Chapter 8:Teaching Teenagers Who Are Still Learning English

This chapter deals with the difficulties that a teacher faces when teaching a class with students that are learning English as a second language. This is a very difficult thing to do because the student is challenged by both the subject and understanding the words used to describe the topic. Some good ideas are to find out about the background of the students and build of from it. Find some area that that student excels in and use that to help make the student feel comfortable. Use the students knowledge of their background to help further the knowledge of the class. Look past the mistakes that they will make in English and show respect when they try to communicate. It's difficult to be in a situation where very few people understand you and ridiculing them for their English mistakes is not going to help them succeed.

I do not have much experience with non-English speaking people because of my Maine upbringing. I did take French in high school and in my senior year I traveled to France. I know how hard it is to be in a place where you do not understand everything going on because everyone is speaking a different language. While I was trying to decipher the language everyone else was taking in the concepts and getting a head of me in the classes I sat in on. I tried to speak but some of the teachers did not give me a chance to make mistakes and I had no way of learning.