How to End a Phone Call in English

Learning English as a Second Language is about a lot more than just verb tenses, idioms, and adjectives. It's also about how to navigate the cultural norms in an English-speaking society. Specifically, conversations on the phone can sometimes be difficult because the English learner does not have the cues (some of which are universal) from body language and facial expressions to rely on to help them end a conversation. In this video, a prospective ESL teacher offers instructions for how to tactfully end a phone conversation in English.

TESOL Feeds

Here is a list of resources I use to find articles and blog posts about TESOL and ESL:

• TESOL tag at WordPress sites
• TESOL tag at Pinboard.in
• TESOL tag at Pinterest
• TESOL tag at Tumblr

 And some subreddits that I've found useful:

• /r/tesol
• /r/ESLTeachersCommunity
• /r/TeachEnglishAbroad

There are numerous TESL and ESL blogs. I've linked to a fair number of them in my blogroll to the right. Hope all this helps you.

Linguistic Xenophobia and why it should be resisted

TLANG Blog: Linguistic Xenophobia and why it should be resisted.

An interesting collective letter from UK university professors and educators showing alarm about a rise in hate crimes and bias crimes after the Brexit vote last year.

It is a basic human right that people feel free to express themselves in their own language without exposing themselves to abuse. Instances of such abuse should be documented and recorded, and reported to the police.

Five EdTech Tools to Try in 2017

TESOL Connections: 5 EdTech Tools to Try in 2017

TEFL Blacklist

Scammy businesses and schools have become such a problem for people looking to teach English as a Foreign Language in other countries that people have begun crowdsourcing information about which schools and businesses are fraudulent and which ones have long histories of scamming people out of money. There's an entire subreddit devoted to this. One story, about someone from Santa Fe, NM who was scammed out of $8500 by an unscrupulous Chinese businesswoman, stood out more than the rest:

Long story short, when I called Rosie and told her that if she did not give me back my passport I was going to the police, she just laughed at me and told me how stupid I was. When I asked why, she told me to go to the police if I wanted but they would ask me for my passport and without one I would be arrested and when they find out I "was working on a tourist visa" they would deport me. She then said he lost a lot of money processing me and if I wanted my passport back. I would have to reimburse her "expenses" which she said were $2,500. I had no choice but to pay. She wanted another $1,000 to get back the diploma and TEFL certificate she got for me. Stupid me, I paid her because I wanted to stay in China and just find another teaching job. I did, at a real school that is sort of famous with many locations.

On March 1st, I had to go to Hong Kong and came back with a Z visa that my new employer arranged for me but I had to pay for it. Three days after I got back, our school had a "random visa check" by the China police people. Of the 7 foreign teachers working there, me and Ray were asked to go with the police for "questioning". When we got to the police office they had my diploma and TEFL certificate and they asked me how much I paid for them because they knew they were not real. At first I played dumb until they showed me a photo of "Rosie". Then they asked me how long and where I met "Rebecca". When I said I did not know any "Rebecca" they all just laughed. I am not sure what happened to Ray because I never saw him again. The police took me to some "holding facility" and told me I was under arrest for immigration fraud. They were polite but told me I had to pay a fine of $150 for every day that I worked illegally in China. My big brother came from the States to pay my fine because thanks to Rosie I was broke! I had to sit a full 30 days in that Chinese jail even though my brother paid my fine nine days after I was arrested.

I know many people that have gone to teach English in other countries and I've occasionally heard stories like this, but it does appear to be a rapidly growing problem. Suffice it to say, if you're considering teaching English in another country, fully vet the company and/or school that you're going to work with. There are many legitimate and worthy organizations that do want fluent English speakers to teach our language and who are not out to scam you out of your money or land you in a foreign country's jail.

FAQ on Teaching English in China

Question: "What do I need to know about teaching English as a Foreign Language, in China?

Answer:  This amazing FAQ. Some sample questions and answers:

You said I can't work in China on an F visa, but I know someone who has. Are you sure you can't?

Yes, it's illegal. Though they rarely check on you for your permits and other items, you are playing with fire and can get burned. None of the Moderators of /r/TEFL recommend this as to the illegality of it and the many stories of people who have had problems because of working on a F or L visa (not being paid, working in bad conditions, blackmail, lying from supervisors, etc.)

Can I work in China without a four year degree or TEFL certification?

In the past this was not an issue, but as of September 1, 2013, the rules have changed that all foreign teachers in China must have at least a four year degree and TEFL certificate. Though many may be able to get past the certificate, you will not be able to get in without a copy of your degree sent to your employer for your invitation letter.

Can I use Facebook, Youtube, or twitter in China?

Currently the Chinese government blocks certain websites for political and commercial reasons. You will need a VPN to access these sites. check /r/china for a list of quality VPNs that will allow you to jump the Great Firewall of China.

I'm not a white, blue-eyed, western person. Can I still get a job in China

Comment from /u/Whiskey_McSwiggens

Much much more difficult. I am Chinese american with several years of experience and a graduate degree in science with another one on the way in education. I got passed over for many jobs because I don't look the part for a foreigner. Blacks get it bad too as a lot of drug culture and negative shit is associated with them. Chinese people basically look down on every race except whites, which they treat like gods. I got my gf a job at the place I worked in because she was white (I was hired by the American hr person). My gf is Irish and the Chinese admins didn't know where Ireland was, what Ireland was, or if she spoke English. She was hired as soon as they saw her and promptly fired the Filipino that they had hired for the last 3 years. We even negotiated her salary.

10 Creative Ways to Use Popular Movies in Fun ESL Lessons

From FluentU, a popular blog by and for teachers of English as a Second Language, comes this fun post about how to use popular movies to help you teach English. Examples include fun games and activities that an ESL teacher could use to engage his/her students in an active-learning manner. I especially like the "Vocabulary Meaning Match" game:

Give students a worksheet with a list of vocabulary words in one column, and scrambled definitions in the other. As students watch the movie clip, they have to match the vocabulary to the adjacent list of meanings.

English Memes

Everyone that uses the Internet knows what memes are. Using memes to teach ESL students about English would be a fun and different way to engage these learners. Englishmemes.com is a site that collects memes about the English language and the play on words that make English such a fun (and exasperating) language to learn.

Ludwig English Corpus

Ludwig.guru is a relatively new English language corpus that's friendly for learners of the English language. Similar to Linguee, it offers English words and phrases in context and cites professional publications like the NY Times and the Washington Post. The site offers a native app for most computer platforms, or searches can be done the traditional way through a web browser. Scenarios where a native app may be preferred is in a testing environment or a learning environment where distractions need to be minimized.

Games for Learning Sentence Structure

Teacher resource:  A long list of very fun games for learning sentence structure in an ESL classroom. I think my favorite is Minefield:

This is a jumbled sentence game for groups of four. One student is the referee and has a piece of paper with the sentence in the correct order, with one extra space included, representing the 'mine'. The other players play with a piece of paper with numbered blanks and the words mixed up. They take it in turns to nominate words for each blank. Each word correctly placed scores a point for that player and all players write that word in the blank. However, if one player chooses the blank designated as the 'mine', he is immediately blown out of the game!

ESL Worksheets

Teacher resource:  Worksheets for ESL in your classroom.

 

Reading to therapy dogs improves literacy in students

Studies are showing that 2nd graders who practice reading aloud to therapy dogs show significant academic improvement. I wonder if this kind of program could be modified for English language learners. It's not like a dog is going to care if words are mispronounced or that the verb tense is wrong.

Path to mastering English? Schools say students' home language is key

From Minnesota:  What do you do if your native Spanish-speaking students are not doing well in Spanish class, and also are also not doing well in English class? You offer courses that teach the fundamentals of literacy in both the native language and the secondary language. Combine that with classes that teach and honor the heritage of the immigrants' home and success you will find, hmmm. From the article:

Research backs up the idea. Basic skills like reading and writing can transfer from one language to another. Studies show becoming fully literate in their first language helps students get better at English.

The Phrase Finder

ESL students often struggle with English and (especially) American idioms. The Phrase Finder is a neat site that catelogs some of these idioms and offer information on their origin and meaning(s).

Here's a list of 161 uniquely American sayings. Enjoy!

Comics Can be Used to Teach ESL

When I was a teenager learning French, we used the Asterix and Obelix comics to master some of the more informal and slang French terms. This was always my favorite part of French class because often the comics, along with political comics, would reflect the culture of the place where the language was spoken. So I'd learn not only about the French language, but about long-running in-jokes and cultural norms.

Today, in my TESOL research, I saw this interesting post from the American TESOL Institute about nine websites that are useful for finding comics to aid in teaching English as a second language.

TESOL scam alert

Unfortunately, there are unscrupulous people who want to take advantage of people looking to teach English as a Second Language in other countries, or who want to teach English as a Foreign language. One such operator has been called out repeatedly by people who have been burned by her. There is a good write-up on Scam.com about this "company" which operates under six different names.

As always, if it's too good to be true, it probably is. If you're thinking about teaching English overseas, use a reputable company, and if you don't know anything about a company that's trying to recruit you, do your due diligence and research them.

myTESOL Launch

TESOL has launched its new portal, myTESOL. It aims to be a type of clearinghouse for TESOL news and information for TESOL members and ESL teachers. Previously only available to TESOL members, myTESOL is TESOL's new online networking and professional development experience for English language teaching. Once a member of myTESOL, a user can upgrade to a full TESOL membership at any given time and the $15 subscription fee will be deducted from the total.

myTESOL will be a great professional networking hub for all ESL and ELTs. There are many different communities housed under the myTESOL umbrella, each with its own discussion forum. The myTESOL lounge is available to anyone, free of charge.

Ou te le o se papeti Rusia

When I was 9yo and 10yo, I lived on the island of American Samoa in the South Pacific ocean. It was a tropical paradise where I rode my bike down to the beach every day to swim in the ocean. I learned how to shimmy up coconut trees to cut down the fruit and how to kill the giant African snails on the side of our house by dropping them a brine barrel being used to collect rain water.

But it was also a quite poor island and most of the Samoan natives lived in poverty and on government assistance. There were often jokes about the cafeteria food at our school being USDA-rejected food. The education level was often not great and some generations were struggling to balance the Samoan culture and language with the English language and Western culture. I was often called a palagi tama, which is mildly derogatory slang for "white boy".

So it was with great interest that I saw this Huffington post article yesterday about the Samoan word meaning of Dear Leader's most recent spastic tweet, covfefe. In this article, the author discusses a very common word in Samoan that even I remember -- fefe, which means "fear of". The Samoan language does not have the letter C, but there are several words quite similar to "ko" or "kou". It's best if I just quote the article here:

Similar sounding words include the following.

Kefe: Circumcise (original meaning); but recently evolved into an offence or noun that refers to; asshole; and/or putrid person

Fefeke: Inflate and/or fat or large

Fefela: To display ones genitals and/or underwear by voluntarily or involuntarily adjusting ones attire while seated cross legged on the floor.

Based on the phonetic similarities alone, covfefe sounds like the Samoan word combos “ko fefe”, “ko fale”, “kafefe”, “ko kefe” and “kou kefe.”

These combination words are explained as follows:

Ko fefe: pregnant but in fear of it

Ko fale: pregnant from ones own relative

Ko kefe: a pregnancy of the nether region; or pregnant asshole. If we use the original meaning of kefe (circumcise) then this also means; to reach for ones circumcision.

Kafefe: An expression of shock, dismay or surprise, similar to “Oh my!”

Kou Kefe: You assholes

I'll leave it to you to figure out which of these Samoan words Dear Leader was attempting to spastically tweet. His spokesperson insists that it wasn't a mistake because Dear Leader doesn't make mistakes.

Sometimes the best lessons for ESL students are ones that relate directly to their current situations. For instance, a Spanish-speaking ESL learner might learn the English phrases: "Please don't shoot me" and "America is the greatest" to help them in their inevitable encounters with Dear Leader's Deportation Forces.