Today’s ESL article covers some important points for teachers who are considering a career in ESL. What’s the difference in ESL and EFL teaching methodologies is a guest post written by Dorit Sasson, a professional ESL instructor and thought leader for teachers.
As one who has taught both ESL (English as a Second Language) in the States and EFL (English as a Foreign Language) in Israel, there are several important things you need to know before entering an EFL or ESL classroom. Here’s the scoop on ESL and EFL teaching methodologies and why you need to consider them carefully before embarking on a career as an ESL educator.
1. Is there really a difference between ESL/EFL teaching methodologies?
The major difference between ESL and EFL methodologies is the status of English. In such countries like Israel, English is primarily taught as a foreign language. This means that students from primary to high school level study English in a formal school setting for a set number of hours per week. The major language for business, trade, etc. in Israel is Hebrew/Arabic yet Israelis use English to communicate with friends, make business transactions, etc. In India, however, the expectation is to teach English as a second language and that is because English is the language for politics, trade, commerce, etc. In both cultural and social contexts, the expectation to learn English is very different and this has deep implications for teaching.
2. How does this difference play out in day to day teaching?
The primary difference is the motivations for the students. The adult ESL learners I teach in the States have both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for learning English. They study English for an external purpose – to get a job, communicate at the supermarket store, speak to their kids, etc. The stakes are very high as many don’t want to return to their respective countries. They want to thrive in America. Many of these learners also possess intrinsic motivation – which means, they study the language for the sake of learning it and have a real deep desire. This is not to say that teaching ESL learners is a bunch of roses – read here to learn of some of the challenges in teaching this population.
When I taught EFL in Israel for twelve years, I had to constantly unique and interesting ways to keep my language learners on task. Learning English is not a given for these students and I did my best to work with the discipline problems – some of which were culturally influenced. One of the biggest challenges was maintaining their attention for the entire lesson. I also had large heterogenous classes.
Depending on where you teach in the world, class size, cultural attitudes, and expectations can play out in the classroom.
3. What are some things teachers must do to prepare themselves for successfully teaching these learners?
The main thing is to pre-assess your learners on the first day of classes, so you can get a good feeling of who can read, write and speak successfully. A pre-assessment is an organizational tool to help you identify differences between current performance and desired performance. It allows you to determine what the students already know and what they are capable of doing. You can then determine what concepts and/or skills students still need to know, or learn, in order to complete necessary tasks.
4. What types of methodologies work for these groups of language learners?
I would say that it’s more of getting to know the learners than worrying which methodology works better than another.
Here are some of the methodologies I’ve found that work:
- When teaching grammar, for example, teach more inductively – i.e. give the example and have students elicit the rule.
- Use open-ended activities as opposed to close-ended activities. Brainstorming for example is a great open-ended activites because it allows for multiple responses to one teacher cue. Also, it appeals to heterogenous classes, because all students are working at their own pace – the stronger students are participating while the slower and more quieter ones are listening, but they are active!
- Use lots of structured pair and group work to support a teaching point.
Teaching successfully these learners involves much more than just a knowledge of how to teach English; you need to be also culturally sensitive to the challenges these learners face and plan activities that cater to these cultural differences.
Canadian expat Carrie Kellenberger has kept a home base with her husband in Asia since 2003. A prolific traveler, Carrie has funded her travels primarily as a writer, editor, travel blogger and photographer, but she has also worked as an educator, voice over artist, model and nightclub singer. She draws upon her 15+ years of travel experience to write about travel-related issues and the countries she has visited on her award-winning web site, My Several Worlds.
Her photography and travel articles have appeared in both print and online publications around the world, including Travel and Leisure Asia, Unearthing Asia and Hip Compass Escapes.
