This week we had the opportunity of meeting with the students from Mexico again. The first time we met was more of a way to get to know each other and introduce ourselves. In preparation for this weeks meeting, we were put into groups with fellow classmates from ELNG 200 and made an activity plan to engage the Mexican students in. For my group, we decided to create some simple games that would encourage them to speak English and help us learn more about them.
For the first group of students that we met with, we played a board game called “Getting to Know You and Me”. For this game we used a dice and whatever number was rolled was the square that the student moved to and was provided with a question about themselves to share with the group. Some examples of these questions were ones such as “tell us about the town you live in”, “what is your experience with studying English”, “tell us about your hobbies” (I have shared a picture of this game above). We were provided with enough time for every student to take a turn and if they were not comfortable speaking, we allowed them to type in the chat as well. Providing the students with this alternative allowed a higher participation within this group and allowed the quieter students to feel comfortable interacting as well.
During our second group, they were older than the first group as the majority were in grade 4 and 5. For this group we had a different game planned called “Guess the Animal”. To start off I explained the game to the students and what was required of them. They would each take a turn and have me message them the animal that they would either make the sound of or describe in English while their peers guessed the animal. After I explained the rules, one on my fellow classmates from ELNG 200 explained them in Spanish so that the students fully understood without confusion. It was evident that the students really enjoyed this game as they were all engaged and willing to participate.
From the course textbook it states that “second language learners need to use their first language as a tool for learning” (Coelho, 2012, pg. 198). This quote from the textbook really resonated with me from this experience with the students from Mexico because although they were able to somewhat understand our instructions in English, it was helpful that they were also able to hear them in their first language of Spanish. It was definitely easier for our groups to communicate because of my fellow classmate, but we encouraged the students to answer the questions we asked in English. Even though they are learning English, it is still beneficial to have instructions presented in both languages as they are more likely to fully understand the English when it is being translated for them and they can connect the languages.
Reference:
Coelho, E. (2012). Language and Learning in Multilingual Classrooms: A Practical Approach. Multilingual Matters.