the use of arabic in teaching ESL

Teaching ESL Students

Context

In the summer of 2008 I worked in a private college for girls in Jeddah Saudi Arabia ( Due to the college 's policy , I was asked not to reveal the name of the college . This College offers continuing education and extension courses to meet the needs of women in the community for professional development and personal enrichment programs . In summer it offers a 4 week Intensive English Language Program . I was asked to teach two levels level one and level three

In my level one class , I

had a Saudi 's : four of them were 15 years old , 2 of them where 11 years old , 2 were 13 years old , and one of them was 24 years old . All of them came from Saudi government schools . I met with them 5 days a week for 2 hours . The books used for the course was interchange level 1 . However I also used Word by Word Picture Dictionary . Reading , writing , grammar listening , speaking , and vocabulary were skills I taught in the program .Puzzle Area

Generally , as an ESL teacher , I never use Arabic in class in to expose students to the new language . However , I very quickly realized that the students were not responding well to my use of English only . I could see that the students felt insecure and confused . Even the simplest question What 's your name ' was answered with head nodding or a crooked smile . So I used the Tarzan method , I AM JANE , but it was not effective . This response was a sign to change my method . I remembered the days in Pakistan as a child I tried to fit in while my classmates spoke Urdu and I felt like an alien lost and confused listening to gibberish from my perspective or rather trying to solve secret codes and guess what is being said . My focus automatically shifted not to learn the words but to try and understand body language And this is what I saw in my students ' eyes i .e . they lost track of words and focused on my facial expressions and body language to try and understand what was going on . The look on their faces always seemed to say What an earth is she saying ' Thus , I puzzled over how I could best meet the needs of these very low level learners and whether or not I should use Arabic in class or not

Exploring the Puzzle Area

I decided to experiment with using Arabic minimally to encourage learning English and to especially create a comfortable atmosphere for the beginners to express themselves . For instance when I introduced the vocabulary words , I allowed them to use Arabic . It was more or less a co-operative learning strategy . I gave them the word and defined it in English and some students said it out loud in Arabic helping each other understand the new words fully . Moreover , I felt the need to use Arabic myself when it came to teaching abstract vocabulary...