If you've ever studied another language, then you know how difficult it is to navigate the landscape of the new culture. Even if you never have, studying a language cannot be relegated to words alone but to meaning. Therefore, meaningful interaction and natural communication are necessary for successful language acquisition. Learners need to use the language, not just talk about it. So it is important that we give students opportunities and purposes for communication that reflect or relate to their lives (e.g., role playing a doctor patient exchange or creating a chart with information on local medical services).

Use authentic materials in activities whenever possible (e.g., listening for details in a recorded telephone message or reading classified ads from the local newspaper). Bring authentic materials (realia) like newspapers, signs, coupons, sale flyers, telephone books, and brochures into the classroom. These help learners connect what they are learning to the real world and familiarize them with the formats and information in such publications. Prepare learners beforehand (e.g., pre-teach vocabulary) and carefully structure lessons (e.g., select relevant, manageable chunks of the authentic material) to make this work.

People who are learning a new language want to be able to say, understand, read, and write things that will be of real, immediate use to them. They're more apt to remember what they learn if they know that they'll be able to put that learning to immediate use. Our students come to class with more self-confidence and enthusiasm when they're successful in using what they've learned in class in the outside world. A beginning ELL who has successfully communicated in the outside world might have the following reaction: "Hey, I really am learning English! I ordered a chicken sandwich today without just pointing to the picture on the menu, or saying a number 3 please.

Providing meaningful communication means also providing, using real-life examples and having students role-play situations that mirror their lives. It is equally important to teach what learners want to learn and use examples in class that are based on learners own lives.

Task-based teaching provides ELLs with opportunities for student-to student interactions that encourage authentic use of language. The goal of a task (or activity) is to exchange meaning, not learn the second language. Research suggests that learners produce longer sentences and negotiate meaning more often in pair and group work than in teacher-led instruction.

Interactive tasks may be most successful when they contain elements that are new or unfamiliar to learners; require learners to exchange information with their partners or group members; have a specific outcome; involve details; center on a problem, especially an ethical one (such as deciding in a small group who should take the last spot in a lifeboat, a priest or a pregnant woman); and involve the use of naturally occurring conversation. You can use problem-solving tasks (like the latter) to provide your learners with opportunities to share ideas, build consensus, and explain decisions about real-life issues important to them.

Information gap activities, in which two people share information to complete an activity, can be more structured than problem-solving tasks and give learners an opportunity to ask and answer questions. In one-way information gap tasks, one ELL has all the information (e.g., one learner describes a picture while the other draws it). In two-way information gap tasks, both ELLs have information they must share with the other to complete the task.

When developing activities, you should keep in mind your students' language proficiencies, goals of the lesson, language to be practiced, skill and content areas, feedback opportunities, and classroom logistics.

Should you teach beginning students grammar? Certainly, but teach it in such a way that it's built into an activity. Beginning learners are not ready to focus on detailed grammar or pronunciation. They need to focus on meeting their basic everyday needs. ESL learners are more likely to judge the success of their communication attempts by asking themselves, "Was my need met?" rather than "Did I use the correct form of the verb to be?"

It takes time for ESL learners to begin using certain forms of English in their communications, but the more they communicate in English, even imprecise English, the more quickly they will become fluent. Making mistakes is part of the learning process. Mistakes serve a useful purpose.

If you work with adult English language learners with limited literacy, you'll need knowledge about the ELLs you're working with, about the content you're teaching, and about teaching methodologies and instructional strategies that are appropriate and effective with this population. Knowledge about ELLs encompasses their backgrounds, experiences, and needs and includes their countries of origin, native languages, years of formal schooling in their home country, experiences with print, levels of literacy in their native language and in English, and their personal goals for developing literacy which can be culled from registration forms. Programs can also combine orientation of new students with registration activities. Should this information be unavailable, you can acquire this information during the first few classes during the "getting to know you" conversation question phase.

Because learning happens in stages, a beginning ELL progresses from zero ability to near-native fluency in stages clearly marked by a gradual progression from imprecise to accurate levels of English. Learners must be allowed to develop through these stages as each stage is necessary to the process of acquiring a new language.

It should be pointed out that beginning ELLs can understand much more of the new language than they're able to speak. It takes time for them to be able to speak as well as they understand. This is as true of adults learning a new language as it is for children learning their native language.

One of the most important factors that motivate ELLs is a sense of progress. There should be clear markers of success so that students can look at what they are doing well. This means that there should be fairly frequent measurements (questioning - conversing, not drilling - individual students, corrected homework/fieldwork, etc.) Too often teachers avoid measurements because they are time consuming or because students have an inordinate fear of examinations. However, a wise teacher will build in easy, convenient ways of showing students their progress. One simple way of doing this is a simple checklist of tasks that the students would want to be able to accomplish in order to reach their overall goal. As the tasks are completed, they sense their progress and feel that the class is worthwhile. This will keep them coming until they reach their major goal.

Enjoyment is another factor that will maintain and increase motivation for your students. Activities should provide opportunities for real social interaction and getting to know other people in a relaxed and, sometimes, even humorous way. If activities are exciting enough, students will not want to miss class because they know they will be missing the "action." If you help your students develop feelings of respect and friendship for one another, those ties will also draw them back to class. If students are exposed to and study life-coping skills, e.g., balancing a checkbook, getting and receiving directions, applying for a job, etc., their interest will never waver.

Keep in mind that we can attain success and not perfection when we don't correct everything students say, teach communicatively and allow students to make mistakes. It is only through making mistakes that we, and are students can truly learn.

Before you teach, think about the purpose of each lesson (e.g., is it important that the student produce a specific grammar point or communicate an idea?) then throw in error correction to serve those purposes. For example, if the activity is an oral substitution drill practicing the correct use of irregular past tense forms, it is appropriate to correct the verb form being used. However, if the focus of the lesson is making small talk on the job, a communication activity that involves use of irregular past tense verbs, then correction may simply consist of a repetition of the correct form by the teacher (e.g., "I go to a movie last Saturday" is corrected with "Oh, you went to a movie. What movie did you see?"). Give your students sufficient time for activities, to communicate, and to monitor their performance. Integrate lessons on grammar, structures, and language rules that are relevant to the communication task at hand (e.g., present lessons on imperatives when discussing giving directions) so that students become familiar with correct structures. Focus activity objectives so that students are not asked to process and monitor too many points at one time (e.g., asking students to use new vocabulary and correctly use present and present continuous.)

Mention should be made here about free conversation which gives students an opportunity to ease into English without having to learn anything new. Students will gain valuable practice in choosing what they want to say in an informal situation (class discussions, role plays). There are no special objectives for free conversation. Just don't make any error corrections.

In the materials you use and in your own speech, expose students to language that is both at and slightly above what they can comfortably understand. Offer a balance of easier reading and listening activities with more challenging ones. Provide pictures, gestures, and prompts when students are asked to use more complex language.

Create a classroom environment in which students feel comfortable using and taking risks with English. Use activities that require ELLs to work together or share information to build a sense of familiarity and community. Make sure the physical environment is as comfortable as possible. Avoid constant error correction and include activities that focus on overall ability to communicate meaning. Recycle, recycle, recycle, recycle topics or activities that motivate your students.

English language learners need context in their learning process. Using gestures, expressions, pictures, and realia (authentic material) makes words and concepts concrete and connections more obvious and memorable. Encourage ELLs to do the same as they try to make themselves understood.

Before you ask your learners to do a task, model the task. Learners need to become familiar with vocabulary, conversational patterns, grammar structures, and even activity forms before producing them. Demonstrate a task, i.e., provide a context for a task before asking learners to respond.

Set realistic, not idealist expectations of what students can accomplish. Patterns and routines provide familiarity and security and support learners as they tackle new items. But English language learners, like all learners, have a variety of preferences for processing and learning information. They can also get bored. Give learners opportunities to experience and demonstrate their mastery of language in different ways. Challenge them with activities that speak to their lives, concerns, and goals as adults.

Progress for ELLs can be slow and incremental. They need to know that they're moving forward. Make sure expectations are realistic; create opportunities for success; set short term as well as long term goals; and help ELLs recognize and acknowledge their own progress.

Theresa Nahim is an innovative and resourceful ESL teacher, teacher trainer and budding entrepreneur of online teacher workshops. She invites you to visit her website http://www.theeslteachersworkshop.com where you can read a free excerpt of her e-book, "The ESL Teachers' Workshop Modules." The book is written in clear and concise language for the experienced and the non-experienced teacher. Questions, comments and suggests are welcome!