I teach ESL to adults in an unusual environment, a homeless shelter. The vast majority of my students are spanish-speaking. The motivation varies from none to pretty good. I speak semi-fluent Spanish, but try to avoid speaking Spanish. My class size varies from 1 to 7 or so, and is often around four students. One challenge is that the students come in and out. That is, some students I see once, some I might see for a few weeks or a couple of months. In any event, I don't have a consistent group of students. I don't even know how many will show up day to day. I generally have a range of abilities in the class, sometimes a very wide range of abilities. I copy a couple of pages of handouts for each class.
Recently, I seem to see fewer beginners and more intermediate and up students. One of the most popular things that I do is a series I call "Words that sound alike". (IE Four, Fore, and for). The more advanced the student, the more that they like that activity, they can get really engaged and enthused. I define the word, we work on pronunciation, then we use it in a sentence in English and in Spanish. The students often come up with words that they think sound alike, but which only sound similar; I always work with any words that they come up with, in addition to what I have on the handout. If anyone is interested, I could email you a copy.
Occasionally I substitute in a regular evening class with 10 students of the same level, and higher motivation, a nice change from the homeless.
I will take all kinds of suggestions, from books to strategies.
Richard
