Taking the Mystery out of English for English Language Learners

English is seen as being complex, full of exceptions, and without consistent rules. But what if there were strategies we could teach that reveal consistent patterns to help "make sense" of the English language for our ESL students/English Language Learners? Teachers may not teach some of the consistent patterns that do exist in English because they simply don't know what those strategies are themselves.

I thought it would be helpful to repost my ESL teaching tips blog post to reinforce some consistent, systematic strategies I've learned that teach basic pronunciation, spelling, decoding, and grammar. I've been fortunate to work with these (and other) strategies over the last several years in the form of classroom teaching, teacher training, and curriculum development. The strategies taught and applied in each of these contexts have proven to be both effective and empowering for students and teachers alike. A list of several teaching tips can be accessed below or by visiting my previous post here.

Sounds of OUGH

I was recently asked if I knew of any rules that govern the differing pronunciations of ough. This letter combination can prove to be very tricky. First of all, it may be helpful to consider the combination gh.

GH can do three things:

1) When gh comes at the beginning of a word, it has the sound /g/ (e.g., ghost).
2) When gh comes at the end of a word, it sometimes has the sound /f/ (e.g., laugh).
3) When the vowel i comes before gh, the i is long, and the gh is silent (e.g., high; night). This is the case for most gh words.

But what about the ough combination? 

Using "Teacher Video Selfies": A Free Resource from Harvard University

I recently returned home from China where I conducted teacher training on phonics strategies and activities for English teachers. Below is my super-professional selfie that I took with the teachers on the last day of the training.

Believe me. I don't usually take selfies with the teachers I work with. But I posted this photo because of the relevance to a concept from Harvard University's Center for Education Policy Research: Teacher video selfies to analyze evidence of your teaching and your teacher performance. The resource, entitled "Teacher Video Selfie: A self-guided module for analyzing videos of your own instruction", can be accessed here. Essentially, teachers record two 10-15 minute teaching segments, and then teachers watch their videos to analyze their performance and self-direct adjustments to their instruction. While watching their videos, teachers write notes about what they notice. Then teachers analyze their notes with guidance from the module/toolkit to learn how to effectively conduct self-observations and set goals for improvement. See the link to view the step-by-step procedure.

English Language Learner Strategies

Visit my ESL teaching tips blog post to learn about pronunciation, spelling, grammar, decoding, and listening strategies. Also, come back to my blog soon to see the launch of my new YouTube channel where I will be demonstrating decoding strategies using a tablet and screen captures!

Specific strategies taught elsewhere on my blog can also be accessed here:

New Educational Literacy App for Children (Part 2)

I mentioned in a previous blog post that Reading Horizons developed an app for children called Card Match available in the Apple app store for use on iPads. Since that blog post, the company has now released an additional app for kids called Whack-a-Word, which was recently featured on the History Channel and Ion Networks. You can view the spot here. Other Reading Horizons apps can be found here.

A special shout-out goes to all who are helping to improve literacy efforts around the world!

ELL-U Online Discussion: Interactive Reading Strategies for Emergent ELL Readers

Last call to participate in the online discussion on ELL-U regarding Interactive Reading Strategies for Emergent ELL Readers. Part 1 can be viewed here, and Part 2 can be viewed here. Join the discussion at http://www.ell-u.org/forum/viewthread/279/#492. I would love to hear from you!

You Have an Education in TESOL. Now What?

Now that you have graduated (or are nearing graduation) in TESOL, now what?

TESOL professionals come from a variety of backgrounds and interests, ranging from desires to serve in the community, to desires to advance through academia at the post-graduate level. This blog post shares ways that seasoned TESOL professionals have used their TESOL education to contribute to their institutions and communities. These ideas can help generate ideas for novice TESOL professionals to assist them in channeling their interests as they embark on their careers. 

The following suggestions are ways for TESOL professionals (from the novice to the seasoned) to use their education and experience inside the classroom, outside the classroom, in the community, and on the Web. (You may notice that some of these ideas are specific to the Utah geographical area as the information has been adapted from a presentation delivered at the Intermountain-TESOL affiliate fall conference; however, the information can be generalized to other geographic locations.)

International Literacy Day 2012

Tomorrow, September 8, 2012, marks International Literacy Day. With Literacy being a passion of mine, and having taken the opportunity to post in years past on family literacy, I wanted to take the opportunity to acknowledge this day of literacy as it has become customary for me to do so. Last year, I posted about my recent experience of working with a gentleman in his sixties embarking on his "journey to read."

I met with him just yesterday, and he is decoding and spelling words like he has never been able to before. I do not attribute his success to my teaching, but rather the explicit, systematic, sequential strategies he is being taught. He said yesterday that "no one has ever been able to get [him] this far"...and he has had several attempt to teach him over the years.

To commemorate this day of literacy, there are several ways to get involved and assist in literacy efforts. I've posted a few ideas in the following two posts:

Adult Education and Family Literacy Week 2010
Adult Education and Family Literacy Week 2011: Teaching Struggling Readers

Here are a few other blog posts that share my thoughts about and experience with literacy. I invite you to consider the needs of those in your own communities and ponder how you may be able to assist.

On the Journey to Read
On the Journey to Read: Part 2 (Adult Literacy and Teaching Struggling Readers)
Teaching the Homeless to Read
How Do I Teach Literacy?
How Do I Teach Literacy? (Part 2)
The Value of Literacy
Lessons Learned from Life
ESL Literacy - A Tibetan Student's Autobiographical Poem
Thankful for Literacy
Success Stories in Learning to Read

I will also mention here that I will be starting a series of literacy training videos on a YouTube channel in the next week or two. (See my posts on Using Video to Provide Free Education and  Free Online Videos for the ESL and ELL Classroom.) Stay tuned to future posts!

ESL Teaching Tips

In an effort to make my blog more user-friendly and accessible, I've decided to dedicate a post to a "Table of Contents" of sorts displaying some of my most popular posts, specifically my ESL Teaching Tips posts. Subsequent posts sharing ESL Teaching Tips will be added to this post, so come back and visit often!

ESL Pronunciation Tips

The Three Sounds of the Suffix -ED

Pronouncing Plurals

Recognizing and Pronouncing Voiced and Voiceless Sounds

Rising and Falling Intonation in WH- and Yes/No Questions

Syllable Stress and the Schwa

Word Stress Predictability

Minimal Pairs (Part 1)

Minimal Pairs (Part 2)

Minimal Pairs (Part 3)

Free Online Pronunciation Tool

Teaching Students How to Self-Monitor to Improve Pronunciation

Potential Pronunciation Problems (Part 1)

Potential Pronunciation Problems (Part 2)

ESL Spelling Tips

Adding Suffixes

One-Syllable Words that End in S, F, and Z

Tricky Words: Usage and Spelling Help

English Sounds and Corresponding Spellings

Ten Consistent Spelling Patterns in English

ESL Grammar Tips

Common Suffixes

Common Prefixes

Proper Use of Commas

Nouns

Direct and Indirect Quotations

Parts of Speech

ESL Reading and Decoding Tips

Soft Sounds of C and G 

Is the Vowel Long or Short?

Syllable Division in Multi-Syllable Words

Ideas for Teaching Sight Words

Free Literacy Games and Manipulatives

Free Phonemic Awareness Activities

What Are Graphic Organizers?

Sight Words Vocabulary List
Engaging Activities to Teach Sight Words

What Makes a Good Reader?

Dictionary Skills

ESL Listening Tips

Listening Strategies

Listening and Speaking Activities
Listening Strategy Training Activity

ESL Teaching Strategies

23 Teaching Strategies for ESOL Students

ESL Teaching Tip: Nouns

I have been busy working on developing new manual lessons for the new Reading Horizons Discovery software that is going to be released this fall. The following is an overview of one of the lessons I recently worked on outlining the different types of nouns. Consider the levels and needs of your students to determine which noun types to teach your students.

• A noun is a person, place, or thing.
• A singular noun is one person, place, or thing. A plural noun is more than one person, place, or thing.

o   To form a plural, an -s is added to words ending in a consonant (e.g., one hat, two hats). If the ending consonant is voiceless, the sound of the plural -s is /s/ (e.g., hats). If the ending consonant is voiced, the sound of the plural -s is /z/ (e.g., pens).

o   If a word ends in ch, sh, ss, zz, or x, an -es must be added. The sound of -es is /iz/ (e.g., benches, wishes, dresses, buzzes, boxes).

• A common noun is a noun that refers to a general person, place, or thing (e.g., a state). A proper noun is a noun that refers to a specific person, place, or thing (e.g., Texas). Proper nouns are capitalized.
• Possessive nouns show ownership.

ESL Teaching Tip: Proper Use of Commas

Using commas properly is a difficult task for even native English speakers. Following are some tips on when and how to use commas appropriately.

• A comma is used before a sentence ends. It tells the reader to take a small pause within the sentence.
• Use a comma with dates.
• Use a comma between the day and the year when writing a date. (Example: May 31, 2004)
• When the date is not at the end of a sentence, use a comma after the year. (Example: May 31, 2004, is the day Maya was born.)
• Use a comma after the day of a week and the month. (Example: Monday, May 31, 2004, was Memorial Day.)
• Use a comma to separate items in a series. (Example: I like apples, bananas, and grapes.)
• Use a comma after the greeting and the closing of a letter. (Examples: "Dear Abby,” or “Sincerely, Jessica”)
• Use a comma in addresses.
• Use a comma between the name of a city and a state. (Example: Toledo, Ohio)
• Use a comma to separate each item in the address when written in a sentence (Example: Abby’s new address is 244 Hanover Lane, Toledo, OH 43615, and she would love to hear from you.)
• Use a comma with quotation marks.
• Use a comma before quotation marks. (Example: Tyler yelled, “Look out!”)
• You don’t need to use a comma in indirect quotations where quotation marks are not used. (Example: You said you were coming.)

For other ESL Teaching Tips, visit the following blog posts:

Click here to read about the pronunciation of -ed.

Click here to read about pronouncing plurals.

Click here to read about voiced and voiceless sounds.

Click here to read about rising and falling intonation in questions.

Click here to read about syllable stress and the schwa.
Click here to read about adding the suffixes -ing, -ed, -er, and -est.
Click here to read about teaching common suffixes. 
Click here to read about teaching common prefixes. 
Click here to read about spelling words that end in S, F, and Z.
Click here to read about syllable division in multi-syllabic words.
Click here to read about soft sounds of c and g.

ESL Teaching Tip: Soft Sounds of C and G

My ESL teaching tips have proven to be popular posts, so I thought I would provide some additional teaching tips to add to those that have already been published. I am currently working on revising a manual lesson for other sounds for c and g. (I blogged about an experience I had teaching this skill at a community college in Southern California here.) A synopsis of this skill is as follows:


• When c is followed by the vowels e (ce) or i (ci), the sound of c changes from /k/ to /s/ (e.g., cent; cite). C will have the /s/ sound nearly 100 percent of the time in this construction. (Exception: soccer)

• When g is followed by the vowels e (ge) or i (gi), the sound of g changes from /g/ to /j/ (e.g., gem; gin). This new sound occurs about 85 percent of the time in this construction. (Exceptions: girl, get, gift, etc.)

• When a consonant plus c or g comes between the first vowel and the silent e, the two consonants will cause the first vowel to be short (e.g., dance, prince, plunge).

• English words never end in the letter j. When the sound /j/ is heard at the end of a word, it will always be spelled ge. Words with a long vowel sound will end with just the ge spelling (e.g., cage). Words with a short vowel sound will end with a dge spelling (e.g., judge; bridge).


Teaching tip adapted from the Reading Horizons method found in the Decoding Strategies for Literacy Development manual published by Reading Horizons. Used with permission.


For other ESL Teaching Tips, visit the following blog posts:

Click here to read about the pronunciation of -ed.

Click here to read about pronouncing plurals.

Click here to read about voiced and voiceless sounds.

Click here to read about rising and falling intonation in questions.

Click here to read about syllable stress and the schwa.
Click here to read about adding the suffixes -ing, -ed, -er, and -est.
Click here to read about teaching common suffixes. 
Click here to read about teaching common prefixes. 
Click here to read about spelling words that end in S, F, and Z.
Click here to read about syllable division in multi-syllabic words.

Free Webinar on Transfer for Improved Reading

An essential part of the process of teaching one to read is not only teaching effective reading strategies to help students decode automatically and effortlessly (to achieve fluency and comprehension), but also to provide opportunities for students to transfer these learned reading strategies to connected text. A free webinar hosted by Reading Horizons was recently delivered by Shantell Barrett and Jay Kelly on transfer. The title of their webinar is "Getting From Point A to Point Z." Shantell and Jay discuss ways to provide opportunities to transfer decoding strategies to help the students become autonomous readers. The webinar can be viewed here. (The power point slides can also be downloaded on the link.)

View other free webinars on the Reading Horizons website here.

Using Needs Assessments in the ESL classroom

Here is another guest blog post from the English Skills Learning Center (ESLC) about using needs assessments in the ESL classroom. (Read another guest blog post from the ESLC about using repetition in the classroom here, or interactive activities here.)

When was the last time that you asked your students what they want to learn? Conducting a needs assessment, or asking students what they want to learn, is essential because adult students who feel they are not learning what they need to know in English class are more likely to stop attending class than to express their discontent. On the other hand, students who feel that they have a say in what they are learning are more likely to attend class regularly and to participate in class.

                There are a few ways you can effectively use a needs assessment::

• Students point to or circle the picture of the subject about which they most want to learn.
• Students circle more than one picture and then rank their preferences. If you are teaching a class, you could then share the results with the entire the class so that they understand that decisions about the curriculum are based on their feedback. 
•  Do a “vote with your feet” activity in which you post pictures of ESL topics or the four language skills on the walls of your classroom and then invite the students to stand by the topic or language skill that they most want to work on.

The ESL Center recommends that you conduct needs assessments on a regular basis. This could be when a new student joins the class, when you finish a unit or chapter in your lesson material, or when you receive new testing results. You will find that as you begin to make needs assessments a part of your classes that students will share their personal English-language goals with you. As you teach students the English they need to accomplish those goals, you will share in the students’ excitement as they succeed in accomplishing their goals!

For more information about Needs Assessments, please visit:

http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/Needas.html

http://www.cal.org/caela/tools/program_development/elltoolkit/Part2-5NeedsAssessment&LearnerSelf-Evaluation.pdf

Interactive Activities in the ESL Classroom

Here is another guest blog post from the English Skills Learning Center (ESLC) about using interactive activities in the ESL classroom. (Read another guest blog post from the ESLC about using repetition in the classroom here.)

Interactive Activities in the ESL Classroom

Interactive activities should be a part of every class that you teach. They are an opportunity for students to practice what they just learned. Interactive activities are more effective practice than worksheets.   Follow these steps when conducting interactive activities in class:

Explain – Show students the materials that they will be using for the activity and explain the activity. Example: “Now we will practice introductions with other students in the class.”

Demonstrate – Show students how the activity is done. Do the first question on the page together, or call a student up to the front of the classroom and model the activity with them.

Do – Distribute any materials or handouts at this point. This ensures that the students are paying attention to you when you explain and demonstrate the activity. Have students try doing the activity on their own.

English Sounds and Corresponding Spellings

Sometimes English spelling is confusing because one sound can be represented by multiple letters or letter combinations. Use the following chart as a reference to recognize the different spellings for English sounds. (The letters between slash marks “/  /” represent sounds.)

Vowels
Sound	Spelling	Example
/ə/, /ŭ/	a	about
	e	open
	i	pencil
	o	money, summon, lemon
	u	cactus
/ā/	a	gate
	ai	paint
	ay	say
/ē/	ea	dream
	ee	sweet
	ie	field, chief
	y	sunny
/ī/	i	kite
	igh (ign)	tight, sign
	ie	pie
	y	fly, style
/ō/	o	so, note, cold
	oa	boat
	oe	toe
	ow	show
/ū/ (as in suit)	u	suit, tube
	ue	blue
	ui	suit
	oo	food
	ew	new
/ĭ/	i	it
	y	gym
Special Vowel Sounds
Sound	Spelling	Example
/ow/	ou	out
	ow	how
/oo/ (book)	oo	book
	u	push
/aw/	aw	lawn
	au	fault
	a	call
/oy/	oy	boy
	oi	oil
Consonants
Sound	Spelling	Example
/k/	c	cat
	k	kitten
	ck	truck
	ch	choir
/f/	f	fish
	ff	stuff
	gh	tough
	ph	phone
/j/	j	jump
	gi	giant
	ge	gel
	dge	fudge
/n/	n	nest
	gn	gnome
	kn	knee
/r/	r	red
	wr	write
/s/	s	sing
	ce	cent
	ci	ci
	cy	cycle
/sh/	sh	shirt
	ch	chef
	ti	lotion
	ci	special
/ch/	ch	chime
	tch	itch

Information reproduced from the English Language Enhancement published by Reading Horizons. Used with permission.