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jonniboy · Posted: Thu Feb 25, 2010 9:02 pm Post subject: Upper advanced anyone?

So here's the situation, I've just finished an advanced group of five months duration and a number of students want to go on to do "upper advanced." In seven years of teaching I've never done any kind of teaching beyond advanced level i.e. at the proficiency level so what kind of books and materials are available for this? I have folders full of materials and lesson plans but very little that wouldn't be too easy for these guys. There were very few books available in the local bookshop for advanced level - only Headway and the like so any suggestions?

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

I do lots of stuff with students at C2 level. Mostly, the focus shifts from pure 'language' to professional and upper level communication with consideration of cultural differences. We talk about communicating effectively with English speakers whose English may be weaker and/or different, for example. Expected signalling language and structures of speech are useful at this level.

Here's one idea for some good hours of discussion at a high level:

try going to www.executiveplanet.com and print off the business info on countries your students may visit/where people come from with whom your students may communicate/the country where your students come from/countries that your students are interested in.

Give the mats to your students and ask them to analyse and then present their findings about them.

It's quite useful for analysis and discussion at a high level.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

What is the purpose of them learning English? Business? Get some business English materials. General English? They already know it. Tell us the reason.

You probably aren't going to use a lot of textbooks, but will instead have to focus on using realia to suit their needs.

jpvanderwerf2001 · Joined: 02 Oct 2003 Posts: 1117 Location: New York

If it's general English they want/need, then I'd go with authentic materials: For example, use the infinite authentic materials available on the Internet (I love the Economist) for work in-class or for homework. Then discuss, dissect the language, etc; same goes for listening (I usually use BBC.com or NPR.org).
If you need a textbook of some sort, I'd try CPE; if CPE is too easy for them, I'm not quite sure why they're in an English class and not teaching it! Laughing

santi84 · Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 1317 Location: under da sea

I'm in Canada, so I go by the Canadian Language Benchmarks. If you look at the file below (PDF), it may give you some ideas. For upper advanced, I focus primarily on critical thinking. Look at levels 9-12 for upper advanced.

http://www.language.ca/pdfs/clb_adults.pdf

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

I've got a cool unit on critical thinking skills that we put together both in Canada and here in the Netherlands. Youtube, politics, and adverts are key Cool

jonniboy · Posted: Sat Feb 27, 2010 4:01 pm Post subject:

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

Yes, that certainly does complicate things. All the more reason to do a needs analysis. Find out what common ground they are all in. There will be a few shared situations where you can practice, but what about their common weak points, too?

Do they all want to learn more speaking, or is there some reading needed? Do they all have excellent listening skills? Plenty to use to help the latter two points. How about their writing ability?