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During our recent training in Madison, Wisconsin I had a participant ask about ways to encourage more student interactions with the local community. This is a great question! We want our students to be able to move English from the classroom to the “real world”. Here are a few fun ideas:

Bringing the Community into the Classroom

GUEST SPEAKERS: Invite guest speakers into the classroom to talk about a topic of interest to the class.

SPEED INTERVIEWS: Invite English speaking volunteers into the classroom to take part in activities that help students practice English. My favorite activity is what I call “Speed Interviews” – it’s like speed dating, but the goal is to practice English, not get a date! Pair each student up with a volunteer, give them a topic or a set of questions to talk about, and give them a time limit – say 3 minutes. When time is up, ring a bell, and have pairs rotate so everyone is speaking with a new partner. Continue rotating volunteers around the room. If you chose to do an activity like this, be sure to practice with students ahead of time so they know what to expect.

LANGUAGE EXCHANGES: In my area there is a large population of Spanish speaking students and I commonly have people wanting to volunteer in order to improve their Spanish. While practicing Spanish during ESL class is probably not the best idea, it is the perfect opportunity to set up a language exchange. Pair English speakers who want to learn a student’s native language up with students for conversation practice. Ask them to spend half their time speaking English and half practicing the student’s native language. You could incorporate this into class time, or have partners meet outside of class.   

Creating Opportunities for Students to Go Out Into the Community

SURVEYS AND INTERVIEWS: Create surveys or interviews that ask students to interact with people in the community. You can start out with something easier like asking students to listen to conversations around them at the grocery store or on the bus and write down one thing they hear. As they get more comfortable listening, start having them ask questions – for example, go to a local store and ask what their hours are, or ask someone on the street what time it is. For more advanced students, you could ask them to interview someone on a topic they want to learn more about.

NEIGHBORHOOD VISITS: During class take students on a field trip to a community site like a local library or museum. I know one teacher who takes students to visit local businesses. The teacher prepares by visiting the local businesses, asking employees if it’s OK to visit, and telling them what to expect. I saw this done once in a workplace class where students introduced themselves to employees at the local business and told them about their own jobs. Students said they were nervous at first but afterwards felt comfortable going into a business they otherwise would not have gone in. 

FIELD TRIPS: One of my favorite activities is to take students to a local restaurant for a meal, or go to a local store and buy ingredients to prepare a salad back in the classroom. There’s a chance for a lot of pre-teaching of vocabulary, and afterwards you can reflect on the experience as in the Language Experience Approach. Check out this video from New American Horizons about a literacy-level class that visits a local hardware store and then writes about the experience as a class (http://bcove.me/34uc5nvp) and these videos from CLESE (Coalition of Limited English Speaking Elderly) featuring Heide Wrigley about a class of Bosnian refugees in Chicago who visit a local farm (http://www.literacywork.com/Literacywork.com/Videos/Entries/2010/5/23_Excuse_Me,_How_Much_are_the_Peppers.html) 

Be aware that asking students to speak English in the community can be stressful for some. Be sure to work up to more taxing projects, and be sure you’ve created a safe and comfortable classroom community.

What have you done to give your students the chance to practice English in the community?

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