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      TeachingEnglish
      Dealing with a native speaker in an efl class
      Submitted by sergoat on 14 October, 2009 - 15:02

      Hi there,

      I have a third grade group in a private elementary school. Last week, an American child started attending class and will continue to do so. His family just moved to Costa Rica, where I live. He only speaks English and doesn´t know any Spanish. The level of the class is of course very basic and the child tends to get very bored. Sometimes we use Spanish for somethings and this is also a problem for him since he doesn´t speak any Spanish.

      The first thing that comes to mind, of course, is to involve him in the class as much as possible, by helping me model pronunciation, providing examples, or helping me in any other thing I need in the class.

      Probably someone could give me some pointers in how to deal with this situation. Remember that the level of the rest of the class is very basic.

      Thank you very much in advance.

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      SusanArgiri's picture
      SusanArgiri
      Dealing with a native speaker in a Efl class.
      Submitted on 5 June, 2010 - 15:53

      I can speak from personal experience on both levels, both as a parent and a teacher.  The problem is not too pronounced at a basic level because native English speaking children, at a basic level, do not know grammar.  This runs the risk of the child not paying attention because he/she believes they know it all.

      The way to approach these children is to test them continually to see they have paid attention.  They may be able to add a lot to the lesson.  This, of course, does not mean allowing them to think they are more special or more intelligent than the rest of the class.  So, in conclusion, allow the child to contribute not assist and check non-stop that they have understood and all will be well.