Teacher Discussion Forums

Hello Everyone,

This is my first time posting as, I am new to teaching English. I have an adult student who is already fluent and is taking English lessons to polish his usage. I'm finding it very difficult to challenge him and find areas that he needs help in. Mainly, I don't know how to promt conversation or find reading material or come up with sentences that will focus on the mistakes he is already making like not pronuncing the s on plural words or look for mistakes with verb tenses.

I would appreciate any suggestions of games appropriate for adults or any tools to assist.

Thanks,
Gina

It sounds, Gina, as if you're working with your student one-on-one.

If that is the case, games are not likely to offer much, since playing a game with the teacher is not very satisfying...more like terrifying.

I'd suggest you read One To One, A Teacher's Handbook, by Peter Wilberg, published by LTP in London in 1987. Wilberg has many useful suggestions.

If your student is already fluent, that says a lot about his commitment to English, and his abilities for studying language. He might simply want to engage you in meaningful conversation. Talk to him about his interests, and begin to talk to him, more as an interested friend than as a teacher, about those interests and what makes them so interesting. Don't worry so much about correcting his "mistakes" as simply providing good examples of reasonable, useful, idiomatic English conversation. He'll pick up on how you say things, and, if necessary, he may ask you questions from time to time about how best to put something. Answer his questions and continue on with the main conversation. In short, be less of a teacher and more of an interlocutor.

Good luck.

Larry Latham

I would concur with Latham in that your student's interests should be guiding you in your dialogues and conversations with him. He or she seems to be a dedicated and gifted person.

As an aside, I would try to help your student become aware of his or her problems. It's better for a student to realise their mistakes on their own; your student seems to be up to this task. How can you make problem areas visible?
Give him dictations or let him write those tricky and faulty parts, then quiz him or her over why he or she wrote things that way.
You mentioned the problem of SVA in the third person; a very common problem with East Asians. I think having them see their mistakes in writing does help.

I have had one or two students at a similar level.

To tackle the missing 's', you might try this.

You need two saucers. One empty, one full of sweeties.
Everytime there is a chronic error (such as a missing 's', missing article, or whatever you are working on), transfer a sweetie from his saucer to yours.

It's a light-hearted, graphic way of showing the fault. It can be quite startling to count the sweeties and discover the extent of the error!

[Some students might need a prompt to realise the importance of the error - because the ability to communicate is not sabotaged by the omission of an article.

For Koreans I try to draw a comparison between entering a Korean home with your shoes on and missing the article or plural in English! The point is taken.]

One good method I employ and receive good feedback on is called "cold corrections". Basically allow them to free-talk so you don't disturb their fluency but note down a sentence or two which has errors in it (depending on how quickly you can write and maintain a conversation you could write down a few).

Once the conversation has drawn to a natural conclusion, board the sentences in full and start an analysis phase. Allow the student to identify the mistake and correct it or if not able to then suggest a correction. I always tell them that their sentence is not wrong (you have to be careful not to insult them) but that it can be improved upon.

MJ

Thank you all for your helpful suggestions. I'm using conversation, along with your other suggestions, but my instructor supervisor and the method of the program prefer the instuctors to use games and other tools. I agree with all of you though and will continue with my origianl approach.

Thanks,
Gina

A couple of methods I might try: first use a tape recorder. Record your student reading a passage, then record yourself reading the same passage. Or record a conversation with your student one day, then go home and record the corrected conversation and return it to your student for listening and practice. This is a lot of work for the teacher, but can help when the student really wants to improve.

I also use instant corrections. This means we converse, and when the student mispronounces or uses a word incorrectly I correct the student right away, then he/she is required to repeat the correction but continue the flow of conversation.

For materials simply use professional literature from whatever field your client works in, or current news articles.

Since you gave me such good advice with my last question I'm going to pose another: My student's native language is French and I'm wondering if there are teaching materials that can point out common mistakes for people who's first language is French or the Romance Languages in general. He is making mistakes which are common to people who speak the romance languages so I started that maybe there are resources for teachers to pinpoint their studen'ts needs and anticipate problematic areas.

Thanks,
Gina

What is the purpose of your student polishing his English? Is he hoping to live overseas? Work there? Receive foreign visitors in his homeland? Are those business types or tourists? Does he/she need technical language skills, writing skills (business letters, eg), negotiation skills, etc?

Hmm, you are "forced" to play games and activities with a fluent adult. Sounds pretty futile. I suggest you find as much as you can on idioms and phrasal verbs, because these are always difficult to master, and they lend themselves to games and activities.

Use cartoons like The Far Side to teach humor, culture, and vocabulary. Don't forget to quiz the student periodically.

Can you squeeze in a debating lesson or two? You can probably manage to twist it into an activity, even if it is a role play. Tons of material in newspapers for topics.

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