[Labinky]

Ciao everyone...

Funnily enough, I am living in Italy trying to speak Italian whilst now studying my Mother tongue, English in order to teach it. Never taught before and as the class I will be teaching is about my age I am finding myself feeling more fear than excitment. (First lesson takes place tomorrow morning and my eyes refect 'google' I have sitting here researching for that long.

Don't know the first thing about teaching other than they are going to see (ha, simple future) I am scared.

Any, and I mean ANY suggestion on how to teach adults english, more specifically SIMPLE FUTURE & FUTURE CONTINUOUS whilst remaining an adult myself would be appreciated.

P.S. I babble (write lots) when I am nervous. Sorry.

[ICAL_Pete]

I’m wondering why you would want to teach the future tense in your first lesson. Are you a substitute teacher taking over half way through? If so there should be a syllabus your colleague probably used with his class. Ask to have a look at it to see what has been covered and what activities the students are used to.

As for starting afresh this article in the ICALwiki has useful tips for first time teachers.

See also in the ICALwiki the Grammar section to brush up on the Future as well as the ESL Activities and Classroom Techniques section.

You may also want to consider getting some TEFL training. Online courses offer a great training opportunity at entry level. They can provide a thorough grounding in a new career and the right tools to approach a new profession within a manageable amount of time and finances.

Learning which are the most effective teaching techniques, how to maximize classroom time, how to make your lessons useful yet fun, how to target your lesson towards a particular learning group, etc. it is all going to help you become a better teacher.
Of course, reading a few books or researching online will help, but being trained by an experienced and qualified tutor that can walk you through it can only be a good thing.

Good Luck!

[Labinky]

Thanks for the advice Pete, the sites were helpful.

The class that I was asked to teach was part of my 'interview' process to become a teacher of English 'as a foreign' language.
Don't know that I did too well...think that I got some of my tenses a little confused. And had trouble answering some of their questions whilst remaining focused on the topic at hand.

I guess you take the grammatic structions for granted when it is your mother tongue.

As far as courses go I completely agree, but sadly with the Aussie dollar taking such a dive and everywhere falling towards 'depression' I have no finances in reserve.

I think this is the only job available to me, although I think that I will enjoy what I will get out of it personally and professionally.

Is there anything else that you can tell me about starting out as a new teacher, am really open any further advice.

Thanks again... Nikki

[jellybeanenglisch]

Get Started Learning English
This link has a lot of information on how to get started. Are your students beginners, if so I would not begin with complicated grammar but rather get them to SPEAK. Look at the absolute beginner 20 point program and go from there.
Good luck!

[Labinky]

Thanks Jelly,

Site is great. Will study up and let you know how I go. If you think of anything else my ears, as opposed to door, are always open.

[mesmark]

If you have a bit of a commute and bring along a music player, you can download and listen to some podcasts from ESL Teacher Talk. They are short shows designed mostly for beginner teachers. ESL Teacher Talk

Most ESL forums aren't super busy. We pop in here from time to time and sometimes we don't have a lot of time to post longer responses. Sometimes, it can take a day or two to get a helpful response, so if you have a question about something try to post it as soon as you can, and we'll be glad to help.

[LaMaestraKate]

I moved to Modena Italy a year ago from the United States and started teaching English soon after. I went through training and ended up figuring a few things on my own: 1. Your Students don't expect ANYTHING from you in the beginning because they're just as scared. 2. Teaching Adult English to Adult Italians is useless unless they can start from the beginning just like you and I did in Kindergarden. 3. If you're not learning and having a good time, neither are your students. One thing that helped me out a lot in teaching Adults is getting to know them a bit first, get to know their interests, and don't move at a pace they can't follow. If you go back in your memory to kindergarden and your first 3 years of learning to properly speak and write the Enlgish language, a lot of those excersizes can be recycled for adults. A game I like to play with adults is simple Memory with a deck of cards with the face cards taken out. I make them use their vocabulary when we play: Where was the 6? It was there. Where do you think the other 6 WILL BE? I think it will be here. Its good practise, and its also a challenge. Just a tip or two from a fellow teacher in Italy...