This is a great question! Amazingly, Shirley, I find my English-as-Second-Language graduate school students read and write English almost impeccably as compared to many of our native English speakers. It seems it has become more of an intellectual pursuit than merely a communicative one for them to acquire another language. When you think of the mental gymnastics that happen when on learns an almost limitless language like English, with all its linguistic roots, confusing and often conflicting rules, and technological nomenclature, it requires an increased mental ability without a doubt. Hence, many seem to be more advanced in critical and independent thinking and in synthesizing complex information. Even though I must make corrections--sometimes of the most basic nature--for them, I let them know of my respect and admiration at their skills in mastering the language. Also, I think it takes a certain amount of insight on the part of the professor to see past the sometimes stilted expressions to have a sense of the mental prowess of such learners. I say this of those who are from, say, South America where Portuguese in their native language, or Asia where Japanese or Chinese dialects dominate, or Germany where the Romantic languages undergird their spoken language, and especially the Arabic languages where we find some astute scholars amidst the turmoil of that part of the world. In the online academic setting we see them from all nations and regions of the world.

I have presented on this topic.  Fundamentally, the activities used must address the overall instructional goals, which in turn must be based on the outcome goals for the students.

My paper below suggests that too often people choose a technology and then try to fig ure out how to use it.  Rather instructors should identify requires learning activities that are requires to meet the outcome goals, and only THEN select the technology that provides the necessary affordances.

So what does your instructional design require?  Critical thinking?  That may be addressed in writing or group discussion.  Vocabulary practice? That will require different kinds of online activities. 

I know that this is a little different from your question about engaging students, b ut the learning activities must support the outcome goals.

Article The integration of technology and language instruction to en...

Shirley:

You may also try debating as a motivational strategy for engaging them in critical thinking while helping them to enhance their communication skills. Remember to always relate the debating topic to their prior reading, experience, or a societal/global issue to engage them more fully. Here's a conference paper I presented just last April, 2015 on the topic:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274720155_Debating_A_Dynamic_Teaching_Strategy_for_Motivating_Students_and_Teachers

Best regards,

Debra

Conference Paper Debating: A Dynamic Teaching Strategy for Motivating Student...

Great ideas, Michael. I guess at the grad school level, my online ESL students have fended for themselves so well and were often academically superior and more experienced compared to many of the younger classroom students. But I'm sure it varies from school to school. But this is great information you've shared. 

I am working in Kazakhstan, so I like to use recent peer-reviewed journal articles about the country on a wide range of topics.

Hi Shirley

I teach an online postgraduate course in working with diverse populations and I am constantly reflecting about well we meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students.   In this context (and building on some of the above comments too), I think it is important to engage a range of media and different reflective processes, and accordingly now use a dedicated recapitulation activity as part of this course.  While I agree that written English may or may not be an issue, I am also conscious of the need to be using different assessment processes as well. Historically, the course has focussed heavily on written essays and these still comprise the bulk of the assessment, however, I am in the process of redesigning this so the first activity is more of a creative process involving an introductory activity linked to their own learning outcomes and then I will get them to present the results of their recapitulation activity (or reflections about different learnings and experiences in this course) as part of a portfolio that is submitted at the end of the Semester.  As I am yet to implement this, I have no student feedback or other evidence to indicate that this is effective, but given I have been thinking through these issues too I wanted to share these thoughts with you and would welcome any of your feedback and input too

best wishes

Paul

For professionals, I would strongly suggest teaching ESP (English for Special Purposes), rather than ESL or EFL. ESP focuses on mode of communication, vocabulary, grammar, idioms,and content that is directly relevant to the profession of the students.

This approach is a lot more work for the teacher because it is unlikely that there are good textbooks that are relevant for the whole course - need to use teacher generated materials.

But, it is much more efficient and satisfying for the professional. Example ESP courses: Medical English, Hotel English, Military English, etc.

Excellent idea, Antonio. My courses have ranged from behavioral medicine to pharmacology to chronic disease--at both Masters and Doctoral level. The nomenclature of most of these courses has been of technical not conversational vocabulary, but the written work is be submitted in APA. So, most times our students have been on a level playing field, but when they get into descriptive mode, the differences show sometimes markedly. But have not seen the ESP version you mention, so am open to suggestions.