APA format

Here are some introductory materials to help teach the APA format. The APA format is a standard format used in academic writing.

http://psych.utoronto.ca/users/reingold/courses/resources/handouts_apa/Citing1.pdf

Introduction to cause and effect essay and paragraph writing

Here are a few videos that help teach writing about cause and effect.

This one is on how to write a cause and effect paragraph.

These are on how to write cause and effect essays. There are many others on the web as well, but they tend to be long.

Writing a Five Paragraph Essay

Here are some materials I've collected for help in learning to write five paragraph essays. I used these when teaching English 101 at the proprietary college.

http://www.edb.utexas.edu/minliu/pbl/ESOL/index.htm



https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/685/05/

Simple cause and effect videos

 These are a few videos I've collected to help explain cause and effect. Many are designed for children, but they do a good job of getting the basic idea of what one is talking about before moving on to more advanced vocabulary. 

Resources for learning the simple past tense in English

Over the years, I've found that there are certain handouts I give to almost every class of students.

These are some of the most useful for learning the simple past tense in English.

Like most things in English the actual grammar rules for making the past tense are very simple.

            Take the verb stem and put "ed" on the end.

            For example:              "jump" +  "ed"  = "jumped" -----------Past Tense!!

            Simple (especially when compared to most European languages).

However, also like most things in English, the exceptions to the rules (the "irregular" verbs) are countless and usually outnumber the "regular" verbs that follow the rules. Therefore the key to learning to use the past tense in English is just to memorize not just a lot of irregular verbs but to also remember which ones actually do follow the verbs.

The follow lists have proven themselves useful to me and my students again and again.

First, we have a list of the most common English verbs that are regular in the past tense: 
https://www.linguasorb.com/english/verbs/regular-verbs/

Second, we have a list of the most common English verbs that are irregular in the past tense.: http://www.esl-lounge.com/reference/grammar-reference-most-common-irregular-verb-list.php


Once students have learned and become proficient in using those, they can move on to this longer list of regular verbs.:  https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/regular-verbs-list.htm and this longer list of irregular verbs,: https://www.englishpage.com/irregularverbs/irregularverbs.html


If students want a past tense grammar review, there's one here: https://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/simplepastforms.htm

writing paragraphs

More than once I've been required to teach students, both ESL students and students at the proprietary college who lacked basic academic fundamentals.  Here are some of the resources I've found useful. 

This is a useful article and with a little bit of copy and paste and appropriate accreditation (giving credit where credit is due is always important) it can make a good hand out.

https://www.eslwriting.org/esl-writing-lessons-learn-english-writing-structure-a-paragraph/

English speaking Rhythm --English sounds without meaning. Right on!! -And that crazy Italian song that sounds like English but isn't.

In the last two posts, I spoke about teaching English rhythm to students in order to improve their spoken English pronunciation.

To help get this concept across even further, I offer this --one of the greatest things on the internet!! (At least to an English as a Second Language teacher.)

Adriano Celantano is an Italian comedian who created a song that sounds like an American English song but consists of nothing but nonsense words with English sounds and rhythm. I've included two versions of the video of the song. The first has just the song. The second has the Italian language set up that frames the joke and explains the song. Basically, if you can understand the Italian, students in an Italian music class ask their teacher how one can sing a foreign, English language song if you forget the words. Is it possible? He assures them that it is and then demonstrates.

English speaking rhythm and Hip Hop

Language has rhythm and different languages have different natural rhythms.

When students (or other humans) learn a new language, to speak it well, they need to learn to speak it with the appropriate rhythm. Each language, and often different dialects of the same language, have distinct stress patterns. People who wish to learn to speak a second or addtional language need to learn to speak it with an appropriate rhythm.

But before they can do this, they must become familiar with the concept of language rhythm and how to recognize it in different languages.

Hip Hop is a form of music where people speak in rhythm. Therefore it seems a natural tool for exposing students to the idea that different languages have different rhythm.

Therefore, for that purpose, I have collected a wide variety of hip hop videos in different languages to use in class.

The students should be told that American hip-hop videos often contain bad or impolite language and non-standard or poor grammar as well as sometimes offensive subject matter. It is not always a good tool to teach English but it is a good tool to teach rhythm.

PLEASE NOTE --I HAVE NOT WATCHED EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THESE VIDEOS FROM BEGINNING TO END. ALSO I DO NOT SPEAK ALL THESE LANGUAGES. THEREFORE IF YOU FIND OR HEAR SOMETHING THAT IS OFFENSIVE IN ONE OF THESE VIDEOS OR THAT YOU THINK I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT ON ONE OR MORE OF THESE VIDEOS, PLEASE MESSAGE ME AND LET ME KNOW OR PUT SOMETHING IN THE COMMENTS BELOW IF YOU PREFER. I WILL TRY TO ADDRESS THE ISSUE WHEN IT HAPPENS.

Although they are primarilly in other languages, often there are parts where the rappers rap in English. This is useful because it can be used to show the different accents and how the sounds and rhythm of their first language carries over into the second language, English. (The Burmese and Karen one are particularly good for this.)

On the other hand, the English sections, in standard hip hop fashion, often include offensive Engish language and students should be warned (it's best not to play some of these videos if your students will be offended by "the F word" or other offensive words.) So be warned.

Also, and an additional warning, it is the nature of hip-hop videos that they often contain sexy young women dressed in skimpy clothes who are objectified and treated as prizes. Although I've tried to minimize such images, it is the nature of hip-hop videos that such depictions of women will be found here. Now, honestly, I would prefer it if the videos showed depictions of brainy women (who are also healthy and nice to look at) doing impressive things that are beneficial for society but I did not make these videos I just collected them. If the usual depictions of women as often depicted in hip-hop offend you or your students, consider playing these videos without the images.

As stated above, if you find something that is considerably offensive, please let me know either by private message of in the comments below and I will do my best to attend to it.

English

First, Mr Wendall by Arrested Development, a clean video with a nice message.

If you listen to the rhythm of the words, there is sort of a "one TWO one TWO one TWO one TWO DAP DAP DAP" rhythm to much of the speech.


Queen Latifah is another example of English language with a hip-hop that has a good message.

(And for the record, yes, they are both old. I am NOT using hip-hop in the classroom to show how cool and "with it" I am. I gave up on that long ago. I am using hip-hop to teach the concept of rhythm in language and to stress that when a language student learns to speak a new language they should strive to change their speaking rhythm to match the rhythm of the new language, not the old language.)

This video shows samples from hip hop videos in Mandarin and Vietnamese, two very different but "isolationist" languages where the rhythm is more monosyllabic and does not change to the same extent as in English.

Although they switch back and from English to their own language, making the contrast in rhythm particularly noticeable, the rhythm is more of repetitive "bop-bop-bop-bop-bop" as they speak . *

Japanese and Korean 

Japanese and Korean have their own rhythm that is distinctly different from Chinese or Vietnamese. Even if you don't know a single word of the languages then you can easily learn to distinguish them through the rhythm.

This one is in Russian

Russian 

This one is in Mexican Spanish.

By comparing these two, students who do not know either Spanish or Russian should be able to learn to distinguish between the two -And be able to do so without knowing a single word of the language.

Punjabi 

Swahili 

Turkish 

Cambodian hip hop (starts about 1:15pm) 

Burmese 

I thought this one was particularly good for explaining the concepts.

Notice how his English sounds like his Burmese. 

Karen song

The Karen are a hill tribe that lives primarilly on the Thai-Burmese border. There is a lot of fighting in the region as many Karen wish to split off and form an independent state and the Burmese government resists this. Therefore many Karen have come to the USA and other Western nations as refugees. I have several Karen friends and acquaintances which is one reason I included this video which was made in the USA.

Navajo

I went to youtube looking for Navajo language hip-hop. Lo and behold, I found some. 

Lest the students become confused about whether or not Native American Indians speak English or not, here's some English language Native American hip hop from the Navajo reservation (although the rapper is half Sioux by ethnicity/)   

    

Tibetan 

I enjoy the Taiwanese rapper MC Hot Dog. He was big at one point when I lived on the island, so of course, I had to include him here.

English speaking rhythm videos

Languages have a thythm, each and every one of them. And this rhythm varies from one language to the next. When people learn a second (or additional) language, they have a tendency to speak with the rhythm of the first language. For this reason, it's a good to teach them not only that spoken American English has a distinct  rhythm and stress pattern, but what that rhythm is.

Fortunately, like so much else, Youtube has a wealth of videos on how English should be spoken. 

The following are some of my favorites.  I offer them without other comment.

writing good sentences

More than once I've been hired to teach writing to students who often needed help with the basics.

This is a collection of materials I've found on the basics of writing good sentences.

This second one is good too, but it's worth mentioning that Mark Roberts is Canadian and pronounces the word "pasta" differently than most Americans would. (We would say PAH-sta,  with an "a" like in "taco" but he says PA-sta with an "a" like in "cat.")

Sentence fragments are a big problem with many students, both foreign and native speakers.

Run on sentences are another big problem.

If you'd like to practice corrrecting sentences and check your understanding of grammar, here is a collection of sample quizzes and practice sheets you can use.

http://www.englishforeveryone.org/Topics/Sentence-Correction.htm



This video teaches types of sentences.

This is a video on how to write better sentences. It assumes a good command of grammar.

Not so great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpoZBnXHg3E

Assessing Students Writing through Cambodian language pop music.

Often I find myself faced with a room full of students and the need to assess their ability to write. 

When that happens I have found this video a useful tool. I merely cue it up, ask the students to tell me, through writing, what they think the song and the video are about.

For those who are interested, the band is called Dengue Fever, and while heavily influenced by Cambodia pop music, a surprisingly interesting subject, they are, in fact, from southern California. The language of the song is Cambodian (Khmer) so unless you have someone fluent in Cambodian in your classroom, they will be forced to use their imagination. 

I have found this useful with both native and non-native English speaking students.

For more on the band Dengue Fever visit https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcCel2BCLHg16GACc9IUWEA or http://denguefevermusic.com/

Thanksgiving, Holidays, and Chinese New Year and such

Because it is shortly after Thanksgiving, one of the biggest and most group-oriented holidays in American society, it seems appropriate to write about how many foreign and English as a second language students view the holiday. The interesting truth is that it’s often surprisingly unimportant to them.

 Some who work with foreign students forget that Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday. (Okay, there actually is a Canadian Thanksiving held around Columbus day, but it lacks the same symbolism and significance.)

For instance, I once taught at a program at Tufts University that was intended to orient and prepare Chinese high school seniors for study at colleges and universities in the USA. Although I learned a lot in my time there, my feelings were that in many ways it was very much a program designed by and for American liberals without terribly much first hand understanding of Chinese culture and based in their preconceived notions of what the students should be taught rather than based on what the students actually needed. (Perhaps more on this another time.)

And one example of this was at a meeting early in the year,  someone announced that we must find places for them to spend time on Thanksgiving. The fear, as I understood it, was that they would become very lonely on the holiday if they did not have a place to go. However, few newly arrived Chinese students consider Thanksgiving to be terribly important. It is not a holiday celebrated in their country, and they did not grow up with it.  Instead they consider Chinese New Year (also known as Lunar New Year) to be the most important holiday of the year and both are celebrated with feasting and a gathering of families and communities. This is when Chinese, Taiwanese, and many other Asian students (including Vietnamese who celebrate Tet at this time of year) tend to get the most homesick and lonely.

By contrast, I remember my first Chinese New Year’s celebrated many years ago in Taipei, Taiwan, when I was in my early twenties and off to teach English as a Second or Foreign Language for the first time in Taiwan.

A group of us young foreign English teacher and student types gathered and enjoyed the way that the locals seemed to have abandoned their city and how it had become like a ghost town as people left to spend time with their families elsewhere.  The restaurants were closed so we ate canned fish and crackers and chatted and had a great time. We were not lonely at all, although my guess is that most of the Taiwanese we knew would have thought we were.

Some of us, including me, later had the opportunity to spend time with Taiwanese families and that was an enjoyable experience too, but it was something more along the lines of a cross-cultural educational experience than it was an experience based on joining a shared community for an important holiday.

We were much more on a “so what’s this crazy thing about anyway?” frame of mind than we were on a “how will we spend this important holiday?” vibe.

And that’s how many of your foreign students view Thanksgiving. If invited, they are happy. They meet new people. They see new things. They experience the host culture and learn more about its people and traditions.

However, if not they are usually fine.

By contrast, however, if one wish to care and provide well for your foreign students, you should learn what their holidays are and how they spend them and seek to ensure that they do not struggle with serious depression and homesickness during those times of year. 

Refugees and Terrorism -- A Weak Link but it does exist

Today I depart from the usual teaching stuff. I am a teacher of English as a Second Language. I have a great deal of experience with refugees, many of them Muslim.  From time to time, friends and acquaintances ask me about the issue of Islam, refugees, and terrorism. I probably get these questions more than most ESL teachers because, I travel in different circles. (In addition to being an EMT, licensed security guard with large event and concert experience, and martial arts and self-defense enthusiast, I am also a Paladin Press author with some wonderful cyber-contacts in these fields.)   

It’s kind of an elephant in the living room issue in English as a Second Language teaching with few wishing to talk about it. These days, many, many ESL students are Muslims and if one cannot work with Muslims, you probably should not be working the field. (Should one wonder, I can work with Muslims. In fact, when I applied for my job teaching ESL to refugees, I used a Muslim refugee as a reference.)  

Claims of a connection between a terrorist threat from Islamic refugees are much exaggerated, in my assessment. I have tried to keep abreast of the issue and if forced, I could offer less than a handful of examples where there is a very loose, often tangential link between Islamic refugees and terrorism in the USA. Much of the issue hinges on definitions. For instance, see:   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/11/19/the-viral-claim-that-not-one-refugee-resettled-since-911-has-been-arrested-on-domestic-terrorism-charges/

A Washington Post article on the issue. 

This article from the Brookings Institute offers further valuable insights.: 

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/markaz/2015/10/27/do-syrian-refugees-pose-a-terrorism-threat/

However, there were problems. 

The system has been overhauled and had some problems as detailed in this LA Times article: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/18/nation/la-na-refugee-terror-20110719

This was in response to the arrest and conviction of two Iraqis, Mohanad Shareef Hammadi and Waad Ramadan Alwan, who are reported to have entered as refugees and were found to have extensive histories of terrorist and insurgent activities. 

These can be detailed here: 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303745304576357540061417306

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/al-qaeda-kentucky-us-dozens-terrorists-country-refugees/story?id=20931131

http://abcnews.go.com/International/terrorists-refugee-program-settle-us/story?id=35252500

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-iraqi-terrorists-living-kentucky-sentenced-terrorist-activities

https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/louisville/press-releases/2011/two-iraqi-nationals-indicted-on-federal-terrorism-charges-in-kentucky

However, when I read the articles I was left a bit confused as to whether or not the pair had entered on refugee or asylum visas, a quibbling, unimportant distinction perhaps but one that crops up again and again when looking at this issue.   (For instance, the Tsaernever brothers, the Boston bombers, entered on asylum visas as teenagers, but were at times described as “refugees” in some reports.) 

However, there is this case: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/20/us/obama-st-cloud-minnesota.html?_r=0

https://forefugees.com/2016/09/19/p/

Dahir Adin, a 23 year old who entered the USA on a refugee visa while one year old, did commit a mass stabbing at a mall in Minnesota before being shot by an off duty police officer. In other words, he was a refugee, but a baby at the time with little memory of what it was like to come here. 

So what should an ESL teacher do? Well, honestly, nothing at all is usually an appropriate response. Most refugees are ordinary people and most Muslims are ordinary people too. It is important to remember that there are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. Of these, an estimated 3.3 million live in the USA. If they were inherently violent and dangerous, at the very least, the world would look quite different. 

On the other hand, if you do see something quite strange or that raises your suspicions it is probably best to quietly report it to the authorities. That way you won’t have to worry about charges of “islamophobia” from your supervisor. Also the authorities are more qualified to judge the seriousness of what you’ve seen than a typical ESL school administrators. The authorities often come at the state, local, and federal level and ideally interact with each other. Often a local police officer should have some idea of where to go to report a terrorism related concern should you see one. 

I hope to write a second post soon on how to recognize fundamentalist Muslims and distinguish them from ordinary, mainstream Muslims.    

Use of Films in the ESL Classroom

Films in the ESL classroom, or any classroom for that matter, can be a good or bad thing.

Sometimes they can be a sign of laziness. Lazy? Yes and that’s bad.  If one gets the chance to see the amusing (but ultimately forgettable) film, “Bad Teacher,” Cameron Diaz plays the eponymous “Bad Teacher.” She hates her job and instead is focused on her life’s goal of raising funds for breast implants in order to better enable herself to catch a rich husband and never have to work again. (Yes, in this film Cameron Diaz wants breast implants. It’s not exactly the most thought-out, intelligent, or deepest film ever made. I only saw it once and while I did enjoy it, I have not seen it since.)

         Therefore, instead of actually teaching her English literature class,  she simply sits in the back of the room, snoozes, and plays movies each day. Each and every day. With no exceptions or any other activities of any kid.

          She is, as the title says, a bad teacher. (By the way, I have never used this film in the classroom. I doubt very much if I ever will. )

           Don’t be a bad teacher. Don’t show films each and every day in your ESL classroom.

But does this mean you can’t use any films at all in the classroom? No, of course not.  There are many ways to show films in the classroom and do so in a way where you remain an active, engaged teacher and your students benefit from the activity.

           Over the years, I have used several films in my classrooms. The tip to using them successfully, I feel is to choose a film that is useful and relevant to the student’s interests, concerns, and goals. It should go without saying that it is best to choose a film that will not offend and will make students comfortable in the classroom. Then stop and teach from it.  In other words, 15 to 20 minutes of film per class with the film spread over several classes is not a bad way to do it.

            It is a good idea to prepare ahead of time

Consider handouts or at least make a list of the following that students will gain from the film:

• ·         Vocabulary
• ·         Idioms
• ·         Cultural references and customs

Discuss these. You might wish to have supplemental materials prepared ahead of time.

          Of course, it helps to know your students. In my last class, we started watching the film, “Pieces of April.” This small independent film involves a dysfunctional family that tries to get together for one last Thanksgiving together because mom is dying from cancer. April, the problem daughter, has invited everyone to her place for Thanksgiving dinner. There are only two problems, the first is April really does not know how to cook. The second is that when she does sit down and get ready to roast her turkey, she discovers that her stove is broken and the finds herself running up and down the stairs of her run-down apartment building desperately asking people if she can borrow an oven on Thanksgiving morning.  

            In the film people speak relatively standard American English but the idiom “nip it in the bud” as in “I am nipping this in the bud right now” needed to be taught.

             As the film is from 2004 the reference to “collect calls” and “calling collect” needed to be explained.

            Curiously the phrase, “Eddy the drug dealer is history” which is used when the father is trying to give reasons as to why they should be optimistic about April’s life and their upcoming visit, was quite confusing to the students.

             When it was all over, they had many questions, but a surprising number of them were about how to properly cook a thanksgiving turkey with stuffing. Next week I hope to bring some youtube videos on how best to prepare a Thanksgiving turkey.     

A few other films, I have used in the ESL classroom include:

Bright Lights, Big City

Hair Spray

My Name is Earl –Sold a Lemon Car (Season 4, Episode 9) 

https://vimeo.com/123247681

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMkq9oSqebg&list=ELFaOGP6o-zKg

Halloween and Pre-Christian Influence on English and English speaking cultures. ESL lesson

Pagan or Pre-Christian influence on English and the English-speaking or "Western" society are subjects little covered in ESL curriculum. As Halloween, a holiday with pre-Christian origins, is  coming and the students as me to talk about it I decided that this would make a good subject for my advanced ESL class at William K. Sanford Town Library.

I focused on several different topics and loosely linked them together.

The first was a rough map of Europe circa 800AD (ish) on which I had marked the lands of the Celts  or Celtic peoples as well as the Vikings / Norse and a big circle labelled German tribes.

I pointed at the circular area labelled "Celtics" and asked if anyone knew the name of the Boston professional basketball team. (the "Celtics") and waited for answers. Some guessed "Red Sox" and there were other guesses but soon I just went to google and typed "boston professional basketball" on the board.

Then I decided to talk and teach a bit about the history of the English language. I used three youtube videos for this.

Old English poem of the Battle of Brunanburgh

This is interesting, but, of course, there's no need to play the whole thing.

How Far Back in Time Could You Go and Understand English?

Quite good, but I take exception to the portion where they refer to the King James Version of the Bible as "the Bible" (It is one of many versions of the Bible, not "THE" version of the Bible.)

Old English Greetings

This one is a bit amateurish, I thought (not how he often seems to be reading from cue cards) but it is kind of fun. Also there is the portion where he teaches the phrase "Gode Niht" or "Good night" and pronounces "niht" sort of as "ni ccckk t" with a sound like the German or Scottish "ch" in "ach!" --this is a good place to address those pesky, oddball "gh" letters that keep cropping up in English spelling.

i.e. night, knight, through, rough, though, etc.

In all of these words, the "gh" was originally a "ch"as in the Scottish or German pronunciation of the "ch" and, by the way, it is my undertanding that all of the "ough" s at one time ha d a uniform pronunication a bit like "ooooooccckkk" but with the German / Scottish "ch" on the end.

Also worth noting, and again these were very advanced students, I would not do this with lower level students, is the way in which some English words show plurality with a vowel shift instead of an attached "s."  i.e. man/ men, woman/ women, tooth / teeth, foot / feet, mouse/ mice, etc. I just found it interesting that the roots of this practice lie back in the British languages.

I also, just in passing, mentioned Gaelic and Welsh.

I showed clips from Ashley MacIsaac and Mary Jane Lamond's 1990s version of "Sleepy Maggie." I noted that it is in Gaelic and not English and said, truthfully, that it was once one of my favorite songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoApELfgWcg

The students were a little confused by the role of Gaelic but a segment or two from this delightful short film, Yu Ming is Ainm Dom, put it in perspective for them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqYtG9BNhfM

There's a wonderful part where a Chinese man who has learned Irish Gaelic actually tries to use it in a bar in Ireland. It's about 8:00 minutes into the film.


Next we got to the part on some pre-Christian / Pagan influences on our society.

These were, first, the "strange" practice of "knocking on wood" for luck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc4khyR6yBk

I explained that although this custom had origins in a belief in tree spirits and tree gods. I also mentioned that most Americans do not know this and I had only learned it when I was about 27 years old from a friend.

I then went to the names of the days of the weeks.

While Sunday and Monday are named after the Sun and the Moon respectively, the other five days of the week are named after pagan / pre-Christian god.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are named after the Norse / Viking gods Tyr, Wodin, Thor, and Freya respectively. I used Google images to explain and show pictures of who they all were and, of course, mentioned the Marvel Comics film. I also mentioned that now they knew why there was a "d" in the middle of the word for "Wednesday."

Of course, i had to share this too.

 

I also mentioned that the names of the planets came from Roman Gods.

And then, and only then, did I actually get into Halloween which I explained with this video. I did stop the video from time to time to clarify or explain a point. 

http://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween/videos/haunted-history-of-halloween

I then mentioned the Easter bunny and Easter eggs (pre-Christian influences) and Santa's elves, another sort of pre-Christian borrowing. 

To finish the class and give the students a chance to talk to each other and not just listen to me, I asked them to offer their solutions to the following advice column questions, each of which had a Halloween theme. 

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/dear_prudence/2014/10/dear_prudence_on_halloween_poor_kids_come_to_trick_or_treat_in_my_neighborhood.html

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2015/10/11/1-cowgirl-right-to-speak-up-about-halloween-costume.html

http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/2014/10/19/cheap-candy-might-work-magic-on


http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/2014/10/20/halloween-cowgirl-can-leave-her-pistol

This one I did not actually use in class as it contained sexual content but I did find it funny. 

http://www.uexpress.com/dearabby/2014/12/10/wifes-birthday-gag-gift-turns-out