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Mission Statement
We promote and support the teaching of English to adult immigrants of all nationalities in Northern Virginia and welcome their active participation in our community. |
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Thank You to ...
ESLIM founder and director emeritus Monte Campbell for placing ads in the Spanish, Korean and Vietnamese press and for locating call responders to answer Spanish and Korean inquiries on our voice mail;
ESLIM secretary Karen Brown for organizing two new teacher training sessions and one returning teacher training session with assistance from Terri Kennedy, Judy White, and Dorothy Hettmann;
Judy White, ESL coordinator at Dulin United Methodist Church, for securing public service announcements in the Washington Post;
Crossroads United Methodist Church, Dulin United Methodist Church, and Mount Olivet United Methodist Church for hosting our fall teacher training sessions;
Chris Herbert and ESLIM vice president Doug Herbert for managing the website updates;
Board member Gala Redington for responding to some of the Spanish-language voice mails and testing the signal strength of Spanish-language radio stations;
ESLIM program administrator Dorothy Hettmann for capably juggling many tasks: corresponding with prospective volunteers and matching them with programs, preparing for teacher training, preparing and sending flyers to local libraries, etc.;
And all those who work behind the scenes to make our classes possible! |
| Member Churches
Arlington United Methodist Church
Bruen Chapel United Methodist Church
Calvary United Methodist Church
Centreville United Methodist Church
Crossroads United Methodist Church
Culmore United Methodist Church
Dulin United Methodist Church
First Presbyterian Church & Mount Olivet United Methodist Church (joint program)
Grace United Methodist Church
Graham Road United Methodist Church
Lord of Life Lutheran Church
Trinity Episcopal Church |
Workplace Giving
Did you know that ESLIM participates in the Combined Federal Campaign and United Way? Please designate CFC #60490 or United Way #9393. |
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Fall Semester in Progress
The days are getting shorter and there's a chill in the air, but the thirteen churches in ESLIM's confederation are providing a warm welcome to our neighbors who are eager to improve their English skills!
ESLIM is delighted that Lord of Life Lutheran Church, with locations in Fairfax and Clifton, is its newest member.
In this issue you can read words of wisdom from an ESL teacher, find a "teaching tip," and learn more about resources available on ESLIM's website.
We welcome your ideas for articles and feedback about the e-newsletter; please email office@eslim.org. |
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Questions for an ESL Teacher
by Lucy Brown
People ask a lot of questions when you say you're an ESL teacher.
Many is the time I've been asked what languages I speak when I reveal that I have taught ESL. Although I do speak French and Spanish, I tell the person asking that, as an ESL teacher, I think it is almost preferred that you don't speak another language. Or at the very least, if you do, you do not let the students know it or you may become their human dictionary, to the exclusion of all other languages/students in the class. In this way, you do not unwittingly favor a particular student or group of students. AND you make it possible and necessary for all students to more fully dive into English and sink or swim, within reason. You are of course there to keep them from drowning as any good lifeguard would.
The students, of course, ask many types of questions. That's what they're supposed to do. If they don't, you wonder if they're listening. They ask questions even when they don't know they're asking. I've asked students, "Do you understand?" to which they reply, "Yes." But then some of them start blinking their eyes, which nonverbally can mean they don't understand. (I have learned the lesson that I should ask, "Do you know what this means?" instead. In some parts of the world, to say you don't understand is to embarrass the teacher, which is not allowed and might cause him/her to lose face.) As a teacher, I expect my students to ask questions, and I tell them at the outset of the class that I like a noisy, question-ridden classroom.
As an ESL teacher, I ask lots of questions of my students, and not just class-related ones. After all, all evidence to the contrary, I do not know everything. And, I want to show my adult students that, even though they feel like they are dog-paddling or barely treading water in this new language, they too know something. I usually ask them things like, "How do you say X in your language?" or "What happens when you do Y in your country?" I think this empowers them and makes them feel good. They become my teachers in a way. In this way, I gather a lot of little tidbits of language and culture. And when I use these tidbits, I get the question, "How do you know that?" to which I answer, "I am an ESL teacher."
Editor's Note: Lucy earned a master's in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. She has taught in the Bruen Chapel United Methodist Church program and recently became the coordinator of that program. |
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Teaching Tip: The Box Game
Courtesy of Monte Campbell
Make two or three small boxes using a pattern available online. (Use card stock to make it more durable.) Place vocabulary you are studying on each side. For a beginning class use one box at first. Students take turns throwing the box and making a sentence using the target word. For more intermediate classes use two boxes. Students must make a sentence using both words. Use three boxes for an advanced class. Place nouns on one box, verbs on another and adjectives on another. Students must make grammatical sentences using all three parts of speech. Add interest by making two teams, having a competition, and awarding points.
More lesson planning resources are available on ESLIM's website. |
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Never Stop Learning: Fall Training Offered Many Tips
by Karen Brown
Seventy volunteer teachers, teaching assistants, and coordinators from 11 ESLIM programs participated in ESLIM's 2011 fall teacher training sessions. Day-long training classes for new and newer volunteers were held at Crossroads United Methodist Church in Ashburn and Dulin United Methodist Church in Falls Church. Special "gold stars" to the 23 intrepid souls who attended the August 27th session at Crossroads during Hurricane Irene. While we kept an eye on the storm and provided plenty of snacks and lunch, our trainer Lauren Lang shared many teaching tips with volunteers. Lauren's training included hands-on activities that volunteers practiced, including line drills and ideas for interview grids, as well as "nuts and bolts" related to lesson planning. Volunteers also shared "brainstorming" ideas on how to build a sense of community and belonging in the classroom, in hopes of improving student retention. When asked what was of most value in the training sessions, volunteers mentioned the great ideas for interactive activities, being the student and doing the exercises themselves, learning new techniques, and getting a chance to share ideas.
In September Doug George facilitated a shorter 2 ½ hour training session for returning, experienced teachers. Doug focused on developing authentic conversations in the classroom, guiding teachers in determining characteristics for such conversations. Using a structured format provided by Doug, volunteers created lesson plans for their classrooms on topics ranging from "At the Department of Motor Vehicles" to "Buying Over the Counter Medicines."
ESLIM hopes to organize additional short training sessions for volunteers during this academic year. If you have an idea for a special training topic or would like to host or lead a session please get in touch with our Program Administrator, Dorothy Hettmann, at office@eslim.org. We see how much our students gain from their ESL learning experiences. Let us continue to learn ourselves and become the best trained volunteer teachers in Northern Virginia! |
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Teacher Training Resources Online
ESLIM is pleased to offer online training resources that you can view at your convenience. Accessible via the training videos page of ESLIM's website, the eight videos cover topics including lesson-planning, vocabulary, grammar, listening, reading and writing. Whether you teach at the beginning, intermediate or advanced level, you'll find a video that's right for your class.
ESLIM is grateful to the New American Horizons Foundation, which funded our ESL from A to Z manual, for making these videos available via our website. |
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About ESLIM
ESLIM's member churches offer low-cost English classes for adult immigrants, taught by volunteers. Students who cannot pay receive scholarships.
To support the efforts of each of the program sites, ESLIM handles a variety of tasks in a centralized way. Its activities include the following:
- Advertising for volunteers
- Placing and training volunteer teachers
- Advertising the class schedule in foreign-language media
- Sending class schedule flyers to local libraries
- Maintaining a voice-mail line in which calls can be returned in English and Spanish (as well as Korean and Vietnamese during peak times)
- Producing the Speak Easy e-newsletter three times per year
- Maintaining a website that features the class schedule, a variety of resources for teachers, and information for faith communities considering ESL ministry
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