Job Discussion Forums

[FrenchLieutenant'sWoman]

What to do?

Obviously introducing themselves - names and where they're from.

I'd really like to get some vaguely useful stuff in - simple phrases for dealing with travel, telling the time?

Never taught total beginners before and I'm not sure how much is realistic to achieve in 6 hours!

[spiral78]

I've had some nice beginner lessons (in the long-past; I've been with advanced learners for a while now, so am rusty on beginner ideas, perhaps) based on the colour world weather maps from the back page of the international edition of USA today (only picked this one for the colour - personally prefer Int'l Herald-Trib for actual news).

This can ba a link to whatever bits and pieces your beginners might know - country names in English, weather (obviously) what to wear/take for specific weather conditions (if you're going to Helsinki today, what will you wear?/take?). Colours. Simple past tense (went to NYC).

Because recycling materials can take quite a lot of the intellectual overload off a student (knowing already something about a text of any kind makes it easier to analyse it for further features), you might consider two or three different themes around the same piece of text (map or whatever). This one I've described can obviously work for several:
travel
weather
clothing/accessories (umbrella, warm coat, swimsuit)
past tenses/events
future - where would you like to go on your next holiday....

Anyway, it's an idea...maybe others will have better ones!

[basiltherat]

Hi
Some ideas. Yes. Roleplay and acting out simple introductions. Place of Origin. Jobs
Introduce a few additional jobs that are common in the world. Maybe through pictures. Third person 'he' and 'she'
Intoducing a third person. Shaking hands, smiling. Again, a roleplay in front of class.
Some functional stuff like asking for something or offering something. Another roleplay ?
A spelling quiz.
Writing a short email of introduction to a new penfriend. Maybe find something similar as a reading task before the writing.
Numbers ?

Look in a beginners' textbook unit 1 for other ideas.

Give them several breaks too. Six hours is looooong.

My tuppenceworth
Best
Basil

[Sashadroogie]

French students, I take it.

Only 6 hours? what is the deal with the class then?

Anyway, general basics. Have a course book. Beginners need this visual support. Stick closely to it, if possible.

Classroom language should be a big feature at this level. E.g. they won't even know what pair-work is, never mind the instruction for it.

Content ares include, spelling and alphabet; numbers, counting, phone numbers; days months time telling; verb to be, introductions; exchanging personal information; poss adjectives.

[spiral78]

I was assuming that the 6 hours were spread over some time period, not consecutive! Am I correct in this?

Sasha's got a good point about the usefulness of a coursebook - the problem could be that no coursebook is designed to be used in such a short time, so to make the investment worthwhile, the students really need some level of commitment to continuing study. Some set pre-study goals in advance of the first class might also be an idea...

[spiral78]

I'm not sure how much is realistic to achieve in 6 hours!

I missed this bit earlier. IMO, in six hours - well, they might pick up some new vocab and (more likely) activate some bits and pieces they already knew.

I think the most realistic and useful goals for such a short course would be affective ones, in this situation - increase confidence and interest in using and learning more English.

[Paul D.]

Instead of just having the students introduce themselves, you might consider a Mix & Mingle activity. Ask the students to write 2 or 3 things about themselves on a piece of paper, but do not write their names. Then distribute the papers and have the students walk around the classroom introducing themselves to each other and eventually find the person whose paper they have. Then have the students introduce the peron whose paper they had.

This idea also works well with more advanced groups. For example, after discussing a topic as a class and then with group discussion questions, ask the students to write a few of their opinions concerning the topic, again without their names on the paper. Proceed as indicated above.

Finally, you mentioned "Travel" words. A similar M&M can be used focusing on the WH words = Who, What etc.... After introducing vocabulary pertinent to "Travel", have the students walk around the room and talk with at least 2 people about - Where they recently traveled, Who they went with, How they got there, What did they do there etc... The students then stand up and tell the class - I talked to Paul. He recently traveled to... etc...

[santi84]

Why are they taking the class? For travel?

Is this group a general "beginner" level or are they true beginners? If you are in France, they probably know a tiny bit of English (hello, goodbye, good morning), right?

For beginners, I find they love to talk about themselves because they have a base of familiar vocabulary to build on. If this class is travel-related, you could start off in small groups (or one group if this is a small class) and have them talk about themselves as an introduction. It's a good jumping point. Once you've gone over some vocabulary/sentences (ranging from basic transportation, major country names, etc), they could then attempt to tell their group(s) about who/what/why they are traveling. Regardless of age/ethnicity, most people love to blab about future travel plans, it's a very motivating topic to get some natural conversation going. This isn't so difficult with French students - I find them to be much more open to talking than my Korean students!

Travel is a good topic for French students because some words are quite familiar but different at the same time (l'a�roport, l'autobus, un moto). As for time, you could also combine that with travel - such as a flight schedule.

Just some thoughts...

[J.M.A.]

Another simple idea:

Set a time limit (ie. 3 mins) and get them to pair brainstorm English words they already use in their L1. Then have a plenary feedback.

The first mingle will invariably be: Hello, my name is _____. Nice to meet you" etc. Then do a celebrity mingle. Once you gone over numbers and the alphabet, then do "What is your phone number / email / how do you spell your name (possibly with English names)", all the while keeping the appropriate salutations etc so it is both transactional/phatic. This can be quite challenging for beginners but also allows for some creativity and spontaneity. Obviously these mingles are not to be done all at once but spread out with lots of appropriate modeling and other stuff going on in between, but you get the idea.

[artemisia]

A very long time since I've had beginners. Just another variation on the introductions mix and mingle:
Once upon a time when I tried a beginners class in Spanish after learning how to introduce ourselves (and another person) and give basic info (backed up by a course book), we were given name cards and had to go around the (large) class introducing ourselves to find our partner. When we found him/her we then teamed up with the nearest pair and took turns introducing our partner to the other pair (& vice versa). Then we sat down together with the same partner to do a basic exchange of info.

I can't remember all the pair names but some are Tarzan and Jane, Homer and Marge, Batman and Robin. If you think students won't know all the pair names you could always write them up on the board in advance.

[Dragonlady]

still good advice, but deleted

[Sashadroogie]

Bear in mind if these are total beginners and it is just really for a total of 6 hours, then all activities need to be simple. Instruction giving will be a major teaching area to get right. Does the teacher plan to use L2 for this?

[artemisia]

Yes, that's right. If you haven't taught absolute beginners for a long time it can be quite hard to get yourself back into that mindset. Ideally I'd want to know in advance if they were false beginners or really knew nothing but that's not always possible to find out. I'd then plan around their knowing not a thing so lots of visuals/ flash cards etc. for vocab would be good. Sometimes students who can't speak a word can still understand quite a lot of written English depending on their schooling and ability. That might help with instructions but you couldn't rely on that initially.

[cmp45]

Another alternative to pair work is to start with one student ...teacher asks the first student a simple question- student answers. Then have that student turn to the next student to ask the same question to the next student...and so on until all students have asked and answered.

This is good for beginners' retention as students will have an opprotunity to listen and hear same question repeated by other students as well each student speaks solo which means they can not hide in the crowd of a group response or evade detection when doing general pair work with many pairs. You can also detect false beginners fairly quickly with this exercise. Then work your way up to slightly more complex questions that elicit a variety of responses, so students are not just repeating same answers.

Examples: You could introduce a bit of the grammar/ vocabulary/ structure ...What/ where/ when/
What food do you like?
What food don't you like?
What sports do you like?
What sports don't you like?

Where do you live?

When do you get up?
When do you go to bed?

I think you get the senario It is just one of many possibilities...

[Von Dut]

What is the age group of your beginner students?

I've taught beginners but never adult ones. At the beginning of teaching them, their textbook was on the basic introductions, alphabet, colors, teacher/student. Simple things like that. Very repetitive. Glad to be teaching intermediate students now.