[NIFL-ESL:9210] Re: writing in esl

From: pruett said (said@ameritech.net)
Date: Sun Jul 20 2003 - 14:41:22 EDT


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From: "pruett said" <said@ameritech.net>
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Subject: [NIFL-ESL:9210] Re: writing in esl
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Dear Mona,

What I see in that student's paragraph is a student who has learned English
(perhaps rather well) but who has never learned to spell in English. I have
a number of students in the same boat in my advanced level ESL continuing ed
class. What I have started doing is giving them dictations, and my students
love it because I also have some students who can write pretty well but who
still have listening problems, and so a dictation serves them both. I make
up the dictations from texts we have been studying and also from
pronunciation exercises in their books. We also discuss spelling rules but
just reading a list of rules really isn't all that helpful. We don't just do
dictations, but my students are always happy when we do them. One of the
interesting things to come out of this class is that many of my students who
can't spell do seem to be able to read pretty well. I'd always believed the
axiom that reading a lot would take care of spelling but maybe not.

Terry Pruett-Said
ESL teacher
Michigan



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