Are You Stressing? – by Lindell Long

Are you stressing? I am not talking about grading deadlines, or extra forms to fill out on every student you have ever worked with, I am taking about stressing or emphasizing your words.

I teach ESOL students who often put the emphasis on the wrong word in a sentence, changing the meaning totally from what was intended. In order to help them realize how this works, I shared this simple exercise with mainstream teachers to help students during their classes.

Here are the same sentences with the same words in the same order, however, in changing the word that is stressed in the sentence, the meaning will be changed.

The sentence is "This is my black cat."

THIS is my black cat. (This cat right here...not that one over there.) This IS my black cat.(Are you doubting me? It is a certainty.) This is MY black cat. (I own this cat...no one else does) This is my BLACK cat. (Not my red cat or my gray cat.) This is my black CAT. (Not my dog or parakeet.)

Simple sentences can be used to show emphasis and what the meaning the speaker is trying to get across. With all of the debates on television, it would be interesting to have students listen to the speeches and see how well the candidates did in emphasizing the proper words.

Lindell Long teaches ESOL at Clover Middle and High Schools in Clover, South Carolina, a position she’s held for the last 18 years. She’s married with 4 children and so many pets her family fears she’ll bring home a stray yak one day.

I've been framed! - By Lindell Long

The criminal declares, "I've been framed."  The word has other uses besides planting evidence to incriminate others. We can frame a picture or frame a house. A frame can give structure to build upon. Have you thought about framing a sentence? 

Many of my ESOL students need a framework to form a proper sentence, especially in the early stages of English acquisition. The order of our words within sentences is often different from the order of words in sentences in a student's home language and a frame is an easy support for helping the student express himself.

Many times a student is required to write about cause and effect. This assignment could be for science, health or a literature assignment.

Giving the student a framework helps flesh out the sentence so the student can concentrate on the words that make a cause and effect sentence.

I was ____(sick)__________so I ____(stayed home)___.

I feel ____(sick)___because____(I ate a lot of candy)____. 

The ___boy_____ did/did not ____pass___ because he did/did not study.

In order to ____(win)_, you might have to ___(train harder)_______.

Because of _( high winds)__,the roof came off during the ________

(hurricane)_.

The words inside the brackets are examples of words students might use to fill in the blanks – the framework. Notice that the sentences are all framed to provide cause and effect examples.

Frames can be used in any subject. Think of social studies and the causes and effects of war. Frames help express the results of science experiments or the motives for the protagonist and antagonist and the results of their actions. Frames are very versatile.  

To aid an ESOL student or any struggling student, a word bank could be added to the sheet with the terms of the lesson.

Lindell Long teaches ESOL at Clover Middle and High Schools in Clover, South Carolina, a position she’s held for the last 18 years. She’s married with 4 children and so many pets her family fears she’ll bring home a stray yak one day.