[eal-bilingual] Re: REMEDIAL WORK WITH INTERMEDIATE EAL STUDENTS [Re: eal-bilingual Digest, Vol 42, Issue 13]

Dear Janet

  Just some quick thoughts which might help you with your remedial problems for the older EAL students.

  1)    Plurals and the articles

  This is a fairly common problem  - so take heart!

  It takes time to correct the problem - so try not to look for a quick solution.

  Constant repeated exercises are, in the end, the only real way to correct them. 'Explanations' don't really work. You can, for example, explain how a guitar works in half an hour - but it doesn't get you very far in playing a note.

  May I suggest trying to combine these two problems [they are really the same problem]; you could also use short little exercises as a mean of building vocabulary too. Try also to make sure at the same time that you cover the appropriate pronouns [some, any, each, every, etc].

  One method I found to have success was to 'fine'  for the misuse of the article [using 'chocolates' as a currency]. This adds an element of humour which lightens the burden of having to be corrected.

  Many have found putting oral work before reading and written work to be a successful sequence.

  In terms of exercises, as I guess you already know, there are plenty of free [and cheap subscription] sites on the Internet.  

  2.   Verb Tenses

  This also requires constant repetition over quite a long period to correct.

  The range of tenses and aspects in English is quite wide - greater than most other languages.

  Common problems are:

  a)    confusing the Present Simple [I do] with the Present Continuous [I am doing]
  b)    The Perfect tenses [I have done, I have been doing]
  c)    substituting 'will' for all forms of the future.
  d)    difficulty in forming grammatically correct questions ['You like coffee' instead of 'Do you like coffee?']

  I once talked to a very thoughtful Japanese post-graduate student who started her studies of English at the age of 12. She didn't like English at all at first. She struggled with the word order, the pronouns, the vocabulary, and so forth. She told me she wasted probably her first six or seven - even more - years of learning English in following the wrong priorities. Her main priority, she told me, should have been concentrating on the formation and use of the different tenses and aspects.

  It's worth considering making the main underlying priority in every lesson the correct use of the verb. It is also worth considering devoting as much time to the formation of questions as to the formation of statements. The architecture of the question in English is so different from that of almost every other language.

  Again, it is not 'knowledge of the grammar' that is the important result to look for - it is the steady application of the correct grammar in practice.

  Useful materials may include:

  a)  pictures of action scenes.

  What is happening here? What is going to happen? What has happened?
  This picture happened last week. What was happening here? What do you think happened next? What do you think was going to happen? What had already happened?

  b) constant exercises from the many 'grammar in use' type
  books and websites
  c) repeated oral Q & A:
  what have you done today/this week? what have you been doing today/this week?
  What did you do yesterday?
  What are you doing tomorrow?
  etc.
  [Having the students ask one another]
  and the many exercises from the wide range of 'speaking'-type practice books and websites 

  3)   Spelling

  As well as the more traditional forms of approach to this problem, you might consider whether using IT is helpful.

  There are many free [or very cheap] programmes available which act as flashcards and which can be incidentally used to teach spelling. I'm currently using Before You Know It DeLuxe [available at about £25] with some success. It is easy to run and load - but it takes some time to create a wide range of flashcards with audio. It works very successfully as a combined vocabulary/pronunciation/listening/reading/spelling tutor for words and phrases - even whole sentences. 

  The motivated student with access to a computer [or PDA] can accelerate his learning in a  guided programme of this nature.

  Learning vocabulary becomes more important [and, paradoxically, more disheartening the more advanced the student.

  In the early days the words you learn constitute such a large part of the vocabulary you use; the  more you progress, the less frequently-used are the words you learn. This inhibits a sense of progress and can lead to the student feeling he has reached a 'plateau'. Here it may be helpful to enhance motivation by using a pre-chosen 'list' to check off the new words as learned in order to create [albeit somewhat artificially] a sense of movement. These lists abound on the Internet. It may be helpful to use a couple.

  However, many spelling mistakes are made with the more common and shorter words; it is these words, after all, that are the most irregular in spelling. Using an established checklist like Schonell might be worth considering.

  I hope this is of use to you.

  John Maher

eal-bilingual-request at lists.becta.org.uk wrote:
  Send eal-bilingual mailing list submissions to
eal-bilingual at lists.becta.org.uk

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
http://lists.becta.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/eal-bilingual
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
eal-bilingual-request at lists.becta.org.uk

You can reach the person managing the list at
eal-bilingual-owner at lists.becta.org.uk

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of eal-bilingual digest..."

Today's Topics:

1. influence of first language (Janet Storey)
2. Re: influence of first language (John Bald)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2007 14:18:12 +0000 (GMT)
From: Janet Storey 
Subject: [eal-bilingual] influence of first language
To: eal-bilingual at lists.becta.org.uk
Message-ID: <420991.64650.qm at web86608.mail.ird.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Help! 

Has anyone got any suggestions on how to help older EAL pupils erradicate errors resulting from the influence of first language in extended writing eg. missing final "s", missing articles, problems with tenses, spelling? 

If not what would you give priority to when helping them improve writing tasks?

Thanks

Janet Storey

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2007 07:51:57 -0000
From: "John Bald" 
Subject: Re: [eal-bilingual] influence of first language
To: "For practitioners involved in teaching pupils from ethnic
andlinguistic minorities" 
Message-ID: <011a01c76932$4dfd84d0$86b4f159 at John>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original

Am most interested. Depends on what the differences are between first 
language and English. Need to check DfES EAL toolkit. Please keep in touch. 
John Bald 

End of eal-bilingual Digest, Vol 42, Issue 13
*********************************************

---------------------------------
TV dinner still cooling?
Check out "Tonight's Picks" on Yahoo! TV.