By Linda Dortch

One of the best ways to teach language is to offer students opportunities to solve a problem or collect data. And, students enjoy doing this if the task is interesting and relevant. I recently found this to be true while teaching an intermediate-level ESL class in a high school. During one of our readings, the word "cave" appeared in the text. None of my students (Japanese, Indian, Russian, Taiwanese, and Chinese) knew the meaning of the word. Finally, with the help of charades and sketching, all the students understood, but none of them had ever experienced a trek into a cave. The circumstances seemed right for this adventure to take place. So, after meeting the necessary requirements, another sponsor and I made plans for a field trip to Meramec Caverns.

Now that I had the interesting and relevant task, I wanted to use all four skills to teach language. One week before the trip, the students were given assignments in the following four areas:

Reading: The students went to the library and researched the encyclopedias for information on caves. They were responsible for reading and understanding the information they found.

Writing: The students wrote a summary of their information. They had to write a good topic sentence, body, and conclusion.

Speaking: The students presented their summaries in class. Several of the students collected photos and colorful brochures to share as a part of their presentation.

Listening: Classmates listened carefully and wrote down questions to ask each speaker. We had incorporated all four skills. Now, all we needed was the experience. One last thing before our departure; I wanted the students to evaluate the trip, so I gave them worksheets that required their individual subjective observations.

Finally, we packed a picnic lunch and boarded the bus for the day-long trip. The following day, in small groups, they shared observations and impressions from their worksheets. Later, they exchanged this information in one large group.

The students experienced cooperative learning as they became actively involved. All because we invited the four skills along on our field trip.