Evidence 2: Teaching ESL Class

One of the requirements for my Spanish for the Health and Human Service Professions

minor was to participate in teaching a local ESL class. A group of students and myself prepared a

lesson on something we felt would be beneficial for ESL students. My group had to develop a

lesson plan on something we felt would empower second language English learners in a

predominantly English speaking society. When developing an idea for the lesson we decided to

coordinate a lesson on banking to educate them on how to utilize the bank, and therefore

development ownership of their finances. One is empowered based on the services available to

them, and their understanding of them in order for them to be utilized and therefore advance their

socioeconomic position.

As I have seen in films and research throughout my time at Salve, and my current

experiences at an ethnically diverse social service agency, I am aware that there is a tendency to

financially take advantage of less educated communities. In accordance with the second learning

behavior of competency six, applying knowledge of human behavior and the social

environment, person-in-environment, and other multidisciplinary theoretical frameworks

to engage with clients and constituencies, I used this knowledge to inform my choice of

picking the lesson on banking. Therefore my group and I developed a presentation regarding the

American banking system. To engage with the community of students we would implement an

activity after each lesson. For example we first taught the class how to open a bank account and

differentiated opening a checking account from opening a savings account.

We provided students with banking vocabulary for students to practice in conversation

with one another in small groups. The group members and I would then circle around the room
to help any students that may be struggling with the material. For the students that spoke Spanish

as a primary language it was easier for me and the other volunteers clarify or answer any of their

questions because of the prominence of their language in comparison to other languages.

Therefore in consideration of social environment frameworks I made an effort to spend more

time with an Arabic speaking couple. Most of the students in the room were Spanish speakers

and therefore had each other to rely upon for help with the assignment, whereas this couple was

restricted to the two of themselves. A service falls short if the client isn’t effectively informed.

Therefore in this example I wanted to make sure that they understood the content to later apply

these skills in their community.

My group and I also made sure to make the lesson reflect their local community and

banking systems for the information to be easier to understand as well as more applicable. We

discussed local banks and their locations, as well as exemplified these names in our hypothetical

activities. Our lesson was therefore person-in-environment informed, and this was effective

because students felt confident from their familiarity with these services. The last activity

expanded upon this characteristic in which we requested that students write out a check to their

local Newport Creamery for practice. My group members and I walked around the room to check

the assignment to make sure all of the content was in the correct places. We then allowed them to

take home with them their activities and a print out of the lesson for them to look at later. The

purpose of teaching an ESL lesson was to support and empower the client within their social

environment. Services are meant to empower the client, and as competency 6 suggests these

services have to be person-in-environment informed.