increase retention. When they read new material as their only means of learning it, their retention is less than ideal. 3 A HOLDING COMMON PATTERN Very few ESL teachers either present a lesson orally or have students read about it in a text or from a worksheet. Most teachers, no matter what the subject, have figured out that doing both – presenting information orally and visually – gives their students more success when it comes to retaining information. Research supports this conclusion, and they move up to the next level of the pyramid. If student see and hear the same information, they will retain approximately fifty percent of that information. That’s why we teachers write on the board while we are teaching students. It gives a double punch of input. That double input almost doubles how much students remember of what they have read and heard. Here on the level of hearing and seeing, most students become comfortable, and teachers can, too. But it’s so easy to keep going up, why stop there. 4 A A LITTLE BIG DIFFERENCE CHANGE MAKES Yes, remembering fifty percent of what we present in class is probably a pretty good result, but with just a little change, we can help our students become even more successful. Just taking one other small step in a lesson will increase student comprehension to a stunning seventy percent. Let your students talk. That’s the big factor – speaking. Traditional classroom teachers may balk at the idea, but as ESL teachers, part of our job is to get students speaking English. As a result, talking in class is always a good thing.Well, most of the time it is. And research shows that students generally retain about seventy percent of what they hear, see, and say in class. That means all those small group discussions are great not only for pronunciation work (Page 3)
