Eyes on English

A persistent problem for teach-ers in English as a Second Language (ESL) situations concerns students who speak their shared common language instead of English in the classroom. Considering the inherent difficulty of the speaking skill, this is understandable. Learn-ers often prefer to interact socially in their native language, allowing them to more effectively express a full range of ideas. At my international school in South America, which has a large non-native English-speaking popula-tion, all instruction is in English and students are expected to speak English at all times, except during lunch and recess. Nevertheless, administrators became concerned by the prevalence of students who relied on their native languages when working or interact-ing in the classroom. This concern inspired me to develop Eyes on Eng-lish, a schoolwide campaign to pro-mote the use of English. Although it was a six-week campaign in our Early Childhood (ECC) and Elementary divisions, the number of weeks and grade levels are flexible, and Eyes on English can be easily adapted to varying age, grade, and ability levels. This article will present the rationale for implementing Eyes on English and describe how it can help teach-ers increase English usage through an activity that is practical, fun, and easy to implement. What is Eyes on English and how does it work? Eyes on English is best described as a low-cost and low-maintenance activity with big payoffs in language learning. During the six-week Eyes on English campaign, volunteer inspec-tors conduct brief, secret observations of classrooms to see if English is being spoken. Classes using only English during the observations win an Eyes on English award at the end of the week. At the end of the six-week period, the grade level with the most weekly awards wins a grand prize. Although we chose to make this a team-building activity by naming the winner by grade level, the winners could also be selected by individual classes. Students and teachers know the inspectors exist but do not know who they are. This intrigue captures students ’ and teachers ’ attention an