Christmas Traditions in America: Fun Activities for ESL Classrooms

Anna Fischer — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 17:36:00 GMT

I was born a week before Christmas so I guess my undying love and enthusiasm for this holiday was instilled in me at birth. What makes Christmas so special are the traditions that I participate in each year with my family and friends. Traditions create memories that last a lifetime! Below is a list of a few of my favorite family traditions. These can easily be incorporated into your family or ESL and EFL classroom.

Decorating the Christmas Tree: For many Americans, decorating a Christmas tree (usually a pine or fir tree) signals the official beginning of the holiday season. I enjoy this tradition so much that if I could, I would put the Christmas tree up on Halloween day but my family doesn’t allow me to do it (unless I get sneaky), so I have to settle for the day after Thanksgiving. Making homemade Christmas ornaments are a fun activity and a great way to add a personal touch to the tree.

Christmas Lights: The day after Thanksgiving downtown Salt Lake City lights up - literally! Our family bundles up with coats, hats, scarves, and gloves for this event. Before the lights turn on, we go ice skating at a local outdoor rink. When it gets close to 10 p.m., we take our skates off and walk down to Temple Square to see the lights turn on! It is a spectacular sight to see the city lit up in so many multiple colors. If Christmas isn’t traditionally celebrated where you live, you can hang lights around your house and in your classroom.

12 Days of Christmas: This activity seems to be everyone’s family favorite. The 12 Days of Christmas activity starts by picking a family, individual, or classmate. Next, deliver little presents to them secretly, one each day, for the twelve days before Christmas. I can’t help but to laugh to think about all the times I have hid behind bushes and garbage cans so that I could watch the person’s face as they opened their front door to find a small gift lying on the ground.

Leaving Cookies Out for Santa: In America, everyone knows that Santa’s favorite treat is chocolate chip cookies with milk! On Christmas Eve we make cookies and leave then out on a plate for Santa. Children also write a little note for Santa expressing their thanks and love – this is a great way to practice writing skills. During the night when the children are sleeping, “Santa” will eat the cookies, drink the milk, and take the note. Children love waking up to see that the only thing left is crumbs on the plate. It makes me wonder how much weight Santa gains on Christmas Eve with all the cookies he has to eat!

Celebrating Jesus’ birth: Primarily, Christmas is the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Luckily for me, my family never acted out the nativity scene – I’m not much of an actress. However, we always read the story of Jesus’ birth out of the New Testament. We also look for ways to serve others in need in remembrance of Him.

Christmas vocabulary words: tree, present, cookies, service, lights, Santa, snow, holiday, ornament, angel, sled, hot cocoa

A Fun Way to ‘Jazz’ Up ESL Instruction

Anna Fischer — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 21:34:00 GMT

I taught conversational English to first grade students in China by engaging them in activities that related to them and by discussing with them what they were doing. If you were an outsider looking into the classroom you might think that I was having a one-way conversation with myself, that’s because in many ways I was doing exactly that.

My approach to teaching students was to show them a picture and ask, “What is Tommy doing?” After giving them a second to answer (just like a normal conversation), if no one knew what to say, I would answer the question myself by saying “Tommy is going to the bathroom.” Then the students would repeat the response after me. To encourage them to always try speaking and not hold back, I would reward one of them on a variable timetable. It was amazing to watch how fast they would absorb the language because they were engaged, they were getting practice, and they had someone to correctly and naturally model it for them. By the end of the semester, most of my students were speaking Basic English comfortably.

When I came across this Youtube video titled Jazz Chants I got really excited. Using music, Jazz Chants models the same concepts I used to teach English. It looks really fun! Here are some advantages to teaching Jazz Chants:

• Chants are natural spoken English

• You do not need a blackboard or any equipment

• It is extremely multi-sensory and interactive

• It can be catered to any age

Check out the Jazz Chants video and tell me what you think:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_nPUuPryCs&feature=related

Is this something that would be effective in your classroom?

Reading Horizons Aligns with ESL Research

Anna Fischer — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 20:21:00 GMT

Research has proven that Reading Horizons is beneficial for students learning English as a Second Language. Some of the skill areas that greatly improve by teaching Reading Horizons as part of an ESL course include:

Reading: Students are taught decoding skills that improve their ability to read unfamiliar words. When students acquire strategies that help them accurately decode, they develop greater automaticity in applying what they’ve learned, which leads to increased reading fluency—and, ultimately, increased reading comprehension.

Vocabulary development: Students are taught both the sounds and meanings of English vocabulary words. Learning both the sound and meaning of vocabulary simultaneously is vital because if a student can associate the sound of a new word when learning its meaning, the new word “sticks” better.

Pronunciation: Students are taught the pronunciation and articulation of the 42 Sounds of the English language. Teaching pronunciation of individual sounds contributes to improved pronunciation on the sentence-level including stress, rhythm, and intonation.

Writing: Students are taught patterns and rules for spelling English. In addition, students are taught basic sentence structure so they can apply these learned spelling strategies in the context of sentence-level writing tasks.

Strategy instruction: The strategy-based approach of Reading Horizons prepares ESL students for “real-world” experiences rather than serving as a temporary fix to reading, spelling, and pronunciation difficulties. The strategies taught in Reading Horizons help ESL students develop autonomy as they learn how to read, spell, and pronounce English words independently.

(Summarized from Reading Horizons Combined Research Packet. To find more information on how Reading Horizons aligns with research for ESL students, click here.)

Alphabet Lesson: The letter B

Anna Fischer — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 22:06:00 GMT

Tell Me What to Do:

After teaching the letter A, tell your students that the next letter they are going to learn is the consonant b. Explain that consonants are letters that are not vowels (remind them that the letter a is a vowel). Say the name of the letter, then the sound. Have the students repeat after you. Then show them the letter formation. Have them practice writing both the uppercase B and the lowercase b. To make the sound/letter connection stronger, have students say the name of the letter and the sound as they write it.

How to Make the Letter b Sound Like a Native:

Voicing: Voiced

Action: Airstream is temporarily stopped, then exploded; lips are pressed together

Place: Between upper and lower lips

Potential Disasters:

When /b/ is the last sound of a word, students sometimes forget to vibrate their vocal cords, causing the voiced /b/ to sound like the voiceless /p/. For example, cub would sound like cup.

The b sound is commonly mixed up with the sounds of d, p, and v. Minimal pairs exercises will help students distinguish these sounds and minimize any confusion.

P.S. Refer students to Reading Horizons pronunciation tool to listen and practice all sounds of the alphabet: http://readinghorizons.com/v5/pronunciation.aspx

Information taken from Reading Horizons Comprehensive Teacher's Manual Volume 1

Cultural Misunderstandings and ESL

Christine Bowman — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 18:53:00 GMT

I had one. Five days ago. My oldest son is engaged to a wonderful young woman from Mexico. A while back, I invited them to our very-American Thanksgiving dinner. Two days prior to the big event, my son called to tell me that his fiancé wanted to stay home and fix tamales on Thanksgiving Day.

I admit that I was a little hurt. This is one American holiday where family members go to great lengths… even over the river and through the woods to spend time together. I did not make a big deal about this plan. I was surprised, however, that there was this lack of understand about what this holiday represents to most Americans.

So, what exactly is a cultural misunderstanding? A cultural misunderstanding occurs when something--a word, gesture, object, social context, almost anything you can think of--has different meanings in two cultures. Sometimes the misunderstandings get resolved, sometimes they lead nowhere, and sometimes they can escalate to anything from love to war.

Differences between cultures play a very important role in teaching English. Teachers will often work on role plays, teach structures, etc. that mirror the exchanges of their own society rather than that of the society in which they are teaching. While it is true that teachers should encourage students to learn to speak English as it is spoken in an English speaking country, it is equally true that the more teachers are aware of cultural differences the better they can help students understand - and use - English in native speaking countries.

Cultural differences can especially cause confusion for standard situations such as:

Saying hello / goodbye
Job interviews
American/English holidays
Making excuses
Accepting / giving present
At mealtimes

Communication is not simply the ability to read, pronounce or listen effectively. Real communication occurs when we are sensitive to body language, family traditions, personal space and local customs.

In the end, I’m happy that my son is trying to understand and embrace his fiancés’ cultural preferences. He’s not worried one little bit about missing the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. That’s because he knows his mother will save him a large piece of pumpkin pie.

Sources:

Kenneth Bearnes, About.com

Jefferson Fish, Ph.D., Psychology Today

Linda McGovern, Culture Smart

Effective ESL Methods to Teach Reading, Spelling, and Pronunciation

Anna Fischer — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 21:00:00 GMT

Obviously I'm partial to Reading Horizons because I work here and I know from personal experiences that it is a very effective resource in helping students around the world learn how to read, spell, and pronounce English words. I thought I would post this research to show not only that Reading Horizons is fantastic, but also to show what research says about effective teaching methods for ESL students.

(Summarized from Reading Horizons Combined Research Packet. To find more information on how Reading Horizons aligns with research for ESL students, click here.)

Learn about Thanksgiving

Anna Fischer — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 21:34:00 GMT

What would be your favorite food to eat at Thanksgiving? Post your answer below!

Non-native Speakers (ESL/ESOL) - Commonly Mispronounced Words

Christine Bowman — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 15:24:00 GMT

The pronunciation rules in the English language are very challenging to ESL and ESOL students. It’s not as simple as “Y” is pronounced either as [ai] or [i:] or that “C” is pronounced as [s] or [k]. There are many other rules and vowel sounds to master. The question is: Do you really understand what critical components are missing from English reading and language?

Test yourself. Do you mispronounce any of these common words?

Don't say: acrossed | Do say: across

Don't say: aks | Do say: ask

Don't say: Calvary | Do say: cavalry

Don't say: close | Do say: clothes

Don't say: heighth | Do say: height

Don't say: libel | Do say: liable

Don't say: off ten | Do say: ofen

Don't say: yoke | Do say: yolk

To clearly understand how your International students fare, give them this free assessment. To acquire additional information about improving reading skills for your ESOL students, contact Anna@ReadingHorizons.com

Alphabet Lesson: The letter A

Anna Fischer — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 21:09:00 GMT

Tell Me What to Do:

To gain the confidence of students, start out simple. Start teaching by introducing the letter a. Pronounce the letter a as a short vowel sound. Tell students that the letter a has many sounds but they will learn one for now. Don’t use a specific picture to represent the sound. Instead, help your students understand that the letter itself is a picture of the sound.

How to Make the Letter a Sound Like a Native:

Voicing: voiced

Lips: open and slightly spread

Jaw: open (more than for /e/)

Tongue: low (near the floor of the mouth)

Potential Disasters:

Since the sound of a does not exist in all languages, it may be difficult for some students to hear and pronounce. Therefore, students may say /ǒ/ instead of /ǎ/, making hat sound like hot. To make the sound production easier, have the students focus the sound forward to the front of the mouth.

What activities do you do to teach the letter a?

This information is from Reading Horizons Comprehensive Teacher's Manual Level 1.

Phonics Will Improve Spelling Scores & Open Time for Other Subjects

Anna Fischer — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 16:03:00 GMT

It’s amazing how students learning English as a foreign language will take English classes for most their lives and will still have horrible spelling. Many teachers do not realize that if they taught phonics in their curriculum, they could actually remedy this problem and would save time in the classroom.

Phonics is typically used to teach basic reading; however, research clearly shows the connection between phonics and successful spelling. Spelling is nearly the reverse process of reading. Teaching the system of the language through explicit phonics instruction can help students learn the sounds of English and how those sounds correspond with the letters of the alphabet. This type of instruction trains students to be able to listen to any word, whether it is familiar or not, and to accurately put it in its written form. Through the phonics strategies, students learn that they can then double-check their work to make sure it is correct.

We know phonics isn’t the only necessary type of instruction for effective spelling; however, it is what provides the base and gives students the strategies they need to attack over 80 percent of English words. If students can apply phonics strategies to 80 percent of the words they encounter, less time will be needed for other spelling programs, and more time will open up for other subjects. Students will also be happier because they won’t have to memorize the spelling of every word they encounter.

If you would like basic training in phonics to help your students’ spelling skills improve, sign up for the Reading Horizons Online Workshop at the following link:

Free Phonics Workshop>