ESL Case Study

1. To what theory of learning and teaching do you subscribe and why?

Ausubel’s Meaningful Learning Theory has greatly influenced my teaching style. I have learned that when teaching ESL students one of the main things that helps students is being able to build off of past knowledge. According to Brown (2000), “David Ausubel contended that learning takes place in the human organism through a meaningful process of relating new events or items to already existing cognitive concepts” (p. 83). Finding something that can relate a student 's past knowledge to their present knowledge can be very helpful for someone trying to learn something completely new, like English. Learning is a process and it is necessary for students to be able to connect the past and present in order for information to stick.

I really like the figures 4.1 and 4.2 on page 84. The

Describe some of the difficulties you have encountered teaching ESL.

I do not have a lot teaching experience with ESL students, but I have worked with ESL students a lot. One of the most difficult challenges I have faced working with ESL students is making sure communication is clear. There are many dialects in English and many words that vary by area of the country. I think teaching ESL would be difficult because the teacher has to model appropriate language. Teachers need to find ways to communicate with their students without using slang or idioms.

It is important that teachers model the language that they want their students to use. One of my friends learned English from his host family when he came to America and the English he learned was not academic. He could speak the language well and hold conversations, but he could not write because he learned a different type of English. This issue is one that teachers face when working with ESL and it can be difficult to alter the English they learned and make it more academic. This is why it is important for teachers to use examples especially when assigning large