Question: How do younger ELL students get motivated to learn English online without seeing the ESL teacher in person?
As an educator, I’ve always thought that learning online would be very difficult for ELL students, as you are unable to show the student visually on how to say the word. Not only that, but I find that learning in person is much easier to control what the student is doing. It’s hard to get a student motivated, but I feel like it’s difficult to get them engaged with what you want them to do. I’ve taught a few ESL students online before where we weren’t allowed to use Video chat. That is the major difference between ESL teaching with video vs no video.
When I taught ESL, I remembered it being very difficult as I didn’t know what to do at that point. As a young educator, I was at a loss at what to do as I had tried using a ‘point system’ and I tried talking slower to get them to talk to me.
With the experience now, I know that it’s important to understand where the student is coming from. As most students are not motivated if they have no idea what you are talking about. Finding out where the student comes from and what their background is will help you figure out their culture and perhaps what they are interested in. That way, you can begin a friendly discussion on what they know in order to incorporate some new vocabulary words they can use!
According to a study based on a point system, they stated;
“Such texts for online programs should be selected carefully to address the specific needs of the candidates and help them build on their existing skill set and knowledge base. Additionally, meaningful and focused readings should be paired with assignments that explicitly request the participants to reflect on their experiences and include references to the assigned readings and activities.” (Forte, K. S., & Blouin, D, 2016)
As I dove deeper into research, I found some articles stating that the point system does indeed work, however it works best when you’re in a classroom setting.
“…in the control classes only the more academically competent students would try to tackle reading difficult words, or elaborate when speaking. On the other hand, the majority of the students in the experimental classes were attempting to do so. The teacher was pleasantly surprised to see students who might usually sit back and observe now not only participating, but also pushing themselves further.” (Homer, R., Khe Foon Hew, & Cheng Yong Tan, 2018)
It’s clear that point systems worked in classes and that ClassDojo really did bring students together to work harder for their rewards. I really do hope that I can incorporate that into my lessons next time if I do teach online again. I do think it could be one motivator that a child could possibly use.
References:
Forte, K. S., & Blouin, D. (2016). Fostering Transformative Learning in an Online ESL Professional Development Program for K-12 Teachers. Qualitative Report, 21(4), 781–797.
Homer, R., Khe Foon Hew, & Cheng Yong Tan. (2018). Comparing Digital Badges-and-Points with Classroom Token Systems: Effects on Elementary School ESL Students’ Classroom Behavior and English Learning. Journal of Educational Technology & Society, 21(1), 137–151.
a million dreams 