Southern Ontario Cooperative of ESL Ministries
By Sandy Ho-Lam As an ESL teacher, I have wrestled with the question of how to become Jesus’ hands and feet while students seem to come and go through a revolving door without any chance of building long-lasting relationships. Then one day, things started to change. A student, one day, said: “Sandy…I have a lot […]
A review article by Timo Posti This helpful article was written by Dr. Allyson Eamer, a sociolinguist who teaches at The University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Dr. Eamer outlines the challenges of providing accessible, suitable and practicable language instruction to migrants. She lists several reasons why some migrants do not readily benefit from language […]
Many of us work with immigrants. Are you aware of the larger context we are working in? Below is some immigration and citizenship information released by Statistics Canada as part of the 2016 Census. See full details at this site.
By Nathan Kwan There are endless number of activities your students can do during the summer. The following are some possibilities mainly around the Greater Toronto Area, but including Ontario as well. We just took a group of students to Kensington Market in Toronto on Pedestrian Sunday (see here for this year’s dates). The roads […]
By Johnson Hsu Having worked in and with ESL ministries for over 20 years now, I know that sometimes we can question what we’re doing and why. Sometimes we get asked how this is ‘ministry’ work. I’d like to look at that question through the lens of one of the primary groups we serve: international […]
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/annual-report-parliament-immigration-2018/report.html#introduction
By Carol Blake Does grammar make you nervous? Do you wonder if you know enough to be able to help your students with their grammar? Let’s take pronouns, for example. Can you explain when to use who or whom? You and I or You and me? You can Google these issues fairly easily and find […]
Beginners’ level http://www.bestofthereader.ca/Ebooks/Holidays-print.pdf (pp. 14, 15) http://bogglesworldesl.com/easter_worksheets.htm (an assortment of fun activities like crossword, rhyme, word search) Conversation questions http://iteslj.org/questions/easter.html http://teflpedia.com/Easter_conversation_questions Readings http://www.eslholidaylessons.com/04/good_friday.html (with lots of accompanying exercises) http://www.eslholidaylessons.com/04/easter_sunday.html Miscellaneous https://busyteacher.org/classroom_activities-vocabulary/holidays_and_celebrations/easter-worksheets/ (Free Easter worksheets, different levels) https://www.esolcourses.com/topics/easter.html (Easter – online lessons, activities, and worksheets) Specifically Christian content Good Friday, Easter Part 1, Easter Part 2 […]
By Brian Seim Early this morning, I drove through our church’s neighbourhood, praying for it. Then, I walked into Starbucks, made my order and went to find a lid for my cup. A young immigrant lady, obviously not an employee, greeted me and asked, “What are you doing today?” I greeted her. She was lonely—in […]
Author’s Note: Here’s an article I wrote for the TESL Ontario blog back in the summertime, while researching for the workshop I presented at the October SOCEM Gathering. Then at the Gathering, at our lunch table, I learned of yet another way to use smart phones for pronunciation—see the PS at the end! Aren’t SOCEM […]