Help for adult beginners

crow · Post by **crow** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 6:14 am

I wonder if anyone has any ideas for me? I am an elementary and JHS EFL teacher in Japan, but one of the schools I work at has asked me to do a conversation class for the teachers at the school. I have never taught adults in my life, I am most comfortable with children, and I have no idea how to proceed. How can I make the class interesting without treating the teachers like kids? What should I teach?

If anyone has any ideas, I would really appreciate the help.

Thanks!

bobs12 · Post by **bobs12** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 7:50 am

Remember 'Good Morning Vietnam'? Works here. Are Japanese students game for a laugh?

Showem · Post by **Showem** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 10:24 am

Hi Crow,

Pick up a book on teaching adults. It will help with ideas. I'll give you just a couple of points:

Treat them like adults. Think of how you want to be treated when you are learning something. Too many really enthuastic "Very good!"s is out of place, but genuine ones are still appropriate.

They are adults, they have a life behind them. Get them to talk about their experiences. I don't know what Japanese like to talk about, but their experiences in relating to English speakers, their houses, their jobs, whatever is appropriate. Use their experience in the class to make them feel like the class belongs to them, not just you telling them what to do.

Good luck!

Jane W · Post by **Jane W** » Tue Nov 23, 2004 9:41 pm

I'd start by asking them what they wanted to learn English for -- brainstorm some topics.
With adults, it's good to activate their background knowledge. Try to get them talking about something they know well, but have never talked about in English.
They might be interested in talking about current events. You could put some news stories into simple English and ask them to read and comment on them.

Just some random thoughts.

JeanRezende · Post by **JeanRezende** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 8:27 pm

Brainstorming is always good at the beginning. This way you will be able to know your students' needs.

As you guys get to know each other, you can start by setting up a cooperative environment where everyone has a part to play.

The experience i have with a few japanese is that they really take effort to get things done.

Help them to find a way to convey their ideas as well as to improve their pronuntiation.

I hope this help!

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 9:09 pm

Since they are fellow teachers they might be interested in talking about the Japanese education system and whatever education system you grew up in. If you can get someone to send you report cards, curriculum documents in their subject area and so, they might enjoy that. They also have more money that some people (but of course, not most people) and like to travel so practice with all the travel ideas will be fun too. I used to set up the classroom as a restaurant, a check in desk at the hotel, a bus station ticket office and so on. We also talked a great deal about our families and showed pictures, talked about holidays, festivals, birthdays, weddings and so on. You will probably have mixed levels of proficiency so put the stronger students with one or two lower students in groups to talk together and then they can report their best stories to the whole group. Let them teach you about Japan and Japanese - they will have to explain in English and that is mostly what they will have to do with people they meet who speak English as well. You could encourage them to have an English day once a week in the school where they greet and talk to students in English, listen to English music on the loudspeaker and have English posters in the halls, have English karaoke at lunch time and so on.

JeanRezende · Post by **JeanRezende** » Wed Nov 24, 2004 11:54 pm

Those are great sugestions!!

I've tried almost all of them and /i ensure they really work.

I've just remembered once I took all my students to a pizza place.

We made a deal with the place owner and got a whole section for us. There everybody could talk about anything while having a large slice.

The first one was nearly a disaster I shall confess, but with the outcomes and queries we had on it, we were able to make the second one a great happening.

Good luck!!!

crow · Post by **crow** » Fri Nov 26, 2004 4:59 am

Thanks to everyone for posting their suggestions. I'll be teaching that class this afternoon, so we'll see how it turns out. I've been trying to get them to suggest the topics they want to cover, and they have decided on shopping for today, so thats what we're doing.

The frustrating part is, since its very informal, I don't usually have the same students every week or things like that. They are all from the school staff, but they tend to drop in and out. I'm a bit uncomfortable with the lack of planning that I have done for these lessons, but I don't really know how I can do otherwise.

Sally, I really like the idea of having an English day at the school. I'll suggest it and see what kind of response I get. I don't come to the classes every week, so maybe it would be a good way to keep the kids and teachers a little in practice.

Thanks all!