Help with voluntary work teaching NGO staff in Mongolia

[Mongolia07]

Hi there,

although I'm a qualified TEFL teacher, it's been nearly 10 years since I was teaching and now I've found myself back teaching in Mongolia! I've got 3 groups from complete beginners to elementary and pre-intermediate, and have found myself really struggling trying to put together a short course for all 3 groups separately. The beginner group so far has been great, but the elementary-pre-intermediate group I'm finding difficult.
I'm totally out of touch with what I can realistically cover within ten 1 hour lessons. This is for a small group of Mongolian employees of an NGO, who specifically need a working knowledge of English for all the usual stuff, emails, letters, brief phone calls, possible discussions with other NGOs or Charities etc. I don't know where to start!

How much should I be trying to cover, and suggestions for some good activities would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any help

[isle-teach]

Hi there,
your situation sounds similar to mine. I was asked to teach a pre-int group for 10 hrs preparing them for employment overseas. Honestly, I don't think much can be accomplished within this time frame cause they don't have much time to practice. Having said that, it also depends on how long it's been since they've used English. It's always good to know these things beforehand.

You could start with simple phone calls for making appointments or taking messages, and then move on to emails/letters. The language of meetings could also be important to teach. See how they do with those and then add/cut down. It all depends on how keen they are to study at home, too. If they've done their homework, your work will be easier

Some useful websites are www.onestopenglish.com, and www.oup.co.uk/elt/ where you register for free and can download resources. Google also Macmillan English and Cambridge University Press. They have downloadable resources for some of their Business English publications. www.bogglesworldesl.com is also very helpful, as is www.eslflow.com
Hope this helps.

[Mongolia07]

Thanks a bunch for the reply, I've found the sites you listed great.

I'd like to leave the students with some information about what they can access over the net to help them learn English. Because I've never handed out this advice before, it would be great to get some pointers. What can a student expect to find on the net, and which sites can be recommended is the broad spectrum info I'm looking for!!
I'll be searching myself, but advice is always more than welcome!

Thanks again for the advice so far

[Sally Olsen]

Exciting to see your post as I will be teaching intermediate and advanced English at the University of Humanities in UB in November. Hope we can get together.

Right here on Dave's ESL cafe is all they need to practice. There is a great student section and teachers help out with questions that student's pose. I don't think you could find a better resource for any question or area they want to practice.

Do you have working blackboards - I can bring you some blackboard paint or books you will need. I am really into Systemic Functional Grammar and hope to have a course for teachers in my off hours. It is a really exciting way to teach with real materials and is so useful for students.

I would suggest just going into the office for a day and seeing what they have to cope with. Record some telephone conversations and find out what they have to read and write. Get samples of what is expected and take them apart with the students to see how they are constructed and what kind of format and structure is needed in the NGO world. They have their own way of reporting to funding agents and government bodies and it is easy to see how they are structured after you go through three or four of them.

If they are working for an NGO it is likely they had English in school but of course, students will vary in what they can do verbally and in written work. Find out who works together and get them to help each other out as much as possible to edit work or help to explain. Show them how to get into a good dictionary and a good thesaurus on their computer programs and set up the spelling and grammar checks but explain that those programs are not always reliable and don't always catch errors or say that something is an error when it isn't. Show them how to enter vocabulary if they don't know how already.

Set them up with editors - there is a group in UB that does translation. I will try to remember the email address.

Here is a discussioin by students of how they learned through the Internet http://forums.eslcafe.com/teacher/viewt ... &start=135

[Mongolia07]

Thanks for your reply, I was looking forward to meeting you until you said you'll be coming to UB in November! I'm leaving in October, only a short trip, it couldn't really be all that much longer when it's voluntary work surviving without pay can get tricky!

Good luck in November, it's not that cold now, but by November I've been told it's going to be very cold and smoggy. I'm sure you know all that, and besides the cold and smog UB will still be great. I've travelled a lot and Mongolia is definitely unlike anywhere else!

Thanks again for your feedback, I hadn't even thought about a number of your suggestions.

[Sally Olsen]

Sorry to miss you. You could have stayed with me if you were staying longer.

I remember the cold winters but Greenland and Ontario, Canada have toughened me I guess and I have the right clothes made of spun porcelin from Japan (Nikken) which makes a huge difference. I still have my angora scarf, a present from the teachers in Erdenet. I have a special mask that is supposed to filter out the smog but who knows. Amazing that they built the coal plants on the wrong side of the city so they blow over the city and not away from it. In Erdenet, they built them on the right side and they only blow over the city a couple of days in the year. Someone told me that they built them that way in UB to keep the workers sick and docile. I hope not.

Before you go visit Amnesty International offices. They have beautiful wall hangings and clothes that local women made and have sold to support their families and are worth a fortune in time and care but they sell for nothing. I have the most gorgeous wall hanging from a Khazak woman that I treasure, bullet hole and all.

Kudos for volunteering and helping people out. I know you would have gotten more out it than you gave.

Yes, it is an amazingly interesting country and I look forward to seeing friends again.

Good luck wherever you are off to next.