Author: labirm2

Think about when you are trying to learn a new language. You likely find it much easier to listen and understand than it is to speak the language in a comprehensible way. This is the same for many of our ESL students. Receptive language-listening and reading- typically develops faster than productive language-speaking and writing. If you are looking for creative, engaging ways to build your students’ speaking skills, you have got to check out this article and it’s awesome links.

6 ESL Speaking Websites for Students to Practice Speaking English

As student populations continue to become more culturally and linguistically diverse than ever, our teacher population remains to be approximately 82% white and predominantly female. Studies show that students who speak differently face numerous challenges in school, starting as early as kindergarten, and that educators often favor students who sound like themselves and can be biased against those who don’t. So how can teachers ensure that they are giving all of their students an equitable education where their language differences are valued? Read this short article to get inspired and to learn about lots of great resources out there such as The Language and Life Project.

The English language is full of tricky nuances and rules that don’t always apply. The next time you find yourself frustrated with the difficulty of teaching these “rules” to your ESL students, read the following passage by Richard Lederer and have yourself a good laugh!

“Let’s face it – English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn’t it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on. English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn’t a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

And finally, why doesn’t “buick” rhyme with “quick”?” 
― Richard Lederer