I have been a teacher of English as a second language (ESL teachers) for several years and I myself suppose that learning English as a second language is a 2-side process including teachers’ teaching and learners’ learning as mentioned below:
- The role of teachers:
Firstly, it is an important job for every ESL teacher to build or select a suitable curriculum for learners of English as a second language (ESL learners). The curriculum used by ESL teachers for every classroom should be based on their various ages and purposes of ESL learners. It means the curriculum for children must be completely different from the one for adult learners. Besides, it is a must for teachers to know the targets of learning English of every learner. For instance, some ESL learners go to English classrooms to be able to communicate fluently with others by English; in contrast, the others learn English so as to pass English tests such as TOEFL and IELTS to apply for international scholarships or professional vacancies.
Secondly, ESL teachers ought to prepare appropriate, attractive and humorous lessons to impress learners of English in their classroom. Teachers should design a lesson in which their learners feel inspired and have chances to raise their ideas and exchange with teachers as much as possible. When learners ignore the lessons, it is necessary for teachers to tell them funny stories to motivate them to continue learning the lesson. Many of my ESL students told me that they and their classmates always felt so bored and sleepy to learn English in traditional English classroom in which the interaction between teachers and learners was too limited.
Thirdly, continually encouraging ESL learners in classrooms is really a good key to help them have a greater motivation to learn and develop their English knowledge and skills. ESL learners in my classes seem to get downhearted very easily when they have to cope with difficult English lectures and exercises. In this case, I often avoid blaming them but I try to give them some clues, explain the way to solve those questions clearly. As a result, their stress when solving complicated lessons and exercises is reduced significantly.
Finally, it is vital for ESL teachers to create energetic English lessons in and out of English classroom so that learners of English can learn and use English in practical and exciting environment. To make an English lesson more impressing to students, English games and songs or dances are the supporting factors. For example, instead of explaining the lesson by boring words, teachers can make use of English games such as: crosswords, Bingo, Simon says, etc. Besides lessons in classrooms, our-door activities in which students’ English skills are improved through daily activities should be paid much attention. For instance, ESL teachers can take their students to a park and create collective activities for students to join in such as like speaking English, singing English songs, telling English stories, cooking and explaining the ingredients of foods in English.
How about the role of ESL learners? The answer is explained as follow:
- The role of learners:
Before attending any English courses, it is a need for learners to determine clearly their purposes of learning English. They should be aware of their goals: to use English perfectly in daily life or to pass English tests.
Actually, to achieve any goals of learning English, it is must for ESL learners to learn English as hard as possible at not only in English classrooms but also in their daily life. Concretely, enthusiastically participating in English lessons in classroom by actively raising their voices to answer questions or attend English games with their classmates is believed to make their process of learning English more easily and inspiringly.
In addition to enthusiastic participation in classroom, self-study at home by doing English exercises, reading English books, listening to English audios is very important for ESL learners. English knowledge and skills learnt by them at school will be forgotten quickly if they do not practice English frequently and seriously. Self-study means learning not only at home but also at practical environment. Concretely, I have observed a lot of ESL learners and I see that those who often take part in our-door activities to develop English skills such as joining English clubs, attending English speaking/ listening/ reading/ writing contests are the ones whose English is enhanced effectively.
One more thing that any ESL learners should know to access in this 21st century is “learning English through the Internet”. There are a lot of English online courses provided by many colleges and universities. By typing the key phrase of words “English online course” on Google, a lot of results will appear for ESL learners to choose to learn. Moreover, if English online courses are not suitable for them, they can access to websites with English lessons for them to learn and exercises for them to practice. Furthermore, for those who do not live in an English speaking country, they can practice speaking English to English-native speakers via Skype, or common social networks such as: Facebook and Twitzer.
- The most important keys to become a successful ESL learners:
As mentioned above, it is really hard to determine which role is more important. Based on my personal of learning and teaching English for several years, I myself believe that it is important for ESL teachers to give their ESL learners with useful and attractive lessons, but it is more and more important for any ESL students to make all efforts to learn English.
The first key deciding ESL learners’ success is their love for English. To love English, their belief that they learn English and their determination to master their English are very necessary. Their belief and determination will lead to their active attitude – the second key that makes a successful ESL learner. This key means ESL learners should pay attention to ESL teachers’ lectures, actively raise ideas and ask their ESL teachers a lot of questions in the classroom, conduct English self-study at home and join in English clubs or contests.
Generally, I myself think that good ESL teachers will lead to good ESL learners; however, to be excellent ESL learners, it depends more on students’ learning attitude and efforts. Simply, besides English lessons in the classroom, ESL teachers cannot always support ESL learners’ learning at anytime and anywhere. Every ESL learners should objectively assess their English capacity so that they can build for themselves a detailed and suitable schedule to master their English.
By Thanh Huong
https://elticenter.wordpress.com/2015/03/28/10-free-websites-for-esl-students-to-learn-english/
https://elticenter.wordpress.com/2015/03/23/different-types-of-exercises-that-esl-teachers-can-use-to-help-students-reinforce-their-english-vocabulary/
https://elticenter.wordpress.com/2015/03/21/what-makes-a-good-teacher/
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