User talk:Brylie/ESL

discussion of this resource via Jabber
(1:57:18 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: I like your ESL plan. (1:57:53 PM) Brylie: Thank you. I want to expand on a vocabulary learning technique. (1:58:18 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: A technique you already know? (1:59:34 PM) Brylie: Yes. It is simply to present vocabulary words by dividnig their syllables and emphasizing the stressed syllable. (1:59:56 PM) Brylie: E.g. herb-A-vor (2:00:18 PM) Brylie: Phonetic spellings next to the proper spelling where helpful. (2:00:40 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: gotcha (2:01:41 PM) Brylie: I have found it helpful in private tutoring sessions. (2:01:58 PM) Brylie: And language learning books. (2:02:37 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: Have you tutored ESL? (2:02:45 PM) Brylie: Yes, briefly. (2:03:17 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: Nice (2:04:08 PM) Brylie: I think, slightly contrary to my unqualified statement above, that in early lessons grammar can be implicit, leaving grammar pedantics for advanced learners. (2:05:43 PM) Brylie: E.g. direct sentence translations so that earners develop an intuitive feel for sentence structure, rather than explaining VSO, OSV, SOV,etc. (2:06:41 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: i agree in early lessons grammar can be broadly understood w/o focusing on it (2:07:01 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: in fact, focusing on grammar can often make the lessons boring and hurt student motivation (2:07:52 PM) Brylie: Oru minds are pretty flexible in processing meaning. (2:08:13 PM) Brylie: How do you approach vocabulary and syntax? (2:09:09 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: Students listen to me and repeat and then I listen and correct individual errors I hear. (2:09:21 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: for pronunciation (2:09:33 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: for meaning I try to explain vocabulary words in a context or give an example (2:11:40 PM) Brylie: How do you build context? (2:16:35 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: e.g. "canteen" (2:16:45 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: Teacher ?'s: (2:16:53 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: Do you eat at school? (2:16:59 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: Where do you eat at school? (2:17:09 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: Do you know another word besides cafeteria? (2:17:16 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: If not, give it to them (2:17:42 PM) Brylie: Ah, activate their existing experience. (2:18:32 PM) Brylie: How do you suppose these concepts are oganized and overlap cognitively? (2:19:00 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: scaffolding (2:19:02 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: i think (2:19:34 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instructional_scaffolding (2:24:44 PM) Brylie: It seems to me that these scaffolds apply to adult learning too :-) (2:25:39 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: agreed (2:26:36 PM) Brylie: My confusion about PHP is possibly due to a lack of scaffolding, in addition to lack of experience. (2:27:20 PM) Brylie: Maybe 'related to.' (2:28:41 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: maybe (2:29:45 PM) danoff@jabber.org/: if it is true then theoretically pretty soon once the confusion clears you'll have a nice framework to build from

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I have been working on a curriculuum for learning music theory on Wikiversity. I will continue to work on that material but would like to begin working on a method to teach English.

I will begin the English course by identifying/outlining overlapping phonemes between the learners' native language(s) and the English phoneme inventory.

I hope to ease the learning curve by starting where the learners currently are and then mapping their pre-existing knowledge onto the new territory. Also, starting at the phoneme level seems helpful as a way to detect possible pronunciation difficulties at an early stage.

Additionally, each lesson plan will have a short poem for the student to experience and read so that they can start building a sense of the rhythms and interactions of words and sentences. This starts the student on the path to a holistic viewpoint of the language, complimentary to the fine grained viewpoint offered by phonemic studies. - Brylie on 16 Feb 2011
 * Very cool Brylie, as an EFL teacher I naturally am very interested in your English lessons. I particularly like the idea of "identifying/outlining overlapping phonemes between the learners' native language(s) and the English phoneme inventory." Never heard that before and its very logical. Any chance you could start a beta lesson on Wikiversity the class could help you with? Perhaps for students whose native language you know? - Charles on 16 Feb 2011