America as we know it today is a country created by immigrant populations. As such, it is not that surprising to find students at every grade level for whom English is not a first language. With many people from other parts of the world still viewing the U.S. as the land of opportunity and emigrating here to provide a better life for their family and greater opportunities for their children, the demand for ESL classrooms is quite high in some areas. And since many parents are determined to speak only their native tongue in the home, teachers who are not multi-lingual can face a hard road when it comes to integrating these students into the classroom and helping them to learn the same lessons as every other child. Luckily, technology can help. With social media at your fingertips thanks to the internet and mobile devices, you can find ways to teach lessons that transcend language or help to further the learning process when it comes to teaching English as a Second Language. Here are a few tips for the teachers trying to make it happen.

A good place to start is with picture-based platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, both of which provide myriad opportunities for students to get creative with their lessons and interact with classmates outside of school hours. You can start by setting up private classroom accounts for students to post to so that parents needn't worry about the safety of their kids. But don't forget that it's your duty as the adult member to monitor and correct activity on your classroom pages. That said, how can you use these social networking platforms to your advantage when it comes to ESL?

For young students, vocabulary and phonetics can be a big challenge. So why not create a pinboard each week that features a letter or a linguistic principle (i before e, for example). Students can post their own samples of words that apply to the letter or rule (or even pictures of those objects) and see the ones their classmates have posted. You could also ask students to post photos to Instagram of words that fit the weekly lessons when they see them at home or in public (on menus, road signs, newspapers, etc.). This will help all of your students (ESL included) to better understand language and soak up vocabulary.

Of course, you might also be keen to utilize popular sites like Facebook and Twitter, and there are plenty of ways you can use these platforms to your advantage in the classroom, as well. Twitter, for one, is a great way to provide students with links to websites and videos that can supplement lessons learned in class. You might also ask kids to create and post a haiku as homework. Facebook provides an excellent resource for discussions, so don't hesitate to pose questions to the class. Even if ESL students don't necessarily participate, reading the responses of other students can still help them to learn. And don't forget about YouTube. By setting up a channel you can assign projects like music videos that help students to get creative with language through lyrics. These platforms can help to make lessons more appealing to both native English speakers and ESL students, with the hope that all can learn about language in a fun and current way so that they can one day master language and go on to get a real degree in their field of choice.

Leon Harris is a contributing writer for Get a Real Degree. Harris lives in Southern California, and enjoys eating healthy and exercising with his two Golden Retrievers.