Helping Teen English Language Learners Explore Who They Are

One of the most challenging parts of being a teenager is the process of discovering who you are. When they are teens, our English language learners first engage with the world around them with purpose, lay claim to it as their own, and decide what kind of person they want to be. As educators, it is not only important to provide our teen learners with the language skills they need to be successful on this journey, but to help students build an understanding of themselves and the world around them.  

This means it is essential to support learner growth in a holistic and engaging way that takes both their academic needs and personal aspirations into consideration. By doing this, we can help teens understand themselves, the world they live in, and the world they hope to one day see, all while learning English.  

This blog will highlight how a teaching approach that integrates authenticity, critical thinking, and the promotion of positive role models can support our teen learners in exploring who they are and who they want to be, with examples from the new edition of Impact. 

Authenticity

It is no secret that global citizenship and intercultural communication skills are an important part of teaching and learning English. Language is a social act, and in order to communicate effectively, students need not only an understanding of language form and meaning, but also an understanding of how to use that language to most effectively express themselves. 

This means it is important to present language in a way that is meaningful and authentic for teens and to share examples of how they can use language in real-world contexts. One area where you can present target language in authentic, international contexts, even at lower levels, is vocabulary instruction. This vocabulary page from Impact, Second Edition helps students learn the words for common colors while tying these new vocabulary words to interesting, real-world topics and photos. 

By using an authentic context to help construct meaning, students can see how both the language and the context connect to their own lives. As they practice the language, they have a chance to talk about their own lives and experiences. Following this up with additional scaffolding and personalized practice activities allows students to further internalize the language. The vocabulary lesson above includes a pair discussion activity that prompts students to share their feelings about certain colors, helping them understand and apply the target vocabulary on a deeper level.

Projects are another way to help students engage with authentic content in class, giving them the chance to express themselves about issues that affect their own communities, as well as the greater global community. As students gain knowledge throughout each lesson and unit, they should be challenged, in a supported and scaffolded way, to build upon their ideas. Incorporating projects ensures that students are continuously building their language skills and ability to use that language authentically. Each unit in Impact, Second Edition culminates in a project tied to a UN Sustainable Development Goal that helps students think about solutions to real-world problems while practicing the language they learned in the unit.

Critical Thinking

Part of a global and authentic teaching approach is providing students with the tools they need to think critically about the world around them. Building critical thinking skills enables teens to navigate the media- and information-rich world that all of us live in. It is not enough to just expose students to a diverse range of ideas; they must also be given the tools to analyze, evaluate, and interpret them.

One way to introduce critical thinking skill development in class is to give students a choice of open-ended projects and activities to engage in. Impact, Second Edition gives students four opportunities to do this in each unit, helping them think critically and directly about real-world issues. In the example Video lesson below, students are given two choices of activities that help them practice talking or writing about dressing appropriately for the weather in English. Learn more about integrating student choice activities into classroom instruction here. 

Another way to do this is by giving teen learners scaffolded opportunities to directly build their critical thinking skills. We can guide students to think critically about texts, audio, and video as they read, listen, and view, and then give them the chance to discuss their ideas and mediate them through pair and group work. This Reading lesson from Impact, Second Edition culminates in a group discussion activity in which students analyze the text’s ideas about what influences people’s personalities.

Part of thinking critically is also the ability to analyze your own actions and ideas. It is important to give students the space and support reflect upon their own actions and think about how they communicate with others. It can be difficult for anyone, especially teens, to comfortably do this, which means that these opportunities should be clear, systematic, and focus on building confidence and communication. Recognizing the correct words and phrases to use is an important part of learning a language, so whenever new language is presented, students should be given support on how to use it. The Impact Lesson Planner includes Conversation Tips to help educators give students the support to use new words and phrases in English, such as vocabulary for comparing and contrasting people’s experiences.

Another part of critical thinking, especially when it comes to teens, is dealing with uncertainty. While it may be easy to avoid the discomfort that can come with uncertainty, this does not reflect the world that our students live in. This is why Impact builds in explicit activities to give students the tools they need to address uncertainty and decide on the best course of action in difficult situations. Even a grammar lesson or activity can be an opportunity to help students make decisions in difficult situations. The activities below from Impact, Second Edition prompt students to use a target grammar point to read and discuss various situations they might encounter while using the Internet.

Positive Role Models

It is important to give teens the tools they need to express their own ideas and think critically in English, but they also need positive examples of people who are changing the world in ways that they might one day wish to. Underpinning all of the skills taught in Impact are the National Geographic Explorers featured throughout the series. The ideas presented in this program are meant to challenge teens to be better students and global citizens, but to do that, they need role models who can show them what these ideas look like in action.

Role models can’t just be people students learn about once, which is why it’s important to engage with them and their stories continuously. In Impact, students get a quote about the Explorer right at the beginning of the unit, then learn about the Explorer’s life and work during the vocabulary practice, before watching a video about the Explorer and applying lessons from their work to their own lives. Explorers like Ribhu Vohra, featured in the video above, and Andrea Villarreal Rodriguez, featured on the page below, serve as role models that students can look to throughout the unit. 

When we help our teen English language learners build a connection with people like Explorers, we not only expose them to new ideas about the world, but also show them that normal people—like them—can make a huge difference in shaping it. Perhaps most importantly, many of these role models featured in the second edition of Impact are also English language learners themselves. This gives students the chance to envision how their own learning journey can end with them as the changemakers of the future. 

By encouraging authenticity, critical thinking, and the use of positive role models, educators can support and motivate teen English language learners to explore who they are and who they want to be. We hope that by focusing on this approach in Impact, Second Edition, we can enable students to explore and discover who they are in the English language classroom.

Author: National Geographic Learning

National Geographic Learning’s mission is to bring the world to the classroom and the classroom to life. With our English language programs, students learn about their world by experiencing it. Through our partnerships with National Geographic and TED, they develop the language and skills they need to be successful global citizens and leaders.