What are some important techniques for designing content instruction that supports both language and content learning? Egbert gives several examples of ways content and language objectives can be combined with technology objectives. Share some of your own experiences or ideas for combining these. In other words, give a specific example of how you could teach a content-area lesson with integrates technology and supports language learning for ELLs.
Content instruction really hasn't been my focus, but I did do a lesson in an adult ESL class about the American custom of Thanksgiving. I asked the students, who were from Mexico, if they had a similar custom in Mexico and what other holidays they had that were similar or different from American holidays. I instantly got a chorus of English from the students about their holidays. All I had to do from there was ask a few questions and make sure everybody had a chance to talk, the students did the rest and I think I learned as much as they did.
I was thinking that this lesson might be even better if I had the students work in pairs on a computer and research the history of Mexican and American holidays on computers and then write a paper comparing and contrasting the holidays and essentially do the same lesson as above incorporating computers into the lesson. In addition to being exposed to rich texts in Spanish and English I think it would be an excellent opportunity to help the students learn some basic computer skills they may find helpful in their everyday lives.
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2 comments:
Max,
I think there are many of factors. I think that there is an affective component that needs to be overcome: fear of the unknown, fear of technology, fear of breaking the technology. There is also , I found, a cognitive gap that needs to be overcome... understanding the notion of opening windows or pages,manipulating the space, cyberspace. Then there is just the skills needed, learning about all the different kinds of menus, what the different tool bars contain and do, etc. When you look at it in these terms it is pretty daunting.
Max,
Group work is always an effective method of learning for ELLs. Since you were able to recognize that - you are on your way to becoming an excellent ESL instructor. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Lisa Morales
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