What are the key teaching techniques that you use in every ESOL Literacy class? Here are 5 which I use on a daily basis with my learners:
1. Speaking practice
I’ve always included plenty of speaking practice in my classes, whether with ESOL Literacy students or at higher levels, as it helps you build a fun lively atmosphere which will aid learning throughout the class. We do also find in ESOL classes that many of our learners have a better level of speaking and listening when compared to their reading and writing (a ‘spiky profile’). They’re more comfortable with speaking tasks so why not use that to your advantage? For example, if we include lots of speaking practice before students read and write, it makes all the literacy work far more achievable. For instance, if students discuss the question, “What do you like doing in your free time?” before reading a text about this, then it should make the text easier for them, especially if the teacher focuses their attention on the content of the text. Hearing and using the vocabulary which is in the text before reading it means that they already have a good idea of words in their oral form before they later read them, at which point they will link the sound of the word with its spelling. The Teacher’s Book of Read and Write every day includes ideas on speaking tasks before students read / write.
2. Get your students reading aloud
I remember on my CELTA course that the idea of reading aloud was viewed as ‘not for EFL.’ However, in an ESOL Literacy class it’s essential. Why? Because it allows learners to link the sound of a word with its spelling. The Read and Write every day Student’s Book includes graded texts for groups to read aloud.
3. Encourage students to use phonics
Phonics is key to learning to read and write. We used it ourselves when we were at school, where teachers still rely on this to teach kids today. If students can notice, with their teacher’s guidance, letter-sound combinations, they can use this to aid their literacy skills. For instance, eliciting the sound for the letter ‘m’ at the beginning of ‘my’ will help learners use this knowledge when reading other words beginning with ‘m.’ As pointed out at a recent Learning Unlimited webinar, “Don’t teach phonics. Use phonics to teach reading and spelling.”
4. Get your students writing about themselves
Sounds very simple, doesn’t it? To be fair, I aim for this at other levels too but it’s worth emphasising. Key at this level is that every student can write something about the topic. Some students lack opinions/ knowledge on topics like sport but everyone has something to say about their country. Of course, they still need support with vocabulary and areas such as spelling before putting pencil to paper. The Read and Write every day Student’s Book includes tasks to encourage students to write about their lives and also ways to scaffold towards these difficult activities for students.
5. Repetition
The teacher training course which I did just before I started teaching ESOL literacy classes emphasised that students at this level should read a text multiple times, perhaps even 5 times or more. I remember feeling quite anxious before asking my first group to read the same text for the third time, bracing myself for a backlash. I recalled intermediate students from previous years complaining when asked to revise a grammar point the following day, protesting, “We’ve already done this!”
However, on that occasion many years ago, the students read the text with the same enthusiasm the third, fourth, fifth time. I did vary the task a little each time (just me reading aloud, choral reading aloud as a group, paired reading etc) but there was no feeling that the group was getting bored of all this. Why not? Because it’s a huge challenge. Imagine reading a text in Arabic!
Check out the sample unit of Read and Write every day Student’s Book and Teacher’s Book to see more examples of how to apply the techniques mentioned above.
