Shakespeare in ESL??

The section of the readings that I'd like to focus on is the "Guidelines for Language Classroom Instruction" in the MCM text. The reason why I want to focus on that is because I think that it provides a useful and practical outline of the preparation for and the execution of an ESL lesson. It starts with the lesson planning, then states a variety of tasks (motivation phase, input/control phase, focus/working phase, application phase, testing, and some other aspects to think about when preparing to teach). Of course all of these suggestions may not be used in a single class, but being aware of the many different kinds of activities helps to get me thinking about what I might want to use in my classroom. 

An example is the translation activity in the Focus/Working phase section on page 34 of MCM. For the Multi-Genre project my group is focusing on creative writing and one of the activities that we are using to promote this genre is the translation of parts of Shakespeare's "Hamlet". Now this may sound like a difficult activity for our ESL students but in The Journal of Imagination in Language Learning and Teaching there is a great article about how this activity can be used for ESL students of varying proficiencies (if anyone wants this article I can cite it for you). The gist of the article is that by translating or rewording a small text from Shakespeare's play (such as the "To be or not to be?" scene from "Hamlet", which was quoted by our friend Bill from Saigon) into modern English the students get an insight into the culture of English while gaining confidence in their language abilities as well. I have yet to use this activity (I may use it with my tutee), but it seems like an activity that could engage students with the English language if done properly.