About US
My two other colleagues and I work on the ESL mobile team for the Fall semester 2016. Our goal is to enhance ESL learning using mobile devices.
The Harvard Bridge Program
One of the perks of working on the ESL team is that I get to sit in many ESL classes at the Harvard Bridge Program which is a great asset for someone like me aspiring to become an ESL teacher. The HBP is an adult education and training program open all Harvard University staff and faculty as well as the employees of most Harvard contractors working on campus. The class I sat in was a level 2.5 class intermediate in speaking, writing and literacy. The majority of the class are Spanish speakers and had very few years of formal schooling.
For new teachers of ESL, you might be wondering why aren’t ESL learners using tech to aid their learning? If you do wish to increase tech usage in the classroom, you might want to consider the following to form a more suited plan for the students.
According to the survey my colleague and I conducted on students at HBP, the majority of them actually have access to smartphones. Student engagement level and motivation are very high in class. What then is preventing them from using their phones to learn English?
Based on interview with the experienced ESL instructor who has been teaching for over 10+ years, it became clear that students’ visual and literacy level is very low. While we use comas, periods or exclamation mark with ease, these students have a hard time understanding these common punctuations. Complex interfaces that contain diagrams and bullets might be difficult for these students to comprehend.
While we try to develop quizlet sets for students, the instructor was quick to point out that we should choose vocab that fits into their socioeconomic context and their knowledge inventory. Many apps we see in ITunes now are they using words that suit the students’ needs in daily conversations or could they be too advanced that may become a chore for them to memorize?
From a more logistical standpoint, these students might face problems setting up email and accounts for a particular app. To solve this problem, we organized workshops and provided the students detailed instructions of where to find and install the app.
When conducting surveys of the students, survey questionnaires are also intentionally designed in simple English fashion to avoid misconceptions.
In conclusion, ESL learners are a crowd of highly motivated and committed individuals trying to improve their living quality by learning as an adult. As educators it is important to be aware of those common challenges and design tech intervention that takes into account of their education profile.
ESLmobile Blog 