Teaching English as a Second Language

Daniela Fisher-Munoz

Everywhere you go English seems to be a predominate language, going abroad not knowing the native tongue will never be an issue. This can often lead us to forget that it probably wont be necessary for us to learn another language and yet the majority of the world see it as crucial to be able to have a grasp of the English Language. Knowing how to teach a student English as their second language can seem very complicated. Often a student has minimal or no knowledge of English therefore the language barrier seems impossible to climb over. Having gone through education and encountering many fellow classmates who were learning English as their second language from scratch I find this an interesting topic to look into. 

For new learners of English that have no understanding of the language they often go through the 'emerging stage'1. This is often post to the stage of complete silence where a student may be listening and observing to develop there initial understanding of English. The 'Emerging Stage'  is a students first attempts at communicating. Due to this it is often not original language but collocations that they have picked up on whilst listening to conversations; formulaic sentences like 'can I go?' 'where is it?' This results in there first level of communication being for primarily interrogative functions. This means that teachers can respond with either a yes/no answer or and begin to expand on their answers to help broaden the range of vocabulary the student gains. 

 A teachers job is to find learning strategies that help students progress and develop 'the special thoughts or behaviors of processing information that individuals use to help them comprehend learn or retain new information.' (O'Malley and Chamot 1990)

Some studies say that a key part of being able to teach foreign students another language, in this case English, is to show interest in the cultural background in the country of their first language and then to work on their progression of learning English by giving them an insight into the culture of the second language they are learning. One way of doing this is by exploring proverbs of each country and thinking about their cultural context2. This can prove useful to do as by sharing idioms and proverb phrases it helps students to familiarize themselves with English culture and it can be good preparation for their first encounter with 'the cat's out the bag' 'spilled the beans' and other such idioms that prove more than confusing for those learning English as a second language. 

Researching and investigating further into learning strategies and techniques for teaching English as a second language seems fairly crucial for new and existing teachers as its become more necessary for teachers to be able to comprehend and communicate with students learning English as their second language. The more prepared a teacher is for helping students to learn makes a good first impression and relationship with the student by making them feel comfortable and welcome. 

1   Working with Young Children who are learning English as a New Language

Johanne Paradis, Anna Kirova, Darcey M. Dachyshyn (Accessed June 2014)

 www.education.alberta.ca/media/1093791/earlylearning.pdf

2  Culture in Second Language Teaching

Elizabeth Peterson, Bronwyn Coltrane (Accessed June 2014)

www.cal.org/resources/digest/digest_pdfs/0309peterson.pdf 

(O'Malley and Chamot 1990) Learning Strategies in Language Acquisition

J. Michael O'Malley, Anna Uhl Chamot (Accessed June 2014)