In a perfect world, you could easily fill your staff roster with fully trained ESL teachers. But few things are perfect when you’re launching your own ESL school, or in school management in general. You may need to recruit teachers who have little or no training teaching English as a foreign language. As research has shown, ESL teachers need specialized training to do their jobs effectively. Simply practicing “good teaching” isn’t enough.
Not sure what new ESL teacher recruits need to learn? Don’t fret. We’ve found the essential topics ESL teachers need to know and created a suggested course list you can use to create your own in-house ESL teacher training program.
We’ve included a brief description of each courses’ main content as well as course objectives.
When taken together, these courses give your teachers everything they need to know to become the kind of effective ESL instructors you’ll need to staff a top-quality school.
Ready to explore the role of an ESL teacher? Let’s dive in.
It takes most learners two years to reach the final stage of language acquisition, but developing mastery of a second language can take up to 10 years.
Suppose you have an English language learner who converses freely with her friends in English, but she has difficulty comprehending instructions like, "Retell the story in your own words." What’s happening?
She’s proficient in social English, or the common written and spoken language we use every day. However, she’s struggling with academic English, or the specialized language necessary to succeed in school. Proficiency in one type of English does not guarantee proficiency in the other, so differentiating between the two is essential to offering timely interventions to struggling students.
Academic English is more complex and difficult to master than social English. Here are some strategies ESL teachers can use to teach it:
A range of internal and external factors influence a student’s ability to master a new language. The seven most crucial factors are motivation, attitude, age, aptitude, intelligence, personality and family and community influences.
Motivation is a critical factor in a student’s ability to acquire another language, yet not all motivators are the same.
Students with an integrative motivation are interested in the culture and people who use the target language and want to converse with them.
Instrumental motivation, by contrast, is driven by the knowledge that learning English is essential to the learner’s professional or personal goals.
Intrinsically motivated students are driven to learn a new language because they want to feel accomplished and self-determined.
Linguistic scholar Rod Ellis describes attitude as the beliefs students harbor about the culture of the target language and their own culture, as well as their beliefs about their teachers and the activities they assign.
The relationship between attitude and achievement are mutually reinforcing. Students who feel positively about learning English tend to learn more, and learners who experience success in their English classes tend to adopt more positive attitudes toward English.
When is the best time to learn a new language? For many scholars, the jury is still out on that question. The critical period hypothesis posits that the pre-pubescent brain is most receptive to language learning, yet other research suggests that adulthood is the best time to learn syntax and morphology. Young children have a better chance of attaining near-native accents, yet studies show that adolescents learn new vocabulary faster than either adults or young children.
Regardless, studies indicate that age does play a significant role in language learning. It’s the teacher’s responsibility to respond to the unique aptitudes and needs of students at every age.
A student’s aptitude, or innate ability to learn a new language, is contingent on a distinct set of skills, like differentiating between different spoken sounds and recognizing patterns in speech. Some students are naturally more adept at these skills than others.
Researchers agree that having a low aptitude for language learning doesn’t automatically bar a student from acquiring a new language. It simply means that students with greater aptitudes for language learning will usually acquire English faster and more easily than those who don’t.
The traditional definition of intelligence — or “the general ability to master academic skills” — has limited application in ESL education. It can predict how well students perform on language skills tests, but it’s not an accurate predictor of their ability to master English for everyday use.
Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, by contrast, identifies eight different types of human intelligence. Students with strong verbal-linguistic intelligence are adept at producing work that involves oral and written communication, yet any type of intelligence can be effectively leveraged to promote language learning. For instance, students with strong musical intelligence can retain sentence frames more effectively through song, while students with strong bodily-kinesthetic intelligence respond best to the Total Physical Response (TPR) method.
Some ESL students have higher self-esteem, which makes it easier for them to risk making mistakes when speaking or writing. Others are more inhibited and risk-averse. Still others are naturally more anxious about learning a new language. These and other personality factors will influence a student’s willingness and adeptness to learn English.
Studies shows that parental involvement can make a significant difference in student achievement, particularly with English language learners. Home and community influences also shape a students’ perception of themselves and their culture, which in turn influences their attitudes about learning English. Positively engaging school faculty, parents and community members, then, is a critical component of their success.
Depending on their confidence in their own English speaking skills, parents of young English learners may be reluctant to participate actively in their child’s education. Teachers can invite parents into the process by encouraging them to perform simple but powerful activities at home. These include:
The ESL classroom is a community unto itself, and teachers can make sure that parents, community members and other stakeholders are welcome there. They can invite parents to participate in their children’s classes during the school day. Or, they can invite former students to talk to a class of adult learners and describe how learning English helped them pursue their professional and personal goals.
Be sure to check out the next installment of this series. There, we’ll uncover practical strategies for teaching, reading, comprehension, and vocabulary development, as well as methods of assessing students’ growth and alleviating language learning anxiety.
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