Using CL to Teach Vocabulary

Craigslist.org is very popular in the area in which I live and teach. In fact, I do all my advertising for new ESL students there (it's free!). You can find anything you want there.

For an ESL teacher/tutor in an area in which Craigslist.org is popular, it's also a great resource to teach life skills (how to find a job or an apartment) and especially useful for teaching acronyms and abbreviations and other vocabulary. I stumbled across this fact last week when a student asked me what "420" meant. He was looking for an apartment and found the phrase "420 friendly" in several advertisements. This isn't the sort of thing taught in most ESL classes!

In addition to developing lesson plans to deliver in class, ESL teachers and tutors can also ask students to bring back new words or expressions they find in some of the ads. However, you need to be careful that all students have internet access before giving such an assignment.

--end--

ESL 099 on Yahoo Answers

I got another "Best Answer" on Yahoo! Answers. The question wasn't too tough, but I guess most things aren't tough when you're familiar with them.

The question was, "Does anyone know what does ESL 099 mean?" Written correctly, the question would be, "Does anyone know what ESL 099 means?"

My answer was, "Usually, something like 'ESL 099' is the name of an English as a Second Language course at a community college or university (in the U.S.).

Depending on the school, a level '099' course is probably one of the beginning level courses for the school. That does not mean that it is a beginning level ESL course (for absolute beginner English Language Learners), but that it is one of the school's courses for ESL students to help bring them up to speed to succeed in other college courses."

--end--

A.M. and P.M. for ESL Students

...and everyone else.

A question that came up with one of my ESL writing students was how to write the time when using "a.m" or "p.m." In my experience, I've seen (and used), for example, "9am", "9 am", "9a.m.", and "9 a.m." Everyone understands what time you are referring to if you use any of these.

However, for formal writing, there are two correct ways: 9 a.m. and 9 A.M. There is a space between the numbers, periods between "a" and "m"' but no spaces between the two letters. This is according to Longman Advanced American Dictionary, my favorite ESL dictionary.

Incidentally, "a.m" is an abbreviation for "ante meridiem," meaning "before noon." "P.M." is an abbreviatin for "post meridiem," meaning "after noon."

--end--

Using "A" or "An" for Acronyms and Abbreviations

Articles are very difficult for ESL and EFL speakers to master. There are only three: a, an, the. However, there are way too many exceptions.

Aside from the exceptions, one of the extra challenging areas is determining whether to use "a" or "an" when using acronyms or abbreviations. ESL students are taught to use "a" before a word (noun) that begins with a consonant and "an" before a word that begins with a vowel. But what do you do with something like "RFP" or "MA"? Both of these begin with a consonant, so it seems that an "a" should be used. However, when looking at acronyms or abbreviations, we don't look at the first letter, we "hear" the first letter, or we look at te first sound.

The first letter in "RFP" is an "R." When I say this letter, it sounds like "arr". The first sound is a vowel. The same applies for "MA." The sound is "emm." Another vowel beginning sound. So for both of these abbreviations, I would use "an."

For example:

She has an MA in English.

I need to complete an RFP before I can submit my application.

--end--

ESL Acronyms

Just as with any profession, ESL teaching has a list of acronyms and terms that are specific to this field. The most common are ESL and EFL. ESL stands for English as a Second Language and EFL stands for English as a Foreign Language.

TESOL stands for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. This term is more recent and often encompasses both ESL and EFL.

TOEFL and TOEIC are also commonly used acronyms in the TESOL profession. TOEFL stands for Test of English as a Foreign Language. Many foreign students must do well on this test to qualify for American universities.

TOEIC stands for Test of English for International Communication. This test is often required by non-native English speaking countries to test English proficiency of potential employees.

More ESL Acronyms.

--end--

What’s the Difference Between ESL and EFL?

ESL stands for English as a Second Language. EFL stands for English as a Foreign Language. Both are about teaching English to speakers of other Languages, which is why the more recent TESOL acronym is used to encompass both ESL and EFL (or TESL and TEFL—the "T" stands for "teaching").

The abbreviation "ESL" is used when the student learning English is in a primarily English-speaking country such as the U.S., the U.K. or Australia. "EFL" is used when the person learning English is in a primarily non-English-speaking county.

In addition to being more inclusive, "TESOL" is often thought to be more correct than ESL or TESL because the student learning English is often not learning English as a second language, but it may be their third, fourth or fifth, etc., language.

For more info, see my website article about the Differences between EFL and ESL.

--end--