How I teach ESL (English as a Second Language)

Every day I begin with journal writing and some discussion on the vocabulary and grammar around this. This helps get the lesson started with discussion and reflection.

During my last contract teaching mostly Columbian high school students at Ottawa International Projects and Exchanges in Canada, I taught the following units.

1. A winter unit.
Students studied the B1 level winter assignments, ie how dress appropriately for winter, winter sports, and activities, winter foods and beverages,
2. The geography and industries of Canada (research completed in the computer lab and presentations conducted in the classroom.)

3. Idioms,
As a class we studied two stories containing idioms, including the story of a man who climbed mount everest with a disability and the story of a man who performed surgery on himself while lost at sea.

3.
Talking Canadian film study.
The class watched this fascinating documentary and discussed the ideas it presented, noting the differences between European English, Canadian English and American English.

4. Superstition Unit.
This unit contains fascinating information on superstition. Lessons involved categorizing, and determining whether a superstition was true or false...
There was also a fun speaking activity I made up based on asking the students (groups of two) to imagine that they were in the Friday the 13th picture and describing the events taking place around them (min of 2 mins speaking time for each group)

5. Information Gap / Listening and singing along to songs.

Some of the songs I have done using information gap hand outs are Waka Waka or Waving Flag, Billy Joel - the Piano Man, Coldplay - Viva lavida, Paradise, Cat Stevens - Where do the Children Play, Crowded House - Always take the weather with you

The students enjoyed all these songs but especially Coldplay.

6 .
Some of the games we played include. Scrabble, Pictionary (using the chalk board) , the never ending story game (using a timer, students present a picture card and use it to start or continue a story. The student still speaking when the time runs out must collect all the cards. The first student with no remaining picture cards wins.) We also played word-serpent on the chalk board and word serpent catch. Basically, students have to make up a new word starting with the last letter of the previous word.

7. There were also two lessons based on Mr Bean episodes which I watched on the smart board.

8. There was also a combined class with Sando's (a legendary teacher who has just returned to Ottawa after working for several years in Columbia teaching ESL) group where we watched a documentary about Various Famous Graffiti Artists. Students were asked to analyze the images and discuss their meanings.

9. Types of jobs Guessing Game (ie from reading the idioms used in a particular job students had to guess the name of the job. Students then did role plays from various occupations.)

Some other things I covered were lessons like; How to cook pan cakes and read an English pan cake recipe. How to go Ziplining and the vocabulary involved.

I have had a brilliant time teaching ESL on the whole; my Columbian and Chinese classes have been especially enjoyable.

Cheers
Ben

Why is China having all the fun?

The saying used to be that 'so and so was  in a worse state than China'. By these figures that would now seem to be a pretty good state to be in.   Hard Facts on China China has 19% of the world's population, but consumes ... 53% of the world's cement 48% of the world's iron ore 47% of the world's coal .... and the majority of just about every other major commodity. In 2010, China produced 11 times more steel than the United States. New World Record: China made and sold 18 million vehicles in 2010. There are more pigs in China than in the next 43 pork producing nations combined. China currently has the world's fastest train and the world's largest high-speed rail network. China is currently the number one producer in the world of wind and solar power, but don't use it themselves. While they manufacture 80% of the world's solar panels, they install less than 5% and build a new coal fired power station every week. In one year they turn on more new coal powered electricity than Australia's total output. China currently controls more than 90% of the total global supply of rare earth elements. In the past 15 years, China has moved from 14th place to 2nd place in the world in published scientific research articles. China now possesses the fastest supercomputer on the entire globe. At the end of March 2011, China accumulated US$3.04 trillion in foreign currency reserves --the largest stockpile on the entire globe. Chinese people consume 50,000 cigarettes every second … They are already the largest carbon dioxide emitter and their output will rise 70% by 2020. ~*~*~*~*~*~ And we think we're saving the planet?! It will not make one iota of difference what we do in Australia, Canada, the United States or anywhere else in the world; for that matter, all the politicians are doing is increasing our cost of living and making our manufacturers uncompetitive in the world market, with their idiotic carbon tax, when countries like china are growing and consuming at these extraordinary rates! Time to wake up!

Warming up for Christmas!