Directions and ESL Students

I should be understanding because I miss so much, so often fail to see what's in front of me, and I can specifically speak of weaknesses in the area of directions, too, since I'm inclined to get instructions and ask someone what they say, indicating that I'm functionally illiterate.  (I really ought to get to my retirement packet before long and ask someone what that says!)  Still, it seems strange to me that when I give students both spoken and written instructions, they can't follow them.

Leader of group:  Read this limerick to the other group members.
Members of group.  Write this limerick.
When you finish, read it to your leader.

That can't of thing.

"What are we supposed to do?"  They'll ask.

They did eventually manage to do it, and whenever I think that there's been a wind change and a sea change (a tsunami), I remember that we students in junior high school back in the late 50s were told, "It's like pulling teeth" about our teachers' efforts to get us to respond.

Today there was literally a lesson on directions--north, south, east, and west.  I should say another lesson on directions, since the students had spent more than a week giving presentations on their country with the phrase China (Belarus/Indonesia/Ukraine, etc) shares a border with X to the north and Y to the south.

But I wanted to be sure, so I brought a map of our campus.  Granted, it's presented with the East at the top and West where the south should be, but I turned it around for them. 

We then figured out where we were and did an exercise "Turn to the east.  Turn to the west," etc.  for the kinesthetic learning.  We did two more exercises in the book  with a map of the United States, following dialogues they'd done:  "Utah is weest of Colorado," etc.  We even practiced the difference in the vowel between southern and south. 

They seemed to be doing okay.  But when I gave them the last five items of the tests--"Kansas is ____of Texas"--with their books open to the map of the United States we'd just gone over--it was beyond them.

Of course, one of the complainers, a charmingly chatty guy who wanted to know whether the east was on the right or the left when you're facing it, was reprimanded by my outspoken Ukrainian student who said, "You always talk.  You never listen." 

But that's a subject for another day.

When I am appalled at how much is beyond them, I need only to consider how much is beyond me.