Job Discussion Forums

[chinasyndrome]

Rhonda, AKA nailed it when he said that you can't teach them English in 40 minutes a week. Perhaps the best you can hope to do is set up the conditions so that their baseline knowledge is okay. You may be stuck with teaching them to memorise a book, but if you can squeeze in some time, even 5 minutes, try focusing them on correct understanding and pronunciation of the alphabet and some basic sounds. Most students (even English Majors) don't know the 26 letters have a collective name, so you've got some scope to do some good groundwork.

Generally speaking, the letters students have trouble pronouncing are:
g,j,v,w,z. Basic sounds include th,sh,s,ch,ly,ry,z.

If all you can achieve is correct basic pronunciation of sounds, you've at least given them a head start on millions of others and potentially helped their future foreign teachers from spending teaching time in remedial work. Go with what you've got and do what you can.

Once you're past basic sounds try teaching useful basic words and concepts such as time, place, distance, etc. You might even make a list of all names we associate with the human body (earlobe, eyebrow, gum, chin, etc). You can use these in a variety of ways such as 'point to your', 'make a sentence with', or even to help them practice their pronunciation.

[kimo]

Debalky, seems there are still plenty of schools looking for teachers. Find a good one, then bolt. Punish them! And don't look back. I believe they're too many honorable schools in this land. The bad ones need taught a lesson!

Good luck!

[cheekygal]

AKA

Thank you for your kind notes. I'm very well aware about the difference between INTELLIGENT and INTELLIGIBLE. Feel free to use my posts as a source of enterntainment for yourself

[AKA]

cheekygal
It's well aware OF something, not ABOUT something. And it's entertainment, not however you spell it. Not a typo; N is nowhere near R and T on the keyboard. I won't take up your offer though as I prefer a tougher foe. He he and grin don't work for me. You're actually very lucky Sunaru is away.
Come back Bertrand, you were right!

[cheekygal]

Come back, Bertrand! I hope you are less aggressive and don't have such heartfelt reactions to such mild errors
[shall i be excusing myself for looking at this whole thing as an amusement ]

[chinasyndrome]

AKA and cheekygal, is it true love or just a passing infatuation?

[cheekygal]

It's a middle age crisis!

[AKA]

Awww, don't take it so hard! In fact, I'd just finished attempting to correct about 40 abstracts from conference papers written by local academics, so my red pen was in marking frenzy mode.
WHY can't Chinese, and perhaps other NESB's, use articles? It's perverse. a, an, the, appear to confuse the hell out of them to the extent that they give up, and leave them out altogether, or better still use the in front of every damn noun...or verb.
Though I should ask, why is it The United States, and not The Great Britain, apart from the common useage thing?

[chinasyndrome]

So it's true love, is that what you're saying?

[cheekygal]

So he IS capable of being nice!

[AKA]

No he's not, unless there's money involved.
Now, just answer the question without saying he he.

[chinasyndrome]

I just loooooooove the sound of romance in the evening!

HE HE

Rhonda will, of course, be heartbroken by this turn of events. Ah the vagaries of lurv and youthfulness!

[Roger]

Hello, Rhonda,

a bit late answering your latest query, sorry about that; in fact, this kind of questions should be posted on a different forum - try the Elementary Education forum!
Here are some observations from me:
While classes of 40 and more students can never be turned into talkshops with a chance for everyone to have a go, we should realise first of all that oral English lessons are utterly questionable at least at this low level.
Take into account those ridiculous textbooks they use! Tell me - have you never stumbled upon totally idiotic English? And, if you happen to have one of those NEW CAMBRIDGE YOUNG LEARNER'S ENGLISH series, you will not fail to see that these books must have been artfully re-created (read the foreword which has the name of the publisher printed as "Michael Halstead", then signed as "Michale Halstead"!).
There is a huge chasm between what CHinese expect, and what we normally would do: for Chinese, it is almost normal to make classes as large as possible, because they teach the "communitarian" way, doing things in unison rather than individually.
That's why if you find one student who says or writes a word such as "contact" as "contarct", you will find at least a dozen students making the exact same mistake, and their own teacher as well!
My suggestion is for you to refrain from speaking exercises except to prompt individuals or sometimes the whole class into repeating a whole sentence which they also act out.
Ignore their textbooks altogether! Focus on relevant topics: Time, weather, clothes, family, food, cities, and develop those topics by piecing a whole puzzle together, piece by piece: Time is ... years ("now 2003, you were born in 1992", "you are 11 years old"), months (you won't need any CHinese!), week days, days, birthdays (each student has his/her own one!), seasons, hours, minutes).
Of course, memorising is not helpful; have them take notes on your lessons, and check on their writing after each lesson. I tell you, you and they are going to have a great time, and I promise you they are going to develop real communication skills!

[cheekygal]

Now I understand why he wouldn't want me as a foe [pho ]!!! chinasyndrome, are you a sort of future teller?

Isn't it The United Kingdom of Great Britain? and The United States of America?

All singular non conglomerate countries do not need "the". Plural conglomerates do - the united states, the russian federation, the united kingdom because the article refers to the "states", "federation" well and kingdom of course. As opposed to a direct noun.
But Great Britain is singular, which identifies a certain territory being UNITED. as would be "great italy" , if it were a country the singular case in this example serves to emphasise that "great" is part of the name.
That be my explanation.
I also recommend you to visit the following web-site which will complete my answer in case you are not satisfied with the explanation before [was just curious how correct the information I possess is and searched the web *grin* - the website has a more obtuse explanation ]

http://eleaston.com/the-us.html

Oh, Bertrand! I SO hope you ever read it!!!

-cheekybabe

[Guest]

Roger
Thanks for your advice - I have already stumbled accross a few ideas for lessons. This School is only 1 year old and we were given no books, no resources etc. to help us but I have been sitting up until midnight each night and then getting up at 5.30 a.m. each morning to plan my classes in advance and I am a lot happier with them now. I just needed some basic ideas (which are plentiful on the Internet) to get me started.

I am most grateful to all the people who have bothered to assist me.