| In The Water is Wide, novelist Pat Conroy tells the | | | | have been uncertain of the name of the ocean they |
| story of his year (1969 - 70) teaching elementary | | | | lived near, but they had to contradict him when he told |
| school in the poor, isolated black community on | | | | them it was the Conroy Ocean. I was reminded of the |
| Daufuskie Island, South Carolina (called Yamacraw | | | | time I got a class of reluctant talkers to speak out with |
| Island in the book). At first glance, it wouldn't seem to | | | | a very simple activity from Zero Prep - Tell It Like it |
| have much relevance to teaching ESL to adults. But | | | | Isn't. I got one student to mime sweeping the floor, then |
| as I read it, I realized Conroy faced some of the same | | | | told the rest I thought she was washing dishes. They |
| challenges an ESL teacher does - and that we could | | | | found they knew enough English to tell me I was |
| learn from the way he overcame them. | | | | wrong. |
| I'm not just talking about the fact that, at the beginning | | | | 3. Realize that your students don't know things you |
| of the year, he and his students could barely | | | | might expect. Conroy's students all believed in ghosts |
| understand each other, though they were all speaking | | | | and witches, but had never heard of Halloween. |
| English. The only cure for that is time and better | | | | Likewise, there are adults living in your country who |
| acquaintance. (Conroy does not blame this completely | | | | don't know that school lets out at three o'clock, or that |
| on the students' Gullah dialect, but calls his own speech | | | | waiters expect tips. |
| "an indefinable nonspeech, flavored subtly with a | | | | 4. Realize also that your students do know things you |
| nonaccent, and decipherable to no one, white or black, | | | | might not expect. The kids on Daufuskie/Yamacraw |
| on the American continent". Some of us could say the | | | | knew nothing about Halloween, but everything about |
| same.) | | | | the movie version of The Wizard of Oz. (The island |
| As a teacher, I found at least five chunks of good | | | | had electricity, and therefore TV, but no phones. As |
| advice in Conroy's story: | | | | Conroy puts it, "electricity is enough of a miracle for |
| | | | one century".) Your students may well have seen |
| 1. Activate your students' background knowledge. The | | | | many of the same movies and TV shows you have, |
| kids on the island knew all about hunting and cooking | | | | which leads to the final point . . . |
| squirrels - so this was the subject that got them talking | | | | 5. Don't look down on pop culture as a way to reach |
| and gave them the feeling of ease and competence | | | | your students. When Conroy found out his students |
| necessary for learning. Though their teacher felt that | | | | were so familiar with The Wizard of Oz, he realized |
| squirrel was about as appetizing as rat, he encouraged | | | | every child in the country must know about it. It was |
| them to share what they knew. | | | | something that both caught their interest and |
| 2. Get your class shouting "No!" Better to have them | | | | connected them to the outside world. |
| saying no than nothing at all. Conroy's students may | | | | |