ESL Techniques in the Past and Present

Question: How was ESL taught in the past and what changes have been made in the present?

Answer/Quote: “In the past, language-teaching approaches in the United States were developed to teach a foreign language to native speakers of English rather than to teach English as a second language to speakers of other languages.”

“While most approaches continue to focus on oral skills, instruction in reading and writing has been added in recent years to most ESL programs.” 84-85.

Comment: While the authors of this article seem to be postponing getting to productive techniques that might help the teacher without experience in ESL techniques, I do think this background information is important. Anyway, it’s interesting to me. RayS.

Title: “Instructional Approaches and Teaching Procedures.” AU Chamot and JM O’Malley. Pp. 82-107. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994.