Hi, I am a retired English and history teaching living in a beautiful colonial city in Mexico. Guanajuato is my home now and I was approached recently by some mothers on my street who want their children, all aged 10 or 11, to learn English. I have NO experience in as an ESL instructor, but I am trying desperately. So far I have done most of the talking.
They are extremely shy, quite respectful and most grateful. I am doing this gratis--no way would I take money from these fantastic and gracious neighbors who have opened their hearts and homes to my husband and me. However, I do not want to do any damage or impede formal instruction they may have in the future. (Their school does not have an English teacher at present. I was asked to step in but do not feel I have adequate qualifications. I have a MA in English but my experience was with native speakers.)
So far, we are meeting for an hour two or three afternoons a week. We've done the alphabet sounds, flash cards for common objects--scavenger hunts around my house, lots of repetition of useful phrases. I read a short story to them each lesson. And, of course, a king's ransom of refreshments is relished by all!
I am having fun but what specifically should I be doing? Not one of these children knows a word of English except "Hi" and "Thank you."
I must add here that I have an even greater respect for the planet's ESL teachers. In my former life as a teacher in Houston, I naturally had hordes of ESL students who were mainstreamed into my history classes, but the onus was not on me--not really. The ESL teacher carefully monitored them and most received only participatory grades/evaluations.
I appreciate any and all suggestions.
Nancy
Trying to teach English--SOS/Mayday!!!
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Nancybelle
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Thu Jun 29, 2006 8:51 am
- Location: Mexico
You sound like such a nice person! It's refreshing to think that people actually do give free English lessons when they think that's the right price.
But it's okay to have more confidence in yourself. You are a native speaker. You are also an English (non ESL) teacher, which means you know a good deal about things like grammar, spelling, reading, writing, and the like. These are all very useful skills--excellent background for and ESL teacher to have. You'll do fine, and you're probably already doing fine. Never, ever worry that your loving example will cause them harm in future English learning! More likely, they'll remember you fondly and wistfully in later years as they are forced to do yet more test prep with instructors sadly lacking in the animation and good cheer that you exhibited.
A few tips:
1) Ask what textbook they use (used) in school. Perhaps you could use that to add more structure to your already fun and motivating lessons.
2) Doing active games with lots of movement is great! But also don't forget it's okay to do some seat work, too (reading, writing, etc.). Each student learns in his/her own way, depending on the topic and the mood of the moment. So it's good to vary instructional methods accordingly.
3) You all might enjoy some themed activities, with accompanying thematic vocabulary and sentence structures. For instance, simple cooking projects are great for teaching sequence words (first, then, next, after that, finally). Examinations of the garden can yield lots of conversations about bugs, plants, rocks, and things like that. Card games like "go fish" are good for teaching numbers. There are all sorts of kids' games that have rules to learn and discuss, such as "hide and seek", "duck duck goose", "freeze tag", etc. The games themselves are not so verbal, but the rule learning and discussion process is a good language lesson. "Charades" is a great game for teaching sports, occupations, animals, and present progressive verbs.
Good luck to you!
-EH
But it's okay to have more confidence in yourself. You are a native speaker. You are also an English (non ESL) teacher, which means you know a good deal about things like grammar, spelling, reading, writing, and the like. These are all very useful skills--excellent background for and ESL teacher to have. You'll do fine, and you're probably already doing fine. Never, ever worry that your loving example will cause them harm in future English learning! More likely, they'll remember you fondly and wistfully in later years as they are forced to do yet more test prep with instructors sadly lacking in the animation and good cheer that you exhibited.
A few tips:
1) Ask what textbook they use (used) in school. Perhaps you could use that to add more structure to your already fun and motivating lessons.
2) Doing active games with lots of movement is great! But also don't forget it's okay to do some seat work, too (reading, writing, etc.). Each student learns in his/her own way, depending on the topic and the mood of the moment. So it's good to vary instructional methods accordingly.
3) You all might enjoy some themed activities, with accompanying thematic vocabulary and sentence structures. For instance, simple cooking projects are great for teaching sequence words (first, then, next, after that, finally). Examinations of the garden can yield lots of conversations about bugs, plants, rocks, and things like that. Card games like "go fish" are good for teaching numbers. There are all sorts of kids' games that have rules to learn and discuss, such as "hide and seek", "duck duck goose", "freeze tag", etc. The games themselves are not so verbal, but the rule learning and discussion process is a good language lesson. "Charades" is a great game for teaching sports, occupations, animals, and present progressive verbs.
Good luck to you!
-EH
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rusmeister
- Posts: 44
- Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2004 7:04 am
In response to my plea for help, Mrs Sohn suggested the textbook Lifelines 1 by Barbara Foley & Howard Pomann, published by Prentice Hall 1992. I found it online at Alibris, and I am finding it to be very helpful in designing the course work for my low/beginner class. It cost $7.50 + $7.50 shipping.
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Senorita Daniels
- Posts: 202
- Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 6:11 pm
My experience with only three students from Mexico has shown me that Mexican schools really are behind ours. My first grader doesn't know her letter names and sounds. I feel like my fourth grader (was in third when he came here) didn't know how to write anything on his own. No spelling, no book reports or journaling to write your own ideas. Just copying. My sixth grader won't do any work on his own and blames me if his answer is wrong. (maybe the school was so ill equiped that they jsut said here's the answer. write it down.)
You might be ready to start reading, and practicing sight words and sounding things out. My fourth grader is willing to learn, and has improved. He went from not being able to write a paragraph about a story to filling out a form for the book report. It was a fiction story in a nonfiction form, but at least he filled out the title, author, and main idea right, and had three plot points in order. And no help filling it out as far as I know. Once they start getting the hang of reading on their own, they will progress even faster.
One activity I did with a mixed reading group (advanced kindergarten/ first grade ESL) was have one kid read a flash card that was leaning on the board a few feet away, and a second kid run up to get it. They would take turns. If there are enough students, you could have relay races to see which group can do it faster. This would be a nice way to still have the physical activity they're used to, but still learn to read.
You might be ready to start reading, and practicing sight words and sounding things out. My fourth grader is willing to learn, and has improved. He went from not being able to write a paragraph about a story to filling out a form for the book report. It was a fiction story in a nonfiction form, but at least he filled out the title, author, and main idea right, and had three plot points in order. And no help filling it out as far as I know. Once they start getting the hang of reading on their own, they will progress even faster.
One activity I did with a mixed reading group (advanced kindergarten/ first grade ESL) was have one kid read a flash card that was leaning on the board a few feet away, and a second kid run up to get it. They would take turns. If there are enough students, you could have relay races to see which group can do it faster. This would be a nice way to still have the physical activity they're used to, but still learn to read.
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rusmeister
- Posts: 44
- Joined: Thu Jan 29, 2004 7:04 am
Agree with you, Senorita.
I taught Mexican immigrant teens for 3 years, and found that average knowledge in their native language was about 3rd grade in my book. I was told that they get public school through 6th grade and then can continue either for $$ or through a competitive government system. The ones that immigrated were the ones that didn't make it there, so obviously not cream of the crop.
But they're not stupid, just ignorant. By cracking my whip (and with my prior several years of exp. in Russia, I got the kids that were motivated enough to be learning world history out of a 6th-8th grade textbook in their second year (the first semester was VERY difficult, but once they figured it out, we did OK - a slightly Monty Pythonish approach helped, too!). I got them from ancient civilizations through the Byzantine Empire in a year. My experience was that out of Latinos, South Americans - Venezuela and Peru - did better across the board in academics than Mexicans.
Of course, a good number of teens don't want to be in the US - they were ripped out of their environment, away from friends and everything they knew by parents' perception of economic necessity or whatever, and these can be difficult or impossible to win over.
I taught Mexican immigrant teens for 3 years, and found that average knowledge in their native language was about 3rd grade in my book. I was told that they get public school through 6th grade and then can continue either for $$ or through a competitive government system. The ones that immigrated were the ones that didn't make it there, so obviously not cream of the crop.
But they're not stupid, just ignorant. By cracking my whip (and with my prior several years of exp. in Russia, I got the kids that were motivated enough to be learning world history out of a 6th-8th grade textbook in their second year (the first semester was VERY difficult, but once they figured it out, we did OK - a slightly Monty Pythonish approach helped, too!). I got them from ancient civilizations through the Byzantine Empire in a year. My experience was that out of Latinos, South Americans - Venezuela and Peru - did better across the board in academics than Mexicans.
Of course, a good number of teens don't want to be in the US - they were ripped out of their environment, away from friends and everything they knew by parents' perception of economic necessity or whatever, and these can be difficult or impossible to win over.