, to motivate English students more out of choice than duty – and tailor our ESL and EFL material as much as possible to our individual students. The web allows teachers to individualize instruction to an astonishing degree, but teachers must be prepare flexible, student-centered materials and lead by example. We set the standards, and students will follow their interests as they develop their reading and speaking skills. What does that mean?

Here is an example of a worksheet that I’ve used with considerable success in intermediate and advanced ESL classes.
————————————————————————————————–
Talking About Your Own Hometown!

Student Name:
Class:
Teacher:
School:
Date:

Please find an article about your hometown in English that you would like to share with your classmates. Read the article, clip the article, and be prepared to talk about the article.

Title:
Author: Length:
Publication: Publication date:

What’s the main idea?

How many sources were quoted?

Where there any illustrations? What kind?

What did you learn in this article?

What was the most interesting part for you? Why?

Write down 5 new vocabulary words, idioms, or expressions.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

How would you rate the article 1-10? Why?

Why did you choose this article?

—————————————————————————————————–

English students search the web, select an article, fill out the form, and share their articles in small groups of 3-4. Then I ask for “brave volunteers” to give us a brief presentation to the class. Although only a few students may volunteer at first, soon everyone wants to share their article and hometown stories. This simple technique, putting more emphasis on student speaking than instructor talking, helps create a lively ESL classroom. (Obviously, the activity works better in a genuine international classroom with students from many countries like in many American summer language programs.)

Communicative activities remain under-appreciated in many English language classrooms, especially in Asia. But seeing is believing. I’ll soon be visiting Vietnam, observing several English classrooms, and looking for examples of effective speaking exercises. What will I find? I don’t know.

Vietnam, the country with the fasting growing economy in the world in 2008, has embarked on a huge social development campaign. The education ministry wants to dramatically improve their current English language education programs, urging the study of English to improve trade, and mandating the study of English for high school students. Therefore, Vietnam has attracted thousands of English teachers from the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom in recent years. “It’s a huge laboratory for teaching methods,” notes an English teacher who lives in Hanoi.

EFL teachers continue to bring communicative techniques and direct learning methods to more and more Vietnamese students. Yet another exceptional educator working in Vietnam has also warned me that preparing for standardized testing and drill-and-kill grammar exercises remain the rule in most English classrooms. Quality EFL and ESL materials – especially for student-centered, communicative classrooms – apparently remain relatively scarce. Naturally, I will learn more during my upcoming trip to Vietnam where I will observe teachers and lead a workshop on creating more student-centered conversation materials.

It’s also the type of activity that has made Compelling Conversations popular. So far, student word of mouth, popular CATESOL conference workshops, and satisfied English teachers have lead to Compelling Conversations being used in English language classrooms in over 40 countries. ESL author Hall Houston, in long English Teaching Professional review noted, “In sum, Compelling Conversations is a recommended resource for teachers who want to make their conversation classes more learner-centered…It reflects both authors’ considerable professional experience, and would be a notable addition to any English teacher’s bookshelf. ” Hall Houston, the book reviewer, is also the writer of The Creative Classroom: Teaching Languages Outside the Box.

We live in a wonderful time to teach English, and somehow I suspect that Compelling Conversations will soon find an audience in Vietnam.

Ask more. Know more. Share more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Consumer Product Reviews: A Popular, Practical ESL Speaking Activity

Dec 23

Posted by Chimayo Press in ESL | 5 Comments

Let ESL Students Give Product Reviews in the New Year!

Do you let your English students write and deliver product reviews? Consumer reviews help ESL students develop research skills, use critical thinking, and share their consumer choices.

The giving and receiving of gifts has become a central feature of Christmas, Hanukkah, winter solstice and New Year celebrations. We live – for worse or for better – in a consumer age. English language learners, around the world, share in this winter shopping spree. Product reviews allow them to talk about their gift selections and holiday gifts. Plus, being a savvy consumer remains a critical adult life skill.

Many ESL students, especially young, hip, and wealthy teenagers and college students have also bought into – literally – the odd belief that “you are what you have”. Therefore, these English language learners and experienced consumers often love to share their “insights” about consumer products. Product reviews speak to their lifestyles, passions, and curiosity.

As an ESL teacher, I use consumer product reviews to teach the difference between fact and opinion and identify critical thinking skills. The assignment lends itself to reviewing a few key concepts like “details matter” and “numbers add precision” while introducing hedging language. Of course, engaging student interests also leads to better classroom discussions and more use of authentic language.

You can also design a very simple presentation form so everyone can provide peer feedback. Result? The students receive written feedback on their product reviews from you (the teacher) and their classmates. Again, teenagers being teenagers, they love to read about themselves and the feedback. If possible, I also suggest videotaping the student reviews and posting them on a class website for both self and peer reviews.

Teaching high school students possess many challenges, beginning with capturing and holding their interest. Personally, I have found teaching slightly older undergraduate students far more satisfying – and far easier. But I have also had considerable success in short term IEP summer programs with that tough audience. Product reviews have always been a hit!

Here is both my short assignment sheet and a product review worksheet for ESL students.
———————————————————————————————————-
YOUR TURN: GIVING A PRODUCT REVIEW

You have probably bought thousands of items as a consumer. You have looked at and considered thousands more. You can’t buy everything; you have to pick and choose the products that fit you and your lifestyle.
Choose a single product and prepare to give a brief product review.

Your product review should include:
• a description of the product
• the way the product is used
• the cost of the product
• a comparison with other, similar products
• a recommendation to buy or not buy the product
• a reason for your recommendation
• a rating on a scale of 1-5
—————————————————————————————–
PRODUCT REVIEW WORKSHEET

PRODUCT:
PURPOSE:
AUDIENCE:
USE:
COST:
COMPETITORS:
RECOMMENDATION:
REASON:

RATING:
_____________________________________________________________

Finally, I also encourage students to both visit Consumer Reports and other websites to collect information for their reviews – and consider submitting their reviews to appropriate websites. Seeing their reviews in print – in English – often gives students additional motivation to give a quality consumer review!
As an old American cereal commercial used to say, “try it – you’ll like it!”

Ask more. Know more. Share more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

CATESOL Conference Highlights Practical ESL Teaching Techniques

Sep 30

Posted by Eric Roth in CATESOL, California, Compelling Conversations, EL Civics, ESL, English class, Los Angeles, VESL, adult education, workplace communication skills | 6 Comments

Are you looking to share practical techniques with your fellow English teachers? What works in your ESL classroom? What tends to work in other ESL classrooms? Why?

The Los Angeles Regional CATESOL conference, titled “WWW. What Works and Why” at Biola University on October 25 features over 60 workshops and panel discussions. The annual event is expected to attract over 500 ESL professions from K-12 classes, adult education, IEP, and community college and university programs. CATESOL members receive a discount on the conference fee.

Do you live in Southern California? Do you have plans for October 25th yet? Visit
http://www.lacatesol2008.org/ if you are interested. This regional conference is larger than many state conferences and reflects the importance of studying English to immigrants in Los Angeles – especially during economically difficult times.

By the way, I will be giving a 45-minute presentation titled “Techniques for a More Democratic Classroom” and a joint presentation titled “Creating Win-Win Workplace English Programs That Work for Both Employers and Employees.”

In my solo presentation, I will review classroom practices like tailoring assignments for individual students, effective peer evaluations, and organizing students to create classroom materials. Some exercises come from Compelling Conversations, but most exercises are practices that I’ve developed over time in both writing and speaking courses.

The second presentation, with Troy Parr, comes out of a series of vocational ESL workshops that we designed for an important union for healthcare workers, the SEIU, in Los Angeles. (The director of their workplace educational programs read Compelling Conversations., and contacted me. I brought in Troy, who wrote his thesis on best practices in workplace ESL programs.) We emphasize the importance of creating practical, participant specific exercises that both introduce new workplace vocabulary and provide many opportunities to speak, write, and reflect on workplace issues – in English. These workshop exercise such as rewriting forms, writing memos, and giving presentations on safety tips also help students develop their language skills for beyond their immediate job.

Naturally, I hope you can make the LA Regional CATESOL conference. See you there?

For more information:

http://www.lacatesol2008.org/

http://catesol.org

Ask more. Know more. Share more.
Create Compelling Conversations.
Visit www.CompellingConversations.com

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,