ESL Lesson Plan

I allow anything the students want to use. and I will even encourage it by askin "how do you say this" in another language. I think it shows the students we aren't imperialists and rather than trying to replace their language they are adding to it.

I'm a definite believer in running as much of the class in the target language as possible-- even when I was a low-intermediate student of mandarin, I quite deliberately hired a Chinese middle-school teacher who couldn't speak any English at all as my tutor.

Speaking your mother tongue (or expecting it) in class is kind of like paying for a book of crossword puzzles and peeking at the answers at the back before you've finished.

That's WHY different levels of classes exist--- to have graded levels of what some might call 'positive stress'. If a student can't understand something in class, they should make a note of it, as best as they can, and then move on. Learning to be cool with stuff that you don't understand is part of the process.

I try to have an English-only classroom.The students are there to learn English and every minute must be used for this. It is an opportunity for them to practice what they have learned. Outside the classroom they will speak only their native language anyway. So, even if they have a difficult time, I think they also enjoy this English-only policy. My Filipino students welcome this because outside the classroom they can get criticized for being elitists of sorts. My Korean and Chinese students have a more difficult time. They are very dependent on their electronic dictionaries. However, I likewise do not allow them to speak in their native language and they are doing fine.

Because the students receive a mark for the course, I offer a 10 point bonus to those students I never catch speaking in another language. The number of violations have equivalent bonus points. They are not to exceed 8 violations because if they do, they will have no more bonus points.

When I catch a student speaking in his native language, I give him a tag. If he hears another student speaking his native language, he passes the tag to this student. This goes on during the class period. Everytime a student receives the tag, he writes his name on the board under the list of "Violators". At the end of the period, I copy the list into my record book.

I'm from Macedonia. You can do something here. Some kind of project, has so many who speak english and whowant to speak.You can check our knowledge with some test and we can learn more.
I want to have colaboration with someone.We live only 13 km from Greece and speak greek well. Try something here.Macedonia is small but has a clever people.
Merry XMAS and happy NEW YEAR to all of you.
Jasmina Milevska