Teacher Discussion Forums

Hi Larry, My current situation's a bit unusual, which is why I didn't mention it, but just for interest's sake, I'm teaching in the US. It was originally supposed to be a small class of perhaps 3 or 4 students, but because of unforseen circumstances, is now a class of ONE. Yes, a 90-minute conversat...

I should know this, but I don't. What are the goals of a conversation class? I'm not talking advanced levels, but intermediate and below. Are we talking strictly fluency and communication? Is focused discussion of grammar off-limits? For example, in describing a scene, a student says "The man wearin...

I'm a volunteer tutor in the US working one-on-one with a woman who is at a very low level of proficiency with English. The agency I work for gave her the Laubach series to work with, so we use that for each lesson. Although it comes with a skillbook, workbook, stories, puzzles and illustrations, it...

Perhaps you could modify the activities you use where you break up your larger classes into pairs or smaller groups, and just consider your small class to be one group.

Can you give any examples of activities you're having trouble modifying to use with your smaller class?

Thanks for the replies Sue and Sita. It looks like this problem might be "solved" for me. Long story, but he will no longer be in the class. On the one hand, it will be nice to not have to deal with him. On the other hand, I don't have the opportunity to try to fix the problem myself. Oh well - I ha...

I'm a volunteer teacher leading a small group of adult ESL students in a free weekly walk-in class. One man is quite disruptive. He's the most advanced student in the class and I believe he fancies himself to be a bit of a teacher, himself. Meaning that I am often looking at the back of his head as ...

Celeste, thanks for the reply and all your great feedback. This student has been in the USA for almost 5 years but has no regular opportunity to practice. He has a one-on-one tutor, but I'm not sure how long it's been. I'm trying to get in touch with her. Honestly, it's pretty discouraging. I think ...

I'm a volunteer teacher of a group of 4-5 students with various native languages. This is being called a conversation class, but I'm not sure it's a true conversation class in that we do do some writing and a tiny bit of reading. The class is a once-a-week walk-in class so we don't do any assessment...