ESL Teacher's Confessions

During the ESL kindergarten lesson, the main language teacher brought up  an interesting aspect to the lesson - she used the pupils’ first language in her instructions. Why did she do this? Was it wrong to include students’ mother tongue? There are many arguments for and against this decision, which is for you to decide as an ESL teacher to include in your lessons or not. The use of L1 in the ESL lesson There could be a number of advantages of using the childrens’ first language. From what I can think of, it is possible that more students would follow the lesson. Learners are likely to already have these lexical items in their first language so L1 can be used to support their learning. Using their first language can make students feel more confident and secure in the classroom. In addition, students who hear their mother tongue in the classroom can make them feel more accepted and less of a feeling of confusion or frustration. It is likely that the pupils will be more focused an...

  I wanted to share my thoughts on two ESL lessons, one from Poland and the other one from China. The aims and objectives from both lessons will be juxtaposed below. Poland – ESL Kindergarten class from Knurów Topic : Fruits and numbers (1-7) Aims : -           Students will be able to name basic fruits (apple, pear, banana) -           Students will be able to identify fruits orally and aurally Objectives : -           Student will be able to distinguish fruits by their color -           Students will be able to count the number of fruits China – ESL Kindergarten class Topic : Fruits and prepositions (in and on) Aims : -           Students will be able to name basic fruits (apple, pear, orange, banana) -     ...

  I would like to share my opinions about the ESL lesson taught in a kindergarten class. The topic of the lesson was fruits and numbers (1-6). The head teacher overall did a great job in this specific lesson. First of all, I enjoyed that the children were seated in a circle. As I have mentioned in my previous blog posts, this is a great strategy for younger learners. It is a nice way to engage the whole class in a choral activity and they provide ample opportunities for vocabulary practice, such as speaking and drilling. It also a good way to satisfy young learners who need to move and play. The educator did just that by preparing activities on the carpet. It was enjoyable that she took the necessary steps in teaching vocabulary such as pre-teaching words and drilling them. She included various multisensory activities, including: kinesthetic, visual, auditory and olfactory. For instance, she blind-folded a pupil and asked them to guess which fruit one was touching through the siz...