STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE
INSTRUCTIONAL PRACTICES

SURVIVAL TIPS OF ESL CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION

Native language transfer and interference

• If students are literate in a Roman-alphabet language, they will be able to recognize English letters and won't have to learn new symbols. However, they will have different names for the letters and may associate different sounds to perhaps a third of the letters. This will cause interference in oral reading, in matching words to sounds known, and in spelling.

• Newcomers who do not speak English, depending on how close their native language is related to English, experience different levels of difficulty in learning the language. For example, Dutch and English share a large percentage of words, while Hungarian, Chinese, and Vietnamese do not share many words at all. Japanese borrowed words for Western clothing, food, and imported items, but have no cognates in traditional vocabulary areas.

• The English language contains forty-four sounds, but only twenty-six letters to represent those sounds. In addition, there is less than an 85% predictable match symbol to sound. (That is, 15 % of common English words contain an exception to phonic "rules". This makes it difficult to decode and spell English.) In many languages studying spelling and distinguishing homonyms are unknown tasks such as those that have a one-to-one fit between sound and symbol.

Different writing systems and english

• For speakers of Russian, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Korean, Japanese, Hindi, and other languages whose alphabet use symbols different from the Roman alphabet, the learning task must include letter recognition and letter formation. Learning to read English for these students will require more steps and time.

• Students who read in Arabic or Hebrew where the writing system is from right to left will think they are "reading backwards". It will take time to accustom eye muscles to the automaticity needed for left to right reading; word reversals such as TAP for PAT, SAW for WAS can be expected to occur. These students will also need practice to produce legible handwriting.

Some problems with pre-literate students

• Pre-literate students need some time at least some oral competency before they can benefit from reading instruction in English. These students are also limited by not being able to understand instruction in English. If they are at the upper elementary level, there may be a lot of emotional turmoil and frustration over not being able to read and understand English.

• Do not try to teach letter recognition, phonics, and so forth before there are sounds and meanings to correspond with the symbols you want them to interpret.

Native language reading is recommended for pre-literate students

For multiple reasons, it is easier to break into literacy in the student's native language than to learn to read in English by traditional methods. Whenever possible, students should have an opportunity to receive instruction in their native language prior to receiving reading instruction in English. If there is no bilingual personnel at your school, and instruction in the student native language cannot be arranged through school parents, or community, the recommendation is that pre-literate students receive developmental reading instruction either by the reading teacher or the ESL teacher.

Individualize instruction

• Teach the words SAME and DIFFERENT so you can do exercises that help students distinguish these concepts in shape and sound letters. (Same: 0 0. Different: 0 9. Sounds same: go go. Different: go no.)
• Teach students the alphabet song.
• Teach students to recognize, say, and form the letters in their names.
• Add other letters only as each group of letters is mastered.
• Teach letters individually, and immediately in the context of a known word.
• Use as many modes for learning as possible. Point out letters in the stories you read to them.
• Encourage sight-word recognition: students names, labels, textbooks and subject names, environmental print, names of favorite foods and possessions.

Independent Time

• Match letters in words.
• Find and circle a certain letter in a short paragraph
• Make alphabet flash cards (upper case and lower case).
• Trace letters.
• Manipulate and sort letter blocks.
• Copy letters and words.
• Make beginning sound "books" with help from a picture dictionary.
• Listen and tape well-illustrated stories.

From decoding to making meaning

• Students may know to decode but not know the meaning of the words read.
• Words with multiple meanings can cause misreading.
• Typical word order in English ›subject/verb, or subject /verb/object › is not universal. .For example, in Spanish the subject is often omitted, as it may be understood from the verb ending; in Japanese the word order is (subject) object/verb with the subject, more often than not, omitted. English has prepositions; many Asian languages have post-positions.
• Dependent clauses, participles, passive forms, compound tenses, sequence of tenses, and other formations may present problems because other languages may use different means of expressions that are not parallel to English.
• Idioms are very difficult for ESL students to comprehend. There are 50,000 of them in English.

Real reasons to write

• Students learn to read and write faster when they have real reasons to communicate: journal writing or letter writing may be in the native language at first. You may not be able to understand it, but you can acknowledge the value and accomplishment of their writing.
• Create situations where they will need to write real invitations, requests, thank-you notes, and letters to pen pals, cards for special occasions, morning news, commercials, and opinions.
• Have them conduct surveys and interviews.
• Make their own book by drawing or cutting out pictures, writing captions and word balloons.

Helping students in the content areas

• ESL students who are newcomers will not be able to perform well in content areas at once.
• ESL students need to experience success to keep fueling their desire to learn.
• Math is the first choice in which newcomers will be responsible. However, if the student is not at grade level in math, this will not work.
• Science can be the second choice. Science can be made very visual and concrete, with hands- on learning opportunities
• Allow success in one area before inviting students to try on other areas.

Mathematics

• To learn the basic sounds of the English words for numbers and operations, have students work independently with tapes or with a partner.
• Students from South America and many European countries need to learn that in America a comma is written in large numbers where they write a period, and that where they use a decimal mark a comma is used, and our decimal mark is a period. That is, our number 4.324 is interpreted by them as 4,324 and vice versa.
• Math word problems offer more difficulty, but since each word problem can be illustrated through a number operation and often through pictures, a buddy or partner can illustrate them.
• Students may also use their bilingual dictionary.
• Shorten assigned word problems.
• Teach key words that indicate different operations.
• Most of the world use the metric system, ask the students to measure different items in the classroom.
• Have ESL students become familiar with Fahrenheit temperature readings by keeping a chart of outdoor and indoor temperature.
• Teach students USA currency, money, and time are not universal.
• Have numbers and math words be the first spelling responsibility.
• There are cultural differences in math.
• The order in which math skills are taught vary from country to country.
• Computational skills such as multiplication and long division are taught earlier in some countries.
• Geometry concepts, such as parallel lines, perimeter, and area are taught much later.
• The mechanics of performing operations may be different in the cultures of some students.
• Students from South America and Caribbean may display their work for division problems in a different manner from the U.S. manner.

Example: 4,756 divided by 41
In U.S.: The problem is solved using long division.
In Caribbean countries: The problem is solved using mental arithmetic.

Mental Arithmetic

• Some ESL students learn to do arithmetic computations mentally and do not need to show their work.
• Some ESL students may appear to be counting on their fingers to add and subtract large numbers. They may be, in fact, using their fingers as an abacus.

Science

• There are some science terms that are cognates with terms in other languages. Words like "pollution, electricity, animal, plant, mammal, vertebrate, cell, microscope, system, skeleton, vision", and many others are easily recognized cognates of words in Spanish and other Latin-based language.
• Use hands-on and visual enhancements to engage all of your students' interest in science.
• For demonstration lessons, teach the names of the materials and equipment you are using. Give a running narration while presenting.
• For newcomers you may first assign the students to copy or draw diagrams, charts, and graphs; making dioramas, and models; helping you with demonstrations.
• Have students work on projects in-groups.
• Use the language experience approach.
• Create oral experiences for all your students to talk about.

Social Studies

• ESL students may know as little about the United States as our elementary students know about the history, geography, and national heroes of their country.
• Ask the media specialist for a list of "well illustrated" books on a beginning ›to read level covering heroes, holidays, and the history that "everybody knows".
• These books should contain only on or two lines of text per page. The students should keep a record of the books they read, and write brief reports on them.
• Have ESL students check these books out (or check them out for them) for use in the classroom.
• Mainstream students can read some of the books to the ESL student or tape them. Or the ESL student can read on his or her own, with help of a dictionary and the pictures.
• Provide books that will tech through pictures.
• Use filmstrips, or filmstrips with cassettes. Have the ESL learner learn with visuals.
• Some publishers specialize in high-concept-level, low-reading-level texts in the content areas. See if you can get the media center to order some of these.
• If there are many students of a particular language in your school, check with the ESL teacher, and media specialist for the availability of elementary school-level social studies texts in that language, and the possibility of acquiring some.
• Many materials exist in Spanish, and a growing number in Asian languages.
• Use your standard text, but assign much shorter sections to the ESL student, to make it manageable.

Modifying assignments

• Have ESL students look at the visuals in the chapter, rather than the text.
• Have students write in their native language if they cannot write it in English.
• Allow ESL students to write about what they understand or see in pictures.
• ESL students need to be able to use their bilingual dictionaries to write the English words for things they see in pictures.
• Have them copy the captions under the pictures and the chapter subtitles.
• Write a list of key words for the student to find in their bilingual dictionaries.
• Have students copy a chart, make a graph, or draw a picture, time line, table, or diagram
• Have students trace a map, then label cities, states, rivers, and mountains.
• Have a buddy talk to the ESL students about the pictures in the chapters, pointing out to key vocabulary, and reading the captions aloud to them.
• Have mainstream students tape part of a chapter so the student can read along and hear the sound of the language.

Meaningful ways for ESL student to learn new words

• List the words needed.
• Alphabetize them.
• Find the words in a bilingual dictionary and write the definition.
• If any o the words can be illustrated, draw pictures of them.
• Learn the correct pronunciation of the word.
• Write a synonym in English.
• Listen to a buddy use the word in additional sentences to illustrate the meaning.
• Say and write the sentences to demonstrate knowledge of the word.
• Make a word-find puzzle that has the words in it.