Native language in ESL classroom
It was encouraging to read in this course the line "Instructors should also connect lessons to students' backgrounds and develop activities in which students can use their native languages." For too long it has been one of the sacred commandments in ESL classrooms not to allow the students to use their native language at any time and under any circumstance in our well intentioned efforts to replicate at all costs a natural learning environment. So ingrained is this view that students have come to demand this practice and thus complain every time the instructor allows it or even makes some explanation in the students' native tongue. While using English is the whole point of having such a class, many times the student feels intimidated, helpless and incompetent by being forced to understand a concept or a structure in English, while seeing that a brief explanation in his native language would suffice, either by the instructor or a classmate. The course makes due emphasis on the level of comfort we should provide the students with, and allowing the students to engage in activities in which they could interact in their native languages will make them feel more at ease, more free to ask, more comfortable with their not understanding, and certainly will reassure them that their own background and culture can be in themselves useful tools to learn about other backgrounds and cultures.
Steve,
We sometimes forget that we are preparing our students to manage in the the outside world. They will need to learn how to interact with a population based on many cultures and abilities. I find your method outstanding.
Arlene Muller
I have always had several students (in every class)for whom English is a second-or even third-language. If we remember our goal is to educate, and not just teach English, allowing an explanation in their native tongue (when necessary)can solve a lot of problems and should not necessarily be considered special treatment. I understand the others in class may be put off by this, but-even in classes populated by English only students-not everyone learns at the same pace. I have had to explain things in other- sometimes more simple-terms to folks in these classes, too. It may be more productive to allow a shorter solution (such as an understandable explanation) than to wait for them to develop a better command of English. Could it also be that the Instructor isn't confident of their ability to communicate...in any language?
Reynaldo,
Yes! the objective is for the student to understand English and the stepping stones you take will be a mixture of native and English language activities.
Arlene Muller
