TeachingEnglish
Beginner as a teacher
Submitted by Sonija90 on 16 April, 2010 - 13:20
Hello. I am 19 years old. I am not a native English speaker and I have no experience of teaching. I still keep writing with mistakes yet I speak and understand English fluently. 2 weeks ago one woman asked me to teach English to her privately, she is 38 (big age difference). As much as I understood, her English is equal to 0. (I'm not in the financial situation to refuse her either). So next week I must already start the first lesson.
Please can anyone suggest me where should I start with the teaching? Any tips of how to plan a lesson?
Thank you
Sonija90
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Hi Sonija,
I'm Avanthi , a Teacher of English from India. I suggest that you start answering to the lady only in English.Try to stick to the simplest of words (day to day vocabulary). Let the lady understand that you are will reply only in English. Also see that she is able to understand your answers. Clarify yourself. Encourage her to use the words from the language (what ever she is aware of) in her speech Try this method. {You have not mentioned if the lady wants to learn 'How to speak in English?' or 'How to write in English?' I am sure this method works out if she wants to improve her speaking ability.}
If you're really unsure, you could also have a look around at various textbooks for beginners. Maybe you could look together with her, so what kind of things she'd like to practise. Or, if you get a couple of textbooks, you could also pick and choose activities to practise different aspects of language. If you have no experience of teaching, then you need to remember your experience as learning. Which kind of things did you learn at different stages of your learning career? Once you start looking through textbooks, you'll also start to see patterns emerging in what/how/when things are introduced and practised - and then you could move on to modelling this in your own planning.
Regarding a lesson plan: This can be as detailed or as scribbled as you like! As long as you know what it is you want to do, that's fine. I think that, teaching a beginner, you might need to take some time to think about exactly what you want to say / how you want to phrase things, i.e. in the simplest language possible, so you might need fairly detailed plans. But other than that, just note down the activities and how long each of them will take (roughly) - you might also want to note which skill is being trained, or what is being trained by the activity, so that you can ensure you have a mix of different activities/skills being trained (although with just one learner, of course there is a limit to what you can do, communicatively).
Good Luck!!
Hi i am teacher from Bolivia and i know you problem that you have beacuse i have been teaching since March and i know what happens to you. but you must encourage yourself yourself to be sure while teaching english. you have to pay attention to each detail of the grammar and study a lot.
now i teach with a lot of of confidence instead of fear and insecurity. i recommed you (advise you) to make real the explanation of the language. do not use only the book use real resources and speak only in english.
List down the important points or the 101's, set goals, specific objectives, timeframe and expected results.
Being open and a sympathetic listener is premordial. Collaboration and cooperation is key to success. Good luck.
Maybe it's not a new trand, but I still usually start with the alphabet and transcription.