Job Discussion Forums

[Djob20]

I am a 23 year old native (UK) teacher who is starting giving classes on monday to an experienced English teacher here in Argentina.

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for material for a teacher who is highly advanced, but still makes little mistakes, especially with pronounciation.

I have thought of the guardian online lessons from onestopenglish.com but I wonder if anyone has any other ideas, as I have no experience of giving lessons such as these...

Thanks in advance for any ideas...

Dom

[stillnosheep]

Are the lessons 'just' conversation (listening and speaking) or can they be based on grammatical and lexical input from your side?

Also, what books do you have access to?

[Jetgirly]

I find the Discussions A to Z books to be livesavers when I draw a blank and can't think of a plan for a conversation class. They come in Intermediate and Advanced, and you can get them on Amazon.com (not .ca, maybe .co.uk). There are enough varied topics that you'll find something for every student. Also, your student (who, as I understand, is also a teacher) might find the books to be something he'd like to use in his own classroom.

[cangringo]

Try everyday experience, ask the teacher what they are interested in and ask them to talk about it. For instance getting the teacher to describe sports or news stories they have recently heard in English.

You can find tons of stuff on the internet for conversation - I would suggest using the same things you would use for your advanced classes.

You might also want to do some listening classes, with movies perhaps?? Or you could read from a book and then discuss. We are lucky to have access to Discovery in the Classroom on TV so we have recorded these and use them as a listening lesson and then have discussions on the topic.

Once you hear what in particular the teacher is having trouble with, you can do some pronunciation classes on that - tongue twisters are always good for that.

[Djob20]

Still No sheep, we said conversation classes so I think that is what she wants.
I will check this however to confirm it.
Well I do not have many books on my person, (sudden fiction reading stories, practice of English language teaching, grammar for english language teachers and a grammar exercise book). However as I teach in a few schools here I can use their vast selection of books.

Thanks for the suggestions. I think the idea of using listening and movies is one i shall pursue in particular Luckily, I am giving the classes in exchange for Spanish lessons, and we know each other fairly well so it should go ok..

[dajiang]

how about news reports like on www.theweekmagazine.com (very good site which compares news reporting from all sides), or yahoo's oddly enough?

all sorts of debates would work too, from serious topics like the death penalty and the notion that you cant stop violence with violence to the crazy debate in which you could debate which is more useful to society: curtains or sunglasses?

If you have a computer available, you could also check out sites like youtube and comment on certain film clips.

Dajiang