what every teacher of adult esl students needs to know

7/28/2019 What Every Teacher of Adult ESL Students Needs to Know

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Wh

at Every Teacher of Adult ESL Students Needs to Know

Teaching adults has its own set of challenges and rewards for the ESL teacher.

Adults have more experience on which to draw, are usually less hindered by shyness, and

often have a real need when it comes to language learning, but they do learn language

differently than children do. These articles will help those ESL teachers whose classes are the

above eighteen variety and will give you some hints on how to teach specifically to adults.

Teaching Adults? Here's What You Need to Know

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15 Secrets to Teaching Adults

Do you ever wonder if you are giving your adult students the best English

education that you can? When your students are the ones who sign the checks

teachers may feel more pressured to make sure classes are perfect from start

to finish. To help you move toward that goal, you should know these traits that

adult learners have and how you can be a better teacher because of them.

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15 Tricks to Get Your Adult Learners Talking

The foundation of any successful English as a second language class

is communication, and when your students are all adults you may have an

easier time getting them involved in discussions. Try these tips to get your adult

students talking and then enjoy hearing your students use the language they

have worked so hard to develop!

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Teaching Adult Learners: How to Handle Attendance Problems
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When your students are responsible for getting themselves to class every day

on time, you may find that attendance can easily become an issue. This article

gives practical tips for handing adult students who may need to improve their

attendance in class without offence.

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Teaching Adult How-To: Advantages and Challenges

Teaching adults has its own set ofchallenges and rewards for the ESL teacher.

This article takes a real look at some of each for teachers of adult students.

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Adult ESL Learners: Homework Assignments That Work

Having adult students in the classroom is one thing, sending them out to do

homework can be something entirely different. This article will give you

practical tips on how to assign homework to your adult students that will

engage and motivate them.

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Adults and Children: Differences Every Teacher Should Know

Teaching adults is not the same as teaching children. Each group has very

different strengths and struggles. If you wish you were more familiar with the

differences between adult and child learners, this article will get you started.

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Teaching Adults: They Know More Than They Tell

For those who teach adults in a language classroom, you know that your

students needs and preferences are very different from those of a child. This

article looks at the special needs that adult learners have and what measures

the ESL teacher should take to meet those needs.

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Classroom Conflicts: How to Smooth Over a Cultural Clash

The older your students are, the more their home culture is likely to influence

their beliefs and perspective on the world. Because of that ingrained culture,

adult students are more likely to have struggles with cross-cultural conflicts.
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These simple steps will help you and your students learn to appreciate each

other for your differences rather than argue about who is right or wrong.

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33 Controversial Topics and How to Teach Them

Nothing is more useful in an ESL classroom than communication, and when you

are teaching with controversial topics everyone in class will want to share his or

her opinions. With adults, you have the freedom to use topics that may not be

appropriate choices for children, and these topics are sure to get your class

talking. Here are some ideas that you can use in class and how to use them so

everyone gets a chance to express his or her opinion.

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Expert Sharing: Making the Most Out of Your Students Knowledge

Everyone is an expert at something, and that is never truer when your ESL class

is composed of adults. Their life experience, whether it was in their home

country or in their host country, has given them wisdom and a unique

perspective. Make the most of what your students have to offer and help them

feel like they have something to share with this unit on making the most of yourstudents knowledge. You and your class may learn things you would never

have expected from your students!

Tips for Teaching ESL to Adults

Education, employment, recreation, and leisure have all gone global. People of different

nationalities, in an attempt to seek greener pastures, now seek employment overseas. Even

students do the same as well. Students who can afford to be enrolled in a prestigious school

often leave their home countries to study, as many believe that this would present greater

opportunities for them in the future. Also, many people nowadays resort to overseas travels tobe able to relax and have a good time. As a whole, these situations indicate that, in the past

few decades, globalization has grown significantly. As a result, many people seek the help of

English instructors to be able speak and understand English?? the Universal Language. In

addition, the majority of these non-native English speakers are adults, which is why more and

more English instructors adapt to teaching methods that are suitable for adults who come

from various countries and cultures.

ESL instructors for adults must be aware of the fact that the learning patterns of an adult

slightly differ from that of a child. An average adult, according to research, is expected to be

self-directed and must have a set of goals ready for learning a particular subject. These two

factors alone imply that the adult ESL teaching methods are slightly different from those

methods that are intended for young learners. In addition, the learning environment and the
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lessons should be formal and systematized. Since the demand for ESL lessons should be more

focused on adult learning, here are some of the things to keep in mind while teaching:

Try to know each student??s needs and preferences first, and do your best to motivate the

student by giving him/her challenging activities that he/she is capable of doing. An instructor

should be able to determine the appropriate level of difficulty that a particular student can

handle.

Be creative when presenting lessons. Although adult ESL lessons should be formal and

systematized, an instructor could still use videos, music and other forms of media related to

the lessons.

Keep in mind that instructors should be able to encourage good performance in class, as well

as positive behavior so that the students could easily recall what they have learned in the

previous lessons. This also means that, somehow, it is the instructor??s responsibility to help

students by providing activities and exercises that would encourage them to think and recall

what they have learned from class before.

The lessons that the students learned should eventually be incorporated in a new setting otherthan the classroom. It is crucial for the instructor to keep this in mind as well.

There are various barriers involved in learning ESL. Probably the most difficult barrier to handle

is the language barrier, which is why many instructors still struggle to correct the

pronunciation of some of the English words, the grammatical errors, etc. However, it is still the

responsibility of the instructor to make an effort to break these barriers and create a good

learning environment. By and large, still, being an ESL teacher is not easy because there are so

many things to consider and there are just so many things that he/she needs to learn.

Do you have any effective method to teach typical Spanish mistakes when learning English?

You can also leave comments in the discussion tab here or in:

www.inthehuntforperfection.blogspot.com

A few days ago I was searching the net for one-to-one material and I came across a

photopiable sheet from a leading publishing house discussing problems one-to-one teachers

often had to find a solution to. Some are:

Finding motivating material for easily bored students.

Students that expect the teacher to do the talking when they actually wanted "speaking"

classes.

Some people who want to understand every single word and be corrected every little

slip/mistake.

With some people setting objectives is hard because their interests keep constantly changing.

You plan a lesson and they get distracted all the time and it gives the teacher a sense of no

progress.
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what I do. Since I was a child Ive wanted my job to enrich, to contribute to peoples

development as individuals and teaching is a great way of doing so. I love what I do! and since I

realised I enjoy teaching one-to-one adults was a bit of an objective somehow.

Lets stop the waffle and get down to it. This is just a collection of thoughts and maybe

unfounded conclusions.

Let me start by saying that some of my students were highly encouraged to take up English

classes because of the changing nature of their jobs about 6 years back in time now. Learning,

to me, is measured by what they are now able to do, our more outstanding objectives range

from a humble being more fluent and confident to more challenging ones like giving

presentations, attending international meetings, and actively participating in workshops and

constant, unambiguous, with-few-mistakes email corresponding with colleagues at overseas

offices. That's my job. And a for you to get a picture of how or what I teach here is a quick lineabout it, my classes are not the typical "let's go through the textbook" sort. I work on the

students' specific needs, I will still go over the present simple and present continuous but in a

way that they will truly understand the difference and that they will be able to use them

correctly. I will coach them in their learning process, which is an important bit of what adult

learners need. It was not until I read the Learning One-to-One from CUP that I have stopped

blaming my skills for some people's lack of apparent progress at early stages of the course.

One-to-one classes a very very student-oriented and their learning styles, aptitude and above

all motivations are key to their progress, among a number of other factors: like their past

experience, their sense of progress, finding the right way to get to them, etc.

Some have been with me for 5 years, I wouldnt be surprised if that was a wee bit of a almost-

breaking record among adult population learning a foreign language one-to-one but I am sure

older generation teachers would definitely beat me here. Keeping them coming and motivated

is hard work and entails an effort to build a rapport with them and vary their activities, and

give constant feedback on their progress in a constructive, encouraging way, speaking from a

teacher's point of view. Some have a one hour class a week, others two, if they can make it,

sometimes their schedule and workload prevents them from attending the class.

Motivations: they all start off their classes with a very strong work focus in mind seeing English

as something they have to do at work and for work to perform better and soon most of them

overcome the fear, the dislike some feel towards the language, probably because of their

previous experience in primary and secondary schools, and start enjoying it. English was just a

school subject. Now, communicating in English is a very real need, so English has to be taught

with a different approach and focus. Besides, we teachers and trainers should provide students

with enough tools to be autonomous outside the class: the more relevant input they have, the

higher the success possibilities.

Some want to really understand the theory, the hard and fast rules, without really enjoying a

class with a given LP. Many if not all want to be corrected on the spot, some with just the

corrections others stopping their speech altogether to deal with whatever issue has come up(ie grammar or understanding a vocabulary term, however long it takes, leaving aside what the


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teacher has planned, which always makes me wonder if this is that bad class management

from my side! Possibly not, but to a certain extend it may be. Wwith adults you cannot leave

them unsatisfied, feeling your explanation has not met their needs/expectations just because

you want to stick to your LP, so yes, with some you just use the whole hour to explain

meanings, uses, collocations, even origins of whatever may have come up). You have to be

very flexible and adaptable with them, and know the ins and outs of it.

Many want to self-direct and have a clear idea of what they want and need whereas few still

rely on the teacher to assess their needs and don't get too involved in their teacher's job to set

their objectives and plan their lessons and/or choose materials. Bear in mind it's adults we are

speaking about here. They complain or show boredom or just simply stop coming to class if

they don't like you enough to keep them coming! Keeping them motivated is essential and I

think the key thing to do so is to prove they are making progress more than actually always

present with new materials, which is also important. Yet as soon as they can see what you do

is in fact helpful in their day-to-day, they see the relevance of something even if it's not superengaging. (am I a bad teacher because I dont always use super engaging activities?) It

motivates many of them to have a project to work on. Whatever method we teachers use

awareness has to be raised that learning and making progress is their responsibility. But it's

our responsibility to ensure they have enough tools to enhance their learning process by using

a multiple-intelligences-approach to our teaching: integrating visual, audio and hands-on stuff

in our teaching will definetely contribute more to making something a bit more memorable to

them.

They question what you do or what you say and those more analytical or reasoning won't give

up or just take your word for something until they fully understand. They can be critical or

have this sceptical look on them if not fully satisfied with the input but also praising if

something is very good/enjoyable/engaging/useful.

Helping them to connect new information to old information and experiences they have, you

can make use of their knowledge, by referring to their own experiences using examples which

are relevant to them, use their kids names, situations they are familiar with, places they have

seen, show them that xx applies to them. Nothing new but I fully support the idea from first

hand experience.

Reassuring for them, to be coached on what's normal or not in their learning process, to let

pressure off them somehow ... help them accept mistakes / failed attempts to integrate

something new (not necessarily mistakes depending on the teaching/learning stage). Raising

their awareness that if they've never been taught something and they fail to use it properly is

not a mistake, let alone an error. Encouraging, acknowledging attempts at using new language,

saying how common a mistake they've made is (if it is common, it's part of the influence their

language makes on the learning process, not that they are thick).

They have to be and encouraged to be involved in their learning process by encouraging them

to choose relevant topics for them/for their objective to learn E... Many will but many others

just go on by saying "you are the teacher, teach me everything"Acknowledge that they don't speak better English because language schools and the school


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itself has a syllabus to work through in a limited amount of time so there's no material time to

teach tenses properly to analyse the different "meanings" of words, that's why they always

start a new academic year with the same units, the same grammar areas, They never been

properly assimilated? because they there's no way you can learn to speak a language well if

you just see the theory in a couple of classes. It's not exactly the teacher's fault. It's not that

they are unable to learn a foreign language it's just that to learn a language you need lots of

meaningful input and exposure which in our times, that they didn't have, and to speak speak

speak and according to Stephen Krashen (search done 2005 and

2011,http://www.languageimpact.com/articles/rw/krashenbk.htm):

The best methods are therefore those that supply 'comprehensible input' in low anxiety

situations, containing messages that students really want to hear. These methods do not force

early production in the second language, but allow students to produce when they are 'ready',

recognizing that improvement comes from supplying communicative and comprehensible

input, and not from forcing and correcting production."

Fully agree and thats what I do.

When it comes to homework or involvement outside the class, learning English is one of their

new year resolution, some kind of objective. Yet, they'll do little homework and take revision

not seriously enough, slowing down their learning process. Even if you stress how helpful

doing homework is in their learning process, (I feed them, they have to chew and digest,

that's the metaphor I tell constantly them) it doesn't seem to work, they dont get it. They are

busy, they have a family, commitments, or just tired after a hard day's work and much as they

play along saying they will do homework, they won't, they dont. That has to help the teacher

overcome her/his frustrations, there's more to their lives than your English classes. I wonder to

what an extend it is my fault. Personally, that is something which has proven a difficult task! If

only we could manage to get the idea that if they do a bit of homework thered be so much

quicker! But their learning is team work teacher/trainer and student - but its mostly their

responsibility. But then again, emailing them some interesting video, article or website might

somehow establish a dialogue with them and it's not literally homework but they are using the

language!

Not until they realise the relevance of something, do they want to learn it. How many times

have I heard...now I see what you have been saying all this time through like pronunciation,

doing homework, looking at words in a different way (long to explain now), the almost

mathematical relationship of words and how being familiar with this can help them, they have

to do/realise it for themselves, no matter how many times I have told them.

They get bored easily. They need variation. The idea of repetition (of a topic, of the same

content) does not appeal to them. Its hard to change their ideas on how to learn

(collocations), or get them to think about space and time in a different way from their mother

tongues/culture, that's why some tenses prove difficult to acquire.

Moving on to some specific and recurrent areas of the learning, Spaniards have a very strongdifficulty with syntax as word order and tense concept is different from their L1 much as at
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first sight English may look at lot simpler than Spanish, they are used to their way of expressing

time or completion of an action etc. Present perfect is A difficult one to acquire and

understand, so is something as "simple" as the present tenses: the distinction between present

simple and present continuous is just a never-ending struggle as is the past simple with the

above said present perfect, and after come the four different ways of expression the future!

That is indeed too much for the -ar of the Spaniards supported by the possibility

adverbs quizas,probablemente and the Spanish subjunctive, often expressed by modal verbs,

another no-go area for them! You are fighting against very strong mental and linguistic

structures and it takes a very long while and a huge dose of patience from the teacher for

them to acknowledge say modals. Conditionals would also top the list of areas they all agree

need seeing. Ive got this method of explaining the conditionals and tenses in general that

really works, emphasising how the idea they convey changes depending on their choice of

conditional or tense.

Giving grammar-only lessons is something that is a bit frowned upon in certain teachingcontexts. However, three out three people I have asked, so far, agree that what helped them

most in their learning in class was that they learn best when doing grammar classes dealing

with one grammar area: ie present perfect and past simple. Pure grammar, comparing, talking,

correcting, translating, contrasting... They need to understand and contrast. They want to

understand the rules. This goes a bit against the sort of teaching some methods encourage:

eliciting, integrating grammar in a given situation, etc. According to their feedback, I reckon

they think they will be able to integrate this wherever it is needed if they know how to

produce the sentence, if they know the equivalent: in Spanish we say xxx whereas in English to

communicate this idea we say yyy or xxx. It's important to know when translating word by

word can be done and when it can not. Even if it may take them a while before they start

producing an accurate output.

As for pronunciation, the h in hellos, the -ure, the -ed and the vowel sounds in coat or the

initial sound of chocolate or now that i see it here the -able suffixes prove a challenge to them.

The vowel sound woke and go as opposed to the vowel sounds in how or wok or walk or work.

It's like flogging a dead horse sometimes but some degree of success is achieved when using

the games provided in the bbc website. I think mispronunciation comes down to the lack of

familiarity with phonetic symbols and the familiarisation with ALL the sounds of the English

language. Starting with quizzes and two sound discrimination games and listing and compiling

homophonous words and often finding and equivalent sound to their language: to me issue is

like mixu in Catalan, meaning cat and measure is like gentica and usual is like Joan. That

does work very well. With the quizzes from the bbc learning English page those who were

reluctant to do phonetics, you just trick them into it! It works wonders.

When it comes to listening, apart from panicking the idea of listening and not understanding

if/when they are addressed, its proven that first they are blocked to any kind of listening, I

usually start the process of opening their minds saying its perfectly normal not to understand

things they dont know, and help them focus on just catching the odd word. Then, its a matterof doing a second listening and focus on specific questions, and maybe pausing when the


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answer is said. Play it as many times as necessary, its a matter of training the ear to listen out

for certain things. The process is that they first pick out some words, then they work out the

meaning, not actually getting it quite right because of the weak form which so much

information they provide (a mere preposition can give the text a whole different meaning, and

that is exactly what they have difficulty identifying). So I guess I dont look at the text as a

whole.

It works though, with time and patience and practice, and emphasising that

learning/listening/understanding, connected with grammar, pronunciation and having

vocabulary in chunks, learning collocations, understanding that certain words or numbers

require or always appear with certain other words or prepositions, all of this will contribute to

better understanding of any oral production they are faced with. It works. Lots of my students

I have used this method and have gradually improved their skills. Id like to emphasise that

with the two students who are over the age of 60, who I have taught for 6 years now, their

listening skills remain very poor despite fairly noticeable improvement in the rest of skills.

Then there is also word formation and derivation and meaning and pattern: adults, at least

mine, On the onset, they store words in their brains as opposed to storing prefixes, suffixes,

roots and then playing with them to form new words, and consequently to help them

understand "new" lexical terms. Much as I encourage and help them work out the meaning of

derivates by trying to break down the word into smaller pieceswhen possible, and thats

what may be difficult, knowing when, they only get there if you help them. That would make

them a certain degree more autonomous. With help. but now I can see evidence of years of

insisting on learning to distinguish suffixes (things come at the stage when they are ready for

it). I was aware that it'd be a slow process to change their way to tackle English.

Similar sort of thing goes for word or verb

patterns, suggest, want, and a long list of verbs

prove to be a bit of a challenge for them at first

(and not so at first). Words like say tell explain

contact confirm call can also prove difficult

because they think in their language and they

translate word by word. Its when they insert to

where the verb pattern does require this

particle. And I think its all down to being given misleading, wrong translations when they first

started learning English. Nowadays the idea of teaching in chunks is great if we succeed in

making them learn this way. Its hard not to judge and learn from our mental structures so its

hard not to translate from your language, whatever it is. To me this is a fact, you know what

you want to say in your language, the sticky situation is when you want to say this in a foreign

language. I think you can not help thinking in one language and then translating, word by word

because this is your way of get this message across , unless you can speak other foreign

languages you are not aware that other languages may have different often longer or shorter

ways of expressing a word, an idea, a whole concept.

I always say that more than meanings words are concepts and there for they have translations.


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XYZ is translated as into language. So its important to stop thinking about translations and

start learning collocations, in context. But then again, I see that you cant push them certain

ideas on their learning needs until they are ready for them, until they kind of see it by

themselves, it isnt until then when they are at their most receptive of something, be it the

importance of clear, understandable pronunciation or the relevance of using the tenses right,

otherwise they give mistakable messages!

I think it was last year that during the introduction of a presentation given by some reputed

speaker from OUP, the attendees were asked if we had any metaphor for learning a foreign

language. I certainly do, and have had one for years. To me, learning a language is like

learning to drive. You are the driver, the car is the language. At first you have to think about

every move you make: ignition key, the rear-view mirror, fastening the seatbelt, the clutch and

the accelerator pedal, the break, gears and all. It feels as though youll never be able to handle

it all. Its all too much to remember. But you do learn to do it without thinking about what goes

first. Learning English is the same: lots of things to think about : SVO, is it present or past,finished or unfinished action, general or specific moment in time, pronouns and articles and

their position, certainly or possibility and a long list of things, thats only syntax-wise but the

more you practise the better you get at it until thinking is no longer needed! Then we can talk

about acquisition. Hope you find learning English easier than my mistakes I have never

encountered myself with my students but other than these, I can vouch that what he says is

true! Good buy for all thostudents! I must say that I am happy about my success rate,

though. Most of my students, now speak in public, give presentations and attend international

meetings.

Personally, it may all sound superficial, not really tested or unfounded but this is how I have

experience teaching these adults for this number of years. I can vouch that the moment their

minds open up and unconsciously they change their attitude towards learning (maybe

becoming more humble) the change starts. It is indeed very rewarding to see them conduct

meetings in English, give presentations, write e-mails more stylistically correct and see how

thankful and pleased they are for and with it.

I think that what most adults with a pre-intermediate level of English and above need is

some hard analysing their specific needs, some coaching about the typical mistakes and a lot

of motivation and positive feedback. Helping them understand how languages work,

comparing and contrasting, using their L1 if necessary. I have very positive experience about

my switching to Spanish when I deemed suitable. I for example study French in a class of 25-

30 students, all in our mid-20 to late 40s. My most rewarding moment is seeing good marks

in our exams, that proves I am making progress. In a one-to-one environment, exams may

not be the thing to go with so constant or regular feedback is very important. there is also

the fact students must be made aware that a learning process is never linear. sometimes

your sense of advancement goes down to go back up again.

I tell them that if "today they have been able to speak as well as they have, progress is there,

the language is there. even if it doesn't show every time they attempt to speak" Learning a

foreign language is a slow and time-demanding thing but it can be done, anyone can do it ifthey need it or really want to it you put enough in to make it happen. (putting: motivation,


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time, input, hours, homework, and having clear objectives: what do i want to be able to do?)

I would like to mention the book Great English Mistakes made by Spanish Speakers by Peter

Harvey from Lavengro Books, which I discovered a few days ago.I find the book very

appropiate for the above. I must say that there a few examples ofse Spanish from Spain

speakers!You'll never regret it.

http://www.lavengrobooks.com/

Another thing i have notice these days that i have begun teaching a false beginer, which i really

dont like, is that it's really very hard to teach them the different meanings of a word or the

different uses a verb/verb tense may have. I can very very clearly now, see why tenses and and

grammar and vocabulary is taught gradually. Ok, it looks commonsense and obvious and it is

and has been for me as well all this long time i have been teaching but nowhere as clear as it is

today with this learner. The puzzled look in her face when i tried to explain "being" in "ratherthan being" in a sentence in an email she had received was beyond anything i've seen before!

For her -ing is for on-going actions happening at the moment of speaking. I think i got out of

this sticky situation by refering to examples of syntactical forms in her language and said that

she just had to accept it, after a what would have been a successful explanation for an

intermediate level student. It's super interesting to see how they learn. I am going to

concentrate on her learning process a lot these days. I haven't done low levels for many years

now and I'll make it my challenge to monitor very closely their progress.

I have recently noticed and worded other things i've identified they do ...

Me as an adult student of French

Background:I am in my mid 30s and I took up French classes last September. I'd done French

for one academic year when I was 15 at secondary school, with a really bad teacher. Nobody

speaks highly of her, so it's not just my experience. Then, took a three-month course at uni as

part of the Introduction to French and French literature, of which the language bit was an

overall idea of how French works as a language and its phonemes as a means to distiguish

sounds. Pronunciation is the hardest area of French learning for me, the switch between open

a , e the neutral vowel, the nasal a, oe sounds etc is really hard! All of us who teach and learn

and speak the gallic language know how important it is to get the sound right if you don't want

to be ridiculised and laughed by Parisians.

After that in about 10 years ago I took a summer refresher course for a month. So i've never

learned more than what would be level 1, if this at all.

Last summer, I armed myself with old exercise books and online grammars and exercises and

reviewed as much as my time allowed me to in order to be placed at level 2 of the school I was

going to register for the course. I must say that I like languages, I teach English as a foreign

language after all, and I've tried every single opportunity life has put before me to practise

French, which has now had its rewards. I am a risk taker and thanks to my travelling to Frenchspeaking countries and possibly aptitude i secured i place in the level I thought corresponded
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to my needs. I was not going to start all over again after all!After the level test: written and

oral, the oral examiner would have assigned me level 3, which I was not prepared for, hardly

having a good command of the two most basic tenses but I felt very flattered. The fact that I

had studied French over 10 years ago, practised it only when booking hotel rooms and

ordering at restaurants and having limited conversations with people when travelling the

country, astonished the examiner. The command i seemed to have for that limited input and

output apparently was fairly good. I think it's more the risk-taking nature of mine in this case.

I can see the theory behind the endlessly repeated idea that if you do homework and review

regularly you make quicker progress.

I learn by associating words or grammar items to English or to Catalan. We can't help using our

mental patterns to learn new things, we compare to what we know, to what we are used to, to

what we experience and to our standards and ideas, and I am stretching and extending the

idea to not only language learning here. (the idea that it is very xxx or not very xxx is measured

to our own idea of xxxx)I am pro-active, and participate as much as my common sense allows for if/when interested in

the subject we are dealing with. Common sense? I'd be interacting with the teacher and other

classmates a lot more if I could but the nature of the situation prevents me from doing so. Not

only because I am very much aware that one learns to speak by speaking (and listening too, no

need to say) but because I, as a teacher as well, simpathise with the teacher when she wants

one of us to step forward and say something and I may be more fluency-oriented than

accuracy! (I wonder what she's going to react to this if she ever gets to read this bit! :-)

It's 25-30 of us in a class and I don't want to manipulate the plenary speaking times. That is the

risk-taking. I think in my L1, hard not to. I am even more aware of that.

not finished, more shortly

2. How to improve your listening skills (and oral production).

A lot of students see themselves to be familiar with grammar but they feel stuck with listening,

understanding skils. It's a very tricky area. Understanding oral production can be very hard, it's

not easy. After a certain age, our phonological system stops being able to produce new sounds

(new to our existing sounds). That makes the listening and the production of certain sounds

hard, which also has an impact on our listening understanding skills. It's not quick. Yet, it's not

only that. The way I see it, if you lack a good grasp of grammar, clearly understanding the

difference between tenses so as to get the right idea (ie finished or unfinished), a wide range

of vocabulary of the topic you are spoken about and an awareness of connected speech, weak

forms, etc it's going to be hard to truely achieve this level of understanding students aim to. I

am not saying it's impossible to achieve, I am a non-native speaker myself. Improving your

listening, as students says, is achieveable but often slow and it requires training and help in

most cases. On top of that there's the primary or secondary school background, a lot ofstudents in Spain have a not nice aftertaste of their school year as far as English goes and they


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are a bit stuck, blocked more than unable to understand.

So get reading, get listening, get someone to help you polish up and listen out for little sounds

that make a world of a difference in the sentence, learn the connectors and conjuctions, not

just the key words that help you interpret the general idea but they show you the flow of the

utterance. You won't understand if you dont know the language or the grammar, you'll think

you understand cos you make two and two together out of the key words you do catch. Make

a bigger effort and analyse the whole sentence without being obssessed with it as probably

there's no need for it!

Techniques for Working With Adults

Knowles and other educators maintain that adult education is most effective when it is

"experience centered, related to learners' real needs, and directed by learners themselves"

(Auerbach, 1992, p. 14). Bell and Burnaby (1984), Holt (1988), Holt and Gaer (1993), and

Wrigley and Guth (1992) list techniques that involve beginning level learners as active

participants in selecting topics, language, and materials.

1. Build on the experiences and language of learners. Invite them to discuss their experiences

and provide activities that will allow them to generate language they have already developed.

2. Use learners as resources. Ask them to share their knowledge and expertise with others in

the class.

3. Sequence activities in an order that moves from less challenging to more challenging, such

as progressing from listening to speaking, reading, and writing skills. Move from language

experience activities to picture-word connections to all-print exercises.4. Build redundancy into curriculum content, providing repetition of topics. This will help

overcome problems related to irregular attendance common in adult classes.

5. Combine enabling skills (visual discrimination of letters and words, auditory discrimination

of sounds and words, spacing between letters and words, letter-sound correspondences,

blending letters to sound out words, sight vocabulary) with language experience and whole

language approaches.

6. Combine life-skill reading competencies (reading medicine labels, writing notes to the

children's teachers, filling out forms) with phonics, word recognition, word order, spacing

words in a sentence, reading words in context, and reading comprehension.

7. Use cooperative learning activities that encourage interaction by providing learners with

situations in which they must negotiate language with partners or group members to complete

a task (See Bell, 1988).

8. Include a variety of techniques to appeal to diverse learning styles. For example, merge

holistic reading approaches such as language experience with discrete approaches such as

phonics.

An Integrated Approach to Literacy Instruction

The language experience approach (LEA)which uses learner experiences as lesson contentis a

way to introduce multiple activities that appeal to learners' diverse backgrounds and preferred

learning styles while offering instruction in language that is both comprehensible and

interesting (Taylor, 1992). The following is an example of a modified LEA lesson that could beused with low-level learners.


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1. A shared experience, such as a field trip, a common situation, or a meaningful picture is a

stimulus for class discussion.

2. Learners volunteer sentences about the experience and the teacher writes the sentences on

the chalkboard.

3. The teacher reads each sentence aloud, running her finger under words as each is

pronounced, verifying that she has written what the student has said.

4. When the story is completed, the teacher reads it aloud.

5. Learners are encouraged to join in a second and third reading of the story.

6. A number of activities can follow at this point:

Learners copy the story; Learners underline all the parts they can read; Learners circle specific words (e.g., words that begin with a designated sound, common

sight words such as the);

Choral cloze: The teacher erases some words, reads the story, and asks learners to supplythe missing words;

Writing cloze: The teacher types the story, leaving out every fifth word. During the nextclass the teacher passes out the cloze and asks learners to fill in the missing words;

Scrambled sentences: The teacher types the story. During the next class the teacherdistributes copies of the story to the class. Each learner cuts the story into strips so that

there is one sentence on each strip of paper. Learn-ers scramble the sentences and

rearrange them in the proper sequence;

Scrambled words: More advanced learners can cut sentences into words, scramble thewords, and rearrange them in order.

Selecting Appropriate Classroom Materials

Using concrete but age-appropriate materials with adult learners enhances instruction by

providing a context for language and literacy development. A basic kit of materials mightconsist of the following objects, games, and materials.

1. Realia: clocks, food items, calendars, plastic fruits and vegetables, maps, household objects,

real and play money, food containers, abacus, manual for learning to drive, and classroom

objects;

2. Flash cards: pictures, words, and signs;

3. Pictures or photographs: personal, magazine, and others;

4. Tape recorder and cassette tapes, including music for imagery and relaxation;


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5. Overhead projector, transparencies, and pens; video player and videos;

6. Pocket chart for numbers, letters, and pictures;

7. Alphabet sets;

8. Camera for language experience storiesto create biographies and autobiographies;

9. Games such as bingo and concentration: commercial or teacher-made;

10. Colored index cards to teach word order in sentences, to show when speakers change in

dialogue, to illustrate question/answer format, and to use as cues for a concentration game;

11. Cuisenaire rods to teach word order in sentences, to use as manipulatives in dyad

activities, and to teach adjectives;

12. Colored chalk to teach word order, to differentiate between speakers in a dialogue, and toillustrate question and answer format;

13. Poster, butcher, and construction paper;

14. Felt-tipped pens, colored pencils, and crayons;

15. Scissors, glue, and masking tape; and

16. Children's literature: for learning techniques for reading or telling stories to children (See

Smallwood, 1992, for ideas on using children's literature with adults.).

Conclusion

Providing instruction to adults acquiring ESL literacy is a challenge. When approaches,

techniques, and materials are suitable for adults, are related to their real needs, and promote

involvement in their own learning, there is a greater chance of success.

what every teacher of adult esl students needs to know

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