Shirley Jin
Return to: ETAP 623 Spring 2016 | Shirley's Mini-Course: ESL Teaching Guide for Public Speaking
About Me
My name is Shirley. I originally came from Shanghai, China. I came to Albany in 2013 and graduated from MS TESOL program in Fall 2015. This is my second semester as a PhD student in Communication Department in SUNY Albany. My track is interpersonal/intercultural communication. I started to teach Public Speaking in Communication department this semester which is my first formal teaching experience in college level. My interest is in examining how instructors and students interact within educational settings, especially within ESL settings. Especially, with Conversation Analysis as my major research method, I would like to see how instructions and learning take place and how ESL students demonstrate their learning competence. One of my hobbies is to cook different kinds of cuisines for my families and friends. I fell in love with Thai food recently.
My Topic and Purpose
Intent of Project
With my personal interest in TESOL, as well as my teaching experience as an instructor in Public Speaking, the intent of this mini-course is to provide an ESL teaching guide for public speaking for instructors who have little background in teaching ESL students.
Learning Outcomes
After learning this mini-course, instructors will be able to:
(1) Have a deeper appreciation and understanding of English as a Second Language.
(2) Develop instructions by taking ESL students into considerations within the context of the traditional public speaking course.
(3) Develop cultural responsibilities in facing ESL students within the context of the traditional public speaking course.
(4) Assess ESL students’ speech performance within the context of the traditional public speaking course.
Needs Assessment
1. Instructional Problem
As more and more immigrants come to the U.S. for undergraduate study, it has been a trend that more and more international students sit in the same classroom with mainstream students. For instructors, it is going to be a big challenge to monitor a public speaking classroom with both mainstream students and ESL students especially for the instructors who have little knowledge in teaching ESL students. Most of the time, instructors are very passive in facing ESL students’ language deficiency and don’t know the exact way to guide ESL in making progress. The challenges are listed as follows: First, newest instructors don’t have a clear understanding of who ESL students are. Specifically, they have no idea what exactly ESL know and do not know compared with mainstream students. Usually this situation becomes worse as the semester goes on as the instructors realize that ESL students tend to participate less in class and have different learning pace and strategies. ESL students’ being quiet in class is usually interpreted negatively by the instructors without looking for the reasons behind it. Second, as the instructors realize that ESL students usually have worse public speaking skills due to their language deficiency, it is a challenge for the instructors to help ESL students improve on their vocabulary, grammars, pronunciations, etc. without making them stand out in front of the mainstream students. In specific, the instructors are usually frustrated about how to guide ESL students in public speaking properly. Third, many instructors complain that they don’t know how to arrange ESL students in class (group) activities with both mainstream students. ESL students tend to sit together with each other in class. If they are in the same group, instructors complain that they tend to speak their native language for their convenience but loose the chance to practice English; if ESL students are separated and sit with mainstream students, the instructors realize that they have communication difficulties with native students.
In my experience working as a TA first and then an instructor for Public Speaking course in SUNY Albany, I realized that the dilemmas illustrated as above are the most common ones for Public Speaking instructors. However, most literatures I have seen so far talk about ESL instructional designs as a whole, while fewer researchers have suggested a guideline for monitoring a multicultural classroom setting, especially in Public Speaking.
2. What is to be Learned
Participants will become informed about how to balance a multicultural Public Speaking class with both ESL and mainstream students to learn effectively, with the main focus on facilitating ESL students. One unit that I plan on developing for this course is that I will invite participants to know better of how ESL students’ cultural backgrounds and their learning strategies could possibly play an effect on their performance. My second unit will focus on guiding the instructors to generate decent diagnostic tests and feedbacks for ESL learners in public speaking. My last unit will be the most important one among the three with focus on making the participants brainstorm and then decide among different classroom activities and assignments that can balance and facilitate both mainstream and ESL learners according to various circumstances for Public Speaking class.
3. The Learners
In general, this course will be used for instructors, especially new instructors, in teaching Public Speaking class within undergraduate level. The participants will not only become knowledgeable about ESL learners and how to deal with multicultural public speaking classes, but also be able to use what is learned in this course and apply it to other kinds of college level multicultural classes.
4. Context for Instruction
All instruction will take place online. Therefore, in order to successfully complete this course student will need to have access to computer with internet connection. Instruction will vary depending on the lesson unit being taught. However, the majority of resources in this course will come from readings, videos, lectures, and online discussion. Participants will be assessed through a series of activities dealing with scenarios of multicultural Public Speaking class settings.
5. Exploring the Instructional Problem and Solution
Participants will explore sections of the course that will introduce the common problems that occurs in multicultural Public Speaking class. Participants will eventually generate their own solutions to monitor the multicultural class after acquiring the techniques in activity planning and based on their understanding of ESL students developed through this mini-course.
6. Goals of this Mini-Course
One goal for this mini-course is for participants to gain a better understanding of who ESL students are, how they are different from mainstream students in public speaking, and how the instructors diagnose and evaluate on ESL learners’ public speaking skills properly. Another goal for this mini-course is for participants to build up their judgement of what classroom-based activities and assignment to suggest for each specific circumstance to facilitate a multicultural class with both ESL and mainstream public speaking learners.
Performance-Based Objectives
- Instructor will be able to identify ESL learners from mainstream speakers regarding their cultural background and learning styles.
- Before ESL students’ public speaking presentations, participants will be able to systematically provide diagnostic testing for any ESL learners within Public Speaking class.
- After ESL students’ public speaking presentations, participants will be able to systematically provide evaluation for any ESL learners within Public Speaking class.
- Instructors will be able to facilitate ESLs and mainstream students within a multicultural classroom by suggesting different classroom activities and assignments under various circumstances.
- Instructors will be able to design lesson plans reflecting a learner-centered classroom to facilitate a multicultural Public Speaking class with both ESL and mainstream students.
Task Analysis
Unit 1
'Who are ESL students?'
1. The participants will define a certain group of ESL students who have passed language proficiency test so that are qualified to study together with mainstream students.
2. The participants will realize the importance of knowing ESL students well from multi-perspectives before giving them any constructive guidance in public speaking. (Pre-requisite)
3. The participants will understand how learners’ cultural background could possibly shape leaners’ performance in Public Speaking.
4. The participants will positively look upon ESL students’ learning strategies which could be quite different from mainstream students.
Unit 2
How to diagnose and constructively evaluate ESL students’ public Speaking?'''
1.The participants will watch several videos of ESL students’ public speaking performance being used to set up a standard for evaluating ESL students.
2.The participants will practice on writing diagnostic feedback based on ESL students’ performance to help them meet up not only mainstream standards but language-based standards as well.
3.The participants will practice on grading ESL students’ public speaking performance using the standard set up by themselves.
Unit 3
How to design class activities for Public Speaking course to facilitate both mainstream and ESL students?'''
1.Each of the participants will design one class activity to facilitate both mainstream and ESL students to hence one aspect in public speaking and list both of the positive and negative sides of this activity.
2.The participants will give feedback and provide constructive suggestions for two activities designed by others.
3.The participants will discuss about the teaching techniques to make ESL students comfortable in sharing their thoughts and confusions in every stage of class activities.
4.The participants will together prioritize the brainstormed class activities based on their appropriateness and practicalities on multi-cultural Public Speaking course so that they have some very practical assets/takeaways from the workshop.
Curriculum Map
Shirley's mini-course
References and Resources
Nunn, F and Nunn, R. (2005). Guiding ESL students towards independent speech making. The Internet TESL Journal, 6(2). Retrieved from: http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Nunn-PublicSpeaking.html
Watkins, C. I. (2014). Strategies for ESL students in community colleges to develop their public speaking skills. Master’s Projects, Paper 87.
Hou, M. (2008). A new approach to public speaking course in ESL classroom. English Language Teaching, 1(2), 67-70.