Southern Ontario Cooperative of ESL Ministries
By Heather Berghuis Are you seeing a good work beginning, progressing, coming to completion in your life for the work of Christ’s Kingdom? Heather Berghuis cared for her family through 25 years of military family life and is just beginning to see a long-term passion to teach ESL and share the love of Jesus with […]
Submitted by Carey Jo Johnston 1. Resurrection Eggs We can use the commercially made ‘dozen eggs’ children’s tool to teach the Easter story to our students. Each of the 12 ‘egg’ cups in the egg carton contains a small symbol from the Biblical account; e.g. a stone to represent the stone rolled over the tomb; […]
By Brian Seim – Urban Mission Research and Development, SIM Canada China has opened its doors once again for travel to and from their country. On January 8th, our Chinese ESL students were invited to return home. As the Economist wrote, “for the better part of three years—1016 days to be exact—China will have been […]
By Gordon Moulden, Ed.D In response to changes taking place in church ministries as a result of the COVID pandemic, Southern Ontario Cooperative of ESL Ministries commissioned me, as a professional researcher recently involved in a church-based ESL ministry in Metro Vancouver, to conduct a survey of representatives of church-based ESL programs across the country […]
By Jennifer Tong Every teacher knows the importance of asking questions. It is an art to ask questions that are engaging and inspiring, and that stimulate the students’ thinking. However, have you ever made use of students’ questions in an ESL class? In the Advanced class I teach online, at the start of each lesson, […]
In October we asked some experienced ESL teachers who are part of SOCEM to share the resources they have been using or would recommend that will help students improve their pronunciation. Several teachers responded. We want to share our compilation because it will probably be of use to many others. Here is what the teachers […]
By Jennifer Tong Since the pandemic I have been using wordless picture books, or picture sequences, to teach a mid/high beginner on the phone. Wordless picture books are a sequence of pictures (say 15-25) that tell a story without words. Our lessons consist of telling the story in these books in English. We have found […]
What are the Biblical foundations for an ESL ministry? Perhaps you have considered them in one of our training sessions. At the start of another busy year of teaching and ministry, let us remind ourselves of these important questions: (1) We often think of ESL ministry as missional outreach. The foundation for mission is a […]
Did you know that in Canada, over a third of the overall older population are senior immigrants? Did you know that nearly two in three seniors in the Greater Toronto Area are immigrants? These older immigrants show up in many of our ESL classes. They can be visitors, recent immigrants, or longer term immigrants. Many […]
By Sarah Kim and Inji Kim from Pluscope (pluscope.com) Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request. (1 Chronicles 4:10) Pluscope […]