Adjusting In A New Classroom

 

One of the major problems that ESL students face is difficulty adjusting to the new classroom environment. Some ESL students will feel a sense of dislocation or trauma upon leaving their homeland and arriving in a foreign land. ESL students arrive from different countries around the world and are at various stages in their education. Some students may have received formal education in their home countries, and some students may have had limited or inconsistent access to schooling. Even if students have had prior instruction in English, they may still have difficulty in learning in Ontario classrooms.



Teachers should collaborate with ESL or ELD experts to plan effective programs that will facilitate English Language. Some recommendations for ESL students are support programs such as English as a Second Language (ESL) and English Literacy Development (ELD).



ESL students are recommended to interact with proficient speakers of English in classrooms on a regular basis.



In order to help ESL students feel comfortable in classroom settings, the following adaptations should be considered in lessons and instructional programs.

1. · Modification of some or all of the subject expectations so that they are challenging but attainable for the learner at his or her present level of English proficiency.
2. · Use of a variety of instructional strategies (e.g., extensive use of visual cues, graphic organizers, scaffolding; previewing of textbooks, pre-teaching of key vocabulary; peer tutoring);
3. · Use of a variety of learning resources (e.g., visual material, simplified text, bilingual dictionaries, and materials that reflect cultural diversity);
4. · Use of assessment accommodations (e.g., granting of extra time, oral interviews, demonstrations or visual representations, tasks requiring completion of graphic organizers or closed sentences instead of essay questions and other assessment tasks that depend heavily on proficiency in English).

Prepared for you by Evelyn