ESL Teaching Strategies and Challenges

Low Preparation of ESL Teachers and Students' Scores

Crumpler, B. (2014). ESL Teacher electracy: A shift from flat to digital teaching and learning.

ESL Globe, 10 (2) Retrieved from: https://www.ncsu.edu/eslglobe/ELECTRACY.htm

ESL education, like all of education, is changing. The article stresses the need for ESL teachers to focus on the 3Cs of critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creativity. ESL teachers often struggle with teaching students how to synthesize and analyze texts in a new language. Teachers need to also prepare students to cope with online standardized assessments. PARCC and Smarter Balanced Assessments will soon be digitalized, along with many other common state and national standardized tests. Using technology is a critical component of ESL education, particularly for students unfamiliar with technology in their home environments.

Duff, P. (2001). Language, literacy, content, and (pop) culture: Challenges for ESL students in mainstream courses. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 58 (1). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.58.1.103

Unfamiliarity with the cultural assumptions and contexts can make learning English very challenging for ESL students. While other students may be able to decipher the meaning of words based upon a word's context in a sentence and previous knowledge, there are often significant gaps in the learning of ESL students in this area of so-called common knowledge of which the teacher may not be aware. ESL education is about cultural and linguistic education.

Ferris, D. & Tagga, T. (1996). Academic listening/speaking tasks for ESL Students:

Problems, suggestions, and implications. TESOL Quarterly, 30 (2): 297-314.

Retrieved from: http://tesol.aua.am/tqd_2000/tqd_2000/tq_d2000/Vol_30_2.pdf#page=106

Some of the areas ESL students struggle with the most are using English spontaneously and creatively, including in class discussions. Academic listening often draws upon skills students do not use in everyday interactions. The types of writing and speaking stressed in ESL-specific courses are often very different from the open-ended interactions in standard academic courses. Kiran, R. (et al. 2013). A critical study of the problems of ESL students. International Journal of Innovative Technology and Research, 1(1): 028-031. Retrieved from: http://www.ijitr.com/index.php/ojs/article/viewFile/12/10

This article is written from the perspective of a teacher who learned English herself as a second language. It discusses the most common problems experienced by ESL students, including concerns about using their knowledge in an applied fashion.

Shore, K. (2016). Teaching the ESL student. Education World. Retrieved from:

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/shore/shore073.shtml

This article discusses the psychological components of making ESL students feel welcome. Quite often the obstacles ESL students face may be due to a sense of low self-confidence. The author stresses finding ways to enhance the student's sense of efficacy, including asking them to teach the class words in their native language and to talk to the class about their culture and traditions.