View Content #21293

By Renee Marshall, CASLS International Programs Specialist

The Oregon International Internship Program (OIIP) offers English Language Learners from China, Taiwan and Japan the opportunity to work in the United States at internship placements in local elementary schools in Eugene and Springfield, Oregon. The Oregon Summer Program (OSP) offers international students the opportunity to come experience place-based and community learning at the University of Oregon. We prepare ESL students of varying proficiency-levels to participate in conversations about teaching pedagogy, the U.S. school system, sustainability, health, and emergency response through focused and targeted language instruction. The following are a few tips and tricks that we have learned:

1. Identity what language tasks students will be using most. For example, in the one-week unit on sustainability students will be expressing their opinion and supporting those opinions with evidence. During the first day of focused language instruction we target language tasks that ask students to practice giving opinions and supporting them extensively.
2. Identity key and frequent vocabulary students will hear and use most. For example, in the one-week unit on health and emergency response students will be focusing on earthquakes and what to do after an earthquake. During the first day of targeted language instruction students hear and use ten vocabulary words related to earthquakes and emergency response that they are likely to hear and use the most during this unit.
3. Listen to students and try to identify the language tools they need to discuss what they already know. For example, the OIIP students often can already speak about teaching pedagogy in their L1 as they are studying to be teachers in their home country. However, they often don’t have the English language skills to discuss the same topics in English. Through journals and in class discussions we try to identify the concepts students are trying to address and provide them with the language to do so. For example, many students often describe the concept of “affective filter” but do not know the word for it in English.