ESL Without Words
How Body Language can Help Students Grasp Concepts
Beginning with perhaps the most obvious we turn our attention to the first sensory which most humans possess, that of hearing!
It wasn’t until my second week teaching English as Foreign Language that I began to realize something. The students I had been teaching were unable to understand even the most basic of conversations I was trying to have with them. Of course there are always the few exceptions who can understand but students who were scoring high on test results were actively failing oral and listening examinations.
Text Books
Obviously one can not effectively teach English without having some kind of core curriculum and text book material at hand. The quality of such material varies from pathetically poor to very good. The series I was instructed to use in my class was the All Aboard Series I to VI work books and text books. This series comes with two audio cd’s that are compulsive to successfully complete sections of the book.
Unfortunately this series seems to be successful only in that the work is so repetitive that after the second book each one afterwards is constructed in the same way with exactly the same exercises’ but with different examples. As a result students often complete their work in record timing with near perfect answers allowing for an unsuspecting English teacher to feel falsely confident in not only their abilities to learn English effectively via this method but in the ease in which teaching English seems to come to the English Teacher.
Hands On Approach
I felt like I was in a Charlie Brown cartoon except I was one of the unseen adults who spoke in gibberish! This brings us to sign language. How is sign language related you wonder? It is a visual form of communication but one that requires the undivided attention of its listener. Using your hands in class to express thoughts, feelings and ideas is an effective way to not only ensure your students are actively watching you but as well helping them understand concepts by expressing them with body language.
There are many ways one “listens” to another and body language, like sign language, conveys subtle messages and information to the listener. It allows for your students to have more than one point of reference and helps encourage them to not only ask questions but express their own thoughts in the same fashion. Your ears come into play when, just like a non-deaf person signing, you speak the words and thoughts you are trying to express.
Activity
Charades is an excellent game to play in class with one difference, don’t be shy to speak! After all your students are there to learn English and by playing this game whilst also saying the word related to the item, person or animal you are portraying they are in effect associating English terminology with their own native language.
Although certain activities in your classroom text book may be useful taking a hands on approach to ensuring your students are ‘truly’ getting the gist of things couldn’t be easier with a little time, patience and determination.
If you can think of another example of how to use listening as a way of learning let us know by starting a discussion on this topic!
Copyright © 2006, Mario R. J. Corbin and Suite 101. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized use will constitute an infringement of copyright.
