Teaching ESL students vocabulary is an important component of their education.
You’re staring at a list of academic vocabulary words you’re supposed to teach, and you have no idea where to start. No curriculum. No materials. Maybe a photocopier if you’re lucky. I’ve been there. I can help. But first, really quickly, let’s address the question you might be asking yourself: do adult ESL students even […]
“Teacher, when do the trees turn colors?” My Saudi students were sooo ready for fall activities. They’d seen the pictures online. The Instagram-worthy leaf tunnels. The explosions of red and gold stretching from your feet to the horizon. They were prepared for sweater weather and cozy scarves and all that romantic autumn atmosphere Hollywood had
“This is for children. I don’t want it.” Nasser crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, looking at me like I’d just suggested we all sit in a circle, hold hands, and sing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” I could see where he was coming from. Here I was, an adult ESL teacher
“Teacher, what is ice storm? Like hail, no?” Reem held up her phone, showing me a weather alert that had just lit up her screen. The rest of the class leaned in to look. We were in Oklahoma, and a winter storm was bearing down on us. The whole town would be shut down the
I turned the page and hmphed at what I saw. Number vocabulary. Numbers listed in order, some blank lines, and a quick little listening exercise. My students could count, so why waste time on this? I moved on. Well, as it turned out, every other teacher at that school did the same thing. Even the
None of my professors EVER told us to stop pre-teaching all the vocabulary (they were huge fans of that method), but I’m telling you to do just that. Here’s why. While I was getting my master’s in TESL in the early 2010s, the strategy of pre-teaching vocabulary words was all the rage. Perhaps it still
The first time I announced we were playing SWOOSH!, my student Saleh crossed his arms and said, “I didn’t pay for this class to play children’s games.” Fair point. But you and I know games can have educational value. That’s why this happened… Fifteen minutes later, that same Saleh was on his feet, screaming “NO!
You know that student who swears they’re studying vocabulary every single night but still bombs the quiz? Yeah, I had Mesfer. This guy was COMMITTED. He proudly told me he was learning 30 words per day. Eeevery. Siiiingle. Daaay. That’s 210 words per week because weekends are for quitters, apparently. His vocabulary scores? Yeah, not
I loved using videos in my vocabulary classes. No, not like during the last few days of school back in the late 80s and early 90s where the teacher would pop in a BETA or VHS tape and nap while you and your friends giggled and talked through an old movie. I loved using short
My co-workers and I used to hash out the same problem over and over: How do you convince students that passing the TOEFL or IELTS isn’t enough to guarantee they can do well in university? So many of my adult and young adult students wanted a quick way to “learn” a lot of academic vocabulary…long enough
