Hi There,
I teach to refugees in London. I was wondering if I am the only one.
And I realy need a very simple student's book to follow. Non of the common publishers seem to be appropriate for my students as some of them are ilitterate in their native languages. A book with a lot of visuals, games and very simple exercises. Anyone?
I am constantly creating new methods (: (they work well) but I need to see if they correspond with the already established ones as my imagination is exhausted.
I'd love to hear from others with more experience in teaching ESL. Thanks.
ANYONE TEACHING TO REFUGEES? I NEED HELP
Moderators: Dimitris, maneki neko2, Lorikeet, Enrico Palazzo, superpeach, cecil2, Mr. Kalgukshi2
hi peter
hey - your post was from a few months ago, so I don't know if you check this board still, but I'm also teaching ESL to refugees with little or no native language literacy. Actually, I just started this week, so I have no good advice to give you - I'm feeling quite overwhelmed myself. But if you'd like to talk about what's working and what's not, feel free to email me - [email protected]. If I end up having any successes, I'll let you know - I hope things are going well for you now that you've had a few months at it!
meg
meg
minimal literacy and refugees
I don't know if either of you are still reading this ...
I've been teaching English to elderly Chinese ladies for some time. Some of them are illiterate in their own language; most of them were sponsored to New Zealand by their children or grandchildren who wanted free childcare.
I have found that the only way to teach them (at first) was to go back to how they expected to be taught - ie the old-fashioned abc's complete with pictures. Except I found pictures of different things, not kiddy things, for each letter! LARGE pictures - people of uncertain literacy may not be aware of eyesight problems. Remember they may be unused to handling writing implements; copying letters and words will probably be a new skill to them. Can you get them to draw simple pictures (may be a cultural taboo with some Muslims) or geometric shapes, simply to practice handling pen and paper? You must be VERY careful not to talk down to them! Once you find a subject which enthuses a group, stick with that subject and use it until you are truly sick of it, and beyond that point, as long as the students are still enthused by it. My class of 14 ladies divided neatly into two - half of which loved flowers, plants and gardens, and the other half of which were madly keen to learn to bake cakes. Now I will grant you that Pohutakawa (a common NZ tree) is not the easiest word for a Chinese lady to pronounce but we are working on it!
I've been teaching English to elderly Chinese ladies for some time. Some of them are illiterate in their own language; most of them were sponsored to New Zealand by their children or grandchildren who wanted free childcare.
I have found that the only way to teach them (at first) was to go back to how they expected to be taught - ie the old-fashioned abc's complete with pictures. Except I found pictures of different things, not kiddy things, for each letter! LARGE pictures - people of uncertain literacy may not be aware of eyesight problems. Remember they may be unused to handling writing implements; copying letters and words will probably be a new skill to them. Can you get them to draw simple pictures (may be a cultural taboo with some Muslims) or geometric shapes, simply to practice handling pen and paper? You must be VERY careful not to talk down to them! Once you find a subject which enthuses a group, stick with that subject and use it until you are truly sick of it, and beyond that point, as long as the students are still enthused by it. My class of 14 ladies divided neatly into two - half of which loved flowers, plants and gardens, and the other half of which were madly keen to learn to bake cakes. Now I will grant you that Pohutakawa (a common NZ tree) is not the easiest word for a Chinese lady to pronounce but we are working on it!
Do they have to learn how to read?
I know this seems an obvious question. I am working up the courage to teach some Sri Lankan refugees English, in Istanbul. Seems a bit strange to teach them English, but apparently this is what they want / need to get official refugee status. I am just wondering whether I need to teach them how to read or if just speaking is good enough. Obviously they are not living day to day life in an English speaking country, so maybe it's less relevant. What do you think?
Katherine
Katherine
teaching reading to refugees
I have taught English to people who are illiterate in their native languages and had some frustrating experiences. Since then I have learned a little bit more about literacy.
I think the practical activities suggested in some of the other posts are very good starting points. At the same time, the task of reading is unfortunately going to be somewhat abstract. You need to balance survival activities with some direct instruction in the skill of reading.
The alphabet is of course the place to start. But what most ESL teachers don't know is that it's not just about putting the sounds together. A student who is illiterate in their first language probably has no "concept of word"-- they can't divide a sentence up into the chunks that we think of as words. In all alphabetic languages, concept of word is the hurdle that has to be jumped before the student is ready for alphabetic instruction. A student has to be able to divide up a sentence into words before they can divide a word up into sounds. You can teach phonics until you're blue in the face and it won't do any good if the students aren't ready for it.
There are many ways to increase students' awareness of print so that they can cross the "concept of word" threshhold. You need to work with familiar texts--short texts that the students know or can easily memorize. These can be proverbs, songs, nursery rhymes. . . The students already know the words, so you just practice the task of reading. Make the students follow along with their finger while they recite, even if they can't sound out the individual words. You will be surprised how difficult fingerpointing can be. Also, taking a sentence, cutting it up, and putting it back together again is a good activity.
"Word banks" are also helpful for these true beginners--keep a collection of the first sight words that the students know in a little baggie, and increase it until you get to about 100. Your local elementary teachers are expert reading teachers and can probably give you tons more ideas.
Admittedly, many of these activities will be viewed as "childish," but unfortunately they're the best ways to get students ready for learning to read. And, as I said before, these activities should of course be mixed in with oral language, andvery practical, concrete, day-to-day survival skills.
I think the practical activities suggested in some of the other posts are very good starting points. At the same time, the task of reading is unfortunately going to be somewhat abstract. You need to balance survival activities with some direct instruction in the skill of reading.
The alphabet is of course the place to start. But what most ESL teachers don't know is that it's not just about putting the sounds together. A student who is illiterate in their first language probably has no "concept of word"-- they can't divide a sentence up into the chunks that we think of as words. In all alphabetic languages, concept of word is the hurdle that has to be jumped before the student is ready for alphabetic instruction. A student has to be able to divide up a sentence into words before they can divide a word up into sounds. You can teach phonics until you're blue in the face and it won't do any good if the students aren't ready for it.
There are many ways to increase students' awareness of print so that they can cross the "concept of word" threshhold. You need to work with familiar texts--short texts that the students know or can easily memorize. These can be proverbs, songs, nursery rhymes. . . The students already know the words, so you just practice the task of reading. Make the students follow along with their finger while they recite, even if they can't sound out the individual words. You will be surprised how difficult fingerpointing can be. Also, taking a sentence, cutting it up, and putting it back together again is a good activity.
"Word banks" are also helpful for these true beginners--keep a collection of the first sight words that the students know in a little baggie, and increase it until you get to about 100. Your local elementary teachers are expert reading teachers and can probably give you tons more ideas.
Admittedly, many of these activities will be viewed as "childish," but unfortunately they're the best ways to get students ready for learning to read. And, as I said before, these activities should of course be mixed in with oral language, andvery practical, concrete, day-to-day survival skills.
re materials
Try this site they have materials for refugees
www.talent.ac.uk
www.talent.ac.uk
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lalalateda
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2005 2:16 am
- Location: JAPAN
I used to teach secondary school students who were refugees in Ireland. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. I had one group that were more lower intermediate and it wasn't too bad. For materials, I would just pick and chose from a few EFL books. The other group i had no native language literacy. It was so difficult but eventually I found a good text book and it made it easier. The book had an Irish name i'm not sure of the spelling but it was something like 'An Feach'
Hi, this thread is a bit old, but I was so excited to stumble across this teacher forum and this topic because I began volunteer tutoring a refugee family for the past month and this information is very helpful to me! Up to this point I have been getting to know the family and helping teach things like how to call the children's school, job applications, calling to make doctor appointments, etc but basically winging it.
Next week however, I am attending a workshop on tutoring esl adult literacy students, so perhaps I will find some useful information to share.
Next week however, I am attending a workshop on tutoring esl adult literacy students, so perhaps I will find some useful information to share.