Teach English in Yanglou Zhen - Heze Shi

Teaching an ESL or EFL student requires different ways to approach. First, we need to understand that an ESL learner learns English for their everyday life situations, where as their first language is not English but need to use the language in an English-Speaking country. For example, a person who immigrates to a country like England for their job, he needs to be able to communicate with people on a daily basis. As well as, he might also need to read a menu or fill in forms with their basic information. We will need to pick out some “Everyday” English lessons suitable for their immediate needs. Therefore, their motivation to learn English would generally be higher than an EFL student. Where as an EFL learner who would only use or learn English in a classroom and continues to use their mother language at home or outside of the classroom. For example, a 5-year-old girl in Hong Kong would have an English class for around 20 mins a day, 3 times a week. However, when she gets home, she won’t be able to put the language in use because she will use Cantonese to speak with her family. Which means she will be less likely to be exposed to the language compare to an ESL learner. The needs of her learning English are not as “rushed” as an ESL learner because she doesn’t need to use English daily to get by. Instead, her purpose of learning English would mostly be to pass her exams in school and follow the school curriculum. The way to approach teaching an ESL learner versus teaching an EFL learner is requires the teacher to design different activities and vocabulary. As a teacher, we need to understand the reasons behind our students learning English first. It can help us find ways to bring out their motivation and use that to bring in some suitable activities and worksheets to assist them in the road of learning English. The age of the learner is also an important factor to consider when designing a lesson. Where as children younger than 12 years old, we need a variety of strategies to hold their attention which means learning has to be fun and motivates them to learn again because they feel happy when learning. However, if it’s an older student, more likely an EFL they know that learning English is a practical need/ will make a great significance in their lives to live the lifestyle they want, and that’s where their motivation comes in. Therefore, the teacher can now choose suitable activities or exercises for an ESL / EFL student. For an ESL learner as I have mentioned before, their needs to learn English is mostly for them to adjust to an English-speaking country where they need to use it daily. As a teacher, the best to do is to start off with a class discussion using a question and answer exercise where they have to talk about something they are familiar with and encourages them to use English when explaining. Presentation would be a great activity to follow after a class discussion. This can then give the teacher an idea of their level and further provide more suitable activities for them to help with their short-comings in what they need to better their English. This is very important because they will need to use English outside of the classroom too. The teacher can also design some tasks for the students to go out and use the resource of a native-speaking environment, a survey or just a real life situation where they go to a restaurant to order what they would like ,of course before that, we have to prompt them with a few standard sentences where they have practiced during role-play activity. Drilling them with some practical sentences such as “I would like…” then follow with an information gap worksheet is also an efficient way to put the language in immediate use. Where as, for an EFL learner, their exposure to English outside of a classroom is significantly less than an ESL learner. An EFL might only use the language in the classroom and maybe at times perceive though social media. As I have mentioned above, their purpose of learning English might only be for their school curriculum where they need to pass their exams. Which means, the teacher must design activities or worksheets that will help them achieve that and at the same time, fun and intriguing to them. This is because the reason behind studying the language is compulsory and there’s no personal need into learning it, therefore their motivation levels would most likely be lower compare to an ESL student. The teacher should find out each student’s personal interests and use that to tie-in with learning English, that can simulate them to be more responsive in class activities. Games and prizes will work best for a young ESL student if they can complete the given tasks with clear instruction. Fictional materials can also be used more in an EFL classroom, for example a majority of students in the class love Disney, where as we can provide a script of a Disney movie of their own choice (with simple dialog suited to their level), the teacher can correct their pronunciation then as well as motivates them. Overall, there might be different ways to approach EFL/ ESL students, but some activities can be beneficial to both and the way of motivating them can be similar at different situations. Therefore, tuning in what the students like and finding out their background can help us teachers to give and provide the most effective class. However, it is quite hard to accommodate each student if there is a large group of them therefore you must pick various topics though out the curriculum to keep them interested and motivated.