ESL Teaching Methods

If you begin to do any research on the topic of English Language Teaching, you are sure to come across Scott Thornbury.

One of Scott Thornbury's major contributions to English Language Teaching is the concept of Dogme.  Dogme is characterized as the

belief that language learning is both socially motivated and socially constructed...We are looking for ways of exploiting the learning opportunities offered by the raw material of the classroom, that is the language that emerges from the need, interests, concerns and desires of the people in the room.  

More can be read about Scott Thornbury and the concept of Dogme on his blog here.

At PLC school, our individual tutoring classes mirror this method very closely.  When working with a single student, the classes are always conversation centered and always centered around the interests of the student.  For a two hour tutoring session, I will often prepare five or six pages of conversation questions.  Some of the conversation questions are simply basic small talk questions.  Others are more in depth questions about the student's life, thoughts, and opinions.  Generally, we fly through pages of questions while we fine tune English grammar and pronunciation.  The hope is that along the way some of my questions will connect and hit on the students interests.  This will create a conversational flow that becomes more in depth and also pulls in new vocabulary, and pronunciation improvement.

One of the great benefits of using this method of allowing the class to be guided by the flow of the conversation is that it naturally pulls in different grammar structures and new vocabulary.  Nothing needs to be forced.  The act of talking about an interesting topic in depth will almost always pull the student toward more complex grammar and topic related vocabulary.

Thornbury's concept of Dogme builds on the ideas and theories of language acquisition proposed by Stephen Krashen and discussed here on June 12.  Some of the major concepts suggested by Krashen are that language acquisition takes place when there is a great deal of "comprehensible input", while anxiety is low and motivation is high, and when the topic is interesting and engaging to the student.  Using Thornbury's Dogme method of teaching, you can be certain that the subject matter will be interesting to the student since the student(s) is guiding the topic of the conversation.  As a teacher, it is my responsibility to ensure that the content is comprehensible and that I am creating a comfortable tutoring environment where the student is not anxious about potential (inevitable) mistakes.

The Dogme method works very well for more advanced students and for individual conversation classes.  However, we use this method much less for group lessons.  Group lessons at PLC often include students of very different ages and skill levels.  I have found that with this type of class, the Rosetta Stone program does a good job of allowing each student to practice and learn at their own pace and at their own level in the program.  However, we always supplement this program with individual instruction that will typically include reading and conversation practice when the student is ready.  Some students are ready and excited to practice English conversation almost immediately after learning some basic words and phrases.  Other students prefer to move a little more slowly when it comes to conversation.

At PLC, we work very hard to customize our programs to the needs of each individual student.  Even in group lessons, individual instruction takes place and it is tailored to the needs, skills, and interests of each student.  As each student achieves higher levels of English mastery, the percentage of conversation driven (Dogme method) instruction is progressively increased.

Tips for Students - Practice!

Me:  Did you practice speaking English with anyone since your last lesson?

Student:  Yes.

 Me:  Great!  Who did you practice with?

Student:  My dog.

Ideally, I would like students to practice English with someone who can provide more meaningful feedback than a dog.  However, the most important thing is to practice any way you can.  As an English language student, the biggest factor in determining your success is not the teacher you select, your intelligence, or your natural ability to learn languages.  The primary factor in successfully learning a language is practice.

My eight year old son studies piano and violin.  He practices both instruments every single day.  This by no means will ensure that he will reach high levels of success in either instrument, but by practicing every day we know that he will continue to improve.

I studied Spanish from the 7th grade through the 12th grade.  I enjoyed learning the language and I was a good language student.  However, my fluency really became much better when I worked in a restaurant with number of coworkers from Mexico.  For 5 or 6 days a week, and for 8 to 10 hours each day; I was able to practice conversational Spanish.  In fact, it was easier for me to speak Spanish to my Mexican coworkers than it was for them to speak English to me.  Unfortunately, when I went to college I stopped studying and speaking Spanish regularly.  Today, my Spanish skills are very poor.  While it would be much easier for me to pick up Spanish than it would be for a complete beginner, I would truly have to re-learn the language.  The vast majority of the skill level that I developed over those many years has been forgotten.

If you are serious about achieving a high level of English, you must practice as much as possible.  Even a short practice session for just 30 minutes a day will help prevent you from forgetting the skills you improved in class.  Most of my students study for one of two days a week.  If you neglect to practice during the other five days in the week, the rate of improvement will be much slower.

All of my students are either serious school students or adult professionals with jobs and families.  Setting time aside to practice English when there is so much else going on in life can be difficult.  However, practice does not have to be tedious or boring.  In fact, I recommend the opposite.  I think practicing English should be fun and entertaining.

There are many fun ways to practice English between lessons.  Again, you don't have to dedicate huge amounts of time for these activities, but English practice can be in the form of emailing or Facebook chatting with a friend in English instead of Thai.  You may choose to watch TV shows or movies in English.  YouTube videos in English that are about topics that interest you or excite you are great.  You may consider reading English websites about subjects of interest, or you can learn about a subject you are studying in school in English on the internet.  If you have a friend or family member that can knows some English, you can try and practice English conversation with them each day.  If you are a music lover, you could listen to English pop songs and try and write down the lyrics.  This is very difficult, but it could be rewarding because you will be able to sing along in English the next time you hear it.

This type of fun activity will also help you with many of the standard English exams such as TOEIC, TOEFL, and IELTS.  All of these exams have a listening portion, and almost all of the activities that I have listed above include listening to English.  Many of my students who are preparing for one of these tests are most concerned with the listening and/or speaking portion of the test.  Thai students tend to be well trained in English grammar and vocabulary.  Many Thai students lack confidence when it comes to actually speaking and understanding spoken English.  These fun English language activities are a great way to gain confidence and improve on these listening and speaking skills.