EFL to Secondary Students

Presented by John Mundahl

United States Peace Corps Volunteer

Recent Immigration to the United States

1. 30 million immigrants have come to the United States in the last
30 years, thats one million a year.
2. 1.2 million Romanians. First settled in Cleveland, Ohio in 1914.
(20,000) Founded St. Marys the first Romanian orthodox church, 4
Romanian newspapers. Very successful. returned to Romania.

Number of ELL Students in the United

States
1. We have 7,000,000 ELL students in our schools now. The number

has tripled in the last decade.

2. One child in four speaks a language other than English at home in
the United States now.

The Three Basic Approaches to ELL

Education in the United States
English immersion: Instruction is entirely in English.
English as a Second Language (ESL):
a. Students are from many different languages . Are not fluent in English.
b. Pull-out or Push-in model.
c. Students are placed by age, not language ability.
d. They come to ESL to work on English skills and remain in their
mainstream class for the rest of the day.

Bilingual education: Instruction for some subjects is in the students

native language but a certain amount of each day is spent on
developing English skills. Classes are made up of students who share
the same native language.

A Typical Day for a Secondary Teacher

1. Middle School: grades 7,8,9. Students are 13,14,15.
2. High School: grades 10,11,12. Students are 16,17,18.
a. All teachers have their own room.
b. Students rotate from room to room.
c. Classes are usually 55 minutes with a 5 minute break between classes.

Having Your Own Room

This has many advantages:
1. You can decorate your room.
2. All of your teaching material is there.
3. Discipline is easier: Students come into your space.

A Typical Teaching Day

1. Teachers have a duty day fixed by the teachers union.
2. Full-time teachers are in school from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
8:00---in your room
8:15---the buses arrive
8:30---first class
9:30---second class
10:30---third class
11:30-12:00---lunch
12:00-1:00---prep time
1:00---fourth class
2:00---fifth class
3:00---sixth class (1/2 hour)
3:30---dismissal

A Typical Teaching Day

1. The number of teaching hours is set by the teachers union. It is
usually 6 hours.
2. One hour of prep time is set by the teachers union.
3. hour for lunch.
4. All teachers have bus duty or hall duty during arrival and dismissal
time.

Salaries and Benefits

1. Salaries and benefits are negotiated by the teachers union and the
local school district.
2. Typical salaries start at $30,000 and go to $70,000 a year. They are
determined by your years of experience and your educational level.
(One dollar=1.30 euro?)

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Life insurance is usually included.

Health insurance is split between the teachers and the district.
Two days a month sick pay.
Ten months a year of work.
The teaching contract is complex

(maternity leave,
split time with another teacher)

We Have Strong Unions

1. Salaries used to be very low.
2. No cap on student-teacher ratio.
3. Working conditions were not monitored: air quality, asbestos in the
walls, smoking allowed.
4. Teachers organized, went on strikes, formed powerful voting blocs,
paid for lobbying.
5. Chicago teachers struck this past September. (30,000 teachers, 400,000 students)

Teaching in the United States is Hard

Work
1. 1/3 of our teachers quit after 3 years.
2. Many become ill from stress or exposure to sick students.
3. Many die shortly after retirement.

Much is Asked of You

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

You must be able to control your class.

You must be organized, professional and know your subject.
Parents are often demanding and quick to blame.
Other teachers are often tired and negative.
You must attend workshops every year to stay certified.
You must be careful how you touch and interact with your students.
You must be careful of the language you use with students: avoid
racism, sexism, shaming, favoritism.

Mentor Teachers
1. Experienced teachers may become Mentor Teachers. (Chartered Teacher
Status in Scotland) They go to special training for this and receive more
money.
2. Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs)---Need a mentor. Much of our
teacher training is still philosophical and not practical, although it is
getting much better.

Transitioning to Other Work

a. Often a teaching degree or teaching experience will
lead to a different job---usually in business.
b. Many teachers transition into other work, even though
they may have enjoyed teaching.

Testing
1. After 8th grade, there is no test to get into a high school. Students can
go where they want.
2. After 12th grade, students are accepted into a university based on
their:
a.
b.
c.
d.

SAT score
Grade point average in high school
Extra-curricular activities.
Recommendations

Our Middle School and Secondary

School ELL Classes
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

ELL instruction is divided into Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced.

Each course is given a name and number: ESL 101.
All teachers have a book and most have access to the internet.
Some follow the book closely. Others design their own lessons.
We do not have a national curriculum. Each school district decides.

Spanish as a Second Language

1. In 7th Grade, age 13, American students take a second language,
usually Spanish.
2. It is mostly EFL methodology, not ESL methodology. More grammartranslation.
3. We do not graduate seniors with the same proficiency in a second
language as you do.

Our Best Teachers Understand This Age

Understanding the Age
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Search for identity.

Need for self-esteem.
Need to feel valued and recognized.
Need for peer approval.
Vulnerable to negative peer approval.
Explosion of metacognition.
They dont want to be embarrassed.
A good teacher is someone who
knows my name.

Problems?
1. Problems with this age come when we fail to connect what we are
teaching to the world of our students.
2. They need material that is relevant and connected to their lives.

Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Howard Gardner1983.
1. Says there is no one broad thing called intelligence.
2. There are 8 cognitive abilities (different ways of learning and processing
information ) and they develop separately.
3. Linguistic, Logic-mathematical, Musical, Spatial, Bodily/kinesthetic,
Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Naturalistic.
4. School typically focuses on two: Linguistic and Logic-mathematical.
5. Teachers who like Gardners work vary the way they present a lesson.

Our Best Teachers Teach Students, Not

Just Curriculum.
1. Our best teachers are enthusiastic, and entertaining.
2. They are positive and organized.
3. Their classes are interactive, student-centered and often still
project based.

Our Best Teachers

1. Connect to their students.
2. They form meaningful relationships with their students.
3. They care about their students and want to help them learn.

Our Best Teachers Smile!

a. Our students by law have to be in school and perhaps in our class.
b. They have no choice in the matter.
c. We should value their time, do our best to motivate them and try to
guide them into productive adult lives.

Our Best Teachers

1. Want their students to become life-long learners.
2. Encourage their students to study English on their
own.

Our Average Teachers

1. Our average teachers teach curriculum.
2. They may know their subject material, but they cannot connect it
to the lives of their students.
3. They may be wonderful people, but are often overwhelmed by the
curriculum.

A Rigid Curriculum
The more rigid the curriculum, the more pressure there is
to teach curriculum and not students.

Our Best Teachers Can Control Their

Class
1. Each school must have a behavior plan .
2. Each teacher must have a behavior plan.
3. I did three things:
a. Used a seating chart.
b. Began each class with a quiet activity.
c. Gradually un-structured the class period.

Our Best Teachers Assume Many

Different Roles
1. The Controller. This is the take charge role, the boss, the disciplinarian,
leading from the top down. This role is justified because students expect
leadership and direction from teachers.
2. The Participant---We may choose to participate in a discussion, a class
project, or a singing activity. Here we should drop our Controller role or we
will dominate the activity.
3. The Resource---When students need our help, we can direct them to where
they can find the answer they need, rather than spoonfeed them information.
4. The Prompter-----When students are engaged in a student activity and lose
their focus, we need to prompt them back to the task at hand. This can be
done in a gentle manner.

Our Best Teachers Assume Many

Different Roles
5. The Tutor---When we take time to work one on one with a student, we show
them we care about them. This is the time to establish a relationship with
them.
6. The Performer---Our lessons need not always be serious. We can be funny,
engaging, demonstrative, tell stories, use dramatic gestures, mime and role
play.
7. The Role Model---As teachers, we are adult role models. We should strive to
be fair and even-handed, respectful to our students and other faculty
members, patient, well-dressed, academically honest, knowledgable about
our subject and reasonably organized.

Our Best Teachers Use the Communicative

Approach to Second Language Acquisition.
1. The focus is on meaningful communication, not just language
structure.
2. Students are given tasks to accomplish using English, instead of
simply studying English.

Our Best Teachers Use the Communicative

Approach to Second Language Acquisition.
3. The focus is on functional development (asking directions, asking
questions) not just structural development (past tense, adverbs, nouns).

Our Best Teachers Use the Communicative

Approach to Second Language Acquisition.
4. Less emphasis on error correction as communication is more
important than accuracy.

Our Best Teachers Use the Communicative

Approach to Second Language Acquisition.
5. The class becomes more student-centered, students accomplish tasks
with other students, rather than an hour of teacher-directed rote
learning.

What is a Student-Centered Classroom?

What is a student-centered Classroom?

Nothing learned by compulsion is ever remembered by the
mind. Plato

Our best teachers at times use ContentBased Instruction

1. CBI focuses on learning English and at the same time using
English to learn about mathematics, science, social studies, or other
topics of interest.
2. This could be anything that interests the students from an
interesting science topic to their favorite pop star or even a topical
news story or film.

Content Based Instruction

3. The idea is to develop the knowledge base of the students, while
they also continue to progressively learn English.
4. This connects English to the personal lives of the students.

Content Based Instruction

5. However, each lesson also has a language goal.
6. The language goal should be clearly stated in the lesson plan and in
Romania it should be tied to the national curriculum.

Example:
Subject Matter: Birds of the Danube Delta
Language Goal: Present Tense

Consider Teaching a Unit on Plagiarism

1. Plagiarism is copying someone elses work, or borrowing someone else's
original ideas.
2. All of the following are considered plagiarism:
a. turning in someone else's work as your own
b. copying words or ideas from someone else
without giving credit
c. failing to use quotation marks
d. giving incorrect information about the source
of a quotation
e. changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
f. copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your
work, whether you give credit or not.

Most cases of plagiarism can be avoided, however, by citing sources. Simply

acknowledging that certain material has been borrowed and providing your
audience with the information necessary to find that source, is usually
enough to prevent plagiarism.

How to Teach a Unit on Plagiarism

1. Understand why students plagiarize.
a. because everybody else is doing it---academic dishonesty is acceptable.
b. poor planning---allowing a deadline to come more quickly than expected.
c. panic---feeling overwhelming by an assignment.
d. confusion---not knowing how to document a source.

2. Explain the different forms of plagiarism.

3. Teach how to properly document a source.

Your Role as a Teacher in Preventing

Plagiarism
1. Make sure your students understand plagiarism. Teach examples.
2. Teach how to document source material.
3. On large assignments, help students with planning, organization and
presentation of material. Dont leave them on their own. Show them you
care. Check with them every day on their progress. Remind them of
deadlines. Give them enough time to finish so no one feels overwhelmed.
4. Set clear consequences for plagiarism. Set high standards for academic honesty
in your classroom.

The Importance of Parent Involvement

1. In study after study, success in school has been tied to active
parental involvement.
2. When parents are engaged, interested and supportive in their
child's learning, the child is more likely to succeed.
3. Parental involvement is more important to student success, at
every grade level, than family income or education.

The Importance of Parent Involvement

1. At the beginning of the year, we send a letter to the parents
welcoming them into the school and the classroom.
2. We provide a list of everything the child needs to start school.
3. We stress the importance of school attendance and arriving on
time. School attendance is the single most important factor in a
students success at school.

The Importance of Parent Involvement

4. We encourage parents to read to their children at home and talk
to their children about school.
5. We encourage parents to contact school with any questions or
concerns.
6. Some teachers compile a wish list of things teacher might need in
classroom.

The Importance of Parent Involvement

7. Stay connected to your parents throughout the year. Communicate
to them in simple language, avoiding educational "jargon."
8. Train the office staff to be friendly with parents.
9. Invite parents and grandparents to present talks or demonstrations
about their specialized knowledge or skills.
10. Sponsor family events: a Family Day, a Grandparents Day, a
Lunch with Your Child Day.

And Yet
If you teach long enough, you will have difficult parents.

Tips for Enjoying Your Year

1. Stay healthy (wash your hands).

Tips for Enjoying Your Year

2. Vary your seating arrangement.

Tips for Enjoying Your Year

3. Keep your classroom decorated. (Google for ideas)
a.
b.
c.
d.

Students can bring in pictures, create murals, make posters.

Display student work.
Search the internet for interesting pictures and information.
Cut out pictures and articles from newspapers and magazines.

Tips for Enjoying Your Year

4. Have a support group (Stay in touch with other teachers).

Tips for Enjoying Your Year

5. Vary the way you begin and end your lessons.
(Use Google for ideas)

a. Joke
b. Story
c. Song
d. A news event
e. A fun warm up exercise
f. An ice breaker
g. A fun writing activity
h. Ask for opinions
i. Take a survey
j. Talk about something
of interest to the students

Tips for Enjoying Your Year

6. Explore creative ways to teach the national
curriculum.
a. Try to show a purpose for the curriculum.
b. Try to connect the curriculum to the lives
of the students.
c. Remember, these are tech savy kids.
d. Experiment with CBI.

Tips for Enjoying Your Year

7. Attend a workshop.

Tips for Enjoying Your Year

8. Have a professional business card.

Tips for Enjoying Your Year

9. Before you begin small group work, teach your students how
to work in a small group.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

Select your groups.

Tell them exactly how loud they can talk.
Have them practice listening to each other.
Practice. Have a bell when things are getting too loud.
When they can function in a group, then begin your lessons.

Tips for Enjoying Your Year

10. Explore the Internet
a. Free games
b. Free pictures
c. Free flashcards
d. Free lesson plans
e. Free songs
f. Current methodology
g. Decorating on a budget
h. Fun ways to start and end a class.
i. Free tests

Typical Websites for Secondary Teachers

1. ESL Wonderland. This page has been created with the ESL or EFL student and teacher in mind. It
contains various High School ESL lesson plans and activities thas well as many links to ESL
resources on the Internet.
2. Rong-Chang Li's ESL Site A site containing High School ESL / ELL lesson plans and activities in
writing, listening, reading, grammar, and others.
3. Hands on English Current events activities appropriate for adults and high school students learning
English as a second language. Teachers are given permission to print, copy and use the activities in
their classrooms. Updated monthly.
4. EverythingESL Contains clear High School ESL, ELL, EFL lesson plans on a variety of topics
including seasonal, holidays, counting, animals, and more. Valuable teaching tips throughout.
5. ESL Lounge Offers free High School ESL, ELL, EFL lesson plans. Fully printable worksheets for all
your teaching needs. Song lyrics, reading comprehension, ESL articls, and guides to English
grammar. Pronunciation materials and free/printable ESL, ELL board games too.
6. Karin's ESL PartyLand Provides teachers with lessons and printable materials to use in class and
students with over 50 interactive quizzes, and 15 discussion forums.
7. Conversation Questions for the ESL/EFL Classroom A series of questions about various topics
designed to introduce and sustain conversations in the ESL, ELL classroom.
8. Grammar Bytes A grammar review by Robin Simmons. The site contains explanations, handouts
for students and teachers, and interactive exercises.

Tips for Enjoying Your Year

11. Dont Be Predictable:
a. Predictable teaching bores students.
b. Keep them focused by being a little unpredictable.
c. Try asking trick questions or saying Good Afternoon in the morning.
This tests their English and checks that they are tuned in.
d. Speak loudly, speak softly, just dont be boring and monotonous.

Tips for Enjoying Your Year

12. Have a laugh:
a. Students generally respect a teacher who they can joke with.
b. If students can joke with the teacher using English, they are using
English!

Tips for Enjoying Your Year

13. Focus on students who want to learn
a. Not all students are highly motivated.
b. Focus on those who truly want to learn English, without totally
neglecting those who dont, especially if you have a large class.

Tips for Enjoying Your Year

14. Become a reflective teacher

Tips for Enjoying Your Year

15. Try to stay rested. Teaching is HARD work.

Tips for Making TEFL Better in

Romania
1. Use the democratic process to advocate for higher teacher
salaries, more books and learning materials for students, safer work
conditions and more respect for teachers. (Chicago. 30,000 teachers,
400,000 students)

Tips for Making TEFL Better in

Romania
2. Look at schools that are doing well and copy their
ideas or programs.

Tips for Making TEFL Better in

Romania
3. Stay current with methodology. Hands on, student-centered
learning where teachers are actively engaged with their students is
effective. (Google methodology)

Tips for Making TEFL Better in

Romania
4. Consider a parent involvement program.

Tips for Making TEFL Better in

Romania
5. Challenge yourself to teach students, not just curriculum.
a. The danger with a national curriculum is that teachers feel
pressured to rush through the curriculum.
b. Many students are left behind.

Tips for Making TEFL Better in

Romania
6. Support younger teachers. Establish a mentor program in each
school.

Tips for Making TEFL Better in

Romania
7. Keep the cartoons on television in English!

How Can the Peace Corps Help You?

1. We are a free resource here at the invitation of the Romanian
government. The program is closing, however, July, 2013.
2. We are available as TEFL teachers mostly in smaller villages, but
we also give workshops, speak to groups on cultural topics and write
materials.

Conclusion
1. Two billion people speak English now.

2. 80% of the worlds electronically stored information is in English.

3. 80-90% of papers in scientific journals are written in English.

Conclusion
4. Because of the Internet, travel, study abroad, international
business, tourism---we are global citizens.
5. English is the language of choice. It is the world lingua franca--the language of choice when two speakers of other languages meet.

Conclusion
Its important that Romanian students continue to study
English and have a chance to speak it.

Ending Thoughts

Ending Thoughts

Ending Thoughts

Ending Thoughts

Ending Thoughts

Bucharest

Everyone here speaks English!!!

Thank you!
johnmundahl@yahoo.com