Week 8 - Observation Journal - Personal Statement Example

ESL (English as a Second Language) ESL (English as a Second Language) prepares people for whom English is not the native language. The commitment andcompetence of the faculty as well as the flexibility of the ESL program helps students achieve the required level in English to succeed.My instructor was Ms Holly and she was a certified ESL teacher who used integrated practice and teaching methods to maximize the improvement of English language skills among students. Ms Holly made sure that every student got a chance to participate in oral communication through short personal conversations that trained us for fluent and abrupt answers.

She also taught the basic language structure and helped us to develop reading and writing skills through effective reading and creative writing techniques.There was an Asian student, Theresa, whose basics regarding the English language were very weak. Ms Holly made sure to work on her and develop her skills in all forms of communication, oral as well as written. Theresa was very shy and an introvert. She never socialized with the rest of the class students and sat at the back of the class. Ms Holly made sure to help her in this aspect as well by encouraging group conversations.

Ms Holly provided us with various scenario-based, definite and highly organized setting for dialogue and conversation on various topics. This enabled us to enhance our language skills by learning basic mechanics such as spelling, grammar and punctuation; as well as learning clarity which includes correct sentence structure, ideas and paragraph writing.Ms Holly not only made sure that we students had the basics of English right but she further improved the oral communication by teaching us the techniques and methodologies of oral presentation.

She trained us and then we were required to give short as well as long oral presentations which highly enhanced our speaking, listening and presentation skills. In addition to this, Ms Holly worked on our vocabulary as just knowing a language is not enough; it is necessary to speak it well and fluently. Students were taught new words, synonyms and replacements and alternatives of different words which significantly increased their English vocabulary. This of course also expanded their academic skills that are required by various careers and jobs around the world.

Also, Ms Holly took care of the various cultures and countries each student was from and tried to mingle us. She gave us projects and work that had to be done in groups and each group had students from different backgrounds. This ensured that the students learnt from each other and the different ways of doing things. The teacher herself was also very interested in the various cultures of her students.Ms Holly also encouraged a question-answer session at the latter half of the class. During this time the students were supposed to ask her any questions they had regarding the course.

Many students were diligent in this respect but there were some, like Theresa, who waited till the very end and went separately to the teacher to clear out any doubts they had. This, however, improved with time and such students also gained confidence to talk in front of other students.