ESL Tutoring Blog » esl practice

Good Literature for ESL Students?

admin — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 05:14:44 +0000

Okay, here's the situation. I work at a school where I teach ESL 1, 2 and 3, and the 2s and 3s have a regular English class on top of ESL. I'm trying to figure out what literature I can use to prepare the 1s and assist the 2s and 3s so that they do pretty well in their English classes. What I need are the names of literary texts that have worked with ESL students. Any suggestions? I want them to be interested and mostly get practice at literary analysis and comprehension.

Thanks

There is a great textbook, Inside Out/Outside In, that is a collection of (mostly) short stories (a few poems are included, as well), and all are by American authors including such writers as Amy Tan, Langston Hughes, Dorothy Parker, Kurt Vonnegut, and a wide variety of others.

It has the stories and numerous activities like you would find in a lit class. I find it a great introduction for my high intermediate/low advanced students to reading creative writing in English. They get lots of factual reporting in their reading classes, but this is the one time that they get lit.

Many of the stories also give chances to discuss American culture and history and how it changed during the 20th century.

Most of my students love it, but they are adults in a community college, so different from your students.

Does anyone have particular recommendations for ESL / EFL Grammar resources for elementary school kids?

admin — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 05:14:42 +0000

I am looking for supplementary BOOKS and materials (although web sites and other recommendations would also be welcome) to bring more INTERESTING grammar practice into a few of my younger classes. Titles / Authors / Publisher information as well as why you would recommend it would be most welcome. Advance thanks.

I'm a speech-language pathologist who works in Taiwan, so probably greater than 80% of my students are ESL as well as having language learning deficits in both Mandarin and English. The sources I use most are:

www.superduperinc.com
www.linguisystems.com

For specific books and games, some of the best are:

http://www.superduperinc.com/B_Pages/bk309.htm
http://www.superduperinc.com/F-G_Pages/gb347.htm
http://www.superduperinc.com/F-G_Pages/gb61.htm
http://www.superduperinc.com/B_Pages/bk298.htm
http://www.superduperinc.com/WXYZ_Pages/wcm4010.htm
http://www.superduperinc.com/F-G_Pages/GB167.htm

http://www.linguisystems.com/itemdetail.php?id=480
http://www.linguisystems.com/itemdetail.php?id=280
http://www.linguisystems.com/itemdetail.php?id=271
http://www.linguisystems.com/itemdetail.php?id=523
http://www.linguisystems.com/itemdetail.php?id=113

I only included links for younger kids, but these companies have resources for all ages through high school. Both have fabulous catalogs, so you might want to request those. Best wishes to you!

HandsOn Japanese ESL 8 yr olds Practice Peer teaching

admin — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 05:21:37 +0000

HandsOn 8 year olds begin to practice peer teaching. They will do the whole alphabet on video, eventually and we will post to our blog page for littler kids to use at home.

Duration : 0:4:39

Technorati Tags: ABC, Elementary, ESL, Hamamatsu, HandsOn, Japanese, PeerTeaching

A cute way to practice body parts for ESL

admin — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 05:21:08 +0000

The spider song. I use some super jumbo ones that squeak. One spider per student. (Some are sooooooooooooooo afraid!)

Duration : 0:2:13

Technorati Tags: ESL, Hamamatsu, HandsOn, spidersong