Hot Topic: Using Students' L1 in Class

I started studying Spanish in 7th grade and all the way through middle school and high school my teachers taught me Spanish by using English. Only when I got to university did my teachers start using Spanish to teach Spanish.

Nowadays, people frown upon using students' L1 in class. While this might be because many of the teachers teaching EFL don't speak the students' native language. The other reason might be because teachers feel that students can learn faster if they just use English in class.

While this may be true, imagine how you would feel if you walked into a classroom and the teacher only spoke the target language. As a complete beginner this might be extremely daunting. You might feel frustrated or even give up. Granted, there are some gifted teachers who can only use the target language and have students understand, but many teachers don't adjust their language enough and both the students and teachers end up feeling frustrated.

I know from personal experience, when I started to study Korean, the teacher only spoke Korean. It wasn't the simple L+1 either, it was more like L+10. I ended up feeling very frustrated and upset at the teacher as well as myself. If she wrote on the board, I'd have to look up practically every word. She moved very quickly through the lessons as well. Even though I didn't understand, I didn't have the language ability to ask her. Nor did she have the English needed.

So what should you do? First, you need to adjust your language. Speak slower and simplify your vocabulary. IF you speak the students' L1, you might want to use it every once in a while. I'm not advocating saying everything in the students' L1 and then translating into English, but a word or two here and there can help. If you don't feel comfortable speaking the students' L1 or don't know it, try writing on the board or asking a higher student to help translate. If you're dealing with very low students, you might want to write what you're going to say on the board first, so that students can read along. This allows them to listen and read what is being said.

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Cool Link: Chateau Meddy Bumps

If you're teaching children or young learners, then Chateau Meddy Bumps is a great website to check out. It's aimed at children at pre-school and primary level.

They've got different sections, such as fun and games, beantime stories, and guides for parents and teachers.

The basic principle behind this site is to help young children learning skills uniquely. They've been around since 1995 and have won awards, such as Best Websites for Elementary Teachers and Best Sites for Helping Children Learn Phonics.

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Cool Link: ABC Teach

If you teach K-8 or at an international school, then take a look at ABC Teach. They've got lots of free materials, like subjects, reading comprehension, holidays, ABCs, interactive, as well as sections divided by levels, and even a special needs section. It's easy to navigate, bright, and colourful.

There is also a tools section which allows you to generate all types of worksheets such as games like bingo and sudoku, or activity sheets, spelling, and ABCs.

They also have a paid membership section which costs about $40 a year. They also have discounts for groups, schools, and districts.

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Cool Link: MES English

If you teach kids or young learners and don't know about MES English, you've got to check out their site. It's written by a teacher in Japan and he has other websites as well with lots of other neat things that you can check out in the "about" section.

With heaps of free materials, such as flashcards, worksheets, phonics, games, videos, curriculum, certificates, projects, and more, you could easily spend a couple hours browsing all the material. Most of them are interlinked as well, so if you have flashcards, you can find worksheets and games that go along with it. Whether you have to create your own material or are given books by your school, you're sure to find something at this site that you can use.

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Cool Link: Kiz Club

Here's some neat stuff for young learners and children: Kiz Club has ABCs, phonics, topics, crafts, stories, nursery rhymes, flashcards, and more. It's also got information in Korean if you go to the about section.

It's simple and easy to navigate and each section is broken down into smaller sections. For example, the phonics section has vowels, consonants, blends / diagraphs, rhymes, and word study.

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Cool Link: 1-Language

Although it looks like a site that you have to pay for in order to access, 1-Language actually has a lot of info available for free.

There's a free English course which mostly contains grammar, they also have ESL flash games, quizzes, essay writing, a reading library, and more. If you're teaching beginners, try scrolling down a bit and you'll see flashcards, alphabet, and phonics worksheets. They have writing sheets for more advanced levels as well as articles about learning English, proverbs, English dialects, and methods for learning English. You can use the material in class or have your students work on their own.


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Cool Link: Dream English

Kids love to sing and dance and Dream English acknowledges that. They have free mp3s, flashcards, games, chants, phonics, lesson plans and more.

If you're interested in their songs, scroll down and you can see videos about ABCs, colours, numbers, weather, actions, animals, body parts, warmers, holidays, traditional kids' song, and a whole lot more. Below that they have the top free songs and products that you can download. If you teach kids or young learners, check out their site.

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Cool Link: Phonics World

Lots of free worksheets and activities can be found at Phonics World. They've got topics such as the alphabet, long vowels, short vowels, consonant blends, consonant digraphs, diphthongs, and a whole bunch more.

They also have useful information about learning disabilities that might help you out if you have students who have trouble learning. They've got tons and tons of information for teaching phonics to kids and young learners, so be sure to check them out.

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Cool Link: Free Phonics Worksheets

If you teach kids or young learners, you're going to love this site. Free Phonics Worksheets has worksheets, sight word flashcards, lesson extensions, and even math worksheets to help you out.

Although the material is free, they do say that purchasing their audio material, such as CDs and DVDs would help. However, it's not necessary to purchase anything in order to use it.


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Cool Link: Sticky Ball

Sticky Ball has lots of resources for ESL and EFL teachers: free of course. Here's a list of what you can find:

• Grammar 
• Phonics
• ESL Dialogues
• Idioms
• Phrasal Verbs
• Writing lessons
• Adult ESL Lessons
• Games 
• Jokes and Riddles
• ESL Vocabulary

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Quick Tip: Expose Your Students to Different Accents

People usually consider Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, and the US to be the 7 countries where English are spoken. While there are others that have English as an official language these 7 countries are what most immigration officers and employers would consider when they are looking for an English teacher.

Therefore you should try to expose your students to different accents as well. With the internet it's easy to find material, such as news or Youtube, that has information in these different accents. Once your students get good enough, you could expose them to different accents within these countries, i.e., a Manchunian accent vs a Glaswegian accent.

This will help your students when they work, study, or travel abroad and are faced with people who speak English differently.  Don't forget to allow them to listen to non-native English speakers. They should also get used to these accents, a German speaking English, for example.

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Cool Link: Super Teacher Worksheets

Super Teacher Worksheets is dedicated to providing teachers with great worksheets for a variety of subjects. They have ELA - Language Arts, which is useful if you teach ESL or EFL.

They also have core subjects, such as math, reading and writing, phonics (for teaching English to young learners), grammar (which also might be of interest to ESL and EFL teachers), spelling, science and social studies as well as holiday worksheets. Their puzzles and brain teasers are worth checking out no matter what subject you teach.

There's also a teacher helpers section which has teaching tools, award certificates, and sticker charts. Super Teacher Worksheets is incredibly well organised and everything is easy to find, so take a look and see if there's anything you can use in your classroom.


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Cool Link: Ship or Sheep

It's not uncommon for ESL and EFL teachers to hear, "Teacher, how can I improve my speaking skills?" or "How can I improve my English pronunciation?" Obviously, the best way to improve is to practice speaking English.

Ship or Sheep is a great website that helps students practice minimal pairs. Not only can students see the differences in spelling and phonics, but they can also hear the differences.

The next time a student asks you how they can improve their speaking skills, point them to Ship or Sheep.

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Cool Link: English for Everyone

English for Everyone has tons of free printables that you can use in your class.  From phonics to the 4 skills and more complicated topics such as pronunciation and paragraph correction they have it all.  They even have seasons, US citizenship, and fun crossword puzzles.  Some of the material is similar to that on English Maven because of their affiliation, but there is still a lot of new material that you can find here.

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Cool Link: Boggle's World

Boggle's World has been a long time favourite among TEFL teachers. You can find just about everything you need here from teaching English to kids to adults.

They have jobs, worksheets, songs, verbs, writing, the alphabet, Science English, Business English, English for Adults, articles about teaching, lesson plans, holiday worksheet, and flashcards.

The lesson plans and worksheets are fantastic and are organised by topics, such as giving directions or writing. The new phonic worksheets are great if you're teaching kids.

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Teaching English to Young Learners ebook

Teaching English to Young Learners can very rewarding. Most teachers love teaching the young children because they learn so fast. They're like little sponges.

If you're going to teach young learners, then you need to know how to teach them. From lesson plans and activities to dealing with discipline problems, this ebook has it all.

Here’s what’s on offer:

• Heaps of lessons and activities
• Advice for teaching young learners
• How age impacts language learning
• How boys and girls learn and behave differently
• How to work with not against students.
• Behavior Management – Made Easy!
• Assessing your young learners' skills and what to do about it
• How to work cooperatively and positively with parents, school administrators and co-teachers

Best of All . . .

• Lots of lesson plans and activities with suggested changes for different age groups
• Popular songs and games that are easy for kids to learn

Plus . . .

• THREE PAGES of links to resources where you can download FREE young learner resources, lessons, activities, games and much more.

How much is it?
Only US$9.95. So what are you waiting for? Get Teaching English to Young Learners today!

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Sites for Lesson Planning

Updated 13 September 2016

There are thousands upon thousands of websites dedicated to teaching ESL and EFL. Here are some to help you get started. Be sure to look at learning about TEFL for tips that will help you in the classroom.

Anything and Everything

• BBC's Learn English
• Boggle's World
• British Council
• Busy Teacher
• Education World
• English for Everyone
• ESL Base
• English Club
• ESL Flow
• ESL Galaxy
• ESL Gold
• ESL Lounge
• English Maven
• English Zone
• Everything ESL
• iteslj
• Larry Ferlazzo's Best of . .
• Learn English
• One Stop English
• Project Glad
• Six Things
• Sticky Ball
• Teacher Greg
• Teacher Planet
• Teach It World
• TEFL.net
• The Teacher's Net
• UsingEnglish

Behaviour / Classroom Management / Discipline

• Behavior Advisor
• Discipline by TEFL Tips
• Dr William P Martin
• ESL HQ
• ESL School
• ESL Kid Stuff
• Mark's ESL
• Teaching English Games
• Web English Teacher

Bilingual Education

• Bilingual Families
• BYU References
• Multilingual Children

Business English

• Business English Links
• Business English Online
• Business English Study
• English Club

 Cross Curricular / CLIL

• America's Library
• Ben's Guide to the US Government
• Brain Pop
• English Current
• Eye Witness History
• How Stuff Works
• Famous People Lessons
• NASA Kids Club
• National Geographics for Kids

English for Academic Purposes (EAP)

• UEFAP

Games
(See specific topics as well, such as "Grammar", "Worksheets and Quizzes", and "Young Learners")

• A Game a Day
• Armored Penguin
• Bradley's English School 
• ESL Printables
• ESL Tower
• Games by TEFL Tips
• Great Group Games
• Prongo
• Puzzle Maker
• Super Teacher Worksheets
• Teaching English Games
• Wilderdom

Grammar

• BBC's Learnit
• Chomp Chomp
• e-grammar
• English Page
• English Test
• My English Grammar
• OWL at Purdue
• Perfect English Grammar
• Teaching Grammar by TEFL Tips
• The Ultimate Collection of Grammar Resources

International Exams

• IELTS Exam Prep

Lesson Planning and Activities

• Activities for ESL / EFL students
• Breaking News English
• California State University
• Dave's Idea Cookbook
• English Banana
• ESL Partyland
• Lesson Planet: have to pay a fee
• Lesson Planning from the Heart
• Many Things
• 1-Language
• Teach-nology
• TESL jobs

Listening (see also "Technology")

• 123 Listening
• America's Library
• Breaking News English
• English Page
• ESL Printables
• Many Things
• My English Printable Worksheets
• Pronuncian  
• Teaching Listening by TEFL Tips

Preschool
(See "Young Learners")



Primary and Secondary School

• ABC Teach
• British Council Learn English Kids
• Carol Hurst
• Discovery Education
• Education World
• Edu Place
• The EFL Playhouse
• ESL HQ
• Free Phonics Worksheets
• Literacy Center
• Kid Zone
• PBS Kids
• Scholastic and Scholastic's Teaching Resources
• Songs for Teaching
• Super Teacher Worksheets
• Teaching English to Young Learners
• Tools for Educators
• Unique Teaching Resources
• Woodlands
• Writing Wizard

Pronunciation (see also "Speaking" and "Technology)

• Colorado State
• Many Things
• Phonics World
• Pronuncian
• Ship or Sheep

Reading

• ABC Teach
• America's Library
• Breaking News English
• British Council Learn English Kids
• Carol Hurst
• ESL Partyland
• ESL Printables
• Famous People Lessons 
• Gayle's Peschool Rainbow
• Kidsparkz
• Literacy Center
• My English Printable Worksheets
• Phonics World
• Scholastic and Scholastic's Teaching Resources
• Star Fall
• Story Place
• Super Teacher Worksheets
• Teaching Reading by TEFL Tips
• Web English Teacher
• Unique Teaching Resources

Speaking (see also "Pronunciation" and "Technology")

• Breaking News English
• Daily ESL
• EZ Slang
• ESL Printables
• Teaching Speaking by TEFL Tips

Technology

• Bradley's English School
• Download ESL
• Easy English
• EFL Classroom
• English Media Lab
• ESL Lab
• ESL Prof
• Language Software
• My Studiyo
• Ning
• Student News
• Using Videos by TEFL Tips
• Webquest

Technology: Interactive

• A Game a Day
• ESL Tower
• Prongo

Vocabulary

• Teaching Vocabulary by TEFL Tips

Worksheets and Quizzes

• Armored Penguin
• Discovery Education
• English Test
• ESL pdf
• ESL Printables
• ESL Tower
• Handout Hubs
• Handouts Online
• Hot Potatoes
• My English Printable Worksheets
• Ning
• OWL at Purdue
• Puzzle Maker
• Quizstar
• School House Tech
• Super Teacher Worksheets
• TLS Books
• Tools for Educators 
• Writing Wizard
• Yacapaca

Writing

• 1-Language
• ABC Teach
• America's Library
• British Council Learn English Kids
• ESL Kids
• ESL Printables
• ESL Prof
• Famous People Lessons
• Gayle's Peschool Rainbow
• Literacy Center
• My English Grammar
• My English Printable Worksheets
• OWL at Purdue
• Super Teacher Worksheets
• Teaching Writing by TEFL Tips
• Unique Teaching Resources
• Web English Teacher
• Writing Wizard

Young Learners (Preschool to Primary)

• Chateau Meddy Bemps
• Child Fun
• DLTK Kids
• Dream English
• Early Learning HQ
• ESL Kids
• ESL Kid Stuff (Fee to join)
• Everything Preschool
• First School
• Free Phonics Worksheets
• FVSD: Sites for Teachers
• Gayle's Peschool Rainbow
• Learning Page
• Kids Front
• Kidsparkz
• Kiz Club
• MES English
• 123 Child
• 123 Listening
• Perpetual Preschool
• Prekinders
• Preschool by Stormie
• Preschool Education
• Preschool Express
• Preschool Printables
• Squigly's Playhouse
• Star Fall
• Story Place
• Teach Children ESL
• Teach ESL to Kids
• Teachers and Families
• The Teachers' Corner
• Teaching English to Young Learners
• Teaching Young Learners by TEFL Tips
• TLS Books
• Tools for Educators
• Writing Wizard

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Teaching English to Young Learners

Updated 24 February 2012

• You can find lots of material for lesson plans online.
• Check out the ebook: Teaching English to young learners
• If you teach primary students you might try looking at primary teacher training.
• Want to be an au pair / nanny? Look at working holiday visas and short-term jobs.

Change Activities Often

• Young children simply can’t pay attention for a longer period of time and will start fidgeting.

Move Around

• TPR (Total Physical Response) is great for children."Simon Says", "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes", and "Do What I Say Not What I Do" are some examples.
• Children love to be active and move around.
• Try giving rambunctious children leadership roles. Have them hand out papers, collect game pieces, etc. It will keep them busy, quiet and make them feel important.

Games and Holidays

• Forget boring fill in the blank activities. Put those questions on a game board instead.
• Card games work well as well.
• Try MES English for game ideas and templates.
• Holidays are a great way to teach children English and culture so try to integrate them into your lessons.

Group Children Differently

• Children learn just as much from their peers as they do their teacher.
• They can learn to work together in addition to language skills.
• When you pair students up they can sit side-by-side, face-to-face, back-to-back, or even on opposite sides of the room.
• Small groups work well around a table or sitting on the floor.

 
Rewards

• Rather than punishing students for bad behaviour, try rewarding them for good behaviour.
• Praise, stickers, stamps, and little gifts are wonderful ways to reward students that behave well.
• Watch what happens when you compliment one student on sitting properly in his chair, all the others will quickly sit up straight because they want to be praised as well.

 
Discipline is Key

• Try Star Lotto. At the beginning of class draw six stars on the board. When you want them to be quiet start counting down from ten and if you reach zero erase a star. At the end of class have a student draw a number. Numbers need to be from one to six. If a student gets a number that is equal to or less than the stars on the board, then the class gets a sticker on their Star Lotto chart. Once they get a certain number of stickers the class gets a prize.
• Use signals for silence. Have a signal, such as putting your hands on your head, then clapping three times and then sitting up straight. Students will be able to see you and know that you want them to be quiet even if they can’t hear you. TEFL dot net has some ideas for calming down a pre-school class.
• Make sure students understand the rules.You might need them to be translated into their native language.
• Demonstrate how to do something with a couple of students in front of the class. That way if they don’t understand English they can see what they have to do.
• Realise that boys and girls act very differently. Try reading how boys and girls learn differently for more info.

Learn More
If you're looking for online courses, check out How to Teach Young Learners offered by International House and Oxford TEFL.

This article has been published in the ELT Times.

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