Adult Emergent Literacy (LESLLA) Teaching Toolkit

When preparing for a celebration, learners can contribute according to their talents, interests, or abilities.  Teachers may do this activity near the end of the course. A celebration of their hard work and achievement enhances LESLLA learners' confidence in learning. Procedure: The whole class think about the following questions: * Who are we going to invite? * What are we going to eat? * What are we going to do? * What are we going to bring? You may find page 84 of the blue Collaborations book (Huisenga & Weistein-Shr, 1996) useful. In small groups, learners think about what they are going to do. They may show, teach, cook, or do something. Have learners fill in a chart. Each group reports to the class what they are going to do. (Teaching points: Grammar "going to" & pronunciation gonna ) Learners make a list of all the people in the class (including the teacher). Write down what each person is going to do. (Huisenga & Weistein-Shr, 1996, pp.84-8...

The Language Experience Approach (LEA) centers around learners' experiences and allows learners to talk about and write their own stories and also listen to, read, and be inspired by their peers' stories. Photo by  1866946 on Pixabay Features: Materials are learner-generated. (see " Using Learner-Produced Texts ") All communication skills--reading, writing, listening, and speaking--are integrated.  Difficulty of vocabulary and grammar are determined by the learners own language use.  Learning and teaching are personalized, communicative, and creative. Sometimes, teachers ask learners to tell a story or an experience instead of writing it, and then they transcribe or write about it. (Taylor, 1993, p.48) Possible activities for the class: Making French toast  Making a salad Making cards (thank you notes, get well cards, holiday cards) Interpreting signs in and around school Mapping the neighborhood Taking a trip to the bank, city hall, ...

Self-access boxes contain activities or materials of different skills and levels and allow learners to supplement their learning with activities/materials of their own choice. The teacher organizes the materials (e.g., color coding for level and skill) and teaches learners how to use the boxes. Self-access boxes offer flexibility; learners can go to the boxes for more learning anytime. They can get more exercises when they finish classwork early, or redo an exercise if they feel they need more practice. They can also look for activities that suit their level when they find a class activity too challenging. This is helpful especially for big classes, where the teacher may not be able to address every learner's needs in each lesson. Self-access boxes also promote learner autonomy, helping learners become independent learners, who are confident that they are capable of taking care of their own learning. Photo by  moreharmony on pixabay What can be put in a self-access...

Everyone likes music. Teaching English through songs allows learners to relax (lowering their affective filter) and absorb the language. If the teacher or some students play musical instruments, singing with live music will create fond memories for the class, thus building up a pleasant environment for learning. According to Abbott (2002), using music in the literacy classrooms has also the following advantages: Music and culture are intertwined . Listening to music also means to listen to someone's stories. This also encourages learners to share theirs. Music increases retention as lyrics are often repetitive. Increased exposure to the same language helps automaticity. Music and related classroom activities appeal to different learner styles and preferences . Obviously, musical learners enjoy listening to music. Emotive, intrapersonal, or interpersonal learners can be attracted to the emotions and thoughts expressed in the lyrics. If it is dance music or an action song, kin...

Many emergent readers are proficient English speakers and listeners. The "Identifying Pictures" activity allows learners to practice listening to grammar or vocabulary they have just learned without having to worry about the printed form yet. In this activity, the teacher will provide learners with four similar pictures and then describe only one of them. Learners listen to the description and decide which picture the teacher is talking about. For example:      There is a table.       There are three cups on the table.       There is a vase.       The vase has two flowers. The activity can also be used to practice discriminating between similar sounds. For example:      The c at is on the table.      The h at is on the table. Illustrated by Sin Yee Chau (Free for use) Materials needed: Sets of four similar pictures A short script Procedure: Before-Class ...

Doing exercise in class allows learners to listen to commands in a relaxing way. As it is a routine in the classroom, learners are exposed to the words used in the commands many times and can therefore learn the words easily. Commands can include prepositions of direction (e.g., up), body parts (e.g., arms up, head to the right), and simple actions (e.g, turn to the left). Teachers can also invite friends to audio record the routine so that learners can practice listening to different voices and accents. Reference: Croydon, A. (2005). Making it real: Teaching pre-literate adult refugee students. Literacy Network of Washington.

Bingo is probably one of the most popular games used in language classrooms. It can be customized easily to serve different purposes. The original number bingo game can be used to practice listening to numbers. Bingo cards can also be made with a target sound (e.g., onset, final, vowels), and the game will become a phonics activity. Bingo provides learners with opportunities to practice reading print; it also helps learners associate sounds of the language with print. Phonics bingo cards (from https://myfreebingocards.com/school/reading/-ay-words)