Making Assumptions about ESL Knowledge

I was tutoring an advanced ESL student today. He's a doctoral student at one of the top universities in the U.S. He asked me to primarily help him with his writing skills. I always focus on the areas my advanced students want to focus on, as opposed to beginning ESL students who need me to guide the directions of our ESL lessons a lot more.

Some small thing came up today about pronunciation. I started talking about the many vowel sounds English has, yet we only have five vowels (sometimes six with the letter "y"). I wrote and said, "a, e, i, o, u." He asked me to repeat the vowels. He said that this was the first time he'd heard a native speaker say the vowels.

I usually try not to make assumptions about what English language learners know or don't know. I'll often ask about something just to make sure. I never thought to ask about something as basic as the vowels. I learned that I still make certain assumptions and need to be even more conscious.

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ESL Students Taking Notes

As a private ESL tutor, the majority of my students are advanced English language learners who primarily want to work on their speaking skills. And as a teacher and a human, I like to think that some things I say are noteworthy! So it pleases me when my students take notes about corrections I make or new vocabulary (words, phrases, idioms, etc.) I offer.

In fact, although there are all different types of learners (auditory, visual, kinesthetic, etc.), I tend to have a lot of faith in the technique of writing things down to help you remember them in the future, no matter what the student's preferred method of learning. I will occasionally recommend to a student that he or she take notes; not extensive notes, just reminder notes, at least. The majority of students follow my suggestion, but not all students do.

I think that it's important to remember that learning really is about the student more than about the teacher. So the compromise I make (with myself) is that I take notes during our sessions (it's like writing important points on a chalkboard, but I use a yellow pad of paper) and offer them to my students at the end of our lesson. I do this for both students who take notes and students who don't. Hopefully, this helps my ESL students. I know it makes me feel better!

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Great ESL or EFL Sites?

As an ESL teacher, I'm always on the lookout for great ESL or EFL sites that I can use for lesson planning or to which I can refer my students.

If you happen to run across any really great ESL/EFL sites, could you please forward them to me? You can use the "Comments" link below or the "contact me" link under the "ESL Website for Teachers" heading on the right side of this page.

I'll be happy to post those sites on my blog and/or ESL website to let others know about the great ESL/EFL resources you send me.

Thanks! I really appreciate it! And other teachers/students will too.

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What if You Don't Know the English Rule?

What do you do when your ESL students ask you a question and you don't know the answer?

A lot of times, the answer truly is "because it's English." There isn't always logic or even a rule that covers how native speakers use English, especially spoken English.

But if there is a "real" answer, or you suspect there is, and you don't know the answer, I believe the best thing is to tell the student you don't know and you will look it up and get back to them.

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