Elizaveta Melchakova, A 2002 Eighth Grade Award Winner’s Essay
By Elizaveta Melchakova
I would like to share some ideas about helping foreign students, as I have experienced all their problems myself.
First method is to allow students to translate text after they read it, so students can understand something at first and learn some vocabulary.
A new student will have to deal with not only ESL class. In other classes the teachers don’t focus on learning English, so you can’t ask them to sit with you and help understand the material, but the teacher can give you a little help that doesn’t take much of his time. He can help visualize some material by attaching pictures showing the content of the text so that the student can roughly guess it’s meaning.
Student school life is not only inside the classroom, but outside it too. But there is one problem here. In each country, communication between people is built differently, so you should look at least part of how people communicate in the country in which the student came from, and explain to him what he needs to change in his usual behavior in order to avoid misunderstanding from other people. Also teach the student basic phrases to socialize this way.
In addition to lessons and communication, the student will face such problems as a new school. Most likely, your school sistem will be different from the school the student was in before, so it is necessary to help the student get comfortable. You will probably need to familiarize yourself with the school system of the country the student comes from. Take enough time to explain how the school works, don’t leave out even the smallest details, because you don’t know where the student will have struggles. Also ask another student to help for a while until the new student gets used to it.
Besides this, there is another way to help the student communicate. You can arrange small student meetings with ESL students and English speaking students who are interested in participating so that your students learn some of the necessary conversational skills and become more comfortable in school.
And in conclusion, I want to remind you that the best and most important method is to build a good relationship between the student and the teacher, and this should never be forgotten.
Thanks for your attention.
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