Matt CO #1

Yesterday morning I observed Alexandra Ramos's Reading class. Overall the experience was very instructive and did much to diminish my anxieties about teaching ESL students.

It was an advanced level class and the students generally seemed very comfortable, if a bit distant. 

After taking roll Alexandra jumped right into the day's work, reviewing a surprisingly difficult article on the Exxon-Valdez oil spill. The article was heavy with scientific terminology and complicated concepts that would've been at home in an upper-level biology class. I actually found myself struggling to keep up with the material, learning new vocabulary like 'bivalve' and 'taxa' right along with Ms. Ramos's students. After class, Alexandra explained that the goal of assigning material which was dense even for a native speaker was specifically to expose students to writing well above their level of automatic comprehension. While this may seem counter-intuitive, pushing students to encounter this sort of esoteric writing forces them to learn and comprehend the material through context. This approach helps the students acquire the skills needed to gain a functional understanding of texts apart from the academic jargon which might otherwise discourage them. Because many of these students will be proceeding to graduate school, they will be regularly confronted with obscure vocabulary and unfamiliar concepts in their studies. In order to succeed, they must be able to suss out their meaning from context, and a broader understanding of English phrasing, organization, and common vocabulary. By challenging these students with readings above their level, Alexandra engenders the skills and confidence they will need to excel in an academic or professional environment.

The instructor's role in the class was, as Snow recommends, less of a lecturer's than that of a coach's. Ms. Ramos capably clarified certain sticking points in the text, but for the most part she strove to simply motivate her students to tackle the reading on their own. Above all else, she sought for interaction and input from the students, asking “what do you think it means?” rather than telling them straight-out. One effective and amusing technique I did notice however was her use of sketches to illustrate problem words and concepts. Drawing seemed one surefire way to leap the language barrier without sacrificing student interest or understanding. Unfortunately for me, Alexandra's 10-second rendering of an 'intertidal zone' would've been a day-long whiteboard masterpiece by my pen (or, rather, Sharpie.)

All in all, my observation served to illustrate that the ESL instructor need not know it all. Rather they should try to simply accommodate the student's own personal process of language learning, exposing them to different facets of English and lending a helping hand when necessary.