I stood outside the door, eavesdropping on the conversation flowing through my classroom.  Though class was still five minutes from officially starting, I was disappointed.  I’d been hoping, had even expected, that my students would be conversing in English.  At the intermediate level, they had the abilities.  But instead, everyone stayed in their comfort zones, using Russian, their native language, to articulate themselves.

Though disappointed, I also understood.  Communicating in a foreign language is difficult.

However, maximizing use of English during a full immersion class is crucial. To reach the ultimate learning objective – communicating in English – students must engage with the language by using it. They need to talk, to experiment with words, to play with sentences, to make mistakes.  And they need a classroom atmosphere that fosters maximum engagement.

Here are five tips for establishing and maintaining a full immersion environment in your ESL classroom.

1.  Establish an English-only environment.

As an ESL teacher in Moscow who didn’t speak Russian, I had an automatic advantage; my students had no choice but to communicate with me in English.  But even if you speak the native language of your students, don’t teach with it.  What starts as an innocent attempt to translate a word or explain a concept could spiral out of control, with students using it as a crutch.  Present a full immersion environment as a treasured opportunity to your students, a chance to work with English to its fullest extent.

Tip:  It’s natural for students to fall back into the language they are most comfortable with.  Don’t set your goals on completely cutting use of that language in the classroom.  Rather, transform the moments when students could potentially use their native language into English moments.  I found that my students habitually fell into Russian when they wanted to confirm, with each other, their understanding of directions for worksheets or activities.  I began having students repeat instructions in English to confirm their understanding and to diffuse the potential slip into Russian.

2.  Create a network of cooperation among students.

Regardless of the level of the class or the age of the students, everyone has the same goal:  learning to communicate in English.  By creating a network of cooperation among my students, I found that they began using English to communicate with each other just as they did with me.

Tip: Use pair and small group activities in your classes to help students practice and reinforce skills.  They will become more comfortable with each other, and can speak without the anxiety of the entire class’ attention focused on them.

3.  Reassure students that mistakes are good.

Being dropped into a full immersion environment is a bit like being dropped into the ocean.  Using the language, just like swimming, is necessary for survival.  And it can be intimidating.  Fumbling my way through a few elementary Russian lessons, I experienced the reality that I was constantly preaching to my classes: learning a foreign language is difficult.  And mistakes are inevitable and necessary learning tools. 

Tip: Even if you don’t formally learn the native language of your students, familiarize yourself with a few words and phrases.  Relate your language-learning experiences to theirs, and demonstrate that you also make mistakes.  My students loved laughing with me as I butchered the pronunciation of the simplest phrases in Russian.  But if I could make mistakes, so could they.  The less intimidated your students feel about making mistakes, the more comfortable they will be speaking in class.

4.  Resist temptations to translate.

When students come across a word they don’t know, their inclination is to translate it.  However, defining unknown words with already-known words in English is a useful skill to practice.  During a recent lesson, my student wanted to talk about a particular fruit, but didn’t know its name in English.  Rather than using a dictionary or another student who might know the translation, I guided her through a descriptive definition:

What color is it?  Red.

What shape is it?  Round. 

Do you eat the inside or the outside?  The inside. 

What does the inside look like?  It has lots of small red balls. 

It’s a pomegranate!

Tip: Incorporate definition activities into your class.  It’s particularly effective to practice new vocabulary. I recently did an activity with a pre-intermediate level class who had just learned a new set of kitchen-related words.  One student chose a word and gave a definition to her partner: it’s a thing that you use to cut meat.  And the partner guessed: a knife.

5.  Establish the importance of speaking in English from the first day of class.

Establishing consistent patterns into your class reinforces your commitment to a full immersion environment.  Even elementary students with the most limited vocabulary can practice speaking English, from day one.

Tip: Begin classes with a speaking activity that revises the material covered in the last class.  If the last class focused on new vocabulary, for example, create questions utilizing the new words for the students to answer.  Or create questions using a recently learned grammar structure in context.

Even the most elementary students can begin to speak immediately, using basic structures to introduce each other, to express likes or dislikes, or to review vocabulary with flashcards.

The dynamics of each class are different.  The underlying connective tissue, however, is a classroom atmosphere that fosters a comfortable, full immersion environment by maximizing engagement with English. 

Jenna Makowski is the ESL Editor for Wandering Educators.  She has taught in the United States and Russia, and she currently lives and works in Poland.  Follow her adventures on her blog: http://jennagmakowski.com/