[MandyChic]

I'm a 18 year old law student with a diploma from trinity college london for effective communication and oral communication. And i have also studied spoken english for elocution for 5years and i have passed all my grade exams with distinctions so i started to volunteer at an orphanage to teach kid's english as a second language.

I will have to teach 3 groups of kid's between 15-18, 11-14 and 5-10 on different days. But these kid's don't know any english at all but the matron told me to emphasize more on spoken english for the 15-18 year olds because they will be leaving the orphanage once they turn 19 in order to work.

All these kid's learn english in school but they always fail their english paper it seems. I speak,read and write their native language fluently so communication won't be a problem. I don't know from where to start and i'm really nervous because i'm startin from this saturday(12th of sept)! i bought 2 books that i thought would help me out to teach these kids. I bought the Wren & Martin High School Grammar & Composition book and Raymond Murphy's Essential English Grammar book but those 2 books start with different places. As in one book starts with constructing sentences (phrases and clauses) whereas the other starts with i/is/are and tenses. So i don't know from where to start!

I thought of starting from the alphabet itself! and though that matron told me to teach one batch spoken english, i thought of teaching them grammar and composition 1st. Can i please have some tips on teaching these kids? if you could specify how i should handle each batch it would be awesome!And how should i start the lesson on the 1st day? like the introduction/ice breaker?will it be a problem keeping the oldest group interested because i'm also almost their age?The 1st group i will be teaching is the 15-18group.
Thanks

[sobek]

How long is each class? and are you doing them by grades or just age groups together?

And how many students roughly per class?

[MandyChic]

hey,
thanks for checking out my question

Each class would be for 2hours and yeah i'm going to conduct class for different groups on different days. As in i will be having the class for the 15-18 group on saturdays and for the 11-14 group on fridays and etc.
I'm not exactly sure about how many will be there for one class but from what the matron told me there will be less for the 15-18 group so it would be roughly around 20/30 for one class..my first class will be for the 15-18 group

[kisito]

For absolute beginners, there are resources on the net such as these ESL kids video slides and lots of worksheets and flashcards to go with them. Everything is arranged according to students' levels. The worksheets will help with things like handwriting and phonics because if they are very young you want to develop their motor skills. Flashcards can be used to present and practice new language.
Of course you should teach basic communicative phrases like "Hello", "How are you?" alongside alphabet and phonics. Do not wait until they have master phonics and alphabet before teaching them basic dialogues. SONGS help a lot. I sing most of the language into their little brains with some actions. Let them do something as they sing - mime an action and so on. A popular song like "If you are happy and you know it clap your hands." is good for provoking a physical response. You sing and they do the actions- Don't worry they will copy your actions very fast. Children learn faster that way. Coloring activities and so on will help to teach vocabulary.
Games add fun to lessons. Games could simply be listening games like SLAP and SAY.
Put pictures on the floor and say something like: "A for Apple" They slam the apple card and repeat.

[martyboy]

I will tell you my experience. I am semi-retired in the UK and decided to do some voluntary teaching in Thailand. I am not a career teacher, coincidentally I am a lawyer. But as I have argued until I am blue in the face, you can stand there clutching your degree certificate, masters certificate in applied linguistics or even your doctorate in applied mathematics and it doesn't make diddly squat. Just witness an 'unqualified' EFL teacher of many years experience and you will see what I mean. It's an acquired skill, a special thing that comes sometimes in a very short time. Trying to pitch your lessons at the level you imagine your students to be is very difficult. The way I got round it was to buy a good students course book like New Headway Beginner (but for very young students Oxford, Cambridge Press etc will advise you.) A workbook at that level which contains excercises and are really good. And tons of games, word puzzles, warm-ups etc drawn off the internet. These course books are written by people who know their stuff. I could never just dream up lessons. It's surprising as you work through the lessons you start to add your own bits, enhance it etc. from your own experience of English. I spend a lot of the class time in dealing with pronunciation and a game. The lesson develops.
Ascertain if your school follows a set course book. If it doesn't you will really earn your money without one. Get one or two, a workbook etc and make sure you can use the photocopier because you will need to give students (or a small group) a copy of the lesson. Read one and see the methodology. Good luck. When it works there is real joy.

[Pix]

Dear Mandy

Yes I agree with Martyboy's post that there is no point reinventing the wheel - get a good textbook as your guide so that you teach the most common vocab themes and build up in a logical way.

However most publishers of textbooks like to sell a lot of books so they don't just have a book for teacher, they also have a textbook, a workbook, a fun book and so on - they want the schools to buy ALL of them, one copy per child and that makes for a lot of books!

The good news is that just with the textbook as your base you can follow the curriculum laid out there and use anything in it that you like, but mostly you teach that curriculum using language games.

Language games will drill and practise any skill: listening, speaking, reading and writing.

You can get some free samples from my book 161 English Language Games for children from my site.

As you have wide age ranges in your groups concentrate on the better half of the class so that they don't go mad with boredom.. I mean a ten year old learns at a much quicker pace than a five year old and if you wait till all the five year olds have got it the ten year olds will have torn their hair out.

Kind regards
Shelley

PS Here is the page where you can receive the free games - there is plenty of guidance about how to use them and they can be adapted to teach anything:

Get free games from my contact page.

ESL games and activities for teaching English to children

[Elviram]

Quote MandyChic

I'm a 18 year old law student with a diploma from trinity college london for effective communication and oral communication. And i have also studied spoken english for elocution for 5years and i have passed all my grade exams with distinctions so i started to volunteer at an orphanage to teach kid's english as a second language.

I will have to teach 3 groups of kid's between 15-18, 11-14 and 5-10 on different days. But these kid's don't know any english at all but the matron told me to emphasize more on spoken english for the 15-18 year olds because they will be leaving the orphanage once they turn 19 in order to work.

All these kid's learn english in school but they always fail their english paper it seems. I speak,read and write their native language fluently so communication won't be a problem. I don't know from where to start and i'm really nervous because i'm startin from this saturday(12th of sept)! i bought 2 books that i thought would help me out to teach these kids. I bought the Wren & Martin High School Grammar & Composition book and Raymond Murphy's Essential English Grammar book but those 2 books start with different places. As in one book starts with constructing sentences (phrases and clauses) whereas the other starts with i/is/are and tenses. So i don't know from where to start!

I thought of starting from the alphabet itself! and though that matron told me to teach one batch spoken english, i thought of teaching them grammar and composition 1st. Can i please have some tips on teaching these kids? if you could specify how i should handle each batch it would be awesome!And how should i start the lesson on the 1st day? like the introduction/ice breaker?will it be a problem keeping the oldest group interested because i'm also almost their age?The 1st group i will be teaching is the 15-18group.
Thanks

If you're looking for games and activities for younger kids, you might look up this ibook :@

With audio files and cartoons of the poems, songs and rhymes we all grew up with.
This guide includesa full set of digital flashcards with both British and American pronunciation.

It is full of games and activities for large and small groups and full of practical and useful suggestions on how to teach.

Created and tested within a project which involved over 15,000 kids over a two year period.

Designed to guide, help and inspire teachers and parents wanting to teach their children their first English words.

Download the FREE sample now!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/twi...71672332?mt=11