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Teaching Specialized English in Your Content Classroom

Frieda Nicol, State Council Representative, CSU Chico

Jose, Tran, Hamid and Sway are all trying to keep up with the science lecture and safety tips in their classroom. They have a basic or low intermediate comprehension of academic English, but now you-the teacher- are using terms that don't surface in everyday conversation or in other classes. Remember that terms like hydrogen, microscope, lens, scalpel, tissues, formaldehyde, safety goggles, hazardous materials, incision etc...are difficult for native speakers, but may be totally unfamiliar to second language learners! You are a science teacher, not an English teacher! You want every student to have a meaningful experience and above all a safe experience in your classroom, but now the overheads you had in your Ed. classes on second language acquisition seem light years in the past. What are you going to do next?

First, even experienced ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers face the difficulties and challenges of teaching second language learners vocabulary for specific purposes. Math, science, music, social studies, and other disciplines have specialized vocabulary which is used infrequently in everyday conversations but which must be understood if you are to effectively teach the core of your curriculum. Therefore, to make the materials and information accessible to all your students, it is helpful to have several website resources in your “favorites” box to click on when planning your lessons. Fortunately, a tremendous amount of practical lesson plans, methodologies and resources have already been developed, so you don't have to stress out about creating your own. Going in prepared is however the key to surviving and actually enjoying to teach in a multi-lingual classroom! The following links are very valuable when planning your lessons and are a wonderful resource to network with other teachers facing similar challenges.

http://iteslj.org/Articles The Internet TESL Journal is a fantastic site that has wonderful resources. Some of the links are: English for Specific Purposes, Virtual Realia, New Techniques in Teaching Pronunciation, Facing up to Stereotypes in the Second Language Classroom, Becoming a Better Teacher and so forth. Most of the articles that are on this site are easy to read and you do not need an extensive background working with second language students in order to put the practical suggestions to work.
http://www.rong-chang.com/methods.htm This site has wonderful articles that explain many methodologies that can be used in any classroom to teach vocabulary and increase listening and speaking comprehension in the classroom.
http://a4esl.org/ This site is one that you can directly refer to your students. It has plenty of vocabulary games, crosswords, puzzles and quizzes they can use at home or on line to help reinforce vocabulary. As a student teacher in an English classroom, I have this site on my website and even native English speakers enjoy the crosswords and puzzles. What I love about this site is the bi-lingual quizzes that students can access. The site has dozens of languages represented. Thousands of teachers have contributed to this site, so why not tap into all their hard won victories!

Teaching second language learners has its challenges, but the rewards far outweigh the struggles. Being prepared before entering the classroom with activities and methodologies will improve your teaching and you may be surprised that even native English students will appreciate you making the vocabulary and materials more accessible. The scaffolding that you can provide your second language learners will benefit all of your students!