Hi, I'm trying to design a course to teach English to illiterate, generally pretty poorly educated people in India. I'm thinking of basing my lessons on Cutting Edge or English File Elementary (they're likely to be absolute beginners), although re-presenting the material in an entirely visual and audio way (I'm not trying to teach literacy here).
Does anyone have any experience of teaching illiterate students? Can anyone comment on the best book I could use? I don't expect to make a lot of cash out of this, so I really can't be wasting my money on the wrong books.
Thanks in advance,
Charles.
Teaching illiterate students
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masterofdisguise
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Mon Nov 17, 2008 6:58 am
- Location: Delhi
Difficult, but noble assignment
Teaching true illiterates is a difficult, but noble assignment.
Teaching adult education in Los Angeles at the beginning levels was never my favorite gig, but I had some satisfying experiences working with immigrants with almost zero reading ability or formal schooling.
The best resources that I used where picture dictionaries, photographs, and communicative textbooks like Word by Word. Focusing on both oral and written skills in each lesson also allows illiterate students in a beginning class to show their strengths while working on their weaknesses.
Pairing students with other, slightly higher students also helped - and scaling assignments so the weakest could focus on letters and short words while stronger students could write postcards.
Finally, teaching short words with shared vowel sounds also helped. Sometimes students have learned to compensate for not reading by developing excellent memory. Sometimes focusing on common vowel and consonants in drillings can be effective. Drill: at, bat, cat, fat, mat, sat, - and add simple illustrations.
Although its not so fashionable, I also found spelling tests and short dictations helpful for beginning and high beginning classes. The key, of course, was modifying assignments so illiterate adult students could still participate. Many times their oral skills were far higher than other beginning students, but they could not read.
Good luck. Adults seeking literacy need encouragement, support, and appreciation for both small and large steps forward.
Teaching adult education in Los Angeles at the beginning levels was never my favorite gig, but I had some satisfying experiences working with immigrants with almost zero reading ability or formal schooling.
The best resources that I used where picture dictionaries, photographs, and communicative textbooks like Word by Word. Focusing on both oral and written skills in each lesson also allows illiterate students in a beginning class to show their strengths while working on their weaknesses.
Pairing students with other, slightly higher students also helped - and scaling assignments so the weakest could focus on letters and short words while stronger students could write postcards.
Finally, teaching short words with shared vowel sounds also helped. Sometimes students have learned to compensate for not reading by developing excellent memory. Sometimes focusing on common vowel and consonants in drillings can be effective. Drill: at, bat, cat, fat, mat, sat, - and add simple illustrations.
Although its not so fashionable, I also found spelling tests and short dictations helpful for beginning and high beginning classes. The key, of course, was modifying assignments so illiterate adult students could still participate. Many times their oral skills were far higher than other beginning students, but they could not read.
Good luck. Adults seeking literacy need encouragement, support, and appreciation for both small and large steps forward.
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fluffyhamster
- Posts: 3031
- Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2004 6:57 pm
- Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again
Hi Eric! I was going to mention Side by Side (the parent course of the Word by Word picture dictionary) - less danger of overload than with some glossier textbooks (but some might argue in response that it therefore lacks variety). I only had the textbook, mind.
http://www.eltnews.com/features/intervi ... sky1.shtml
( > http://www.pearsonlongman.com/ae/marketing/sidebyside/ ).
DK's Visual Dictionaries are pretty good (affordable yet comprehensive):
http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewt ... 8703#38703
A thread that might be of interest (esp. if the audio-visual approach doesn't quite work out - or does, and you want to build on it, MofD!):
http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewtopic.php?t=9170
http://www.eltnews.com/features/intervi ... sky1.shtml
( > http://www.pearsonlongman.com/ae/marketing/sidebyside/ ).
DK's Visual Dictionaries are pretty good (affordable yet comprehensive):
http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewt ... 8703#38703
A thread that might be of interest (esp. if the audio-visual approach doesn't quite work out - or does, and you want to build on it, MofD!):
http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewtopic.php?t=9170