Teach ESL to Kids

What can you do when you have zero proficiency in ESL students? It’s hard to face a classroom of students that don’t speak any English at all, especially when most ESL classes are designed to be immersion classes and you’re not supposed to speak their native language at all.

Still, it’s quite common to get a new student or class that doesn’t speak any English at all.

If it’s just one or two students being introduced into a class that is already starting to speak, your job is much easier. You’ll be able to have the other students model the type of behavior that you expect. For example, they’ll show the new student how they are expected to repeat after you.

A whole new class of students that speaks no English at all is a bit more intimidating and requires a bit more work.

To handle this, think about what you might do if you were in their shoes. Imagine you are in a classroom and you don’t speak the language at all. You may be listening for words that you recognize. You may be watching intently for a sign as to what you’re supposed to do. Here are a few ideas:

*Point to yourself and say your name. This seems to be a bit of a universal sign for “My name is”. There should be at least one student that figures this out and is able to do the same for his or her name.
*Use flashcards. Pictures are easy to understand. The child knows that they are here to learn English, so they will know that when you show a flashcard and say a word, it’s the English word for the picture.
*Teach foods. I don’t speak many foreign languages, but I’ve noticed that a lot of different languages use the same words for foods, often with a slightly different pronunciation. Banana and pizza, for example, often easily translate. Using foods will make the students feel more comfortable because there are probably a few that that will “know”.

Love,
Shannon Sensei

Who remembers playing “What time is it Mr. Fox?” when you were little?

This is a great game for practice asking the time and for counting. It worked pretty well for students 2-6 years old for me. Basically, they have to be young enough to still think it’s pretty fun to be chased. It’s also good for new students, because they do it as a group and don’t have to worry too much about being singled out.

In case you don’t remember how to play:

1. Play outside or in a large area. Students all line up and one end of the area and the teacher stands at the other. The teacher should have his or her back to the students.
2. Students shout “What time is it Shannon Sensei?” (You can use Mr. Fox or your own name.)
3. You choose a number 1-12 and say “It’s __o’clock.”
4. Students then walk that many steps.
5. They ask again.
6. Repeat until you feel they are quite close to you. Then when they ask what time it is, you say “Dinner time!” and chase after them. For younger kids, it’s a little less scary to say “It’s tickle time!”

Have fun!

Love,
Shannon

Animals are so popular with young ESL learners, so ESL lessons on animals almost always go over well.

Here’s one of the standard lessons that I use when I want to teach or review animals:

1. Warm-up with short conversation questions that aren’t animal related.

2. Use flash cards to introduce the animals. With younger/newer students, you should say the word first yourself. Older students may want to show that they know it without prompting.

3. Use the word in a sentence. “It’s a ______” or “I like ______s”* are both good sentences to use.

4. Let each student have individual practice for saying the sentence. Go easy on them. Prompt if necessary.

5. Play a game that allows you to reinforce the concept. For animals, I particularly like The Circle Game and Big Karuta.

6. If you have time, play another game or work on another concept. If you’re at a loss, remember some of these easy activities for ESL students.

Love,
Shannon Sensei

*Note that in English, when you leave off the “s” when saying you like an animal, it has a connotation that you like to eat the animal. “I like rabbit.” means something different than “I like rabbits.”. When I’d practice this sentence with my two-year-old classes, I’d let them get away with it. However, with older students, I’d try to explain the nuances.

Most people see teaching ESL as a fun way to make some money while living abroad. That’s great.

But for those that take it a little more seriously, you may want to consider getting a Master’s degree to boost your credibility and job prospects.

The following are the top five colleges (as ranked by U.S. News and World Reports) that offer education master’s degrees with a concentration in ESL:

Vanderbilt University
Teachers College at Columbia University
University of Oregon
University of Washington
University of Pennsylvania

Love,
Shannon Sensei

HaHa. I know I’m not!

But, still there are a lot of other teachers that worry that they might be boring their students. This is especially true of kids ESL teachers that are just getting started. Not everyone is instantly great with kids, and it can take a few lessons for the kids to warm up to you as well.

Here are some signs that you are indeed a boring ESL teacher:

• Your students sleep through class.
• Your students don’t pay attention to you.
• Your students regularly skip class.

But, don’t worry. Some of this is probably not your fault and teaching ESL takes a bit of getting used to. If your kids seem to think that you’re a boring ESL teacher, try these ideas to shake things up a bit:

• Play active games that get them moving.
• Joke with them. Tickle them, talk about poop, say things that you shouldn’t.
• Try to interact with the kids in a non-lesson manner. Talk to them a bit before lesson starts. Learn their interests, so that you can incorporate them into the real lesson.

Any other ideas?

Love,
Shannon Sensei

If you’re an ESL teacher or have an ESL-related website, I’m happy to take your ESL article submission.

I love to have a guest writer either in the blog or on one of the main pages. Of course, I’ll link to your site.

It’s great to get ideas from others!

If you have something that you’d like to submit, contact me at shannon-sensei@teach-esl-to-kids.com

Love,
Shannon Sensei

Whether you’re looking for a job or trying to fill a position, it’s good to know the most popular ESL job posting websites.

Probably the most popular resource for ESL teachers is Dave’s ESL Cafe, which includes a job board.

The following sites are also good ESL job posting websites:

ESL Jobs
ESL Jobs World
TEFL.net

Happy job hunting!
Love,
Shannon Sensei

It’s hard to find good resources for picture cards for ESL. One of the best ideas is to use actual pictures of objects, places, or animals and make flashcards from those.

However, I really love MES English. It’s made especially for ESL students and I like that each set has a uniform, cartoony look. There’s cards for just about anything you could want.

But besides that, there are also printables for Bingo, which is always a popular game in the ESL classroom.

Check it out!!

Love,
Shannon Sensei

I haven’t much updated the main site at all in quite some time. About a week ago, I used the site to refresh my memory on some games and I was surprised at how few I had listed, so I know I need to add some more there.

But what else would y’all like to see?

Love,

Shannon Sensei

Proper lesson planning is incredibly important. If you walk into the classroom without a plan, then you’re probably not gong to have all of the materials to teach ESL that you need.

I’ll admit that there have been times when I didn’t have a very specific plan. I was either too busy before class or just wanted to see what kind of mood the class was in, but without having any materials to teach ESL, I would have been lost.

Here are a few of the essential materials to teach ESL I often tried to have on hand:

• Flash cards. An absolute necessity, no matter what vocabulary I was trying to teach.
• Puppet. Great for younger students to help get them in the mood to speak English.
• Small toys for vocabulary. Plastic foods and animals in particular, but generally just things that the kids can touch.
• Things I might need for ESL games. I’d usually bring a couple of different game props so that I could measure what the kids were up to.