What Happens in an ESL Classroom?

The ESL Classroom

At American Village, our English classes don’t look like traditional school lessons. Our classes are ESL (English as a Second Language), which is a different approach, focusing on learning through experience, communication, and a little bit of fun! If you’ve never heard of ESL teaching before, here’s what you need to know before coming to work at our camps.

• The teacher only speaks in English
• Students practice lots of oral English with the teacher and with each other
• The learning environment is relaxed and interactive
• Learning activities include ESL games, role-plays, and active participation
• Most ESL students are Basic Users in the language (beginners, elementary or pre-intermediate)

There are different learning approaches used in ESL. The approach American Village uses is Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). 

Teacher Requirements

You don’t need to be a grammar expert to teach ESL, but you must have a solid understanding of English tenses, parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.), and sentence structure to guide students. You need to have good notions of spelling English words. You also must have the organizational skills and self-confidence required to manage a group of 15 learners on your own, and put into place lesson plans and classroom rules.

There are many certifying programs  for TESL (TEFL, TESOL, CELTA...). A specific diploma is not required to teach ESL at our camps, but we think they are great. With our special partnership, our past counselors can enjoy a 10% reduction upon enrollment for a TEFL course at TEFL Toulouse.

Essential ESL Words to Know

Here are some key techniques used in an ESL classroom:

• Eliciting – Encouraging students to come up with words they already know. Often uses questions.
• Prompting – Giving students hints and clues to guess words they do or do not know.
• Drilling – Repeating words/phrases to improve pronunciation and fluency.
• Monitoring – Observing students and giving feedback without interrupting.
• Total Physical Response (TPR) – Using gestures and movement to teach new words.
• Fluency Focus – Letting students speak freely without correcting mistakes.
• Accuracy Focus – Correcting grammar, spelling, and pronunciation when needed.

Examples of ESL Techniques in Action

Eliciting the word pumpkin

Teacher: "Do you know the name of an orange vegetable a lot in the fall, especially around Halloween? It can be quite heavy. It is round. People carve faces into it. What is it called?"
Students: "A ... pumpkin?"

Prompting the word pumpkin (3 options, that can build upon one another)
Teacher: "What is this vegetable?" 
Option 1: (Draws a pumpkin on the board.) 
Option 2: (Writes P_ _ _ _ _ N on the board. Slowly fills in more letters, if necessary.) 
Option 3: (Eliciting as above, while miming all descriptors while talking – round, heavy, carve faces. Show the color orange…)

Student: "A pumpkin!"

Drilling the word pumpkin
Teacher: "Repeat after me: ‘pumpkin’"
Students: "punkin"
Teacher: "pumpkin. mp. mp." (pressing lips together and exaggerating the sound)
Students: "mp. mp."
Teacher: "pumpkin"
Students: "pumpkin"

Monitoring
During group or pair work, the teacher walks around the room, listening and taking mental notes.The teacher moves from desk to desk to offer individual support to each pair/group. Later, the teacher gives group feedback, reviewing some material as needed, to help support students.

Total Physical Response (TPR)
Teacher: (Jumps) "Jump!"
Students: (Jump while saying "Jump!")

How We Teach ESL at American Village

Our lesson plans follow a P-P-P framework, to which we add a 4th P:

1. Presentation – Introduce new words or grammar
2. Practice – Students try it in controlled activities
3. Production – Students use it in pair/group activites
4. Play! – Incorporate at least on ESL game to each class

At American Village Camps, we support learners without unnecessary tension or judgement. We want counselors to lead engaging lessons that help campers feel confident using English in the real-life situations that present themselves naturally during the rest of the day at camp. 

Do’s & Don’ts in an American Village Classroom

Do:

• Use the whiteboard
• Incorporate real objects (realia)
• Use gestures and miming
• Monitor and support students as they work
• Encourage full sentences for pre-intermediate and intermediate )
• Adapt your lesson and your teaching to your learners' level

Don’t:

• Speak French
• Play non-English games
• Give word searches, coloring or other busy work
• Ignore the American Village ESL Coursebook and it's information
• Plan worksheet-heavy lessons
• Give tests, grades, or homework
• Interrupt students mid-sentence to correct mistakes

At American Village, we believe that learning English can be engaging, dynamic, and stress-free. By using ESL techniques, we create a fun and immersive environment where students can gain confidence and truly enjoy learning a new language! By working as a team, we multiply each camper's chances of learning throughout the entire day.