How difficult is it to learn a second language? From my personal experience, it hasn't been a piece of cake. According to a survey, 69.23 percent of the ESOL students have Spanish as their native language. This number is difficult to ignore as a future ESOL/Spanish language educator. Naturally, I've decided to try to learn a second language myself so I too could understand the stuggles that ESOL students encounter in school daily.

Research indicates that bilingual programs seem to be the most effective for second language learning. Everybody loves music, including non-English speakers. I would like to share a classroom activity that would motivate your ESOL students to love to learn the English language. One word: MUSIC! Music is a great way to catch and stimulate this learning process. You can have your students pick a song in English from the style of music they enjoy and have them research on the Internet for the lyrics. This can be either a group or individual project. Since this activity needs to be technology-based, the students would have a choice to create a powerpoint using the lyrics or making a music video. I feel after they accomplish the project, they would have built up a sense of confidence in learning an entire song in the English language. This will also help bring out the creative skills that any and all backgrounds have. Before the students present their project, I would reccomend having the students read the chorus outloud to the rest of the class. Overall, I feel that the students will have confidence to speak clearly, perform/present in front of others, and express their creative side. For more information or ideas, you can contact me at clmoorma@eagle.fgcu.edu.

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