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Exploring Engagement in ELT Teaching

Posted on January 20, 2021 | by Pearson

Part I: Emotional Engagement

Exploring Engagement in ELT Teaching banner — **By Christina Cavage**

English language educators are bridge builders. We build bridges not only between people and their goals, but also between people. Language is all about connecting with others. When we learn a language, we are opening ourselves up to those personal connections. Our entire field is centered around connecting and communication. If you are like me, you probably gave very little thought to that pre-COVID. But, how about in our COVID world? How can we build those bridges when there are walls, borders and oceans between us? As I am planning my course for the Spring term, I can’t help but reflect on how I can be that bridge builder. How can I connect my students to others when it’s challenging for us to connect? Or, when my old ways of engaging learners do not translate in this new medium? It’s important to define engagement in this new environment of remote instruction. What is it? Why is it so critical to student success? And, how can I build it? Before we look at how we can build engagement in our ELT classes in the time of remote instruction, let’s examine what engagement is.

What is Engagement?

Engagement in learning is about “the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education.” This engagement involves behavioral engagement—are our students participating? Are they working in groups effectively and efficiently? Then we have cognitive engagement—are they interacting with content and applying the new content? Are they developing autonomy? And, emotional or affective engagement—are they motivated? Do they see relevance in what is being studied? Are they comfortable in the learning environment?

Emotional Engagement

Now that our learning environments look quite differently, how can we build and assess engagement? Well, as ELT educators we are very cognizant of the importance of emotional engagement. We know our students need to feel comfortable to take those language risks. We have spent a lot of time thinking and designing lessons that lower that affective filter– making students more comfortable in the classroom. Thinking of my old ways of teaching, this may have involved ice-breakers and small group or pair introductions. What does that look like today when I can’t easily pair students, or I have some students online and some face-to-face? How does that happen when we move to a digital or hybrid model of teaching?

Strategies to Build Emotional Engagement

It’s all about leveraging the tools we have. And, on the upside, there are many benefits. Often times that ‘everyone is looking at me’ intimidation goes away in a virtual or digital environment, and students feel freer to share and engage.

Strategy #1: Build a Community Before Class Begins. If you are using an LMS, such as Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle or Google Classroom, consider posting a video of yourself describing your interests, expectations, etc. Ask your students to submit a video of their own. Then, begin class by asking follow-up questions, or noting individual interests. Pair students up by interest. Create a task where students ask targeted questions. “I saw you play soccer. How often do you play?” They can then introduce their partner to the class that extends upon what the video included.

Strategy #2: Hold a Coffee/Tea Hour. This should be an informal open house type of meeting where students can drop by virtually and ask questions about culture or language.

Strategy #3: Use Collaborative Tools. Consider using collaborative tools like Nearpod. The collaborative board within Nearpod allows learners to share their ideas, see everyone’s ideas and even like one another’s ideas.

Collaborate! activity in the Nearpod platform

Strategy #4: Think-Pair-Share/Zoom. Rather than immediately putting students in a breakout room, and giving them tasks, give students time to think. Model what you expect to happen in the breakout room. Assign pairs via Zoom breakout rooms and have them share in their rooms. Providing students time before you open breakout rooms, allows for students to better use their pair time, and be on task while in the breakout room.

Strategy #5: Races. Students love competition whether online or face-to-face. These races can also serve as great formative assessments. Consider grammar. Create a Powerpoint with common errors, then have students race to type in the correct answers. Or, if teaching vocabulary, put a sentence up with a missing vocabulary word. Provide students choices (A, B, C) and then have them type in the correct choice. For quick formative assessments, have students use the thumbs up or other reaction tool to indicate if something is correct or not. My favorite is the Time to Climb in Nearpod. Students can choose their avatar and you set the time limit. Students answer questions and race up a hill. They are awarded points by both their correct answer and how fast they answer. These races build community and you will find students ‘talking’ about these races for weeks to come.

In summary, moving learning online isn’t easy. It takes thoughtful planning and careful execution. However, there are numerous tools out there that can help build that engagement. Well-planned digital and hybrid lessons can even be more emotionally engaging to students today. Stay tuned for next month when we will look at strategies to build behavioral engagement.

References:

Student Engagement Definition. (2016, February 18). Retrieved January 05, 2021, from https://www.edglossary.org/student-engagement/

Christina Cavage is the Curriculum and Assessment Manager at University of Central Florida. She has trained numerous teachers all over the world in using digital technologies to enhance and extend learning. She has authored over a dozen ELT textbooks, including University Success, Oral Communication, Transition Level, Advanced Level, Intermediate Level and A2. Recently, Ms. Cavage completed grammar and academic vocabulary curriculum for the new Pearson English Content Library Powered by Nearpod, which is now available. Learn more here.

Citizenship Education in a Time of Transitions and Insurrection

Posted on January 13, 2021 | by Pearson

Important update, February 22, 2021:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that it is reverting to the original (2008) version of the civics test for citizenship. We have updated our new citizenship site with information about the decision. Please visit pearsoneltusa.com/citizenship for more information and useful resources.

January 2021 was already going to be a time of transitions for our programs that prepare immigrants to become naturalized citizens. In addition to updating the answers to some civics test questions to reflect recent election results, we need to prepare for a transition to a new version of the civics test that poses challenges for our students and programs. And then came the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which demonstrated to many of our students the precariousness of the system of government they are learning about and the sudden fragility of some of the basic facts they need to know for the test, including the system of checks and balances among three branches of government, and the rules of presidential succession.

The Transitions: A New Administration and a New Civics Test

Every U.S. election can result in changes in answers to some of the civics questions for naturalization, which ask students to name the President, the Vice President, the Governor of their state, their Representative in Congress, the Speaker of the House, and one of their state’s U.S. Senators. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website offers a link with updates for the federal offices. For example, after the inauguration on January 20, the site will let us know the multiple ways students can name the new President, which will likely include Joseph R. Biden, Jr, Joseph Biden, Joe Biden, and possibly just Biden. (A link to the USCIS test update page is here.)

The greater transition challenge this year is the major revision of the civics test of U.S. history and government knowledge. The test is significantly more difficult and lengthier than the current version, which requires applicants to answer correctly six out of ten questions from an item pool of 100 possible questions. The new test requires applicants to answer correctly 12 out of 20 questions from an item pool of 128 possible questions. Many of the new questions are more difficult, use more complicated vocabulary, or are provoking controversy regarding their content. In addition, while the old test stops as soon as applicants answer six questions correctly, the new test requires applicants to answer all 20 questions regardless of whether they have already answered 12 correctly. This will potentially increase the amount of time that USCIS officers need to administer the civics portion of the exam and thereby result in longer and fewer interviews per day, further exacerbating the agency’s backlog in processing citizenship applications.

Given these concerns, many education programs, advocacy organizations, and others have submitted comments to USCIS calling for the new test to be rescinded or delayed until it can be further reviewed by the new administration. (My recent article describing issues with the new test is available here.) As of this writing, there has been no change in the policy, and the new test is required for all students whose citizenship application filing dates are December 1, 2020, and after. Students who filed prior to that date will take the old test. So unless there is a policy change, our citizenship education programs currently need to prepare students for two different sets of civics questions depending on their application dates. And since USCIS regional offices vary widely in their appointment backlogs, programs around the country will experience different percentages of students needing to prepare for the old and new test versions.

Here are some resources that show the comparison between the old and new sets of civics test questions:

A listing of the old test questions (with a comparison to the new questions) is available here.

A listing of the new test questions (with a comparison to the old questions) is available here.

A Voices of Freedom unit-by-unit integration of the old and new test questions is available here.

If you would like to provide comments or suggested edits to USCIS regarding any of the new test questions, you can send them to naturalizationtestrevision2019@uscis.dhs.gov.

The Insurrection

The attack on the Capitol on January 6 has had a profound impact on many of our immigrant students, whose reactions have ranged from shock and fear that an insurrection could occur in the United States, to a wary familiarity with such events from their experiences in their countries of origin. For many students in our civics classes, the principles of democracy and the stability of the government institutions they are studying are beacons of hope lighting their pathway to citizenship. Many cite the rights and responsibilities of citizenship as the fulfillment of a dream as they prepare to take the oath of allegiance at their naturalization ceremonies.

But many know too well from their home countries how fragile government institutions and people’s rights can be. Ironically, while one of the most important aspects of attaining citizenship is for our students to eventually be able to have relatives join them in the U.S. through family immigration, many students were hearing from those family members after the events at the Capitol to check on their safety and the stability of the United States.

When considering these events through the eyes of our students, it is also important to acknowledge that many of them have experienced the effects of growing anti-immigrant sentiment over the past few years, and many are in communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting recession. These students’ motivations for acquiring citizenship therefore also may include the goal of increasing their safety and acceptance in the country as well as safeguarding their lives and livelihoods.

The challenges our students may be facing coupled with uncertainty surrounding the recent events may result in their having lots of questions, concerns, and a need to share during instructional time. Whether you are offering citizenship instruction or general English language instruction, and whether you are currently meeting with students remotely or in a classroom, here are links to some resources you may find useful for incorporating lessons or conversations about the U.S. Capitol insurrection:

“What Happened During the Insurrection at the US Capitol and Why?” – a resource from Facing History and Ourselves, is available here.

“Three ways to teach the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol” – a lesson plan with videos from the PBS Newshour, is available here.

“Lesson from an Insurrection” – interviews with 15 instructors about how they and their students have responded to the events, from the education news site The 74, is available here.

A “January 6, 2021 Resource Guide” – from the New York City Department of Education, is available here.

I am currently preparing an article on how immigrant students view the January 6 attack and invite you to share any writing about this by your students. If a student would like to have her or his photo included and give permission, please send any submissions to: bill.bliss@languageandcommunication.org.

5 Halloween-Themed Activities for Your Young English Learners

Posted on October 23, 2020 | by Pearson

By Gosia Jaros-White, Marketing Manager, Pearson ELT USA

It’s almost Halloween and the ghosts and vampires will soon be coming out to play! Did you know that although we often associate Halloween with pumpkin carving and eating candy, the festival has much older origins?

Samhain is an ancient Gaelic festival which celebrates the end of the harvest and the start of winter. This is why people often associate the colors of orange and black with Halloween: orange is the color many leaves turn in autumn and black is the color of the darker winter months.

People used to believe that spirits walked the Earth on the night of Samhain. The tradition of dressing up as ghosts and demons started as a way to hide from the spirits who walked the streets. Similarly, people used to leave treats outside their houses for the spirits and from this came the tradition of trick-or-treating.

It’s always fun to engage with students in Halloween activities to get them into the Halloween spirit while they learn English. Even though many programs are teaching remotely during the Covid crisis, we can still engage in fun Halloween activities. Here are a few ideas to get students playing and learning, even when remote.

1. Who or What Am I?

In this activity students will practice using descriptive words and learning Halloween vocabulary. Search images online that include Halloween imagery (jack-o-lantern, pumpkin, ghost, black cat, bat, vampire, etc.) Email each student one picture ahead of the class. During class, give each student one to two minutes to describe their picture to the class without telling others what it is. The student who first guesses the object correctly gets a point. Play until everyone described their object. After each guess is completed, you can show the picture to everyone on your shared screen. The student with the most points wins the game.

2. Pumpkin Oranges

Pumpkin carving is fun – but it’s also messy and pumpkins can be really heavy! Instead, have students use an orange and a black marker! Get them to draw a scary face on their orange and then write a short text describing it. Here’s an example you can share with your students:

My pumpkin orange, Ghoulie, has two big eyes. He’s got a small nose and a big mouth, with lots of teeth. This Halloween, he’s going to sit outside my house. He’s going to scare people but he doesn’t scare me! I think he’s very funny!

3. Let’s Play Halloween Bingo!

This is a great activity to review the Halloween vocabulary. Email students a blank bingo board or have them draw one on a piece of paper. Then have them draw Halloween items, one for each box. You might want to give them some ideas, such as ghost, black cat, pumpkin, bat, etc. Then play bingo, calling out different Halloween-related words. Students listen and mark their boards if they have the item that was called out. The first person with five in a row wins the game.

4. Halloween Theater

This activity will let your students be creative while they are practicing modals. Put students in small groups, and give each group a scary scenario. For example: Frankenstein has stolen your lunch. A big black hairy spider is chasing you. A vampire asked you to go for a walk with him. Have the groups discuss what they would do in each situation. Encourage them to use modal verbs (should, could, would). Then have groups share their ideas with the rest of the class.

5. Tell a Scary Story

Have the class create a scary story. Students take turns adding one sentence to the story. For example, Student 1: One night I was home alone when the lights went out. Student 2, All of a sudden, I heard a big bang coming from the basement. Continue until everyone contributed to the story. For a larger class, you might want to put students in groups to work on their story, write it down, and then present to the whole class. You might also want to give students sentence starters or some vocabulary to get them going.

New Citizens, New Voters

Posted on October 16, 2020 | by Pearson

Did you know that . . .

10 percent of the total U.S. electorate consists of naturalized citizens?

Before COVID-19, up to 860,000 new Americans had been expected to take their oath of citizenship and be eligible to vote this year?

Up to half that number may not be able to vote due to months-long pandemic shutdowns at USCIS field offices, which exacerbated years of growing delays in citizenship processing?*

Since field offices reopened on June 4, citizenship oath ceremonies have resumed at a slower rate than usual through a variety of workarounds, including smaller indoor gatherings that observe social distancing measures, outdoor ceremonies, and even drive-through events sponsored by local governments. However, the months of postponed naturalization interviews have severely reduced the number of applicants who have completed the process and are ready to take the oath in time to register to vote.

The delays have stymied the efforts of the League of Women Voters and other organizations throughout the country to register as many new citizens as possible in time to vote in the upcoming election. For some states, voter registration deadlines have passed. But many states still have upcoming registration deadlines or allow simultaneous registration and voting on Election Day. You can find a useful state-by-state guide to voting deadlines and procedures here.

If you have current or former citizenship students who are eligible, encourage them to register to vote!

Our students cite being able to vote as one of their most important motivations for becoming citizens. And our instruction emphasizes this as one of citizens’ key rights and responsibilities. In celebration of this election season, here are complimentary lessons from the Voices of Freedom course that you can use with your students on the topics of rights, responsibilities, and civic participation, including elections.

If you are currently offering your citizenship instruction remotely or through a hybrid model due to the pandemic, here’s a new training video for Voices of Freedom that includes a segment on remote instruction strategies using Zoom and Google Meet. (That segment begins at 25:48.)

And as a service to programs operating remotely, an electronic version of the course is also available here––a useful resource for screensharing and as an alternative to the print edition of the student book.

(*Information about delays in citizenship processing are available at these sites: FiveThirtyEight, Boundless, and the Migration Policy Institute.)

To learn more about the Voices of Freedom course and its components, and for ordering information, please visit our digital catalog here.

Secondary School Remote Learning Solutions with the Side by Side Extra eTexts

Posted on September 14, 2020 | by Pearson

By Bill Bliss and Steven J. Molinsky

This is a back-to-school season like no other. Many school systems are either delaying openings, remaining fully remote through the fall, or reopening partially with limited attendance, smaller class sizes, staggered schedules, and hybrid instruction in order to follow social distancing guidelines. As a result, remote learning is continuing to fully or partially replace face-to-face classroom instruction as the new school year gets underway.

Realizing that the challenges of remote and hybrid instruction are particularly acute for English language learners, we have developed some new training resources to support middle school and high school instructors and students who are using our Side by Side Extra course and its eText. Instructors are finding the eText version especially useful for online learning, citing the programmatic and predictable nature of the course and its communicative methodology that maximizes student interaction through conversation practice during synchronous learning sessions.

(Side by Side Extra is a streamlined intensive course especially appropriate for middle school and high school newcomers. Side by Side Plus is the adult education version of the course.)

To support instructors, we have created new quick-start guides for remote learning strategies with the eText. The guides offer tips for using the eText along with Google Meet and Zoom to create a dynamic and interactive remote learning experience. The guides also explain how teachers can use the eText to create classes, modify course content, communicate with students, and document their program participation and progress. Video training resources are also available.

Synchronous, Asynchronous, and Independent Learning

• Synchronous instruction is easy, interactive, and fun using a conferencing platform such as Google Meet or Zoom. Instructors can use screensharing to display the lesson page on students’ devices. Breakout rooms enable the highly interactive pair practice that is the hallmark of the Side by Side guided conversation methodology.

• Asynchronous learning is an important component of the remote learning experience as students preview on their own activities and content to prepare for a synchronous class, and then do follow-up activities to reinforce and expand upon the online lesson.

• Independent learning is promoted through easy-to-access embedded audio, course features such as the Side by Side Gazette, and the unique FunZone digital amusement park that offers informal, self-directed, and flexible learning through motivating instant-feedback activities, games, and videos.

Synchronous Instruction with the eText

Screensharing allows instructors to display the digital student book page for all students, with instant access to the audio program for each page. The eText’s enlargement tool makes it possible to focus on a particular activity, such as a dialog, illustration, or exercise. This is especially helpful to students who access online sessions on a smartphone or small tablet device.

Tiled/Grid View (in Google Meet) and Gallery View (in Zoom) build community in the online classroom as students participate together in listening and speaking practice, present dialogs and role plays, and engage in discussions.

Breakout Room is the ideal environment for pair practice that is at the core of the Side by Side guided conversation methodology. (The Breakout Room function is available in Zoom and forthcoming in Google Meet.)

Learning Management Using the eText

The Instructor Version of the eText enables teachers to create classes and post assignments and notes to students directly to their students’ eTexts, without the need for an LMS such as Canvas or Blackboard. Onboarding students is an easy registration process at the Pearson English Portal, and creating courses and class rosters happens through the eText platform and a simple email invitation to students to join a class.

Teaching Strategies

The quick-start guides offer step-by-step suggestions for using each type of Side by Side activity in a blend of remote learning modes of instruction: synchronous, asynchronous, and independent. The guides also provide simple instructions for onboarding students, creating courses, and using the eText platform to document learner participation. Video training resources are also available at the links below.

We hope that these resources are helpful as you continue to flexibly adapt your instruction to meet your students’ language learning needs during this unusual and challenging school year.

To download a quick-start guide for using Side by Side Extra with Google Meet, click here.

To download a quick-start guide for using Side by Side Extra or Side by Side Plus with Zoom, click here.

To access a training video for the Side by Side Extra eText, click here.

To access a webinar recording about the Side by Side Plus eText, click here.

For more information about Side by Side Extra and Side by Side Plus, click here.

To view the new Pearson ELT K12 catalog with additional elementary and secondary school resources, click here.

To locate your dedicated Pearson ELT Specialist, click here.

Category: ESL