Experiencing Teaching from Cindy

After reading Stephen Brookfield, I have a clear mind of the three stages of experiencing teaching--scanning, appraisal  and action.

I have been teaching ESL for more than 12 years. Because I am not majoring in education, so during the beginning years of teaching, I have to learn Educational Psychology, Educational Law,etc.
I used to teach both undergraduate students and graduate students, even some middle school students.

Looking back to those years, I have learned a lot. First, I think that scanning is important. "Scanning is the initial sweep or experiential trawl we undertake to diagnose the big picture". I do need to know what the students want, what the English level they are, or why they would like to study English,etc.

During the appraisal phase, I need to know their specific need. For example, some students are bad in grammar, others are not good at speaking, etc.
During the action phase, I have to choose the proper teaching materials for them. For teenagers, I will have to find some interesting stories, or articles with more pictures, or journals related with their daily life,etc.

During all these years teaching experience, I find I must choose the proper teaching material to the right student and apply different teaching style to students with various characters. When I taught those undergraduate students, I may explain the material in a detailed way and asked them to do some assignments; while I taught those graduate students, I may ask them to prepare the course in advance, and asked them to explain the key points to me instead. also, I asked them to write some journals and do some projects.

When I came to Canada I have to do these three phases again,because the requirements ,assessment and teaching materials are quite different with those of China. I have to study those carefully before I decide I choose which way and what materials to deliver.

I love teaching. Staying with students, I can find many fun , stay young and also learn from my students.

ESL teaching materials

I have searched for ESL teaching materials and handouts constantly for the past years.
Recently, I have found some good links with many useful worksheets for my student to practice.

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/

http://englishforeveryone.org/Topics/Writing-Practice.htm

http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/esl-future-perfect-tense1.html

I keep it on my blog for record.

Second Language Acquisition and Culture

Learning a foreign language is difficult but rewarding. I find this topic from my PIDO 3250 discussion forum.

To me , I have learned English for so many years, and I find there are several ways to learn a foreign language,.

First, you must be brave enough. Most of my ESL students are quite shy, and they don't dare to express themselves well. Sometimes they would like to show their own opinion after preparing a long time. Therefore, in my class, I will give them several minutes to prepare and then encourage them to speak their attitudes on topic.

Second, the environment is quite important. Many of my ESL students from China have large amount of vocabulary, and their writing and reading are well while listening and speaking are very poor. To learn the cause, I find that environment is really important for second language acquisition. Once they have immersed into an English-speaking community, it is natural for them to understand well and speak fluently.

Third, different people may use different approaches in language acquisition. Some students may use step-by-step approach, while others may improve their language by big leap. When I was about fifteen years old, I began to study oral English in evening school. At that time, I was in the low-level class with Chinese teacher.  However, when I noticed that there was a foreigner teacher in the medium-level class, I went to that class. For the next two month, I experienced a hard time and I felt headache each time after class since that foreigner teacher cannot speak any Chinese.
To my surprise, about three months later, I suddenly found that I could understand most of his class and even I could express myself. Maybe I am an example for some students that it is not necessary for him/her to study second language step by step.

Fourth, I think the most important one is to understand the culture of targeted language.
I have found that it is difficult for one to learn a foreign language without knowing anything about the culture. In order to study English, I have to learn American drama, Bible, etc. Of course, if someone wants to learn Chinese, he/she must learn some cultural background to understand the meaning of the words. Culture and language cannot be separated.

"'If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.'"  -  Nelson Mandela 

Here is a good paper that illustrate how important is the culture to second language acquisition. 

 http://www.osugisakae.com/tesol/matesol-papers/spackman-culture-and-sla.pdf

Generally, vocabulary is a big headache for most ESL students.
I find some words for ESL study. To classify words is a good way to enlarge their vocabularies. I do hope that they could use different words in their writings, which can enrich their sentences。
I like to post this for record.

I have found may useful worksheets for me to use in my class.
Although the technologies are so advanced that all of us like to use them in our class, worksheets are still a useful tools for students to remebmer and to practice.

http://www.eslpdf.com/esl_vocabulary.html
http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/esl-printables-worksheets.html

these two links provide some free useful tools for me to delivery in my ESL class.

An interesting ESL teaching website

I have been searching the materials for students all the time.
This one will be good for those youth and who have basic English skill.
http://www.kidslearningville.com/spelling-worksheets/
And I will add this website to my link .~~~~