Leecy Wise presents on ESL resources for educators.
Her materials are available here: http://chiresources.pbworks.com/
As I am watching her presentation about ESL resources, but I wonder myself. Particularly with the ESL course I am teaching on a volunteer basis. I find it difficult to identify exactly what to teach. Which terms, vocabulary, and grammar concepts are most useful.
The other part that is hard for me is how to understand creating language facility with students. We so often formulat this idea of blogging, web tools etcetera in terms of English Language. Language Evolves. As we see more and more influences from people who don't speak English, we will see American English evolve. We already see an evolved difference between England, Australia, and the United States. The language we use in the American Southwest is very influenced by Spanish. And not just Spanish but a specific regional type of Spanish. Different than the Spanish spoken by people living in the the American Northeast. But no matter what language will evolve. I just wonder whether we can begin encouraging students to create content in their native language. One example of my percieved need in this area: When we measure language acquisition for elementary students we measure how much English Vocabulary they have. Nothing is done to accomodate the fact that they may have as much as twice that number of words in their repertoire if you account for their Native Language.
Big I
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