Shadow, Support & Reflection
Having shadowed and supported the teachers who educate
learners enrolled in ESOL, I have discovered ways to tailor my materials accordingly
and differentiate correctly (where applicable). For instance, when PE/E1
learners are practicing the identification of lower case and capital letters,
the number of letters a learner can identify can vary for those who are having
trouble with character recognition (1 – 2 letters of the alphabet in this
instance) or are exceedingly proficient with such an activity (6+ letters to develop
or even challenge other learners). This approach is supported in Tomlinson’s “The differentiated classroom” p11 where under “Elements of Differentiation” it lists the same technique as a means
where “the teacher modifies content,
process and products” in order to stretch learner understanding.
As understanding (comprehension) and production (providing the
correct usage) are the two main goals of a language teacher to achieve with
their class. I chose to research psycholinguistics (cognitive linguistics) to
find out what processes go on in a learner’s mind, and how that could benefit
or hinder the learning process. Aitchison’s “Words
in the Mind” (2012) explains “the big dictionary effect” where
synonyms, antonyms and homonyms all derive from smaller words, which make up
what the average native language speaker uses throughout their lifetime. Aitchison
notes there are “50,000” of these
words, though connotation and collocation play a big part in the understanding
of their definitions.
Prior to deciding which words to teach (either due to
institutionalised examination or general curriculum design) the learners
comprehension and production grows from the foundations of four specific
understandings. –
"Cognitive processes: information processing and
restructuring" p8 from Pitt's
Debates in ESOL Teaching and Learning.
Debates in ESOL Teaching and Learning.
Although the language may come from the classroom or even
the local surroundings in which the learner may live, encouraging the learner
to recognise the context is key. As the teacher it will be my duty to get
learners to speak to one-to-one or as a group, who all come from the same local
area and wish to achieve the same goal – bettering their language proficiency.
As someone who also comes from the local area, I am able to share with them the
same concerns I had when moving to this area for the first time and motivate
them to overcome their fears and speak in front of each other to encourage learning
through active participation.
One way I could do this is through seating arrangements (Harmer’s Separate Table formation, p179 from “The Practice of English Language Teaching”) and sorting the students equally amongst learners from other ethnic backgrounds. By doing this it encourages learners to talk with – and educate themselves about – people from other cultures (and thus British Culture and Values simultaneously) all the while developing their English language skills, as they’d have no option to switch back to their L1’s with no learners from the same mother tongue seated nearby. This also would solve the issue I originally raised regarding Translanguaging and forces learners to listen more carefully, in order to better understand social context.
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