Students with WAY different levels of English, HELP!
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Students with WAY different levels of English, HELP!
Help!! I am teaching an adult conversation class in Chile, and I am struggling with the varying levels of my students. I have five students total, four of them are pre-intermediate to intermediate English speakers, and one is an absolute beginner. This is making the class very hard as I feel my beginner is either very confused (if I go too fast) or the rest of the class is very bored as they already know what I am teaching. It's not a small difference in skill either, after 3 classes today I tried to review the verb "to be" with him and he still didn't understand it, though we have drilled it a lot. He seems to be a very slow learner to top it all off!! The other students are good friends with him so they want him to learn, they don't make him feel embarassed or anything, they are very kind and helpful, but at the same time I feel he is using them as a crutch. When I ask him a question in English he immediately turns to his partner and asks him what I said in Spanish, I don't even think he is listening to me!!! The other students want to have complete conversations with me and he needs the absolute basics. How do I do both? How do I not isolate him? How do I teach them all? Any suggestions? I would appreciate any help!!!
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Sally Olsen
- Posts: 1322
- Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 2:24 pm
- Location: Canada,France, Brazil, Japan, Mongolia, Greenland, Canada, Mongolia, Ethiopia next
Write everything you say so he can see it as well as hear it. You can do it in point form for the others and that will keep it simple for him as well.
Draw pictures quickly if you can to illustrate a story or have actual photos and make your voice emphasize the basic vocabulary that he can pick up while you talk, again writing those down for him. You can be quicker than you think at this and it won't hold up the conversation and in fact, may create some discussion among the students as to tenses for the verbs you are using or alternate vocabulary.
Use you computer and type out what you are saying so he can see it and then have a print out. Again you can bring in photos to illustrate a topic or have a news article there for him to refer to with pictures, even a video.
If you can keyboard fast enough you can type the conversation or tape it and then type it out for him for the next time. You don't have to do more than five minutes of the conversation or one section that goes together. It will be good for all of you to read over and for the others to correct any errors that you discover or think of others ways to say something.
Ask the others to tell stories about him and write them out so he sees what he will have to say if he is going to tell the stories about himself eventually. He can bring in pictures or you can get similar pictures to illustrate the story.
Do you speak Spanish? You can translate whatever he says into English just after he says it and write it out for him in both languages. Even getting him to say, "What did she say?" in English instead of Spanish will be a big step and a start for him to see that he can speak.
Stop every five minutes or so and get a different one of his friends to summarize the conversation in Spanish for him. It will be great for everyone because they will have to remember what they were talking about and translating is great for vocabulary and to notice the differences in grammatical structure.
Draw pictures quickly if you can to illustrate a story or have actual photos and make your voice emphasize the basic vocabulary that he can pick up while you talk, again writing those down for him. You can be quicker than you think at this and it won't hold up the conversation and in fact, may create some discussion among the students as to tenses for the verbs you are using or alternate vocabulary.
Use you computer and type out what you are saying so he can see it and then have a print out. Again you can bring in photos to illustrate a topic or have a news article there for him to refer to with pictures, even a video.
If you can keyboard fast enough you can type the conversation or tape it and then type it out for him for the next time. You don't have to do more than five minutes of the conversation or one section that goes together. It will be good for all of you to read over and for the others to correct any errors that you discover or think of others ways to say something.
Ask the others to tell stories about him and write them out so he sees what he will have to say if he is going to tell the stories about himself eventually. He can bring in pictures or you can get similar pictures to illustrate the story.
Do you speak Spanish? You can translate whatever he says into English just after he says it and write it out for him in both languages. Even getting him to say, "What did she say?" in English instead of Spanish will be a big step and a start for him to see that he can speak.
Stop every five minutes or so and get a different one of his friends to summarize the conversation in Spanish for him. It will be great for everyone because they will have to remember what they were talking about and translating is great for vocabulary and to notice the differences in grammatical structure.
Thanks Sally, those are some really good ways to keep him involved in the conversation if it is above his level, I really appreciate your help. Do you think I should spend time teaching the class some of the basic things (for his benefit) or would that overall be a waste of time? I guess I could prepare study material and homework specifically for him so that he is practicing the basics on our time off.
I am lucky though to have such nice students who are willing and want to help him!!
And I am lucky to have found this forum!! Other suggestions are always appreciated too!!
I am lucky though to have such nice students who are willing and want to help him!!
And I am lucky to have found this forum!! Other suggestions are always appreciated too!!
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Sally Olsen
- Posts: 1322
- Joined: Thu Apr 08, 2004 2:24 pm
- Location: Canada,France, Brazil, Japan, Mongolia, Greenland, Canada, Mongolia, Ethiopia next
I think if he is included as much as you can, he will start to seek out opportunities to improve. I would wait for him to ask you for books and exercises before I spent any time on it. He should buy some basic books and do the homework, come to class and ask the others and then they can ask you if they can't explain which gives you a good discussion point.
I wouldn't go back to the basics but surely the others have problems that need addressing and those would be valuable for him as well.
We have this idea that language has a core that should be learned first and step by step but it is not like that at all. When I learn a new language, I learn what I need to say in everyday conversations and what I need to say to tell people about myself so they can categorize me - people need to put you in some sort of slot so they can fit you into their world. So I learn to tell people how many children I have, how many grandchildren, what my husband does for a living and where I have taught, what country I am from and how old I am. I always learn to say, "I love (name of country), it is very interesting and the people are wonderful". It is always true but reassures them and conversations are much easier after that. That means I have to learn to understand the questions that people ask me about these things too. Would you say that those are the basics?
I wouldn't go back to the basics but surely the others have problems that need addressing and those would be valuable for him as well.
We have this idea that language has a core that should be learned first and step by step but it is not like that at all. When I learn a new language, I learn what I need to say in everyday conversations and what I need to say to tell people about myself so they can categorize me - people need to put you in some sort of slot so they can fit you into their world. So I learn to tell people how many children I have, how many grandchildren, what my husband does for a living and where I have taught, what country I am from and how old I am. I always learn to say, "I love (name of country), it is very interesting and the people are wonderful". It is always true but reassures them and conversations are much easier after that. That means I have to learn to understand the questions that people ask me about these things too. Would you say that those are the basics?
Look at other forums
Hey there, I read a forum in under Adult Education at the bottom of the page called "a student cannot read or write"....there was some useful tips in there but overall it's a pretty sticky situation. I have a similar (but not quite as bad) situation in my class and all I can think of for now is to give the student seperate homework after class. In class I try to pair him/her up with someone new each time or have group work where they can help each other. However, 90% of my class is Burmese and they had a tendancy to speak/explain things in Bermese which I find CAN be a disservice to learning English. So I developed a rule: I if catch them speaking in their own language they owe me 10 cents (CDN).
Homework for everyone can include giving them a sentence either written or on CD/Tape/video (whatever is necessary and available) where they have to memorize the sentence by the next class. Then in the next class you can explain what it means. Making it relevent I think is apparant but you can develop a whole class based on that sentence. I hope this helps.
Rassi.
PS: If I may be so rude-how did a beginner get into an "intermediate" class?
Homework for everyone can include giving them a sentence either written or on CD/Tape/video (whatever is necessary and available) where they have to memorize the sentence by the next class. Then in the next class you can explain what it means. Making it relevent I think is apparant but you can develop a whole class based on that sentence. I hope this helps.
Rassi.
PS: If I may be so rude-how did a beginner get into an "intermediate" class?
Hey not a rude question. The class I am teaching is a class offered to just university workers in my town (ie secretaries, library assistant's, lab techs, etc.) and is suppose to be a conversation class geared toward talking about their jobs, life, etc. It was open to all the university workers, and the ones who signed up were all interested in English, and it just so happens that this one student had no skills at all, while the others all did. There was no screening process or any type of English requirements, unfortunately!!! So now it is my job to figure out the mess!! I am definitely appreciating everyone's advice though!!
Tailor the lessons
Without pandering, I would be tempted to let the weakest student choose the general lesson topic. WHy? He will feel validated and more motivated to study. Then I would prepare a short vocabulary list and five or six questions for him to use during the class. You have seen and listened to the weak student.
Then I would focus on the general group, building bridges between the weakest student and the general group where possible.
Placement, from my pespective, remains essential. These awkward situatations, however, happen all the time.
Then I would focus on the general group, building bridges between the weakest student and the general group where possible.
Placement, from my pespective, remains essential. These awkward situatations, however, happen all the time.