help - only two 8 year olds

natastar · Post by **natastar** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 9:47 am

Hi,

I've just started my first ESL job. My only experience is teaching adults - Cert TESOL - and teaching Eng Lit to UK schoolkids. I have classes with two 8 year olds and rapport wise fine but they are translating everything I say and I don't know how to direct their learning. What should I be expecting from an hour and a half class and how should I respond to them speaking in their own language?
Any help greatly appreciated as my boss seems happy to leave me to it...
thanks

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Wed Sep 14, 2005 6:34 pm

There has been a thread in Applied Linguistics on various thoughts about students speaking their own language in class. It might be helpful to read that over. I personally think it is great because someone is understanding you enough to translate. Just repeat what you said after the translation so the other student gets the English twice after understanding what was said. This will gradually drop away as they get more self-confident. I doubt if they will be doing it past Christmas. There are tons of ideas in Dave's Cookbooks and on this thread for games to play with them. It should be a lot of fun.