Twitter inspired my lesson plans for this week!

Curricular freedom has to be one of my absolute favorite parts of teaching in the Adult English as a Second Language (ESL) field. When I realized that I had some space to fill in my course schedule next week, where did I go for inspiration? Twitter! I browsed recent posts from my “twuddies” (got it? twitter + buddies=twuddies. I’m putting it out there now) at #engchat, #ellchat and others in the ESL field.  In less than 5 minutes I came across a tweet with a link to an interesting looking article titled “Change of language, change of personality?” Check it out for yourself  here. In a nutshell, the article discusses the possibility of one’s personality shifting depending on the language they happen to be interacting in. My 620R students are rapidly approaching what I would deem proficiency so I thought this could be interesting topic for them to explore.  I also thought it would be fun for me to get to dig into their heads a bit about how they feel they are being represented as their English-speaking selves.  I created some discussion questions to lead into the article then we delved into it together.

Here were the pre-reading questions I created to lead into the text, beginning with interpretation/discussion of a Czech proverb:

"Learn a new language and get a new soul."

-Czech proverb

1.      What is your favorite word in English? What do you like about it?

2.      What is your least favorite word in English? What don’t you like about it?

3.      With whom do you feel most comfortable speaking English?

a.      native English speakers

b.      people who share your native language

c.       other non-native English speakers who do not share your native language

Which of these do you feel least comfortable speaking English to?

4.      When you speak English, do you feel like the language you use is more polite or more direct?

5.      What are some major differences between your native language and English?

6.      Can you think of any words or expressions in your language that are difficult to translate into English?

7.      Are there any words or expressions that you use a lot in your native language but do not use very often in English?

8.      How would you describe yourself using 3 adjectives?

9.      Would you use those same adjectives to describe your “English-speaking self”?

10.  So…do you feel like your personality in English is any different that your personality in your native language?

If so, how?

What do you think is the reason for this difference?

After reading I asked students to answer these 3 questions:

1.      What is the author’s question?

2.      What answer does he propose?

3.      Do you agree with his opinion?

I taught the class today and it went over really well! I am excited for our next class when I intend to expand on the topic by allowing my students to choose any other article related to bilingualism to read with guiding questions and then teach to their peer groups. The idea is that the students will be intrinsically motivated by a topic that pertains to their lives directly and then being given freedom to choose a sub-article of their interest. I’ll let you know how it goes!