I need help with one-to-one beginning conversation ideas

[Manny3]

Hello everyone,

So far, I love teaching in Japan. My challenge has been to teach English Conversation to Adults, whose English is somewhat basic. What ideas are there other than just greetings? How do I make English learning fun for one-to-one students. I always try to make sure that my students are happy. I have been having good luck with children and adults who just need to practice their English. I have a students who's in here late 20's and another who's in her early 50's. The one in her 50's is a little shy about starting again, and I don't want to scare her. Any ideas would be appreciative.

Thank you.

[celinehoran]

Hey there,

I'm so excited for you. I sounds like you're having a wonderful time but obviously want to do a good job and enjoy yourself too.

I felt exactly the same when I first started my 1:1 ESL Training a year ago.

I was given a few recommendations in the form of books and websites at the beginning of my teaching career and I've found them invaluable and excellent for students and teacher alike.

My confidence has grown 10 fold and my students have come a long way too.

If you would like to know what I've been doing and the books/sites I depend on then don't hesitate to email me and I will endeavour to give you some solutions to what are exciting challenges.

Happy Teaching!
Regards
Celine Horan
Personal ESL Trainer - Switzerland

[Sally Olsen]

Have a great time. It is such a wonderful country and the people are so great too. Just be yourself and talk about yourself and ask tons of questions. Never tell anyone what the student said to you. Keep it a secret between the two of you. Don't be tempted to say, "Oh my student, so and so, said such and such." Despite there being so many people, they do seem to know one another to an amazing extent and passing on anything might eventually get back to the student and they will leave. They will tell you things they will never tell anyone else so it is very precious information. At first you can get them to give you information on something they know a lot about like where to go to shop and how to cook something. I used to bring in vegetables that were strange to me and ask them what to do with them. Or ask them about local sites to visit or holidays or special days. Don't read any guide books but ask your students so it is new information for you and they really have to work to make you understand. Visit the sites they recommend and bring back pictures so you can talk about it or better yet go with them to the site if you can. Are you teaching in the afternoon and evenings? You can arrange these trips in the mornings and I bet you anything will soon receive invitations to their homes for lunch and so on. Wonderful way to make friends and you are paid for it! They can teach you Japanese. I still have friends visiting me in Canada after 7 years away from Japan.

[Glenski]

What are the goals and purposes for your students to study English? If you can focus on them, you will be halfway home.

Greetings should take only 1 or 2 lessons max. After that, you have to give them the grammar and vocabulary that they need to continue a conversation. Past tense is essential, and don't be afraid to have beginners use a present/past tense list of words while you tutor them. Just make sure they cover the list at the end of the lesson to practice the tense without seeing it.

Work from their hobbies. Their families. YOUR family. Bring pictures of your family and friends and discuss them. Get your students to ask YOU questions. Conversation involved student AND teacher asking things, and many students simply don't know how to form a question, so teach them how.

[mrandmrsjohnqsmith]

AMEN to Glenski's comment about getting them to ask you questions. This is so often overlooked by teachers and by English tests as well.
Get personal. Treat every tiny bit of knowledge you gain about your student as a possible inroad to a conversation.
Find out what they like. Get them to talk about it. What are they reading? Get them to describe it. What are their friends like? What are their family members like? You have kids? Boys/girls/how old/what do they like/I'd love to see photos/oh they're so cute/you must be so proud. How did you meet your husband/wife? Did he propose to you? It was arranged? How is that done? What was the wedding like? Tell me about your mother.
Always remember the golden three-letter interrogative WHY. Why, why why? I like Yon-sama. Why?
I had a teenage student who was quiet as a mouse until I found out that she read manga every day. After that I had no problem at all getting her to relate to me in English the further adventures of her favorite manga characters. This former wallflower was instantly transformed into a blossom of enthusiasm because we found a topic she was comfortable talking about.
It's not always that easy. You have to get a feel for what someone is and isn't comfortable talking about. Some people are stubbornly private, and they have their reasons, but most, as Sally Olsen said, will tell you precious things they'll never tell anyone else. It's a lot like a doctor/patient confidentiality relationship, and Sally is absolutely right that what is said between you and your student should stay between you and your student.
Reading guidebooks and related materials actually helps me to get conversations going. I like to learn about local stuff and then play dumb with my students. I pretend I don't know anything about it, even if I've read about it or have had it explained to me a hundred times. You may know it's a Buddhist temple, you may have even been there, but you can still say, "What's that big building on the hill with the statue of the guy? Who is he?" Every time a holiday rolls around (there are plenty of them) it's a great opportunity to get your students to talk by playing the innocent foreigner and letting them fill you in. What's really amusing is to hear how their explanations diverge. The guidebooks can give you some idea of what to be listening for, but don't be suprised if what your students tell you is completely different from what you've read or heard before. Japan is rich in culture and tradition and everyone seems to have a different take on things.
Oh, and seriously avoid "sensitive" topics until your student brings them up, and even then proceed cautiously. These include issues related to nuclear bombs, foreign nationals, Japanese war atrocities and the burakumin. I'd also avoid being critical of Japan in any way. Let them do that. Then when they do say something critical, act interested and ask them why.
And be mindful of your health. The average gaijin teacher gains 10 kilos. I've gained twelve. Also the viruses that circulate this time of year are brutal customers.
And Karaoke cures everything.

[fluffyhamster]

Always remember the golden three-letter interrogative WHY. Why, why why? I like Yon-sama. Why?

Reading guidebooks and related materials actually helps me to get conversations going. I like to learn about local stuff and then play dumb with my students. I pretend I don't know anything about it, even if I've read about it or have had it explained to me a hundred times. You may know it's a Buddhist temple, you may have even been there, but you can still say, "What's that big building on the hill with the statue of the guy? Who is he?" Every time a holiday rolls around (there are plenty of them) it's a great opportunity to get your students to talk by playing the innocent foreigner and letting them fill you in. What's really amusing is to hear how their explanations diverge. The guidebooks can give you some idea of what to be listening for, but don't be suprised if what your students tell you is completely different from what you've read or heard before. Japan is rich in culture and tradition and everyone seems to have a different take on things.

The WHY Approach can get a little overdone:
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/v ... 3448#13448

I'm just asking, not telling here, but if most foreigners are, in fact, quite "informed", should they be acting otherwise just to get the students talking (gushing, spouting etc), just so long as it's English? It won't do them any favours when they are next talking to a non-teacher (or off-duty teacher) foreigner who, to be honest, might be bored to tears by the topic being "discussed" (or at least have a good mind to contradict a lot of what's been said - and that, to my mind, could be a more natural way to "discuss" things, and turn the discussion around to more interesting topics for the foreigner at least. Devil's advocate! ).

[Sally Olsen]

Gee, I lost about 30 pounds with the wonderful food. I only ate Japanese food or Chinese food - those gyosa are to die for and okonomyaki saved me so many times at the end of the month. We used to call it Economyaki. I never ate at home though - always ate out at such cheap prices as the four English teachers in our schools found all the bargain days and cheap restaurants. If you buy food to cook yourself it is so expensive. At the end of my term I was eating at the home of a different student each day as I had 60 students (one at a time). Heaven.

[mrandmrsjohnqsmith]

Were you working for a public school, Sally? I made a mistake when I said "average gaijin teacher." I should have excluded the ALTs from that admitted overgeneralization. I could more accurately say that I have met a LOT of obese foreign teachers who claim they weren't that way when they got here. When I first arrived in Japan, the teacher I was replacing spent some time with me to help me get adjusted. She said "You'll gain 10 kilos," just as matter-of-factly as if she had been telling me the operating hours of the post office. The working hours for the private English schools make it difficult for teachers to get exercise on a regular basis. If I find out that you lost 30 lbs working from noon to nine eating gyoza and okonomiyaki then we really need to talk! Maybe I should start a new thread soliciting tips for staying thin in Japan. Just what this branch needs, another thread. : )

[Sally Olsen]

For sure, I lost it on the two to ten shift. I got up at 6 in the morning and walked somewhere for two or three hours though and always walked from school to school - we had four after schools that were about five kilometers apart. My boss always gave us enough time to walk and paid for shoes rather than train tickets. There are so many nice people out in the mornings and some of the farmers would give me mushrooms or cucumbers or invite me in to see their mini-gardens. I always wore my Canadian pin and learned to ask about their children and their pains in Japanese. It was like having two days in one. One of my housewife students always took me somewhere in the morning and we hiked or walked around towns and so on and often had super lunches in their homes.
I guess whether you lose on the food or gain has to do with your metabolism though. I lost 40 pounds on Mongolian butz which I loved! That's mutton dumplings with lots of grease and milk tea to wash it all down. I ate mutton for lunch for a year and often for dinner too.
I had gained the weight eating bread with chocolate in the middle, the wonderful cheeses of France and many types of crepes in Brittany.
Isn't there a thread for Japan somewhere on Dave's already?

[mrandmrsjohnqsmith]

6 am? Working 2 to 10? You're a better person than I am, Sally, and apparently a much thinner one. I salute you, and will consider following your example sometime in the future. ; )
I have no idea if there is already a thread on Dave's about staying thin in Japan, but I'll check. I really do think that it all boils down to exercise, and that all the talk about carbohydrates and calories etc is secondary. I think that if you're walking two to three hours a day you can eat whatever you want.
You rock.

[Sally Olsen]

We were on a train line too so I used to walk my two hours and then take the train back or near the end of my stay there, take the train to increasingly further away stops and walk and then take the train back. It is such a wonderful country and there is so much to explore. We were open until 10 for the business men to have lessons after work. Unfortunately I am not thin at the moment living on Vancouver's tremendous variety of food with too many relatives with celebrations that feature chocolate cake. It doesn't seem that the walking is making that much difference this time. I also swam two or three days a week in the mornings in Japan and Mongolia so am going to add that to my list to see if makes a difference. Yak riding might have helped too but is not available here. I also played a really wonderful game in Japan but can't remember the name. It involved a dart with a ball on the bottom of a feathered stem and a volley ball net. It was a lot of exercise trying to get this dart over the net although no one expected me to dive to the floor to get it over.
The reason I got up so early was that all the young people in my apartment building left for work at that time and you could hear them getting ready which woke me up. It was also cooler in the hotter weather to walk in the early morning but as I remember I got later as the winter set in.