Teaching ESL Students

Strategies for Success

This site is designed to provide information and strategies for working with ESL students in your classrooms. Many of  the strategies recommended below will benefit all of the students in your classrooms, and you may already be using them effectively. Because the recommendations are very general, please feel free to e-mail specific questions from your own classroom situations, and I will try to provide a helpful response. If you would like to know more about the ESL Program and ESL Courses at Columbia College, please visit our Columbia College ESL site.

On this page:
Lecture and Discussion
Reading and Writing

Understanding Lectures and Class Discussions: What You Can Do to Help

• Increase classroom interaction and check comprehension

1. encourage students to ask questions and to take the initiative in resolving comprehension difficulties
2. create time and forum for questions and clarification (question pauses, written questions)
3. put students in small groups and give them two minutes to summarize the main points of the discussion (group summary)
4. take the last two minutes of class and ask students to write what they learned and what they are still unsure of, collect them and use their questions as a starting point for the next class (minute paper)
5. wait longer than you usually do (give 10-15 seconds) to let an ESL student formulate a response during a class or group discussion
6. use e-mail and/or journals as a forum for students to ask questions and discuss what they understand or do not understand

• Assign leadership roles in group work

1. rotate students as group facilitators, recorders, and reporters
2. establish guidelines and expectations for group participation

• Use Explicit Organizational Cues

1. make your overall aim, structure, main ideas and transitions clear
2. preview and/or outline the main points of the class verbally or visually
3. let students know when something is very important ("you might want to write this down.")
4. use audio/visual support
5. repeat and clarify main points
6. explain unfamiliar vocabulary

• Be aware of your assumptions of shared knowledge. Culturally based analogies and examples may not be understood by sudents from other cultures.

Reading and Writing

Designing Assignments // Addressing Plagiarism // Fast Facts about ESL Reading

Framework for Designing Effective Writing Assignments

The following questions can help you frame the assignment with clear, accessible instructions:

• Context
  • What is the reason for the assignment?
  •  How is the assignment related to what you want students to learn?
• Content
  • Is the assignment accessible to all student writers, culturally and otherwise?
  • Does the assignment allow for multiple approaches?
• Language
  • Are the instructions comprehensible, unambiguous, and clear?
  • Are vocabulary and syntax appropriate?
  • Does the prompt give the students enough information?
• Task(s)
  • Can the students accomplish the task within time constraints?
  • Does it further students' knowledge of classroom content and skills?
  • Does it allow students to demonstrate their knowledge?
• Rhetorical Specifications
  • Do you provide clear direction concerning the shape and format of the assignment?
  • Do you provide organizing principles for students and suggest a sequence of tasks that will result in the expected product?
  • Are instructions regarding register and tone (i.e., audience) provided?
• Evaluation
  • Does your evaluation criteria (what you will be looking for  and how you will grade) assess what is being taught?
  • Does the criteria assess what you asked students to do in the assignment?
  • Do you share your criteria with the students before they begin the assignment?

• Ownership of ideas is not a cultural universal and conventions of academic prose differ across disciplines and across cultures. In many cultures, "good writing" entails demonstrating knowledge of the ideas of others, not writing about one's own ideas. Students may not be accustomed to the concept of acknowledging the source for ideas that they consider far more important than their own. They may also not understand our expectation of building one's own argument.
• Consider the assumptions behind your explanation of plagiarism and your policies.
• Teach your students to avoid plagiarism by exposing them to model texts that use the documentation you require. Practice integrating quotes and paraphrases in papers with proper documentation. Explain what is acceptable and what is not acceptable.
• Ask to see multiple drafts of student research papers so that you can address a plagiarism problem before the final paper is turned in. It may also help to ask students to turn in copies of their sources.

• ESL students need a working vocabulary of approximately 5000 words for basic reading comprehension at the college level. They may need extra help with vocabulary specific to your discipline.
• An average reading speed of 200 words per minute is generally necessary for college level reading. ESL students tend to read more slowly in English because of the very complex processing. It may take them more time than you anticipate to get through a reading.
• Previewing a text by discussing what it is about and how it is structured can help students get much more out of their reading.
• Encourage students to be active readers: taking notes and annotating while they read, keeping their own vocabulary logs, writing questions about what they don't understand, etc.
• Check student comprehension reading by asking them to use the content in some way (minute papers, group summaries, charting key ideas).
• Students often think they have fully understood, but may not have understood a reading. Misapprehension of ideas is as much of a barrier as lack of comprehension.

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