JoshEsl Blog about EFL in Korea

Involve the Parents and Reap the Rewards!

4/9/2019

I’m back with another post - AWESOME!

This one is all about involving the parents (or caregivers) in a child’s education. So without further ado, let’s get this show on the road (Put your hand up if you love clichés.).

Oh, and to make it a little easier for you, I have made this blog post a simple Q & A format. Enjoy!

1. Why should we involve the parents? Well, involving the parents not only makes our life easier (Really? Sign me up!), but also helps ensure our students achieve better outcomes. Two birds, one stone (Put your hand up if you love idioms and clichés.).

Time and time again research has produced evidence showing that higher levels of positive (and I do stress POSITIVE) parental involvement in a child’s education is directly related to higher levels of academic success. Yes, that’s right; if you get the parents involved (in a positive way) their children will attain better learning outcomes.

2. What does positive parental involvement entail? Now this sounds like a simple question, but it is actually a complicated and dynamic issue. In short, positive parental involvement requires parents and teachers to work as a team in the pursuit of positive social, emotional, and educational outcomes for the student/child.

Although covering separate domains, parents and teachers are required to respect boundaries and personal beliefs, aim to have open and honest communication with each other, and, within reason, place the needs of the child/student first.

For teachers, achieving positive parental involvement requires you to provide the parents with well-thought-out advice and timely feedback on their child’s progress. It also means listening to the parents’ ideas, concerns, and/or feedback and showing the parents you are there for them and their child.

For parents, it means treating the teacher with respect and listening to their honest feedback and advice.

3. How can we get the parents involved? This is a good question. It is more than having parents attend parent-teacher meetings or sending memos or e-mails to parents (although these both help).

To truly get parents involved, I believe that the first step teachers need to take is to empower and encourage the parents to do so. After all, we are the professionals, and a little bit of advice and support from us can positively impact the parents’ beliefs about the role they have to play in their children’s education.

4. What if parents don’t want to get involved – or are reluctant? Well, this is not an easy question to answer. Of course we can’t make parents get involved (although reports suggest that the majority of parents want to get involved in their children’s education), but what we can do is offer them ample opportunity to do so.

For example, teachers can offer seminars on how parents can help their children (just make sure you are up-to-date with current best practices), have open door policies (during certain hours), e-mail parents activities to do with their children, and invite parents to open classes (and even get them to participate). In fact, there are a myriad of ways we can actively encourage parents to get involved in their children’s education – we just need to offer them the chance.

Yes – it might be viewed as extra work, but, in the end, it does make our job easier and it really does help our students.

5. How does getting the parents involved help our students? According to the research, children with parents who are actively involved in their education in a positive way (see my post on What Parents Can Do To Have A Positive Impact On Their Child’s Education) are more likely to:

Earn higher grades and do better on their exams at school
Attend school regularly
Enjoy school
Develop positive social skills
Display patterns of good behavior
Go on to post-secondary education
Have better job prospects in the future

With all of that said and done, I hope you take the time to foster productive, enjoyable, and honest relationships with the parents and caregivers of the children you teach.

Thanks for reading and have a great day.

Josh

Keeping English Real!

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Tips For EFL Teachers: Helping Our Students Learn

6/8/2018

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Understanding how to help our students learn a language more effectively and efficiently should be a goal for all language teachers. Therefore, in this post I am going to provide a list of research-based tips aimed at helping teachers help their students learn a language with more efficacy.

The following tips should help you develop strategies that can best facilitate language development for your students (or for yourself).

Tips For EFL Teachers!!!
1. Formulaic expressions and sentence structure drills can help students build confidence with using the language. This being true, it is important that beginner level students be afforded the opportunity to not only learn some basic expressions, but also be able to access and use them when needed (this is where drills come in handy).

2. It is important to get the level of input right. In short, for language learning the input should be easy enough to understand, but challenging enough to facilitate learning. To increase fluency, teachers are encouraged to select materials that are within the reach of their students, or even slightly below the student’s current level, and then have them focus on speaking fluency (i.e. correct speed, correct intonation, free from errors, and smoothness of speaking) or listening skills (i.e. the ability to understand and process in real time). Finally, if the level is too hard for your students then you run the risk of students not understanding, and consequently, not learning.

3. Have students focus on the general meaning of the text (i.e. spoken words or reading passage) instead of specific words. This will help them gain the ability to understand. In addition, there should be portions of your class devoted to encouraging students to focus on communication as opposed to accuracy. This is because language is a communication tool – and students need to master this skill, not just focus on syntax and lexis. .

4. When you teach a class, try to provide copious amounts of examples. Examples allow students to hear and/or see what they are learning, thus aiding implicit understanding. Of course explicit instruction is important, but just teaching grammar rules is usually not enough to facilitate language development. Examples and interaction with the examples solidifies the rules and allows students to get a feel of how a certain structure or lexical item is used.

5. Aim for the development of implicit knowledge (and the ‘feel’ of English). This can be achieved by having your students engage and interact with the language for enjoyment and communicative purposes. Encourage your students to watch, listen to, and read English materials that are at their current level (or below). This reduces the cognitive load and allows students to develop deep levels of implicit knowledge. Also, don’t forget to encourage your students to talk and interact as often as possible.

6. Staying motivated is one of the biggest challenges facing English language learners. Teachers need to really focus on having fun, engaging, and interesting classes. They also need to understand the benefits of helping their students develop robust mental images of how they will use English, and who they will be in English, once they master this new skill. Finally, teachers need to be aware of how both internal and external motivation is important to language learning.

7. Effort Equals Results! If you want to be a good teacher, then you need to make an effort (feel free to watch my TED talk on teaching and education).

8. Get your students reading! Reading is often a lot easier for students than listening as it allows the student time to process the information. This being true, reading is often a great way of helping students develop their vocabulary, as they can look up each word in a dictionary and then write it in a diary with example sentences.

9. Keep your lessons interesting and relevant. (I think this is pretty self-explanatory.)

10. Have fun and take responsibility. You must take charge and inspire your students. No one likes a boring class void of care. So don’t be that go-through-the-motions teacher – because that teacher makes the rest of us look bad.

Please click on the link to watch the slide show I have prepared – 10 Tips Language Teachers Should Know.

Thanks for reading

Josh
Keep English Real!

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Josh Wedlock at TEDxDongdaemun

9/11/2017

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Hi everyone,

Sorry I have been away for a while – I was preparing for my TEDx talk at TEDXDongdaemun (Get Real! - A TEDx Talk by Joshua Wedlock / 조쉬 웨드락). The talk, which took place on September 9th, was based on almost two decades’ worth of experience either helping people get fit or learn English.

The thing I wanted to share with you from this experience is really very simple – never stop challenging yourself.

As teachers we often encourage our students to grow, to try new things, to take on new challenges, but when was the last time you took on a new challenge or pushed yourself a little out of your comfort zone?

As we all know, teachers can often teach best by leading by example – so no matter what that challenge is I dare you to embrace it. Embracing the challenge will help show your students that you are also trying to learn and grow.

For me this talk was not only a goal, but it was also a challenge. It was challenge to get up in front of 100 or so people and talk about myself. It was a challenge to get up in front of 100 or so people and present an idea (an idea worth spreading) that will be judged by others. It was a challenge to get up in front of 100 or so people that I didn’t know and engage in a dialogue with them.

But I did it! (Go me!)

Anyway, I will add the link as soon as it becomes available on YouTube or the TED website.

Thanks for reading,

Josh
Keep English Real!

Search terms:Get Real. Josh Wedlock. Joshua Wedlock. TEDx Dongdaemun. Tedxdongdaemun. Josh Wedlock ted talk.

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Are you picking up what I’m putting down?

6/16/2017

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Hi All,

In this quick post I would like to take a few moments to remind everyone that there are important differences between what goes in (i.e. input), what is understood (i.e. intake), and what is learned (i.e. uptake) while studying a second language.

To begin with, it is important to remember that just because learners are exposed to the target language this does not mean that this language (i.e., input) is going to be attended to and/or processed. For something to go from input to intake it usually needs to be attended to in some way. This usually means that the new structures, words, or phrases need some form of focused attention, and if possible, the chance to use this new language in an authentic way in order to help ensure uptake (i.e., learning) has taken place.

Why am I telling you this (again)?

Well, last week I heard a teacher tell a student that all they needed to do to improve their English was to listen to their favorite English song and eventually they would understand it. Not only did this display the teacher’s misunderstanding of the role of input, it also displayed a lack of understanding of how one learns a language.

Of course songs are a great way to learn new words and phrases etc., but if all you are doing is listening to songs and expecting the lyrics to be understood without focused effort (e.g. looking up the vocabulary in a dictionary) or assistance (e.g. asking someone to help you understand the grammar or vocabulary etc.), then you will probably find it hard to learn a new language.

So, if you are a teacher giving this type of advice – especially to lower-level students - it might be best to provide your students with some tips and guidelines to follow in order to help them develop their language skills in a more effective way (Check out my lecture on Listening For Language Development for more information).

Of course many would argue that advanced-level students do not need as much focused attention to ensure uptake (i.e. learning) occurs, and of course this is probably true because advanced-level students are using their current language skills to facilitate the uptake of new structures or words etc. found in the input without the need for explicit instruction.

The Point?
Remembering the differences between input (i.e. what goes in), intake (i.e. what is understood), and uptake (i.e. what is learned) can help you uncover language development opportunities to help you help your student in the most effective and efficient way possible.

Thanks for reading.

Josh
Keep English Real!

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Flipped Classrooms for EFL/ESL Classes!

5/9/2017

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Hi teachers (and random web surfers)

1) Have you ever heard of the pedagogical model known as the ‘flipped classroom’?
2) Have you ever experimented with the ‘flipped classroom' in your EFL/ESL classes?
Or
3) Would you like to know more about the ‘flipped classroom’?

Regardless of your replies, this post is going to discuss:

The Flipped Classroom!

What is the flipped classroom?
The flipped classroom (FC) is a style of teaching (validated by research) that – in simple terms – turns the traditional ‘lecture → homework’ on its head.

How does it work?
In a flipped classroom the traditional ‘content’ (i.e., lecture/reading) of the class is done at home prior to the class. Then during the class the traditional ‘homework’ (i.e. activities) component is done.

Why is it beneficial?
1. The FC gives students the time to review the lectures as many times as they need – allowing them to learn at their own pace.
뒤집힌 수업은 학생들이 배운 내용을 필요한 만큼 복습할 시간을 준다.
2. Classes are more efficient as the students enter the classroom with the questions and sticking points they need clarified.
어려운 문제나 질문들을 할 기회가 많아져 수업 시간을 효과적으로 활용할 수 있다
3. The FC allows more class time to be devoted to addressing questions the students may have.
수업시간 동안 학생들이 질문할 수 있는 시간이 더 많이 주어진다.
4. The FC allows more time for ‘learning while doing’ – e.g. doing activities or engaging in project-based learning etc.
학생들이 수업시간에 참여함과 동시에 배울 수 있는 환경을 조성한다.
5. The FC creates a more collaborative environment – as students can help each other with tasks.
학생들 간에 서로 도움을 주며 배울 수 있는 협력적인 환경을 조성한다.
6. The FC promotes equal learning opportunities.
동등하게 배울 수 있는 기회가 주어진다.
7. The FC frees up the teacher’s time – since you don’t need to prepare or give the same lecture 1000s of times. Just record it once and disseminate it.
강사의 시간이 좀더 여유로워 질 수 있다.

What are the caveats or downsides?
1. The FC is not ideal for young or immature learners.
뒤집힌 수업은 나이가 어린 학생들에게는 적합하지 않다.
2. The FC is not suitable for those who can’t access the lectures (or other materials) away from the classroom.
강의실 밖에서 강의나 수업 내용을 열람할 수 없는 학생들에게도 적용하기 어렵다.
3. The FC is not ideal for students who lack motivation.
목표의식이 없는 학생들에게는 적합하지 않다.
4. It might take time for teachers to write and record (or find) suitable materials.
강사가 수업 준비할 시간을 더 할애해야 할 수도 있다.

What do I need to do or have in order to implement a flipped classroom?
1. You are going to need a good set of materials that your students can access away from the classroom. And remember, a flipped classroom does not mean there are no activities to be done at home. If you think an activity is needed to supplement the video/reading – then give it.
학생들이 강의실 밖에서 열람할 수 있는 효과적인 영상이나 프린트 물 등의 수업 자료를 준비해야 한다.
2. You are going to have to have a plan for what classroom activities can supplement and enrich the learning the students are doing at home. (Think reinforcing and complementing!)
학생들이 효과적으로 강의 내용을 습득할 수 있는 보충 자료가 필요하다.
3. You are going to have to make sure the students know what the flipped classroom is for.
뒤집힌 수업이 무엇이며 어떤 효과가 있는지 학생들을 이해시켜야 한다.
4. You might have to get the parents involved – especially with younger or less motivated students.
나이가 어리거나 목표의식이 뚜렷하지 않은 학생들에게는 부모님들의 참여가 필요할 수도 있다.

These guys offer some practical advice! (And it only takes 4:40)

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Involve the Parents and Reap the Rewards!

Tips For EFL Teachers: Helping Our Students Learn

Josh Wedlock at TEDxDongdaemun

Are you picking up what I’m putting down?

Flipped Classrooms for EFL/ESL Classes!

Josh's ESL Blog

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