Hi William,
Thank you very much for your response. Lecturing for short periods of time will definitely keep students engaged on what is going on in the classroom. Since language is learned from trial and error, every possible opportunity for cooperative learning should be provided. Fostering a friendly environment will allow all students to feel at ease and to improve on their interpersonal communication skills. It sounds like that is the environment your are providing for your students. :-)
I use some lecture, but try to engage the students using a question/response approach between the student and me and among other students (a friendly Socratic method). I assign group projects and have the students discuss their results to the class. This keeps the students engaged, working with each other, but not overly focused on English use. The focus is on producing a cogent product.
Hi Erica, thank you so much for your post. Using humor creates a comfortable environment for ELL students; they feel at ease and encouraged to learn. As part of the comfortable environment, a word wall can also benefit all students, especially those with spelling concerns. Based on your comments, it seems like your students definitely have a fun, caring learning environment. Thank you for going the extra mile to ensure the success of all your students. :-)
