Introverts Learning Language

Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Myersbriggs.org asks, "Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or on your own inner world? This is called Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I)." I'm definitely an extrovert... I get energy from being with other people, and I definitely focus on the outside world. I've always wanted to know and understand what's going on around me. For more on personality types, you can visit the Myers & Briggs website. One of my favorite blogs, A Cup of Jo, also has a less academic run-down of introvert versus extrovert.

Image via joannagoddard.blogspot.com

Language teachers often (always?) tell students to go out and meet people! Go and talk to native speakers! But what if you have students who are introverted? Who don't enjoy meeting new people and feel tired after social events? Transparent Language provides some suggestions for introverts who are learning a new language:

1) Join an online community 

2) Get a one-on-one tutor online 

3) Sign up for an online class

4) Take time to recharge with individual activities 

I think these are great suggestions. Introverts could also seek out a one-on-one tutor in person, as working with fewer people is often less draining than in groups. Student should also go to teacher's office hours (in higher education) where they will get some individual attention from the instructor. What are some other strategies that you suggest to introverted or shy students? Or strategies that you yourself use?

Image via findresumetemplates.com

P.S. I'm ENFJ... What are you?

Service Learning Reflection (Special Olympics, Part 3)

As I wrote about in June this year, I required my advanced-intermediate (Level 3) listening and speaking students to volunteer to practice the language. I have complied some of the students final reflections on volunteering over the course of the semester, and I believe they are thoughtful and worth sharing. 

A little background: In addition to the Special Olympics, my students volunteered at the soup kitchen, animal shelter, community/campus garden, and at a Special Olympics fund-raising event. Their experiences were varied, but the sentiment remained the same: they enjoyed volunteering and learned from their experiences. These have not been edited in any way by me, so the excerpts are true language-learner writing. I have included some explanation in brackets if I have felt it was necessary.  

Soup Kitchen Reflection:

At the beginning I asked about the mode of action and what should I do. Then I began to provide meals and food for the customers. I ask everyone who comes in what do you prefer to eat. Each time the food finishes I go back to bring more from the kitchen. I was dealing with everyone with a smile and all were welcoming. I went into the kitchen to help my friends who are volunteering like me in making various food. As well as in the processing of various beverages to the needy. During the first hour I was talking with everyone and with the volunteers about how amazing the idea of this restaurant is, and it's a beautiful idea that serves the community. We need such ideas to serve all the people. Also I spoke with a number of people who came for eating and talking about a lot of topics that related to our lives in general. It was a beautiful experience and very wonderful when I feel like I'm a reason for the happiness for others.

Soup Kitchen Reflection:

In 06/13/2013,I went to Soup Kitchen for 1 hrs. That was a good opportunity for me. I did many things. First, i cleaned the dishes which was the first time for me to wash dishes out of my house, it was very good. I was very happy to do that . The water spill on my jeans. which made me impressed [embarrassed] .Second, during the break i met new American friends . I talked with them that benefited me to improve my speaking skills .Finally, i clean the tables after people had left the kitchen, when i was cleaning them , i had tried to take of little pieces were sticking in the table that made me angry. Soup kitchen is a great volunteer people there are nice and friendly that can feel you more comfortable. I hope to open soup kitchen in my country because it has a lot of benefit for poor people.

Final Semester Reflection:

             Before this summer i never be the Volunteer in my past life. And i never consider about this. However this summer i did it and also enjoy it so much.  In the beginning i don not even know how to be volunteer and how to do the job in here. My first place was garden where was plant the vegetables.  I learned lots of thing from here. For example how to plan the filed because she told me if i plant the vegetables very close. That will effect them grow up. So after this i think be volunteer not just donation yourself. This is just one part on volunteering. On the other hand. It also can increase your knowledge. Both all what i want in here. I need to be volunteer. In fact, for international students to be volunteer have more big significant means for us. First it can help us practice speaking and learning. As we all know the English is most important in here. Then it improve our ability because you should do everything by yourself. This is better than nothing to do. Next to be volunteer also can rich my experience in US because i do not want to nothing in my memory when i go back my country. So i am really appreciate teacher let me to be volunteer. This is really helpful.

Final Semester Reflection:

Since our teacher sets the volunteer task to us, I have already volunteered for four orgnizations so far. They are Animals Shelter, Isabella Community Soup Kitchen, Plant Vegetable for Hungers and Auction Special Olympics. Each time, Hero and I worked toghter. We took care of some cats, walked some dogs, swept the floor, cleaned some windows, took weed away from a small garden, and so on. In the past one month, we really did so many different kinds of  task. I find that thay have something in common, it is that some people need our help. I love the task what I did because I would like to help people in need. I hope I can help them to get out their troubles. Most of people we helped are poor people. For example, we looked after a small garden. Various vegetables are planted in there, and when the vegetables grow up,  the administrator will offer them for hungers. Isabella Community Soup Kitchen is a similar place, the organization offer some food for poor people. We also get some benefit from the volunteer tasks. Through we did these task, we gained lots of soial [social] experence. We learned how to apply for a volunteer job, and during we completed that job, we look out our unique ability. It made us to be more confident. On the other hand, we got to meet a lot people, that means we got more oppotunity to make conversation with native speaker. It was useful for us to improve our integrated English skill especially speaking and listening. To sum up, volunteer is a good activity, it offers an oppotunity for us to help others, at the same time, we can improve our integreted skill.

Final Semester Reflection:

          This semester, I had different volunteer. The first one it was Special Olympic. It was in the SAC in CMU. It was first time I took a volunteer. I was nervous and fear because I did not know how deal with special Olympic. I asked some people there if they needed help. Then I found out woman with a big table. The above the table was fruits and vegetables. She gave special Olympic fruits and vegetables. She was so busy. She looked like need help. I asked her if she needs help. She said, “Yes, please.”  Then she taught me what I should do. She was so friendly with me. So I helped her.  Also the special Olympic was so kind and friendly. The second volunteer was in soup kitchen. I was there five times. I had different experience there. I volunteered in provide food, wash dishes, prepare food, and clean soup kitchen. So we should keep everything clean because it is impertinent kept customer’s’ bodies. The boss always said to us you have to clean your hand and wear gloves. So these experiences give me something new like how I deal with different people and different ages. Also I talk with American people without shy [shyness]. I in addition these experiences make me more trues and depend myself. I am able to make American friends. The impertinent thing my language is helped by these experiences. So the new language just needs practice. In the end I recommend other international student take a lot of volunteer because it helps to improve their language and earn experience different in your country.

Final Semester Reflection:

Summer semester usually goes faster than the regular academic year. This summer semester only lasted for about ten to eleven weeks. But in my opinion in spite of it is so short, but it is very impressive. During the summer semester, our integrated skill teacher arranged an interesting assignment which was let all the students take part in some social activities and create an opportunity for us to communicate with American people by English. I hope that I could talk to many people who are responsible for different occupations, undergo various occasions, and do some diverse jobs. I totally participate four different tasks. They are Animals Shelter, Isabella Community Soup Kitchen, Plant Vegetable for Hungers and Auction Special Olympics. From those volunteering activities, I learned that the how to find volunteer changes on the official website of the volunteer center, how to take the general process for signing up, how to make an appointment with others, ask for help from them, how to and collaborate with another and how to talking with people more politely. All the experience increased my self-confidence, social knowledge. And the most significance of improvement is that it helped me learn how to understanding and speak in English. When we were participating in each task, we must communicate with other people with English. Such as making a call to their office, trying to figure out what the currently exact job is, and understanding how to finish it. And all those approaches really benefited my English communicative skill and vocabularies.

I would like to recommend that everyone had better take some volunteer hours each semester especially for the students who are studying in Language Institute. Not only you will have change to help others, but also it can improve your English level.

Image via Digitallanguagelearning.blogspot.com

As you can see, many of the students very thoughtfully reflected on what they learned and how it benefited them as people and language learners. Of course, not all students were sincere or reflective; many simple recorded their experiences without a second thought; however, those who took the time to think and reflect did so in a way that I have never been able to see from students. I have always struggled to get students to reflect in a meaningful way, but they really learned from these volunteer experiences, which created the opportunity for genuine reflection and growth. 

I highly recommend service learning to any teacher of any level. For more about service learning and civic engagement, read my post about our presentation at the Intercultural Horizons Conference in 2012. Here are the links to Special Olympics, Part 1 (Before Volunteering) and Special Olympics, Part 2. 

It's been quite a long time!

Hello all! I apologize for the long delay in writing. I've been accused of being an "ebb and flow" blogger, and I guess that is correct! Teaching, traveling, learning, and life in general have gotten in the way of my blogging (and tweeting). To make up for lost time, over the next couple of weeks I will do my best to update you on where I've been and what I've been doing.

Currently, I am working on a post about student reflections on the Special Olympics and service learning , which I promised to you ages ago (remember this post about the planning and this one about the event?).  I will also post some fun links and action-packed activities to keep students engaged and motivated to learn. 

Image via Reallifebh.com

P.S. How is your semester going? Mine is great and busy! I'm teaching two reading and writing courses, which means I'm never out of reading material :-) What are you teaching this semester? What have you been focusing on in your classes? Are you trying out new material? I'd love to hear about i!

Teacher Echo

Here's a great post about the negative aspects of teacher recasting. I find that I automatically "echo," or recast what my students say. Half to say it correctly  and half so that the other students hear the thought. The articles points out that not all communication needs (nor should) go through the teacher. This is neither authentic nor useful. I have always wondered why some students complain that they can't understand their classmates, and this may be one of the reasons. The students rely on me to negotiate for them, rather than negotiate for meaning themselves.

Do you recast what students say? Why or why not? If you're a student, would you prefer if you teacher didn't always repeat what you and your classmates say?

Special Olympics: Before Volunteering

As I mentioned in a previous post, my high-intermediate speaking and listening class volunteered at the Michigan Special Olympics. This was an assigned volunteer opportunity, and it was the first service learning component I have applied to my courses. I realize now that this was a huge undertaking for my first time implementing service learning. Most teachers usually start out with the soup kitchen or animal shelter; however, the Special Olympics were coming to town at the beginning of our summer term, and I couldn't let that learning opportunity pass me (and my students) by.

I will go into more detail about the actual day of volunteering in the second of this three part series; in this part, I would like to focus on what I did to prepare students for this experience. First, I asked students general questions about volunteering and their experience volunteering. Then I asked them if they've ever had experience with people with special needs. I had some questions written out for students to respond to in writing, then they shared them with a partner, and finally with the class (think, pair, share). Here are the questions I asked them, along with a few of their responses:
 
(1) Why do people volunteer?
-I think that it is a very active method to help others, but also can increase your self-confidence, social experience, and benefiting your English.
-To help other people and get experience
-People have the ability to help people in need
 
(2) Who does volunteering benefit?
-everybody can benefit from volunteering
-The volunteer might learn something different from volunteering, and some people can get help to get out of trouble.
-make a good community
 
(3) How could volunteering help international students?
-to offer them a job or to make them get to know the culture
-The volunteering can help international students to learn English, know new culture
-it can help them to practice their language

 

Next, I had the students watch a couple of videos and go to the Special Olympics website for homework. I asked them to watch these three videos:Champions Together, Different, and Unleashing the Human Spirit. Here are a few sample questions they were asked to consider, along with a few responses:
 
(1) What are the Special Olympics?
-Big event in sports for people with special needs
-In my opinion, the reason we organize special game is that we believe the people who is intellectual disabilities also need to be respected, they are a special group of people who need more special care
-health, education, sports
 
(2) Who participates?
-Everyone who is special needs who is over 8 years old
-People with intellectual disabilities, more than 4 million per year
 
(3) Who volunteers?
-Everyone can volunteer
 
(4) What do you think the goal of the Special Olympics is?
-Everyone want to make the people with special needs have happiness in their life because they need anybody to care for them
-Because it does a great job with disability people. "I like help people."They make them feel different.
-Because it benefits for every people in the word. Keep going.
 
As you can see, the students' responses about volunteering and the Special Olympics were thoughtful and reflective. They really took this assignment seriously and wanted to know how they could best help other people. It was also clear that they were interested in improving and practice their language skills in addition to helping others.  

I will post later in the week about the actual event itself and what students' responsibilities were. My final post about the Special Olympics will consider how to help students make the most of their volunteer experience through reflection.



Image via www.napavalleyspecialolympics.com

If you have any experience with ESL and service learning, I would love to hear your experiences and advice. I know many of my colleagues have implemented this into their courses, as well as many other instructors around the state of Michigan and around the US. Please share what you have done and any suggestions you have for making service learning a valuable experience for English Language Learners. 

 

P.S. What did you think about the videos? I'll admit I got a little teary-eyed! How inspiring the athletes are!

Language Distance and Immigrants' Trouble Assimilating from The Atlantic

Did you guys see the post from The Atlantic, "Language Distance: The Reason Immigrants Have Trouble Assimilating"? 

Image via The Atlantic

It talks about the difficulty immigrants have assimilating and learning the target language when their native language is very far away from the language they're trying to learn. Think English and Vietnamese. On the other hand, immigrants tend to have an easier time when the languages are more similar. Think Spanish and Italian. Here is a chart showing close and far languages are:

Image via The Atlantic

And it is not only native language that affects ability to assimilate. The author, Olga Khazan, wrote, "How quickly immigrants learn to navigate their host countries plays a big role in how likely they are to thrive in their new homelands." This is pretty intuitive, right? If immigrants immerse themselves in the target language and culture, they will be more likely to thrive. She also wrote that age, literacy, and employment status must also be taken into consideration with ability to assimilate. 

While I don't teach English to community members, I believe it's important for all language teachers to have sensitivity to language learning and assimilation difficulties. Do you have experience with helping students assimilate? What difficulties have you come across?

Secrets for Adults ELLs, Part 2

I recently posted about secrets for adult ELLs, and the difficulty some students can have with immersing themselves in English when they have young families or spouses who don't speak English. I won't go into detail in this post; you can read the original post here. My original post was a reaction post to Alexandra Lowe's TESOL blog post, which discussed "secrets" adult language learners provided for other language learners. 

Image via TESOL.org

Alexandra recently posted a follow-up which provided some clarification about her original post about how students can increase their English exposure and use, even if they can't "run away" from their native languages. She wrote, "the advice was certainly not intended to discourage students from  speaking their L1 at home with their family. Rather, it is designed to encourage adult ESL students in the United States to resolve to speak English whenever they have an opportunity to interact with the English-speaking world around them." Because this is really what we ask our students to do, isn't it? We encourage them to speak English whenever they can because they already have enough exposure to their L1 (native language). They speak it with their spouse, parents, children and/or friends. Teachers should be encouraging them to use English in every other situation when they aren't communicating with loved ones. 

Alexandra elaborated on different ways adult learners can improve their language skills. These include: speaking to English customer-service representatives (rather than those who are Spanish-speaking); declining translators at their children's school meetings; inviting English speaking children (and their parents) over for play dates, which result in English practice for both children and parents; establishing ESL meet-ups for informal conversation practice with people who speak languages other than their L1. You can see her whole post and read all of the suggestions here. 

Image via http://union.unimelb.edu.au/clubs/let-s-talk-conversation-group

The last suggestion (group conversation meet-ups) reminds me of CMU's Conversation Partner Program. We set up students with native English speakers, but I like the idea of groups of students getting together to chat. I think it would be even more effective if the students set up the groups so that learners who have children can discuss with other parents. They could even bring their children if they cannot find babysitters. This option may be more effective and practical for students with families and spouses, especially if their spouses also want to practice speaking English. 

There are, of course, other ways for students to increase their exposure to English. They can join student clubs and volunteer. I think the lesson to take away is that it's essential for students to try to use the target language as much as possible, and it is essential for teachers to help students figure out ways to increase their English language use. Other suggestions for how students can increase their exposure to the target language?

Secrets for Adult ELLs

Learning a new language is hard, especially for adults. This brief post, Unearthing the Secrets of Adult ELLS, from the TESOL blog provides some suggestions for adult ELLs (English Language Learners). They were generated by students and seem similar to what most (all?) English language teachers preach.

Suggestions:

1. Run away from people who speak your language. Be in contact with as many English speakers as possible. Ask them to correct you.
2. Expose yourself to America and to American culture. Avoid stores and other locations in the United States where they speak your language. Watch movies and TV without subtitles or English closed captions.
3. Just try to speak—if necessary, use gestures.
4. Try to think in English.
5. Keep a pencil and a notebook with you to write down new words and expressions.

One of the big questions we have to deal with on a daily basis is challenged with suggestion number one. How do we encourage students to speak English most of the time without disregarding their culture, heritage, friends and family? Some adults have spouses and children, so they really can't "run away" from people who speak their language. They live with and love those people. Learners who have children want to pass along their language and culture to their children, especially when they're so far from home; and many spouses don't speak English. How can they reconcile their family/emotional needs versus their language needs?

The first part of #1 isn't always possible for all students, but they can "be in contact with as many English speakers as possible." This probably means something different for everybody, but it's essential for success nonetheless. The CMU ELI has a conversation partner program, and we recommend partners meet for at least one hour per week for English conversation. While this definitely isn't enough, it is a start and may be the best option for adult students with families.

Do you have any other advice or suggestions for adult ELLs? Did you learn a language as an adult? How did you do it?

Self-Assessment in Writing (and Speaking)

TESOL Connections just posted an interesting article about students assessing their own writing. You can find it here. I think it's a great idea to start early on with self-assessment, not just to be used with advanced students. It will encourage students to read and understand the rubric (does anybody else have this problem??), and it will also encourage self-reflection. This article is only about writing, but it's also possible to use with speaking assignments if they're recorded and made available to students to view (I use YouTube).

I often include a written portion to self-assessment assignments. For example, I provide a copy of the rubric for students to assess themselves and on the other side of the paper, I include a space for students to write about (A) what they did well, (B) what needs more work, and (C) the grade they think they should receive and why. I really think the written portion is just as important as the rubric portion. Students don't just have to decide what they did, but they also have to justify it. It's also a good way to track growth of the learner. If you use portfolios, these reflections could also be included there.

Are there any other ways we can use self-assessment to encourage and monitor language learning?

Idioms

NPR's Morning Edition had a great story about idioms in English. They interviewed the editor of the American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms... a true lover of words. The interview was loaded with great expressions that we use (and often take for granted) every day.

Elephant in the Room via NPR.org and iStockphoto.com

What a great way to share expressions with students who are interested in expanding their idiomatic vocabulary!  I like that so many of our expessions come from Shakespeare, such as "cold fish." We're in the middle of mid-terms now and the one that seems most apropos is "the straw that broke the camel's back." What are some of your favorite expressions?

Check it out here: http://www.npr.org/2013/02/28/173060110/dictionary-of-idioms-gets-everybody-on-the-same-page

Lesson Idea: Fortune Cookies

For the past (and next) couple of weeks, I have been teaching "future time" to my level 3 grammar students (Intermediate level). We have been taking about be going to and will, which are used for making predictions in English. 

As a fun exit ticket* activity before the break, I instructed students to make fortunes for their classmates, just like they'd get from a Chinese restaurant. I gave each student a little slip of paper to write a fortune on (i.e. "You will be lucky next week"). When they were finished, they gave me the fortune and took a short break. After the break, the students each got a fortune different from the one that they wrote. They each read their fortune out loud to the class, but they had to change the subject from you to I (i.e. "I will be lucky next week"). 

This was a low prep activity (the only materials needed are little slips of scrap paper), which didn't take much time in class. The best part was that the students really enjoyed writing and receiving fortunes.

Here's a sample of what they wrote:

• You will get $9999999 next week.
• You will get a girlfriend if you take a shower every day.
• You will change an English book.
• You will pass this class.
• You will get a good grade on the test
• You are going to have fun during spring break.

I really got a kick out of what they wrote for each other, and I think they did too. We had a lot of laughs for the quick 5-minute activity!



Image via theadventuresofaspacemonkey.blogspot.com

*Exit ticket activities are usually done at the end of class (or before a break). The students are required to finish something (usually proving what they've learned from the class period) and give it to the teacher before the exit the class. They're a great tool to ensure students have learned what you've taught. And in this case, a way tie in the first half of class to the second half when starting class back up after a short break.



 

Vocabulary Quick Tips

Vocabulary teaching quick tips from James Dunn on TESOL Connections.

Because who can't use quick tips?

Self-Directed Learning

I just read a great article about self-directed learning from the TESOL blog. It's Self-Directed Learning: Personal Speaking Plans for Adult ELLs, by Alexandra Dylan Lowe. There are some great ideas about helping students become more self-directed. I think I will start to implement some of these ideas into my grammar classes because oral communication isn't just for speaking and listening classes! 

I especially like the Pemex Parable and Personal Speaking Plan, which could be adapted into a personal reading plan, too! Thoughts? Has anybody ever done anything like this before?

Scene from "The Miracle Worker"

The "water" scene from The Miracle Worker is a great way to introduce the power of language.

 

My writing students are going to be writing literary autobiographies (autobiographies of their literary, written, reading, and spoken, experience), and I am going to show this video as an introduction to the theme of literacy and the power of language. There is also a nice quotation in our textbook from Helen Keller's biography The Day Language Came into My Life, which shows how powerful this moment was in her life:

"I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motions of [Annie's] fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness of something forgotten--a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of languaeg was revealed to me. I knoew then that "w-a-t-e-r" meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. The living world awakened my soul, gave light, hope, job, set it free... I left the well-house eager to learn. Everything had a name, and each name gave a birth to new thought. As we returned to the house, every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life. That was because I saw everything with the strange, new sight that had come to me" (p. 122-3).

I wonder if my students ever had this "realization" in English. Does anybody remember a feeling like this with learning another language? Did it ever just "hit" you and you "got" it?

"I lean forward to catch the drift of it"

Here is a lovely poem from The New Yorker. I first read it when I had just started studying for my MA in TESOL. I still love how well it captures language learning and teaching. 

SEMINAR
BY JUSTIN QUINN

I carry America into these young heads,
at least some parts that haven’t yet got there—
Hawthorne’s Salem, Ellison’s blacks and reds,
Bishop’s lovely lines of late summer air.

The students take quick notes. They pause or dive
for dictionaries and laptops, or turn to ask
a friend as new words constantly arrive.
The more they do, the more complex the task.

They smoothly move from serious to blasé
and back again. I love the way they sit
and use their bodies to nuance what they say.
I lean forward to catch the drift of it.

When it’s ended, they’ll switch back to Czech,
put on their coats and bags, shift wood and chrome,
and ready themselves for their daily trek
across a continent and ocean home.

via The New Yorker

Living Language English

For anyone interested in learning (and teaching) English, Living Language has an account on Twitter for ESL. They're@LL_English. Follow them and learn fun, new phrases!