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In Search of the Novel
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Teacher-TalkNovel

eight workshops
ten novels
ten novelists
the teachers
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Teacher-TalkNovel

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Teacher-TalkNovel is the email discussion list for In Search of the Novel. Participants of the workshop series, content guides, and Channel staff will participate in this discussion list throughout the initial broadcast of the workshop series.

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From: Melanie Tiwari (mt49403@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu)
Date: Tue Oct 09 2001 - 22:20:51 EDT

  • Next message: Opal M.: "Re: [Teacher-TalkNovel] ESOL students and my classroom"

    I happen to be taking a class for teaching ESOL and second-language
    learners right now. One of the things we talk about it slowing down for
    students to comprehend. But I think what helps even more is helping
    students make the connection without translation. If this particular
    students has to translate into Spanish to respond, she may never reach
    the level of fluency needed for academic language. A really good
    strategy is to use visual aids and pictoral representations of concepts,
    so when you say "reading notebook," they automatically think of the red
    folder in their backpack instead of thinking "reading notebook = el
    cuaderno por la clase de leer = (the actual folder). This is how visual
    aids are perfect for second-language learners because they can connect
    the language immersion with objects around them to make the transition
    easier.

    Melanie

    Writerblk9@aol.com wrote:

    > Opal,
    > Many of the students whose first language isn't English are
    > able to learn the speech patterns long before they learn the written
    > language. The first thing that you have to do when working with ESOL
    > students is find out what they do know. Once you have figured that out
    > then you can begin to work on teaching them new words and grammar
    > skills. I worked with an ESOL student last semester and she was very
    > fluent in the spoken language but had difficulty with reading and
    > writing. What I realized while working with her was that she could
    > read and understand English very well, but she needed time to
    > translate what she was reading into spanish absorb what she read and
    > then translate the ideas and concepts back into English to respond to
    > them in speech or writing. This is a very drawn out process for
    > students and they may need extra time to complete work for this
    > reason. Once I caught on that this is what was happening to my student
    > I slowed down the pace of the reading and gave her time to translate
    > back and forth. After a few weeks she was able to speed up the process
    > and her reading and writing improved as did her comprehension. I agree
    > Glenda that this process does require immersion in the English
    > language but you might find English stories that focus on the students
    > native culture to help gain their cooperation in the learning process.
    >
    > Jeff

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