ESL Students Bring You the World

ESL Students Bring You the World: Creating a Project-Driven Course for Adult Immigrant ESL StudentsSaskia E. Akyil : 

ESL Students Bring You the World: Creating a Project-Driven Course for Adult Immigrant ESL StudentsSaskia E. Akyil EESL 614: Curriculum Design Heejung Kim

Introduction : 

Introduction “ESL Students Bring You the World” is the title of a booklet written entirely by students, and it is one of the outcomes of a project-driven ESL course he designed for adult immigrants. Desire To find something that would inspire, encourage, and fulfill adult immigrant students, to create interesting and beneficial lessons for students Course The evolution took place over two years. The course was developed into a content-driven class curriculum, and eventually evolved into a project-driven class curriculum. The course was within a bare-bones program curriculum, nonpermanent statewide competencies, and assessments that were continually in transition. The course is highly adaptable in permanently fluctuating programs.

Curricular Context : 

Curricular Context Student Intermediate ESL class for adult immigrant students at a community college in the western United States The program lacked a program-wide curriculum, and possessed only a few copies of dated language books. The classes met ten hours a week for a ten-week quarter at a community college in a medium-sized town. New students came virtually every week due to open enrollment. Difficulties The linguistic, educational, age, and cultural differences in intermediate ESL classes Students have very little in common with one another. (Various Nationality, Varying level of Education and English skills )

ESL: Experiencing a Second Life? : 

ESL: Experiencing a Second Life? Adults ESL students’ needs They are learning English because they need it to survive in the U.S. They need to learn English in real life activities. Intelligent adults have a tremendous amount of prior knowledge and experience and want to understand their new world. Role as an ESL teacher of adult immigrants Students’ social worker; U.S. economics, culture, and politics professor; etiquette instructor; social director; career counselor; and medical advisor Teacher needs to help them engage their existing knowledge of the world so that the new information they absorbed could be placed into their preexisting framework of knowledge.

ESL Class for Adult Immigrants : 

ESL Class for Adult Immigrants Content-based Class The integration of language and content instruction Language is crucial instrument to learn academic content. To maintain the interest of students who are not inherently interested in the language itself and to provide a medium through which they can still acquire and practice the target language An effective means of learning language for adult immigrants: grammar, pronunciation, speaking, listening, reading, and writing are nested into the context of a subject with which they can identify. A course with content that is tailored to students’ common experiences can be empowering, motivating, and educational for students and teachers alike.

ESL Class for Adult Immigrants : 

ESL Class for Adult Immigrants Weekly themes provide a medium through which to present and use the language. Creating a project as the goal and outcome of an ESL course and the project could tie together the weekly themes A built-in reward for students could serve as more meaningful evidence of their own accomplishment and provide motivation throughout the course Autobiography To teach how to write successfully for Western teachers U.S. way of writing : direct, chronological, explicit explanation of facts

The Roots of a New Course : 

The Roots of a New Course Learner-driven approach Students determine the direction in which the class would go. Learner-driven approach guarantee that the themes would be relevant to students. Critical learner-driven course (unlike a traditional textbook-driven course) : flexible, the instructor can modify the subject matter according to student and instructor needs, abilities, and preferences. Conversation lessons were drew on topics that students were more apt to talk about. (e.g., students’ native countries and experiences in U.S.) Students’ response was positive, and students participated rather enthusiastically.

The Roots of a New Course : 

The Roots of a New Course Expository writing Expository writing serves the dual purpose of helping students prepare for class discussions and helping students feel comfortable writing paragraphs and essays. Theme of class Common experiences as humans and as immigrants that they all had although there are vast differences in education, age, native language, and motivation for coming to the United States Challenge To teach a class of intermediate, adult immigrant ESL students what they wanted and needed to learn to be able to write or speak in a foreign language; understanding of how to present the information in a way that makes sense to the reader

The Evolution of a Project : 

The Evolution of a Project Project-driven class The project that students work toward from the beginning of the course to the end “ESL Students Bring You the World” : the booklet, and the book release party to give them a sense of pride, accomplishment, and purpose The themes vary with the needs and interests of the students, the project accompanies them from the beginning of the course to the end. What is different from traditional weekly theme-based courses : Although each module has its own theme, there is still a connection from week to week in a book of student essays published at the end of the quarter.

The Curriculum Shell : 

The Curriculum Shell The Curriculum Shell : the curriculum for this project-driven class because it has more of a modular form than a restrictive, continuous linear curriculum A weekly activity rotation framework To give students some sense of routine without having routine feel overly repetitive A Cycle of Theme : Biographies and Business The first six weeks of class focus primarily on autobiographical themes, from which essays for the student book are drawn.

Conclusion : 

Conclusion The difference with the ESL Students Bring You the World project is that it connects the themes both to each other and to the students’ life experiences throughout the entire quarter. The book project is cognitively engaging and intrinsically motivating. Students have the opportunity to use the content knowledge and expertise they bring to class. Activating students’ prior knowledge can help improve their retention of new language skills. H.D.Brown (1994) said, “meaningful learning ‘subsumes’ new information into existing structures and memory systems, and the resulting associative links create stronger retention.” The project connects students’ skills and knowledge to the English-speaking world. (theme-based instruction connects English to real-life and real-world skills)

Conclusion : 

Conclusion The benefits of including autobiographical writing assignments in the curriculum The students’ desire to accurately convey their ideas promotes a negotiation of meaning, which further enhances their language acquisition. Students find it hard to avoid the difficult structures they are learning because they become determined to express authentic and accurate thoughts, ideas, and stories. Plagiarism is not an attractive or easy option for assignment about personal subject. The assignments that lead up to the student book provide students with more tangible evidence of their accomplishments.

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