ELLforNonELLTeachers:TeacherTalk

Slowdown.Itsimportanttomaintainanaturalrhythm,butifyouspeaktooquickly,
yourlecturesandinstructionswilljustbeawallofsoundforastudentwhoisstill
developingherlisteningskills.
Useaconsistentvocabularyfordailyroutines.
FrontloadcontentvocabularysoyourELLscanbetteranticipateandfollowwhat
youresaying.Posttheimportantterms.Teachthem.
Practiceembeddinganswersinyourquestions.Studentswhoarestilldeveloping
Englishcantquicklyarticulatewhattheyknow,evenwhenitsatermyouvetaught.
Asking,WhatkindofgovernmentdidAustriahave?mightelicit,Idontknow,
whilepointingatthemapandasking,DidAustriahaveamonarchyorademocracy?
willgetananswer.
Gesture.Usefacialexpressions,bodylanguage,andyourhands.Pointtokeyterms,
examples,orrelatedimagesintheroom,inyourpresentations,onstudentmaterials.
Beexplicitinyourtransitions.ELLsaresobusyprocessingthattheymaynotrealize
whenyouvemovedontoanewpointorevenwhenyouvewrappedupadigression
Becomecomfortablewithpausesandsilence.Allteachersunderstandthe
importanceofwaittime.Itsevenmoreimportantforastudentwhomaybementally
translatingorotherwisedecipheringorformulatingwhattosay.
Sayless.Whetheroutofanxietyorfriendlinessorboth,manyteachers,inmy
experience,chattertoomuchwhenspeakingtolessproficientELLs.Usenonverbal
meanstone,gestures,expressiontoshowthatwarmthandinterest,butspeakin
fewer,shorter,simplersentences.IcanttellyouhowmanytimesIvewitnesseda
wellmeaningteacherTALKTALKTALKatastudentwhosmiles,nods,andturnstome
toexplainwhatallthatwasabout.
Saymore.Elaborate.Often,ittakesverylittletimeortroubletodefineorexplaina
newwordinthecourseoftheconversationorevenlecture.
Repeatyourselfexactlythefirsttimeastudentasksyoutosaysomethingagain,or
whenyourealizeawordorphrasehasnotbeenunderstood.Changingyourphrasing
beforethelearnerhashadachancetolistenasecondtimeisoftenmoreconfusing
forbothofyou.
However
Beawareof,reduce,andrephraseidiomaticspeech.Evenstudentswhohavelivedin
theU.S.foryearsmaybedistractedbytryingtofigureoutwhichballyoumeanto
startrolling.

ELLforNonELLTeachers AllisonParrett2012