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they first come to the school. She has also taught adult ESL classes for a
long time.
For example, I would use the simple present tense structure for questions
about routine such as Do you live ? Do you walk to school? Do you
take the bus? Then the grammar structure would be pointed out i.e. I, you,
we, they ____(verb) and he, she, it ____s (verb + s).
Of course errors will always happen, but they also do for native speakers
espescially for spelling and even grammar.
It is hard for me not to correct every error, but depending on the level and
the purpose of the writing, I focus on correcting anything that has been
taught or is the focus of the lesson. They cant be expected to be correct
with what they dont know/havent been taught or exposed to yet.
I also stress that errors are the way to improvement and are not a sign or
measure of failure.
I also have students create their own personalized spelling list (a chart in
alphabetical order) to add and refer to.
5. How long does it take for students to really understand the rules
of grammar when first taught? Are ELLs better at understanding
these rules than their L1 peers (since the peers often acquired the
language without thinking about grammatical rules)?
In general, I think they should just correct the mistake and only explain the
rule if asked and they know how to.
Imbed the grammar in real-life context (e.g. the Side by Side text series is
great for putting grammar into communicative practice with questions and
answers in pairs).
Remind ELLs that even (and especially) native speakers make mistakes too
(e.g. with object pronouns and past participles) and that spoken language is
more flexible than written.
Observations:
My colleague has been teaching ELLs for a long time, and I find it
rewarding to see that her answers correspond with everything we have
learned in this course. I was very happy to hear that she agrees that she
agrees about the importance of students maintaining their L1 and in our
conversation after the official interview she told me that the lets students
use their L1 regularly. The personalized spelling list also includes their L1. I
believe that such a list is a great idea and since its electronic, its easy to
add to it and maintain the alphabetical order. Back when I moved, I had
little vocabulary cards, which would have been easy to keep in such an
order, as well (I had them organized by category). I can also understand my
colleagues answer about correcting mistakes. While it is most important to
correct mistakes of things that students have not learned, it is hard to leave
mistakes in written work, especially when it is a bigger project (opposed to
a journal entry). While it looks discouraging to get a marked-up page back,
it is also the best way to learn. I was often unsure about some of the things I
wrote. If it got corrected, then I knew how to make it better. If my teacher
would have left mistakes in my written work, it would have let to more
mistakes. I often went back to look at my work and see how I had worded
something similar before. If it had not been corrected the first time, I would
have made the mistake again. After a while I got used to a lot of correcting,
and it did not bother me anymore. Maybe colour coding mistakes that
students should have known about and others that they had not learned
about yet, would be a way to encourage students more (although this is
more work for the teacher, of course). I also agree with my colleague that
spoken language is more flexible, and I really like that she keeps reminding
her ELLs that native speakers make many mistakes, as well.
Grammar resources:
http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/