Tips on Language Error Correction, Part 2

Here are some more tips on how to address language errors in your ESL students:

• Listen carefully and make observations from writing samples so you can identify the recurring errors your students are making
• Address these errors in mini-lessons to the whole class, a small group of students, or one-on-one
• When you address errors, have students jot down their errors along with the corrections in a journal. This gives them a reference source to use in the future.

When and How to Correct Language Errors in Your ESL Students, Part 1

This is a topic I am always wondering about, and I recently read some of the best advice I've heard on the subject. The following are some of the perspectives offered by Diaz-Rico and Weed in their book The Crosscultural, Language, and Academic Development Handbook:

• In the early stages of language learning, fluency is more important than accuracy, therefore converse in and model appropriate language.
• Focus on the student's message and provide correction only when meaning is not clear.
• If students are older or have higher English proficiency, they need and will benefit from feedback on recurring errors. 
• Listen for recurring errors and then address them whole class, in small groups, or one-on-one.
• Random errors need not be corrected; focus on recurring errors.

Strategies for Increasing Comprehensibility

When communicating with your ESL students, you want to make sure they understand your meaning as clearly as possible and vice versa. Here are few ways to help make sure you and your students are understanding one another:

• Use sentence structures that expand the students' output by supplying needed phrases and vocabulary
• Use gestures to convey instructions
• Concentrate on understanding and communicating rather than on error correction
• Provide alternative grouping procedures so that students can share their understanding with one another and with the teacher
• Maintain regular classroom procedures and routines

These ideas were drawn from Diaz-Rico and Weed's The Crosscultural, Language, and Academic Development Handbook

Making Text More Understandable to English Learners

Here are some ways to make a text more comprehensible to the English learners in your classroom:

• Supply an advance organizer for the text that highlights they key topics and concepts in outline form, as focus questions, or in the form of concept maps
• Change the modality from written to oral. By reading aloud, you can also model the press of posing questions while reading to show prediction strategies used when working with text
• Tape-record selected passages for students to listen to as they read along in the text. These recordings could even be uploaded to your class website or blog for students to access at home.
• Develop a study guide for the text. For each reading section, create ten sentences that reflect the main ideas, then turn each sentence into a question or selectively omit key words that students must supply
• Ask student to work in groups so they can share their notes and help one another complete missing parts or correct misunderstood concepts

Try one of these ideas in your classroom today!

These ideas were taken from a great book called The Crosscultural, Language, and Academic Devlopment Handbook by Lynne T. Diaz-Rico and Kathryn Z. Weed

Ways to Supplement the Verbal Presentation of a Lesson

English learners, and students in general, are more likely to comprehend a concept when that concept is contextualized. This means that the concept is reinforced through the use of media, realia, manipulatives and human resources. Take a look around your classroom and see if you have plenty of visuals to help reinforce the lessons you are currently teaching. Here are some items to help you do this:

Object Resources

• Picture files
• Maps and Globes
• Charts and posters
• Printed material such as illustrated books, catalogs, and magazines
• Puzzles
• Science equipment
• Manipulatives such as M&Ms, buttons, tongue depressors, and gummy bears
• Costumes
• Computer software
• Internet

Human Resources

• Cooperative groups
• Pairs
• Cross-age tutors
• Heterogeneous groups
• Community resource people
• School resource people
• Parents 
• Pen pals (adult and child)
• Keypals

These suggestions come from the Diaz-Rico/Weed text The Crosscultural, Language, and Academic Development Handbook

Helping Students to Understand Internet Safety Guidelines

I wanted to give you an idea for a quick assignment that students will enjoy and will also be helpful for them in evaluating their use of not only the computer and peripherals but also the caution they exercise when using social media. This assignment addresses all four standards of Goal 1. Goal 1 states: Language learners demonstrate foundational knowledge and skills in technology for a multilingual world.

Have students look at the facebook page or blog of someone they do not know. Have them collect and note all of the information they can find about the creator of the page/blog. Ask them to look at posts/status, pictures, about me sections, comments, etc. Have them note all the ways that personal information or information about location is available on the page/blog. If you do this assignment in the lab, leave about 25 minutes at the end of class for discussion. This assignment could also be given as homework, but it might be easier to do it as a class in the lab. Initiate a discussion where students share what types of personal information they were able to find out about someone they did not know. Ask students if they would like this same information available about themselves and why or why not. Have them talk about why information like this (location, age, photos, etc) is sensitive and not appropriate for general consumption. The goal is to help students learn to exercise appropriate caution when using web resources (TESOL Technology Standards: Goal 1, Standard 3), although as a side benefit, students must demonstrate their ability to meet Standards 1, 2, and 4 in the process. As a follow up assignment, have them visit their own facebook page or blog and make sure their settings are set to the maximum amount of privacy and make sure they are not giving away information that they don't want available to the general public.

As I Learn, the Blog Grows

Since I started this blog, I have learned so much more about English Language Learners and their needs. I hope that I can share some of that here on this blog in a way that will be useful and encouraging to teachers that are seeking information on how to help meet the unique needs of their ELLs. Please check back as I make several new additions over the next few weeks!