I've just started as an "Auxiliar de Conversacion" at a Spanish secondary school.
The school has just achieved bilingual school status. On top of my time with the kids, I also have an hour a week with teachers in the core subjects (Music, Science, Technology) to help them improve their conversation level, in order that they give their lessons in English once a week. The teacher time is one-to-one, and at the end of my second week I'm finding it much easier with some than with others, as some of the teachers took French as a foreign language in school (which could be 10 or 20 years ago!) and have never studied English before.
This is my first teaching assignment of any kind, and I'm sure It'll all be fine once I've started, but in truth I have no idea where to start!
I'm looking in the textbooks I have for the students, but I'm afraid the practice dialogues I find are too basic, and not adapted to teaching adults. With one of the teachers, for instance, I need to practice some basic word-order grammar exercises (Affirmative/Negative/Interrogative) until it becomes natural to him, in order for us to progress any further. This is basic stuff, and all the examples I find are indeed basic, but I'm trying to come up with ways to make it more engaging to an adult. Besides, being only half their age and with a fraction of their teaching experience, the last thing I want to come across as is patronising!
My help comes in addition to one afternoon a week in the Languages school in town, but I understand that the Spanish system for teaching languages is very grammar-centric, so my primary function is as a conversation partner, to improve their fluency.
Does anyone know of any good resource sites for teaching adults at basic levels? Any tips or comments you may have on this topic would be greatly appreciated!
Comments
Irme
Hello Sofi
the basic word order in English is very fixed, although it varies from the Spanish one, it isn't too hard to get used to it.
I usually take a basic sentence, lay it out in the positive form, discuss the elements of the sentence and make a sample chart with, say, subject-verb-object, highlighting the places where time and place can go, the place for adverbs, if need be and practise for one lesson.
Then I do the same thing for negative sentences, subject-auxiliary+not-verb-object, you know, example sentence, and showing up the elements. One lesson.
For questions it's question word-auxiliary-subject-verb(infinitive!)-object as the main sceleton. That is for open questions, the ones you'd have to answer with a full sentence. Closed questions, answered with yes/no, start with the auxiliary but still follow the same pattern. One lesson.
Remember to teach that when "to be" is the main verb, no auxiliaries are required. If your studens can't remember that one, the patterns for "to be" would have to go on a fourth sheet.
From then on I lay out the three(four) sheets during conversation and when the student is about to go into one of the constructions above, I point out the proper application, even before they make mistakes. In my opinion it's by far a more helpful to do things correctly with help, rather than make mistakes without help.
It works quite well during conversations and does away with the need for lots of exercises. Especially when you work with adults you'd want to avoid the situation of having to correct them all the time. A simple way of correcting is to just repeat the proper way of saying things while you point to the sheet laid out before the student. Well, if you have a large class you'd have to have the three(four) patterns up on the board. You would have to keep them at hand all the time and you might have to count on about two months of stressing this particular point until the patterns become habits.
Best wishes
Irma
Heath
"I need to practice some basic word-order grammar exercises (Affirmative/Negative/Interrogative) until it becomes natural to him, in order for us to progress any further."
One thing to remember, of course, is that there are often deeper reasons to why people find it difficult to master certain 'basic' grammar usage. A lot of the time, aspects of the language that are more complicated and appear to be more difficult become natural before the easier ones. I won't go into the how/why this is true in any detail, but it is important for a teacher to remember.
If you 'do not progress any further' you may be robbing that learner of other valuable language points that he might actually be ready and able to master more quickly than the points you are focussing on.
I'd suggest you start introducing more challenging material and more challenging language points and, in particular, that you start exposing him to more variety of texts and allowing more opportunity to practice. Then, throughout this exposure to other language, regularly come back to this basic point for review and practice.
That way you help him improve in the basic areas without starving him of other important areas.