Teaching The Latin Language In High School

By John Davison

Latin was the language of the Roman Empire. All of the Romance languages, including French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, are directly descended from this native tongue. Our own English language is heavily influenced by roots from the Latin Language (as many as 80 percent of our language can be traced to Latin). Today, Ecclesiastical Latin is the official language of the Roman Catholic Church and the Vatican. With so much influence on our own language coming from Latin, it is surprising that students are not encouraged to study it in high school and college. Though considered a ?dead language?, Latin education can actually help students improve English grammar, as well as provide a historical foundation for their educations.

Today, Latin is taught primarily for the purpose of translating ancient literature. It is not really taught conversationally. Proficiency in Latin is achieved in reading and translating. Often, students that study Latin in college are majors in Classical Studies, wherein they study all aspects of Ancient Greek and Roman history and Culture, or they are pre-Law or pre-Medicine students. Having a knowledge of the Latin language has obvious benefits for Law and Medical students in that they will be better able to learn technical terminology, most of which is comprised of Latin words and phrases. Classical studies majors often go on to earn Master?s degrees and Doctoral degrees either in Art History or Archaeology, where knowledge of the Latin language helps them in their research, or they often devote their graduate studies to the language itself, where they can go on to teach Latin in high schools or earn a place as a professor of Classics at a college or University.

Teaching the Latin language in high school can be challenging. Most students take foreign languages to satisfy requirements for graduation, not for the enjoyment of learning a new language. And they often take ?easier? language such as Spanish or French. And since Latin is not taught conversationally, learning it can be considered a boring series of memorization or vocabulary words and noun and verb endings. It is important for the Latin teacher to make learning the language for those students that do decide to tackle it interesting and not just a matter of memorizing verb conjugations and noun declension charts. There are several ways in which success in teaching Latin in high school can be achieved.

Using modern technology to teach an ancient language might seem unlikely. But, there are many resources available online to assist the Latin teacher in his or her pursuits. Many websites offer charts, tutorials, and games to not only help the teacher, but to help engage the students. Learning Latin can be made easier using technology, while allowing the students to use the Internet as a means of education. Students today are all but required to use the Internet academically, and eventually professionally. Combining learning Latin with learning Internet skills is a perfect way to bridge the gap between ancient and modern.

Another way to make learning the Latin language interesting is by incorporating Roman history and Mythology into the subject. By bringing history and myth into the study of the Latin language, students will understand the origins of the language, as well as understand the impact the language and the history of Rome has had on our modern world. Games can be played and plays can be put on, utilizing Roman mythological stories and literature, and students can learn everything from Roman military strategy to Roman engineering to Roman cooking to how Roman people dressed.

As a high school Latin teacher, it can be frustrating that the language is misunderstood and under-appreciated. But, by using modern technology and creative teaching methods, The ?dead? Latin language can be brought to life, and students will learn not only the language, but have a clearer understanding of English grammar, as well as a foundation that will open up their options as they enter college.

Learning Styles And Their Effect On Language Learning

By Frank Gerace

Note: This article makes special reference to the effect of learning syles in the learning of Spanish but the principles are valid for all language learning.

¡LEER ES PODER!
¡Learning Spanish!

How can you best learn Spanish? It depends on your particular approach to learning. Take a look at the following approaches to learning Spanish. But if you already know where you are, you can skip the following reflections and go back to see what is available for your level ( beginning, intermediate, or advanced ) in Spanish, to sort and search for your specific needs, as well as to read reviews and summaries of the books that strike your interest.

DIFFERENT STYLES

Non-Virgins: Those who studied another language should use the skills they acquired with that language. They know what a conjugation is. They know that verbs are different from nouns. Their previous study gives them some mental hooks to help with their Spanish. They should not throw away their advantage by working on Spanish in a completely conversational manner. They should try to get an overview of some commonplaces in the language. They should get an "old fashioned" grammar and lean heavily on the tables to organize their thought. This type of learner should "invent" Spanish on the basis of what they know of the other language. They will remember a little of the structure of the other language. For example, what is the relation between adverbs and adjectives in Spanish? What is the most common way to express what happened yesterday (past tense)? If the other language is a Western language, they should observe the possible similarities. If the other language is non-Western, the very differences can be their starting point to learn the counterparts in Spanish. In short, they should study "the wrong way". This is not for everyone. The learner should know his or herself.

Brains: These folks will operate much like the Non-Virgins. They will progress better by concentrating on the little points that intrigue them such as the difference in usage between the prepositions "por" and "para" and the verbs "ser" and "estar". To master one or two of these elements so characteristic of Spanish will help the learn build on their conquests to go on to master other things. This analytical approach will be of great utility to the persons with the cerebral learning style.

Motor Mouths: The persons who are not afraid to try out their Spanish will progress very rapidly. These folks probably have a little genetic edge over the rest of us. However, we all should try to put together the pieces as we learn them. If there is no opportunity to talk with someone else, then we can tape our attempts. There are two parts to this early talking practice: confidence and pronunciation. The most important thing is to gain confidence or to be thick-skinned enough to speak your piece, knowing that the exercise will pay dividends. However, we should not put off working on our pronunciation until it is too late and we have given up on acquiring a valid accent. There are too many people who after living years in a Spanish speaking country are perfect in their grammar but who have a typical or even stereotypical English accent. There is no need for that. Spanish is perfectly regular in its phonetics. Motor mouths should also work on their accent!

People People: Anyone who likes being with people and who has a need to communicate will progress quickly in learning a language. Many outgoing, friendly people learn language in the "motor mouth" mode. However, other people without the gifts of the motor mouths can gain valuable exposure to the language by just following their social instincts. These folks, however, should not overlook the need to speak correctly. Although they are not interested in traditional grammar in the same way the "brains" are, they must work at speaking correctly. We all know people who learned English years ago, but still say things like, "I am interested to go with you". You don't want to spend your life in Spanish with a similar easily corrected error. Learn it right as soon as you can. The people people have to stay curious about the language.

Learn-while-doing People: I was told once that the only way to learn French was to sleep with a French woman. The idea behind this is that we learn the expressions and words for the activities we are interested in. People who learn like this try to get their Spanish-speaking friends to accompany them as they cook or fix their car. They find that they learn better when their whole body is involved in learning the new words and phrases. For example, the person who learns the word "serrucho" while sawing a board will remember it better than the person (see the "word collector") who just learns the vocabulary from a list.

Word Collectors: This person may be great at crossword puzzles (Crucigramas) in Spanish but rarely gets to speak it. If you find yourself learning words and not getting any further, break out of it! We once had a houseguest, a young man from Spain who came to learn English. There were times when our family would be talking Spanish, and he would echo all the Spanish words with their English equivalents. He had a great vocabulary but never got around to talking English. This kind of learner should alway make sure that they make up sentences to practice using the new words they learn. They can combine their ability with vocabulary with the "divide and conquer" tactic. They should not only invent sentences to use the new words; they should run through diferent grammatical constructions as the setting for their vocabulary.

Divide and Conquer People: Every learner of a foreign language has to learn to incorporate the learning style of dividing and conquering into their own style. If they are "brains" they should concentrate on one grammatical turn of phrase, such as conditions contrary to fact, (If my grandfather hadn't died, he'd be alive today!) until they can handle it.
The people people should repeat in the same conversation the new expression that they just heard. The same goes for all the others. The only way to learn a language is by following the "swiss cheese" method, nibble away at the things you don't know, and master them until they are all gone.

Lost Latinos: This person should try to remember the nursery rhymes that they might have learned in Spanish. They should run over the names of their cousins and uncles. All of this will loosen up their rusty language skills. They should listen to how others speak "spanglish" and try to figure out the proper way to say things. They should make a game of trying to spot the influence of English in the Spanish they hear at home or in the barrio. This detective work will make them more aware of correcting whatever bad habits they have picked up. However, don't think that these persons have all the advantages. The person learning from scratch will probably spell Spanish words better than those who know a little Spanish. I'm not sure why.

What works for EVERYONE... There are two activities that will help everyone, no matter what their learning style, move forward rapidly: They are: 1. Passive Listening, and 2. Pattern Response Drills.

1. Passive Listening. Everyone should keep the Spanish radio on as much as possible. Keep the radio or TV on while you doing other things. It has to be the sea of sound that you swim in while you are beginning your study of Spanish. You don't have to concentrate on it; you are not listening to try to understand. After a while you won't hear it but it will be affecting you. Little by little you will begin to anticipate the rhythm of the language, even before you understand everything. You will also begin to recognize certain words. You will begin to hear "beyond" the differences in pronunciation of different people and recognize the underlying word. Once you clearly hear a word or phrase, you can look it up and progressively expand your vocabulary.

2. Pattern Response Drills. You have to run through all the permutations of the new expressions that you learn. For example, suppose you just learned to say. "Pedro tiene cuatro años" rather than translating from the English incorrectly, "Pedro es cuatro". Now to make this new element of the language stick with you, you should go on substituting different ages and the names of different people. You have to be able to say comfortably, "María tiene cuatro años." "Juan tiene ocho años." "Yo tengo treinta años." "¿Cuántos años tienes tú?" "Nosotros tenemos cuarenta años." This type of drill is necessary for all the different learning styles.

Do you want to return to look at beginning ; intermediate , or advanced books? Or you can check out other Books ON Spanish at: http://www.bookslibros.com/spanishbooks.php to help you out.

Or do you want to see our books IN Spanish? You will find books on health, the family, self help, literature, etc. and the possibility to search for any other topic. Check out http://www.bookslibros.com/LibrosEnEspanol.php

Kids Can Learn Spanish

By Frank Gerace

Spanish for Kids, Spanish for Children, Teach Kids Spanish

Kids Can Learn Spanish! Spanish for Children

I just got a call from my two year old granddaughter. She wanted to sing "Los Pollitos" to me. You can find this children's classic in most of the collections of songs that we are recommending.

It is perfect for hand gestures. These gestures are ideal for language learning because they imprint the sense of the words as the child recites.

The text is: (translation follows)

Los pollitos dicen pío, pío, pío
cuando tienen hambre,
y cuando tienen frío.

(the kids make gesture of shivering)

La gallina busca el maíz y el trigo;
Le da su comida,
Y le presta abrigo

(the kids make the gesture of Mom hugging her kids.)


Pío, pío, pío

(the kids should ham it up, making a little chick face!)

Translation:

The little chicks say peep, peep, peep
when they are hungry
and when they are cold.


The chicken looks for corn and wheat;
she feeds them,
and she keeps them warmn


There are many reasons for wanting your children to learn Spanish. We want to help you find resources that will help you with Spanish for Kids.

Some parents are interested in preparing their children for life in today's world where it is important to know more than one language. This is even more important in our hemisphere where it becomes increasingly valuable to know Spanish.

Other people think of the intellectual stimulation that learning a language provides. They think that they can give their children a an additional intellectual challenge in a painless way. Researcher in London, England have determined that learning a second language boosts brain power which remains throughout life.

Learning a language can be a source of pride and self esteem for the child who is fortunate enough to be exposed to learning outside of the classroom.

There are some parents who are concerned that their children grow up respecting the different heritages that surround them. Concerned that the nativist tradition of United States history is always present, many parents, not of a Spanish Speaking background, choose to prepare their children to accept and embrace the Hispanic culture they live alongside of.

Their reason to encourage their children to speak Spanish is based in part on the history of a previous group of Latin immigrants to the United States, the Italians.

"Some social critics were aware of the consequences of sudden assimilation. Mary McDowell, a social worker, wrote en 1904:

'The contempt for the experiences and languages of their parents which foreign children sometimes exhibit... is doubtless due in part to the overestimation which the school places upon speaking English. This cutting into his family loyalty takes away one of the most conspicuous and valuable traits of the Italian child.' She attributed the lawlessness of some of the immigrant children to their disrespect for their parents and therefore for all authority."

(La Storia: Five Centuries of the Italian American Experience, Mangione and Morreale, p. 222)

Reflection on this same national history, and often more importantly personal experience, moves many Hispanic parents to keep their language alive in their children. They want to preserve their heritage for their children by giving them its most evocative and powerful manifestation, the language of their forebears.


Whatever your reason for wanting your children to learn Spanish, this site will provide resources to help you. You will find suggestions and experiences of others who share your interest; you will find songs and stories in Spanish that will enthuse your children with their learning task. A list of links to related sites will lead you to other resources. And you will find that the books you need for yourself and your children have been located and placed at your disposition.

¡Buena Suerte y adelante con su cometido!


Do the Parents Know Spanish?

Although most of us agree that it is a good thing for our kids to speak Spanish, most kids in the US whose parents were born in Latin American countries do not speak Spanish well.

Even if both parents speak Spanish at home, quite often the kids answer their parents in English. Look around at your Latin friends and relatives and you will see that most give up on teaching their kids to speak

Spanish. Chicano and Puerto Rican families seem to have a little better luck than Latinos from other countries with keeping Spanish alive in their barrios but even their younger generation is losing fluency in Spanish.

However, parents who want their children to speak Spanish can go against the current and set the stage for their children to grow up speaking Spanish. It is not easy. Most families fail in their resolve but it CAN be done. Take a look at our bilingual study. How to Get Your Children to Speak Your Language/¿Cómo Lograr que Sus Hijos Hablen Su Idioma? You can find it in http://www.leerespoder.com/comoeng.htm. This report will give some hints on how to improve your chances.

But it is most important for you to get your kids reading Spanish BEFORE they learn to read in English.

Don't be afraid that it will hurt their English. Unless they are living in a closed Spanish Speaking Barrio,

their English will be perfect. They will absorb it on the playground and in the school. Your job is to keep the Spanish up!

Take a look at the fuller argument presented below for the importance of your kids learning to read FIRST in Spanish.

Finally, another idea for native speakers of Spanish: You may want to review (or study it for the first time) your Spanish. I found one reference for you. Sorry it is expensive; that's because it is used as a textbook. But that will make it easy to use and will surely be complete. Take a look at Nuevos Mundos, Spanish for Native Speakers 2nd Edition, Workbook : Curso de espanol para estudiantes bilingues"


Whether or not the parents know Spanish will determine their strategy for exposing their children to the language. Obviously, parents who do not know the language well will not have native pronunciation.

If their children learn to read Spanish, they may not have the proper pronunciation. This is a tough issue. Some might say that pronunciation is not important for children. However, why not try to expose them to the correct values of the Spanish sounds. Parents should work on their own pronunciation to model as correctly as possible for their kids.

Nevertheless, the value of the parents' involvement in reading and singing in Spanish with their children more than outweighs the disadvantage of the child hearing their poor pronunciation. Much of the damage can be remedied by having the child listen to as much Spanish spoken by native speakers as possible.

So, in general terms parents can fall into one of three groups:
1. those who know NO Spanish;
2. those who know enough to read, even poorly;
3. and those who can model correct pronunciation for their children. All these parents should make sure their children HEAR a lot of good Spanish but obviously those parents who know no Spanish will be more dependent on recordings for their children to listen to. Try to find some good audio resources. Besides the tapes and CDs you might buy or take out of the library don't forget the radio and TV. All parents should expose their children to ask much passive listening of Spanish that they can. In most places there are Spanish language radio stations. TV programs from the Univision network are very widespread.

All of the above boils down to three tactics that are valid for all kinds of parents and all kinds of kids of all ages and level of Spanish.........


1. Passive Listening: Everyone should keep the Spanish radio on as much as possible. Keep the radio or TV on while the childis doing other things. It has to be the sea of sound that they swim in while they are beginning their study of Spanish. The child doesn't have to concentrate on it; they will not be listening to try to understand. After a while they won't even hear the radio but it will be affecting them. Little by little they will begin to anticipate the rhythm of the language, even before they understand they words. They will also begin to recognize certain words.

2. Pattern Response Drills: Those parents who know some Spanish can try to run through all the permutations of the new expressions that the child learns. For example, suppose your child just learned to say. "Pedro tiene cuatro años" rather than translating from the English incorrectly, "Pedro es cuatro". Now to make this new element of the language stick, you should go on substituting different ages and the names of different people. The child will soon be able to say comfortably, "María tiene cuatro años." "Juan tiene ocho años." "Yo tengo tres años." "¿Cuántos años tienes tú?" There are many examples of these drills in most language courses but the parent can generate them herself.


3. Encouragement: Don't correct their Spanish when they speak. Don't interrupt the flow of their conversation. Don't make their speaking Spanish to be another homework assignment. It should be something special, even something "secret" in your family. Kids like the mystery and intrigue of having something special of their own. Their speaking Spanish should be a joyful, non-threatening experience. If they make mistakes in their grammar, correct their errors by using the same expression correctly a few minutes after. Don't come right back at them with the correct form or they will begin to feel conscious of their expression and choke off their freedom of expression.

also...........

The Alphabet: If your child is coming up on kindergarten age,
you have a wonderful opportunity to teach him or her how to read in Spanish BEFORE they learn the alphabet in English! Why? I will be brief, hoping that you will catch the direction of my thought (and my practice, with both my children and my grandson!)

Spanish is completely regular. They can learn the vowels in one sitting.This is how Spanish Speaking kids learn: from "abecedarios", the same as English Speaking children used to learn from primers. If your child learns to read (even if only simple words) Spanish first, in effect you are giving them a
great head start.

You can start the child reading the simple words like Mami, comida, mesa, Papi, muñeca, carro, etc. Basically you are giving them phonics without having to buy any expensive program.
You can do them no harm because, they will have a basis of the sounds that DO hold up for English; they will have achieved the satisfaction and boost to their confidence by your enthusisastic affirmation of the achievement when they read "Mami y Papi" and other simple phrases.

As they progress in English they will still have to deal with the irregularities of this language. However, they will have learned the consonants by applying them to completely foolproof regular vowels.

I said I would be brief. I am very convinced of the value of this method. I have no scientific proof, just intuition and my own experience. To work, you have to teach the child to read the alphabet in Spanish BEFORE they begin to learn in English. If they are already learning in English, it will confuse them. But if you get there FIRST, you will do them a great favor! to see a bunch of alphabet resources for you to choose from.

Toys and Games: Of lesser importance but still a possible beakthrough for certain children could be the use of toys and games (board games and others) as a way to sneak in some fun and variety into the learning process. See if Spanish Educational Toys would be useful for your child.

Computer Programs for kids If you or your child is computer savvy or if you want to combine math or science with Spanish you may want to check out the Educational Software for Children in Spanish: Reader Rabbit, Disney, Jump Start and many more...

Some First Recitations


A long time, universal, traditional favorite is "Pinpón"

Pinpón es un muñeco,
muy guapo y de cartón

(the kids smile for "muy guapo",
and act stiff for "de cartón")

se lava la carita
(the kids make the gesture of washing their face)

con agua y con jabón.


Pinpón dame la mano,
(the kids reach out their hand)

que quiero ser tu amigo
(the kids make the gesture of shaking hands)

¡Pinpón, Pinpón, Pinpón!


Translation:

Pinpón is a doll,
a handsome cardboard doll.
He washes his face
with soap and water.

Pinpón give me your hand,
I want to be your friend.
Pinpón, Pinpón, Pinpón!


Another favorite of our kids was "La Mar Estaba Serena"
Kids like this one because it is easy to follow. The repetition helps them learn the relation between noun and adjective as well as the vowels in Spanish.


The same verse is repeated by using all of the vowels in turn. It begins by the parent singing, "La mar estaba serena; serena estaba la mar". (The sea was calm; calm was the sea.) Then either the parent or one of several children taking turns shouts out, "¡con A!", meaning, "Let's sing it with all "a" sounds"! And you sing, "La mar astaba sarana; sarana astaba la mar."

"¡con e"! "Le mer estebe serene; serene estebe le mer".

"¡con i"! "Li mir istibi sirini; sirini istibi li mir".

"¡con o"! "Lo mor ostobo sorono; sorono ostobo lo mor".

"¡con u"! "Lu mur ustubu surunu; surunu estubu lu mur.

You'll find the kids really like this one.


English (sic!) As A Second Language

It might be interesting to do some "reverse engineering" and look at the world of those Spanish Speakers who want to learn English. Check out http://www.leerespoder.com.


Reading in Spanish for the Parents

If you want to keep up your Spanish. Try to keep reading books in Spanish on a wide range of topics, la familia, la salud, los negocios, el niño, el adolescente, etc. A good source is http://www.bookslibros.com/LibrosEnEspanol.php.

How To Get Your Kids To Speak Your Language

By Frank Gerace

Note: This experience had to do with preserving Spanish for our kids but the principles are valid for anyone trying to help their kids speak and preserve any language and culture.

COUNTRY OF MANY PEOPLES
This country,,, (The authors raised their kids in the United States but they believe that their experience can be useful for people in other non-spanish-speaking countries.) This country is made up of people from all over the world. We or our parents came from Latin countries. We now live here. We function in two different worlds, the American world and the world of our parents. All of us live in these two different worlds in different ways. Some of us were born in the countries our parents came from; others of us were born here. This makes a difference in how and how much we live in our two worlds.

COUNTRY OF MANY LANGUAGES
The one thing that is most important in our parents' world is their language which is also ours in different ways. The Spanish language of our parents is an issue to all of us every day. We may be proud to speak it well. We may be ashamed at not speaking it well. Some of us may have gone through periods of trying not to speak it because we wanted to speak English better. We may only speak it when we come across someone who needs help in understanding English. We may only remember some sayings of our grandparents or children's songs taught to us by our parents.

You may want to review (or study it for the first time) your Spanish. We could only find one reference for you. It is expensive and is a textbook, not too appealing but complete. Take a look at Nuevos Mundos, Spanish for Native Speakers 2nd Edition, Workbook : Curso de espanol para estudiantes bilingues"

F. Bruce Robinson, assistant director in the National Endowment for the Humanities' division of education programs asks "How does America preserve this important resource of people who are proficient in other languages? Instead of trying to depress the knowledge these students come to school with, we ought to be trying to build on it." (Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb. 2, 1994, page A15)

OUR CHILDREN AND OUR LANGUAGE
We all want our children to speak the language of their heritage. We discount the opinions of those who say that it is better to forget Spanish and to concentrate on speaking English well. These people are just wrong. It does not hurt your English to speak another language; it helps. Spanish is particularly useful to children in their learning English vocabulary. Just today I taught my daughter the difference between vowels and consonants. Knowing Spanish really helped with the idea of the consonants. I told her that the consonants have no voice; they can only be pronounced with the vowels. The con-sonants suenan con the vowels.

But although most of us agree that it is a good thing for our kids to speak Spanish, most kids in the US whose parents were born in Latin American countries do not speak Spanish well.

Even if both parents speak Spanish at home, quite often the kids answer their parents in English. Look around at your Latin friends and relatives and you will see that most give up on teaching their kids to speak Spanish. Chicano and Puerto Rican families seem to have a little better luck than Latinos from other countries with keeping Spanish alive in their barrios but even their younger generation is losing fluency in Spanish.

However, parents who want their children to speak Spanish can go against the current and set the stage for their children to grow up speaking Spanish. It is not easy. Most families fail in their resolve but it can be done. This report will give some hints on how to improve your chances.

REASONS FOR OUR CHILDREN TO SPEAK SPANISH
There are many reasons why it is good for the kids to speak your language. One obvious reason is the advantage that it might be for them in the job market. As long as we live in a world with shrunken distances and growing international trade, someone has to be able to talk with people from other countries.

Professor Francisco X. Alarcón of the University of California at Davis says that "now that we are moving toward a global economy, it's O.K. to be bilingual in the U.S." (Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb.2, 1994, page A15)

Another good reason for you to work at your children's learning to speak Spanish is because it will make you proud to hear the compliments of your friends and countrymen because your children are able to speak your language. You grow in prestige as a person who values your roots.

Your children will also be able to speak with their relatives thanks to improved phone service which is entering the most remote villages of our countries. Direct dialing from the United States is economical enough to be able call a few times a year. The thrill of being able to talk to their uncles, aunts, and cousins will get the kids interested in keeping up their language.

They will be speaking to their relatives not only by phone but will be able to visit them. The experience of knowing another culture will put them ahead of their classmates who have no ties to their roots.

Another reason to encourage our children to speak Spanish can be gotten from the history of a previous group of Latin immigrants to the United States, the Italians.

"Some social critics were aware of the consequences of sudden assimilation. Mary McDowell, a social worker, wrote en 1904:

'The contempt for the experiences and languages of their parents which foreign children sometimes exhibit... is doubtless due in part to the overestimation which the school places upon speaking English. This cutting into his family loyalty takes away one of the most conspicuous and valuable traits of the Italian child.' She attributed the lawlessness of some of the immigrant children to their disrespect for their parents and therefore for all authority."

(La Storia: Five Centuries of the Italian American Experience, Mangione and Morreale, p. 222)

Finally, the ability to speak another language can be a great boost to a child's self esteem. If the child's parents make it clear that they are proud of their language and of their people, the child will feel closer to his parents and to their heritage, customs, and most importantly to their values.

HOW TO ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILDREN TO SPEAK SPANISH
Start early. Try to speak only Spanish to the child. If only one parent speaks Spanish well, that person should always speak Spanish with the child. Do not be afraid of "confusing" the child. Children can identify with different speakers of different languages as they grow up.

1. Read simple stories and fairy tales to the child in Spanish. if you can't find children's literature in Spanish, then make your own translations as you go along. It is not necessary that the translation be perfect. Make up your own stories. It is important for your child to have the memories of hearing nursery rhymes in Spanish.

2. Leave your radio tuned de Spanish language stations. Linguists place a great deal of importance on "passive listening" as part of learning a language, especially for young children.

3. In most areas there is a Spanish language TV station. Put on the Saturday morning cartoons in Spanish.

4. Teach simple nursery rhymes and simple songs to your child. If you don't remember them or if you were not taught any from your parents' traditions, look for them in garage sales, college bookstores, or your local library. Do you remember el patito or pinpón? Look for songs in Spanish.

5. Rent videos in Spanish. They are beginning to be available - and not only in cities with a big Spanish-speaking population!

6. Use proverbs and dichos in Spanish. Some expressions that you would say in English are just as legitimate proverbs in Spanish. Get your child used to hearing them in Spanish. You can do this even if you don't speak Spanish well. For example, say mejor tarde que nunca instead of "better late than never". Little by little, poco a poco, you'll feel at home with more uniquely Latin expressions. They have something of the culture wrapped up in them. They are stubbornly different from Anglo Saxon proverbs.

7. Get used to saying menos mal in place of "just as well". The English expression is "better than nothing"; in many Southamerican countries, the equivalent expression is peor es nada. Find proverbs.

8. Don't correct their Spanish when they speak. Don't interrupt the flow of their conversation. Don't make their speaking Spanish to be another homework assignment. It should be something special, even something "secret" in your family. Kids like the mystery and intrigue of having something special of their own. Their speaking Spanish should be a joyful, non-threatening experience. If they make mistakes in their grammar, correct their errors by using the same expression correctly a few minutes after. Don't come right back at them with the correct form or they will begin to feel conscious of their expression and choke off their freedom of expression.

9. Get a good syllabary to teach them the value of the letters and how to read in Spanish. If your child's first language is Spanish teach them to read Spanish before they learn English. You will be doing them a big favor. They will learn to sound out the regular spelling of Spanish which will be a good base on which to learn how to read in English. You will get the same results as those who spend money on expensive Phonics programs.

10. The best way to get your children to grow in Spanish is to send them to spend some time with relatives or friends where they will only speak and hear Spanish. This works best at around 7 years old when children play easily with one another and when Spanish will just come naturally even to the child who has very little exposure to the language. Another good age for a child to be exposed to a Spanish speaking environment is at around 12 years old. At this age, the child has greater mental development and can observe customs and situations in which certain expressions are used. At twelve years old most kids are still pre-adolescents and are not hampered by the embarrassment, self consciousness, and "feeling different" which hold back teenagers from learning a language or customs different from their own.

Use any of the above methods but start! Your efforts will communciate to your children the importance that you give to Spanish even if these efforts are not always completely successful.

Language Learning For Children

By Frank Middleton

Historically, languages are not well taught. We can see this is true because most adults who have had to study a language or languages when younger have no real competence in them as an adult. Maybe as a result of these early experiences, many people never learn another word in a foreign language no matter how frequently and widely they travel . It would be unfair to place the blame on the educational system, but an interest in language learning and the non English speaking cultures that go with them is often lacking later in life.

Encouraging an interest in language and so other cultures is a great gift to give, as if you have an interest in something as a child, there is a good chance that it will provide a basis for further learning as an adult. The level of language attained is in some ways less important than gaining a greater understanding and perspective on the world. After all language and culture are inextricably linked.

Most formal language learning, is not taught in an immersive environment, and can‘t be due to lack of resources and time. It is often dominated by exams to be taken and a rigid syllabus to be followed and it is inevitable that this can detract from the spontaneity and fun that are part of language. As a parent, you can’t force your child to be interested in learning other languages but you can try and stimulate an interest and add activities which are perceived as more fun.

Variety is the spice of life and this is equally true when learning, and will help your child put the language into context. One of the difficulties for children who are being taught a language is that it is hard for them to see the point of what they are doing. I remember feeling like that as a child. I lived in a completely monolingual culture and being young I really couldn’t understand the need to learn French.

You can provide variety and stimulate interest by using resources outside of the normal syllabus. It is worth bearing in mind, that when learning a language you need to hear it used in different situations, and when learning vocabulary (as children so often have to do) it helps to see and learn the words in different ways.

Two possible ways of adding interest are through television and computer software. These are not substitutes for activities which encourage participation (such as say a French club) but are easy to fit in at odd moments. Children like watching television . Foreign language television or foreign language versions of films can be extremely helpful. Equally children enjoy using computers and don‘t always associate them with learning. There is a wide range of language learning software available, and this is important as everyone has different styles of learning.

As I have already said variety is the spice of life, and while no computer software or DVD of foreign language cartoons will keep your child interested forever or make them bilingual, it will improve their language skills. For example, watching cartoons in French will inevitably improve their accent, and they will subconsciously pick out words that they already know helping to reinforce and internalise them. The same can be said for language learning software, which is that it is a useful complement but not a substitute to formal learning.

Spanish Language Teaching Methods

By: Steven Muller

Most people would agree on the absolute necessity of learning a foreign language in today’s society. But what is the most adequate, most effective way to do it? Here things get a little bit more complicated. Different answers to this question have guided the various methods employed in the language classrooms throughout the years.

If you grew up during the 70s or 80s you’ve probably been studying a second language at least since you were in high school. Studying is the key word here, because most likely, at the time, you used to complain about the fact that, in spite of hours and hours of study, in the end you could not use the language at all.

Well, it is time for you to know that this was not your fault. It was the consequence of a traditional approach to language teaching with an enormous emphasis on grammar. At the time, it was thought that the grammatical rules of a language were its most important aspect. Consequently, students were forced to memorize hundreds of verb tenses and word lists. But they were never taught to use the language.

The writing and reading skills were also given precedence under the traditional method in detriment of the listening and speaking ones. As a result, the overall communicative competence of the students was very poor. Think about this: after several years of studying, let’s say, Spanish, were you able to follow a film or a television program in that language? Did you feel comfortable speaking Spanish? Or did you panic at the thought of having to travel and encountering native speakers? This is what having a poor communicative competence means, and it is typical of ‘traditional’ students.

Later on, you may have decided to attend a language school. There you probably found a radically different approach: you spent hours and hours repeating sentences after the teacher, without even knowing how they were spelled or what the individual words meant. You were told that this was not necessary.

That ‘communicating’ was the important thing. Most likely the motto of the school was that learning a second language was as easy as learning your native one. This is a typical example of the audio-lingual method, a response to the traditional one. Speaking and listening are the skills stressed here, so students almost never write or read. Unfortunately, most of the conversations drilled are not even near to a real conversation with a native speaker. When you as a student are old enough to understand this, it will be almost impossible to be motivated, and who can blame you?

You’ve probably guessed by now that the most comprehensive method to learn a foreign language should be a combination of traditional with new techniques. This approach would try to pay equal attention to and combine the four different skills by, for example, trying to present the grammar in a conversational format. Students also need meaningful activities that correspond to what they do in the real world. In other words, language teaching needs to be oriented towards a context that is relevant for learners, with materials that engage them and make them become active in their learning.

Home Versus Travel-based Language Learning

by Michael Gabrikow

When you have set your mind on learning a new language, you are in the position to choose how to start learning it. You basically have three options: starting a practical home-based language learning course (possibly an online one), starting a so-called "travel-based" learning experience that would have you travel to a country speaking the language you intend to learn for at least a couple of weeks, or a combination of the two. We will try to dissect these two language learning methods and compare them to see which one is best (or which one is more appropriate for you).

First of all, home-based language courses have two great advantages: they are cheaper and they are more comfortable. Regardless of the language you are learning, you will most likely find dozens of "Learn it yourself" course books as they are in high demand. If they are structured correctly, these courses can actually build a solid foundation for the foreign language you are learning if you can spend enough time and energy to truly focus on each lesson and tackle any problems you might be hindered by.

If you prefer, you also have the option of taking a free online language course provided by one of the many sites focusing on language learning (such as Internet Polyglot for example). These free online courses are even more comfortable (and cheaper of course) than if you would learn from a course book but they can sometimes be less structured, which makes it extremely important to focus on finding an excellent course to take on, rather than simply start with the first one that turns up in your search engine for the phrase "free online language course". If possible, find an online language course that offers both written lessons and spoken ones (through E-media). They are extremely useful in correlating spelling with pronunciation and generally getting you used to the language you are about to learn (not to mention that stimulating two senses, hearing and seeing, doubles the effect of the learning process).

Travel based language learning methods on the other hand are definitely more expensive and they might disrupt your daily routine. They are usually taken in vacation periods, but if you work online for example, you might even set up a small "office" in the country you're aiming to learn the language of. This way you can keep to your daily duties and start learning at the same time.

The advantage of a travel based language is obvious. By getting plunged straight into an oasis of foreign words, your brain will focus on adapting and understanding the new language a lot better. Correlations between images and words are made a lot easier in this case and even a short trip to the supermarket for example, will get you to learn a few words and get you used with the new language. In a couple of weeks, you will already be able to say some of the basic words and some phrases and if the travel period is longer you have every chance of being able to conduct a short conversation with basic words successfully.

To conclude, it must be said that neither of these methods can guarantee you will be a fluent speaker of the new language after they are "complete". Their purpose is solely to create a basic foundation for the new language, a foundation that will be useful later on if you want to further focus on the language and actually learn it in detail. Each method has some strong points (grammar and spelling for home-based, pronunciation for travel-based) and some weak points (pronunciation for home-based and spelling for travel-based for example), which may lead to the idea that a combination of the two is the best way to go, since they complement each other quite well.

Want to Make Language Learning Easier? Rhymes to the Rescue!

by Kathy Steinemann

Learning a foreign language can be enjoyable - but exasperating. Anything you can do to accelerate learning or make language acquisition more enjoyable is a valuable weapon in your learning arsenal. Kathy Steinemann shares a helpful and unique approach to this challenge.

Take a look at the following two sections of text:

*Version 1

The sky is blue today. I'm sitting on the beach. A bully kicks sand in my face. Too bad for him! Here come my bodyguards!

*Version 2

One, two, a sky so blue. Three, four, a sandy shore. Five, six, a bully kicks. Seven, eight, he's sealed his fate. Nine, ten, here come my gunmen!

Now go back and re-read the verses.

Did you notice that you have already started to anticipate what comes next in the second version?

Conclusion: It is easier to memorize rhyming poetry than to memorize prose.

So what implication does this have for learning a foreign language?

If you memorize well-written *modern* foreign language poetry, you can accelerate your learning curve. (Notice the keyword 'modern'.)

Poetry written in the 18th Century may have deep cultural and educational significance. However, words penned to page over 300 years ago will utilize obsolete vocabulary, spelling, and grammar formations.

As an example: consider the popular King James Version of the Bible. If you started using 'thee' and 'thou' in your daily speech, people would understand you - but they would treat you like an alien in a time warp.

You can search the internet for poetry written by contemporary authors. Try searches like:

parallel translation poetry

parallel translation poems

parallel translation poems German English

parallel translation poems French English

parallel translation poetry Italian English

parallel translation poetry Spanish English

Substitute search terms as necessary with the name of the specific language you are studying. Review the webpages you find with a tutor, professor, or knowledgeable person to determine grammar and vocabulary suitability.

Attempt to have the poetry dictated and recorded by a native language speaker. Softly recite the poetry while you listen to the recordings. This will improve your verbalization skills. With luck, you may find online audio for some of the poetry.

Are you a budding poet? Try creating foreign language poems yourself.

No poetic talent? Attempt the following simple approach. If you are learning German, for example, you might produce a 'poem' like this:

the dog - der Hund

the mouth - der Mund

the air - die Luft

the scent - der Duft

to buzz - summen

to growl - brummen

little - klein

clean - rein

to brood - grübeln

to iron - bügeln

You don't have to worry about grammar - just definitions, pronunciations, gender, and spelling. Alcor (alcor.com.au) has several rhyming dictionaries that can assist you with this process.

If you have an audio dictionary on your computer, listen carefully to the pronunciation of each word. There are also excellent online dictionaries with audio.

Now produce your own poetry recording using audio capture software.

- First, dictate each English word or phrase and save as an individual file.

- Next, save foreign language audio clips from your dictionary or from the internet.

- Now load your audio capture software and play the files in the correct order. Try to create short productions of a minute or two in duration.

- Edit if necessary to eliminate excessive pauses or add definite articles.

- Finally, convert to MP3 or WMA. Now you can use your iPod or portable media player for something besides music.

The 21st Century is a wonderful time to be learning a foreign language!

3 Steps Parents Can Take To Support Elementary Language Education In Their Communities

by Anneke Forzani

Many parents and teachers are concerned about cutbacks in funding for foreign language programs at the elementary school level. Is there anything a parent can do to support early childhood language education in their communities?

Yes! I recently attended a presentation given by Janis Jensen, the NJ Coordinator of World Languages and the President of the National Network for Early Language Learning. During her talk, she made these suggestions for parents and teachers who are being faced with potential cutbacks in their school's foreign language programs.

1. Be an advocate. Many of the teachers at the presentation agreed that active and vocal parents can play a very influential role (sometimes more than teachers) in convincing school boards to support funding for early language learning. Consider organizing concerned parents, and presenting a compelling case to the school board for maintaining adequate funding for early language learning. Sending articles to the local newspaper about the benefits of early language learning also can help generate support for funding language programs.

2. Stay informed. To make a case to administrators, you must clearly state the benefits of early foreign language education. Research has shown cognitive, academic, and social benefits to early language learning. Furthermore, the nation as a whole benefits from developing kids who have a global understanding and can communicate with people from other countries and cultures.

You can learn more by visiting the website of the National Network for Early Language Learning (http://www.NNELL.org).

If you are concerned that language programs in your school are being cut or are substandard, find out if your school is meeting state standards. You can find out more about your state's world languages standards by going to the Department of Education website for your state.

3. Consider alternatives. You may want your school to offer a great Spanish program, but keep in mind that the specific language offered is less important than the opportunity for the child to learn ANY foreign language.

Note that the Bush administration recently announced a National Security Language Initiative to increase the number of Americans who can speak what they deem to be "critical" languages (e.g. Chinese, Korean, Hindi, Arabic). Recognizing the need to start teaching these languages in the Pre-K and elementary level, the government is offering funding for schools to offer programs in these critical languages. If funding constraints are keeping your school from offering a quality program, suggest they develop a program in one of these critical languages, utilizing the federal government's new grants. One such grant is through the Department of Education's Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) and provides incentives for teaching critical need languages in K-12. $24M has been earmarked for these grants. For more information on the FLAP grants, go to the following website for funding updates (click on Chart 1): http://www.ed.gov/fund/grant/find/edlite-forecast.html.

ESL Role-Play

By George Stocker

Learning a language is a complex and long process as anyone who has tried will agree. One of the most difficult and frustrating things is making the transition from the classroom to the 'real' world. In the classroom, everyone knows you are a student and mistakes are allowed, and the environment is contained and safe. Speaking another language outside the classroom is completely different and often students are lost at sea as soon as they step outside the door. Lists of memorized vocabulary are suddenly useless when ordering in a restaurant.

Role-plays, or simulations are one of the ways ESL instructors can ease students' transition into using English in real world situations. A simulation is where students act out a real-life situation, for example checking into at a hotel, but do not act out a different personality. Role-plays are where students take on different personalities. In a role-play, for example, one student may be asked to take on the role of "an angry neighbor" which is out of character for the student.

Role-plays require more imagination by students and teacher and can be difficult to manage because they are unpredictable. The initial scenario develops from the students interacting with each other and can literally go in any direction. This gives students practice in a non-threatening environment, and gives the motivation and involvement where they have to think in English. Role-plays are interesting, memorable and engaging, and students retain the material they have learned. In their assumed role, students drop their shyness and other personality and cultural inhibitions, making them one of the best tools available for teaching a second language.

Here are a few pointers and suggestions to assist ESL teachers using and managing role-plays:

-The more engaging the better. The value of role-plays come from students immersing themselves in the material. - Choose a 'hot' topic and stage a debate. Assign students positions on the topic (for/against). This will get students out of their personality and into the role where they do not have the same inhibitions. - Preparation is very important to success. Give students 'personality cards' which sketch out their personal characteristics or scenario.

Divide students into groups and give them time to sketch out various scenarios, and go over extra or special vocabulary ask them to discuss how they will act, think about the character and plan what they will say. For example, what are possible responses/replies for the angry neighbor? - The teacher, as facilitator of the role-play must support students in their role, i.e. they 'are' in the backyard arguing over the fence. Don't do anything to interrupt the pretend environment. Leave grammar correction to the end. Correcting students in the middle of an argument interrupts the pretend environment. Make notes and do a debriefing after. - Exaggeration is good! Encourage students to exaggerate their actions, opinions and movements.

Exaggeration helps students immerse themselves in the role. - Stage a rehearsal first. Have students practice their role in small groups with coaching from the other students. - While the role-play or debate is in progress, have other students suggest vocabulary first, and act as backup if they do not know.

Role-plays are unpredictable which makes them both a valuable learning tool and at the same time difficult to manage. Sketch out the various routes the role-play can take from the initial scenario. This will give you some idea what to expect and avoid any surprises.

Suggested topics for role-plays:

- Lovers problems (He has to move away to get a new and better job) Spending money (Government, United Nations etc. spending money, who gets what)

- Traveling (where would you go? what would you do?)

- Debates on current affairs/politics. Extreme opinions or opinions at the opposite ends of the spectrum work well (i.e. left wing/right wing etc.)

Role-plays can range from 30 minutes or one hour to a year-long corporate simulation for business English. Staging role-plays can be challenging for an instructor, but is also great fun. After you have done a few, you will know what to expect and feel more confident.

My experience is students love them retain what they learn, and often leave the classroom laughing and still arguing all the way out of the building!

Teaching ESL To Children

By George Stocker

Teaching ESL to children is challenging but also very rewarding. Before I walk into a class of 10-year olds, I take a deep breath. Children have no attention span AT ALL, and so I tell myself to slow right down before I start. Teaching children requires patience and a sense of fun and playfulness. Even though it seems obvious, a common mistake is to think that children are simply 'short adults!' This is sure to get you off on the wrong foot!

Here are some tips for teaching ESL to children:

1. Involve Children in an hands-on Activities. Children's minds are incredibly open and they learn by absorbing ideas and concepts directly. Children need to be actively involved. Get students up and out of their chairs and moving around. Sing songs, and play games.

2. Avoid talking for long periods of time. I find that the energy level of the classroom drops lower and lower. Explain an activity quickly and then go to it. Keep the energy moving! If your planned activity is a flop, move on. Keep a few extra activities handy for this purpose. Children need lots of stimulation all the time.

3. Children learn by interacting with each other and with the teacher. Try to talk to each child individually each class. Whenever possible, have children working in groups and in pairs.

4. Review, Review, Review. New information is absorbed and has meaning when it is related to information students have already learned. Quickly review new concepts at the beginning of each class.

5. Encourage students to correct themselves and other students. Self correction or self-regulation is an important part of learning. Students should be encouraged to ask, "How am I doing?" and "Am I doing this right?" in an open and non-judgmental environment. Children raised in authoritative cultures may need additional re-inforcement.

6. Use what is learned in different contexts. The more contexts used the better, and the more concrete and 'real life' the contexts the better. Make it real for students by talking about them and their lives.

7. Praise, Praise, Praise. Encourage and build students up in a natural way. Learning occurs when students are motivated and feel good about themselves.

Looking back on my years of teaching, the children's classes took a bit of getting used to, but were the most memorable and fun!

Idioms in Learning ESL

The Oxford English dictionary defines idioms as a group of words with a meaning of its own. These are phrases, which meaning has already been institutionalized.

It is important for students who are learning English as a second language (ESL) to attempt to substitute literal phrases with idioms because it will help foster rote-learning and analytical skills in both written and spoken English.

In delivering a course on idiomatic expressions, instructors have to be mindful of the following:

1. Instructors have to make sure that their students understand that idioms are invariable and the words in the phrases cannot be substituted. For instance, “beating around the bush,” which means equivocation, cannot be phrased as “beating around the tree.”
2. Before asking students to incorporate the use of idioms in written or spoken English, instructors have to make sure they relay the stand-alone meaning of each expression. For instance, before asking them to use “raining cats and dogs” to say “Oh no! It’s raining cats and dogs today” first explain that it is commonly understood that cats and dogs are two species that do not get along by nature. It is natural for people to witness a cat and a dog engage in a fight. Hence, we can equate heavy downpour with a fight.
3. In light of this advice, instructors should not overwhelm their students by introducing too many idiomatic expressions. Ideally, only two idioms per day should be introduced. Remember that idioms are institutionalized expressions that are bound in Western culture and context. These metaphorical phrases may not hold the same meaning for non-westerners. The most effective way for instructors to teach idioms is to help their students visualize it. For advanced learners, a clear explanation of how the expression came to be or they were institutionalized will suffice. For beginners, instructors can make use of pictures and games.

Though learning to use idioms is difficult, it is not impossible for ESL students. Instructors simply have to be mindful of the following:

1. They should not assume that their students will interpret the metaphorical expressions the same way Westerners would. For instance, the idiomatic expression “keep your fingers crossed” can easily be interpreted by a native speaker as hope for the best. However, it may not be as easily decoded by an ESL student, who in tough times would think of offering a prayer, more than crossing his fingers.
   
   
2. The most dangerous pitfall in delivering a course on idiomatic use is for the instructor to present it right after teaching syntax. Instructors have to remember that idioms do not follow any grammatical arrangement and are in fact abnormally constructed in the sense that there are no patterned relations or rules that govern their use. It is best to introduce idioms after the students have a working grasp of the rules and structure of grammatical English. This way, the instructor will be able to avoid confusion on how words are ordered in the English language.

Be A Great Teacher - 5 Things You Can Do That Take Little Of Your Time

By Shannon Tani

All teachers want to be great teachers. But the pressures of lesson planning, grading, preparing materials, and talking to parents often eat away at the little time we have to work on being a great teacher. This can lead to frustration and feeling as though you are failing your students.

Fortunately, a few changes in the way you think and act throughout the day can make a big difference between being a mediocre teacher and a great teacher. These 5 simple things take up little of your time, but can make all the difference in the world.

1. Think positive thoughts. You should think of at least one good thing that you could say about each of your students every day. If you have a challenging child in your class, it can be easy to get wrapped up in thinking about all of the bad things about that child. By thinking something positive about them--even if it's only that they were wearing cute socks or made an interesting artistic choice by using only red to color their picture--you'll start to change your thoughts about this child. Additionally, having a constant supply of positive things to say about your students to their parents makes the parents more receptive when you need to bring up a problem situation.
2. Give some attention to "kids that don't need attention". We all have students in our class that scream for attention by acting out and behaving badly. At the opposite end of the spectrum, we have students who demand attention for the good things they do, whether it's helping out, knowing the right answer, or excelling in an art project. Then there are the students in between. They may be shy or modest, but for whatever reason, they don't demand your attention. Yet, in my experience, they appreciate it even more when they do get your attention. A great teacher recognizes these students and pays special attention to them. The smile that they give as they think "Wow! The teacher noticed me!" is more than enough reward.
3. Make "mistakes". Throughout the day, make some simple mistakes that the students will notice and can correct. For example, say that it's raining when it's really a sunny day, or point to a picture of a dog and say that it's a cat. Feign surprise when they correct you and let them know that you appreciate their help. This will help boost your students' confidence in their knowledge and helps them to speak out. It also shows them that it's OK to make mistakes, and even the teacher will sometimes make a mistake.
4. Show an interest in their outside lives. Let your students teach you about their outside interests. Young students, for example, may be interested in a particular character. Even if you already know about this character, pretend that you don't, and let the student tell you about them. The student will feel happy that you care enough to ask and pleased that they were able to teach the teacher something.
5. Never dislike a child. A child who has just been punished may think that the teacher doesn't like them. It's important that you let the student know that it's not them you don't like, it's the bad thing that they did. Since I teach very young children, I show them this with a hug. Simply saying it is effective for older students. More importantly, you must internalize this sentiment yourself. You must never think, "I don't like Johnny." Rather, you should think, "Johnny acts out in ways that I don't like." Your actions will reflect your internal attitude, so you must always keep this in mind.

Being a great teacher can take a lot of hard work, but following these suggestions can put you on the path to success.

Teaching Reporting Verbs to ESL Students

By Keith Taylor

The most common verbs we use to report what someone says are "say" and "tell". These are the verbs which students learn first when they learn reported speech. These are fine, of course, but there will come a time in your students' learning when they want to use other verbs to more accurately report what someone says.

We use many different reporting verbs in English, and the way we use them in a sentence varies, for example:

Verb + gerund: James denied taking the money.
Verb + preposition + gerund: They apologized for arriving late.
Verb + infinitive: Susan promised to work hard.

Here's an effective way to teach some of these different reporting verbs, while at the same time practising listening and speaking.

First, you need a short story with a lot of dialogue. Your characters need to do the things that we use reporting verbs to report! They need to promise, offer, beg, encourage, threaten, suggest, apologise, and so on. The number of these things that they do depends on how many of these verb forms you want to teach.

Here's a story I often use:

7 year old Adam was leaving school one afternoon when he saw a group of older boys, aged 8, smoking.
One of them, Chris, said 'Hey, Adam, have a drag of this'. What did Chris do? (offer)
'No, I don't want to', Adam replied. What did Adam do? (refuse)
'Go on. It's really good', said Chris, and then Trevor said 'I smoke 5 a day.' What did Chris do? And Trevor? (encourage / boast)
'Go on. You'll like it and you can join our gang', said Chris.
'Well, OK then', said Adam. What did Chris do? And Adam? (persuade / agree)
Adam coughed and coughed and he felt sick. On his way home he stopped to buy some mints to get rid of the smell. But when he got home Mummy was waiting for him and she gave him a big kiss.
'Adam. You've been smoking!' she said. What did Mummy do? (accuse)
'No, I haven't.' What did Adam do? (deny)
'Tell me the truth Adam.'
'OK, I did smoke, but only a little.' What did Adam do? (admit)
'Adam, if you ever smoke again I'll tell Daddy.' What did Mummy do? (threaten)
'No Mummy, please don't tell Daddy. I'm really sorry. I'll never smoke again.' What did Adam do? (beg / apologise / promise)
'OK, Adam. You shouldn't listen to those naughty boys. Now, why don't you go upstairs and do your homework?' What did Mummy do? (advise / suggest)

Notice that after each part of the dialogue there is a question. Each of these questions requires a different reporting verb for the answer. So, the answer to the first question, “What did Chris do?” is “He offered Adam a cigarette”. The answer to the next one, “What did Adam do?” is “He refused to smoke”, and so on.

Here's how to use the story in your class:

1. Make a worksheet with only the questions written on it, and some space underneath each one for students to write their answers.

2. Read the story once or twice for gist, having the students answer some general comprehension questions (How old are Adam and Chris? What did Adam try for the first time? etc.)

3. Hand out your worksheet and tell students to answer the questions as they listen again. If you want to make it a little easier, write the verb you want them to use next to each question, as shown in the story above.

4. Read the story again, stopping after each question to allow time for students to write their answers.

5. Feedback the answers, correcting as necessary and writing the reporting verbs on the board in columns, each with a heading:

verb + infinitive
verb + object + infinitive
verb + gerund
verb + object + preposition + gerund
verb + preposition + gerund
verb + that

6. Read the story once or twice more, asking individual students to give you the answers orally as you progress through the story. They should be able to do this now without referring to their worksheets.

7. Finally, hand out the story complete with dialogue, questions and answers, so that your students will have the verbs and their rules in an easy-to-remember context.

To practise these reporting verbs, you can set up a role-play activity. Divide the class into groups of 4 or 5. Write each verb on a small piece of paper and give 3 or 4 to each student. Tell them that they are friends who share a house, but they have been living together for some time, and their habits are starting to annoy each other. They are going to have a house meeting to discuss their grievances! If a student has slips of paper with, for example, "deny", "accuse" and "apologise", (s)he must deny doing something, accuse someone of doing something and apologise for doing something.

Model the activity first with a couple of students: "Mario, you're always leaving your laundry on the floor." "Elena, if you don't stop playing loud music at 2am, I'll throw your stereo out of the window." Ask the students what you said. (You accused David of leaving his laundry on the floor. You threatened to throw Elena's stereo out of the window.)

Now it's the groups' turn. Give them a few minutes to gather their thoughts, and then tell them to start their meeting. Nominate a stronger student in each group to act as the "chairman" of the meeting if you like.

After ten minutes or so, or when the conversation is dying down, stop the activity and ask the housemates to report back to the class on what happened at the meeting, using the reporting verbs.

ESL Chanting for Classroom Management

Teaching ESL can be a rich and rewarding experience for anyone who loves a challenge. You only need a degree in any field, and a TESOL or TEFL certificate to get started, after that, it’s simply a matter of choosing the right school in the country in which you wish to live and teach. This can be done by surfing a few ESL sites and applying for a job online, waiting for a reply from some of the schools you’ve contacted, and then choosing the most appropriate position for you. You’ll usually be able to pick and choose because you hold the trump card.

So you’ve stitched up a great teaching job in Asia, well done! Maybe they have agreed to pay your airfare after a qualifying period, and help you with your visa and work permit. Hay! You’ve even got free accommodation. You’re really excited, and so you should be! You’re about to go to another planet and encounter all kinds of alien cultures and traditions, but remember, YOU are the alien, or commonly know as “the westerner”, or “the foreigner”.

You enter your first class of 10 year olds. You expect everything to be the way it was explained in the TESOL/TEFL course you took. You have a super wiz bang lesson plan and the children don’t even seem to care that you’re in the room! You raise your voice (over the din) to get their attention, and that works, so you get into the lesson and find that many of the activities and strategies you thought would be a hit, fall flat. You have some success with some activities, and manage to finish the lesson in reasonable style. Good work! Now you realize that it will require some creative strategies for managing the situation, so you plan to come better prepared next time. This continues for several weeks, but you’re getting worn down, and falling into routines of doing the same things that work best, more often in every class. You get so angry sometimes, with some of the kids that just cause trouble and don’t give a dam about your precious lessons. So much so that you’ve even resorted to slamming books, hitting the blackboard, yelling, screaming, and other boisterous techniques for maintaining “control”.

Time to re-assess the situation, for the benefit of your sanity, and that of your students, you need a new game plan. Here are some ideas that have worked for me and MIGHT work for you also.

First and most importantly, you need to get into the room with style while establishing your authority as the owner of the room, in a professional and positive manner which will impress everyone and give you the respect you deserve. TO GET RESPECT YOU MUST FIRST GIVE IT. I include details on how to get into a classroom this way, and increase student talk time, in another article entitled: “ESL, Teaching the Silent Way, 99%STT.”

Now, assuming you can get into the classroom and gain the attention of most of your students for a few seconds this might work.

Establish a set of expectations, draft them using target vocabulary and structures, and drill them as a pronunciation exercise at the beginning of each and every lesson. Your students are familiar with this technique because that’s how they’ve leant everything since day one. You will get their respect and attention the first time you do it, and every time you do it. Also whenever you start to loose their attention during the lesson, you can quickly and easily regain it, while simultaneously having your students practice pronunciation and use target vocabulary/structures (without them realizing it).

Exactly what, and how, to do it (don’t be put off by the audio linguistic nature of what follows. Audio linguistics saved lives during the war, it works!)

Introductory lesson

Step one

Consider your class’s overall level of receptive English language ability, (what most of them will be able to comprehend after an initial introductory lesson). Then, draft up 3-5 sentences, pertaining to your expectations, in the target language for this group. Remember this is for the beginning of each lesson, (after you’re in the room), as well as intermittently throughout the lesson. Be sure to keep the rules positive, say “I will remember”, instead of “I must not forget”. You may like to use my “ESL class directed expectations technique” for this, which is covered in another article by me with the same title.

Step two

Write the rules/expectations/requirements/ or anything you want to call them, on the board. It’s best not to say anything while you do this, just let them guess and talk amongst themselves while you’re writing, this is great for helping to gain your students attention, while encouraging analytical thinking, and the more advanced students will help the others who are having difficulty. Maybe someone will say “copy”, you can just nod, this signal will soon get around the room, so that before you know it, all your students are writing your expectations in their note books. (The silent approach)

Sample set of rules: (present simple),

1. I listen carefully to teacher Bill
2. I bring all my books to every lesson
3. I speak English to my friends (this is a positive way to encourage no first language use)
4. I am ready for every lesson

Change the tenses easily like this:

I will (future)

I am listening (continuous)

I have brought all my books to this lesson (Present perfect)

Step three

Drill the rules! Do this any way you like, but I’ve found the best way for me is as follows:

Say “rule number one”, then give an example of the correct pronunciation while encouraging full participation through your body language, and do the same for each consecutive rule, gradually begin to prompt by saying the rule number, “rule number…..”.

Tap the board for rhythm as you present each word (do this two or three times), then circulate the room to ensure all students are participating. Encourage by using your body language and facial expressions. You may have a rule which requires such things as, “no books on your desk”, or “a pencil, a ruler, and a rubber, must be on my desk”, while you circulate, check to make sure that all students are meeting the requirements of the expectations.

Then return to the board and keep the chant going! While the class is chanting, you erase two or three words from each sentence until you have a blank board and all the students are reciting each rule by rote. It helps to tap the place where the words were, each time they recite one of the sentences, so that a subliminal memory jogger is created (students love the challenge, and it really works! I’ve had students who can’t remember the words until I tap the places where they were, and then they remember them).

Step four

Repeat the drill of the rules several times during the first lesson, using the tapping technique on the places where you had written them at first (for memory jogging) and allow students to refer to their note books if they need to. (This establishes the understanding of the reason for taking notes.) After a few days they won’t need to refer to their notes, so there is never any need to “control this” remember all students learn differently, so allow for it!

Implementation

Start every class by saying, “rule number one” etc. The whole class will start reciting to your prompts; you have their attention so launch your lesson.

Whenever you lose the attention of the whole class, say in a normal voice “rule number one”, your class should respond by reciting rule number one. The first few lessons you should go through all of the rules in order. Later you can start to mix them up etc. If they don’t respond to your normal voice, DON”T RAISE IT! Simply make eye contact with an attentive confident student and say it again. This will get things started. Have patience, it will soon catch on.

When you lose the attention of a particular student, say “rule number one”, the whole class will get his/her attention.

If a student is ignoring/forgetting an expectation/rule, say “rule number….” Where the number is the number of the rule he/she is ignoring/forgetting.

Summary

Be sure to change the expectations periodically to match needs.

Use this as a simple classroom management strategy that can complement any ESL program/syllabus/curriculum.

For more rewarding and speech productive implementations incorporate the principals which are outline in my article entitled, “ESL the Silent Way 99%STT”, for everything described above.

ESL, The silent Way, 99%STT

Remember the rule of 25% TTT and 75% STT?

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, it means that a teacher should talk only 25% of the time during a good ESL lesson. TTT = Teacher Talk Time, and STT = Student Talk Time. In the early days of my ESL teaching career, I found this impossible to achieve, in fact I found it really difficult to get students to speak for 25% of the time! Have you found the same problem? Do you have a solution? Maybe this is one that will work for you.

This was discovered by accident one day teaching with a severe cold and a sore throat which stopped me from being able to speak at all. It’s not known if yelling a lot in order to be heard over the top of the students for several weeks had anything to do with having sore throat, but that’s beside the point.

This technique can even create an environment where students are talking 99% of the time. A huge claim! You don’t believe me do you? Well read on to see how you can do it, and how effective this technique really is.

Getting noticed when you enter the classroom without raising you voice or slamming books on the desk, 101. You need to create the situation where students actually see you coming down the hall and prepare themselves for your appearance. (ESL time is Showtime!) This can be achieved through the method explained in my article “ESL, Chanting for Classroom Management”, but don’t worry, you can start this without having implemented doing that first. Building a harmonious learning environment takes time and can’t be established in a linear sequential process. Like everything in life, it’s usually a series of overlapping circles.

Here’s one place to start:

One or two of your students have to be able to read one or two simple instructions, in order to start here, so if they can’t, you’ll have to go right back to basics and battle your way through teaching simple instructions like, open your book to page ….. Now, assuming some amount of reading ability, say, false beginner, or pre intermediate level, we can start to have some fun!

You will run an entire class without saying one single word, so tell yourself that you can’t speak. Walk into the room, and go straight to the board while making eye contact with whoever is interested, and mime having a sore throat. Write something on the board like, ‘I can’t speak’, now wait for some indication of some students comprehension, then write, ‘I have a sore throat’. Wait for more confirmation. Next, write something unexpected, like, ‘stand on one leg’, (TPR is a great attention getter). Continue with a few more TPR (Total Physical Response) exercises. Then explain (in writing) that you can’t talk and that they will have to read everything you write.
Using ‘a sore throat’ is a great way to get started if your lesson is about illness related vocabulary, or body parts, but if your lesson is on another subject use your imagination to incorporate some vocabulary, or structures as you see fit.

Now that you have the full attention of your students, deliver your lesson as you would normally, but you have to write ALL your instructions on the board.

You want them talking? OK, here’s how, start by asking simple yes – no questions, and use your hand to ear body language to indicate that you require students to say ‘yes’, or ‘no’. Once you’ve established this, you can start to include some concept questions, always showing the need for speech from them (mime being deaf as well).

To clearly show that speech is required, it’s fun to draw a stick figure of yourself and one of the students, then use a speech bubble to give instructions and a speech bubble to show that the students have to respond. If you want them to write something, simply use the speech bubble to give directions and write the gap fill or whatever exercise on the board in a designated area. If you want to include listening, use the tapes or CDs, that’s what they are for! You’ll find that this will become a guessing game and students will love it, while also feeling sorry for you because you’re not well, so now you have started to ‘connect’. You may also notice the natural ‘pecking order’ of the group, because a few will start to take control and tell the others what to do in their first language, that’s cool, because when these other students understand what to do, they will start to learn English.

So now you have your students using their eyes to understand English, and speaking or writing in English in order to solve a problem (your sore throat, and hearing disability) both by reading and paying attention to your body language. This is “pay dirt” for you, you haven’t said a word and the students have done all the work. Isn’t teaching ESL fun?

With this technique you can have students, chanting, oral reading, answering questions, asking questions, telling stories, playing games, and any language skill in any subject area you choose. ALL WITHOUT SAYING A WORD, and that’s the first time you try it! On top of that you have also run a valuable reading for comprehension lesson! Don’t work against your students, work with them and show them respect. It will come back ten fold.

Obviously you can’t fake a sore throat for ever, but you can use this “ESL, the silent way, 99%STT” technique as part of your overall teaching methodology. For example you can start a lesson by writing, ‘this is a reading lesson’, so I will not talk, and you must read everything’. Or not even mention the nature of the lesson, just start writing.

Use your imagination and remember: “If you enjoy what you’re doing you never have to work a day in your life.”

Higher Level Thinking? As Easy As A Question

By Michael Michels

“Questions, I’ve got some questions” is how a Jack Johnson song from the Curious George Soundtrack begins. From the beginning of our lives, we are always questioning something. They start as simple things at first as we explore our new, vast world and the complexity grows as we mature. One of the most amazing faculties afforded to us as humans is the ability to think. The problem for teachers is how to get our students to utilize this amazing skill to the best of their abilities. We all know that students who are constantly involved in the learning process will thrive and grow the most academically.

So, here is the situation. Questions are being asked all day and every day in schools, offices, homes and elsewhere around the world. But, what kinds of questions? Do they always work? Do we get the answer we were looking for? Are our students engaged in the learning process? Do we use questioning enough? You can figure out the answer for your specific instance very easily.

Think about your daily lesson, work or social life. If you just completed a project in class with your students, do you ask, “What did you think about the project?”. You will most likely hear lots of “Yes’s.” and “It was OK.” and responses like that. These are short answers that make students feel like they are appeasing you.

Imagine being at work and asking your employees or co-workers, “How did you think the meeting went?”. Again, you will hear quick responses that have little to no thought involved in them. This will happen for a variety of reasons.

The same thing will happen with friends, family and basically any other situation you are in. Sometimes we hear people talking about “digging deeper” to find out more information about something. What does “digging deeper” really mean? It means, asking the right question.

When trying to elicit a response from anyone, we need to use the proper start to every question. Simply asking “How was your trip?” will never work. The answer could just be “Good.”. Not exactly what you were looking for if you plan to take a similar trip to the same location. You need to get more information. The question starter “How was….?” was very insufficient in promoting conversation. Promoting conversation is the key to making the mind think. Simply asking, “How could you summarize your trip to…?” would work better. This person would then describe and explain the major parts of the trip and you can guide the conversation in the direction of your curiosity.

How does this relate to the classroom? In the classroom this means that the student has to think about prior learning and come up with an organized response to the question. Higher-level thinking questions do just that. They do not allow for one-word or short answers. The student must become engaged in a conversation. This may mean that they are interpreting data, defending an opinion, coming up with a solution to an issue or any other variety of responses that cause students speak their thoughts aloud.

Now, how is this done? Higher-level thinking questions have beginnings that are well defined. They automatically cause individuals to “ponder”. Many times they will relate to opinions that individuals may have formed so that they want to express themselves. Here are some examples of question starters: “How can you explain why…?”, “How would you compare…?”, “In your owns words, what is…?”, “How could you simplify…?”, “What is the significance of…?” (Kagan, 1999). Right away you can see how the gears start working and the process of being involved begins. Students, or anyone for that matter, begin to think! When you get immersed in it, you can have the students use the “starters” to come up with questions regarding a topic. Again, making them a part of the experience keeps that involvement at a high level.

We have all heard of the value of good questions somewhere in our lives. Dr. Spencer Kagan has developed sets of these “question starters” along with entire books devoted to specific topic areas. This way of thinking and teaching stresses the development of thinking skills along with higher-level thinking, such as creative and critical thinking. By utilizing this type of questioning in you daily lessons and lives, you can help individuals to become more intellectual, creative and involved than they ever have been. Dr. Kagan has devoted his life to Cooperative Learning in the classroom and has a wealth of resources available. Check out Kagan online or search for Kagan on Amazon and see what the buzz is all about. I could say, “What are you waiting for?”, but I can make you really consider it by asking, “What differences might you see in your students if you apply this type of questioning strategy?”. Good Luck!!!