Testing communicative ability

Hey there,

Start off with some simple introductions, as it`s your first lesson. You should be able to learn a little about the student`s ability from the response time, response length and control of grammatical structures.

You should probably choose a topic that anyone can talk about in simple terms for the first lesson, for example food. This means you can ask questions ranging from "What`s your favourite food?" to "If a visitor was coming to your country, what kind of restaurants would you recommend?Why?". If you do this you can expand the lesson to suit a high-level student, or you can keep it simple by introducing a list of adjectives to describe food and having the student match the adjective with one kind of food (for example sweet, salty, bitter, creamy, spicy etc.) It`s good if you can use some kind of visual aid, for example pictures of food from a magazine to use as an initial talking point.

Depending on the student`s level you could also introduce a role play, for example ordering in a restaurant or complaining if they already have a good standard of communicative ability.

Hope this helps!Good luck!

I agree with Lynxy2. These are all good ideas for a first lesson. Remember: The student will be getting comfortable with English and you as a teacher, so you want to foster a positive, supportive, and collaborative atmosphere.

I'll also offer a word of caution. If the student is largely talking about him/herself, which is typical in a first lesson, then his/her productive level may seem higher than it truly is. When a student speaks about familiar topics (and especially him/herself), fluency markedly improves. As a result, you may incorrectly pick some more difficult topics in the second, third, or fourth lessons.

Thanks guys! That's really helpful. I'll just start slow. On the phone she told me that she was at a basic level (which I have material to teach) but she wouldn't speak in English so I guess that building up confidence is definitely a main issue! So I'll start like you said - with general conversation questions and see if we can answer any and if not start from the beginning of the book reviewing the basics.

Hue - thanks for the heads up - that's a good point that I probably would have forgotten and will definitely take into consideration! Thanks!

Glad to be of help. Let us all know how it goes.

yep , you can make every student to introduce himself so she will feel as one more member of the class , and after you introduce a simple topic , make them work in pairs , try to find out with who she would feel more confident to work and express her habilities.

cheers!

I'll start like you said - with general conversation questions and see if we can answer any and if not start from the beginning of the book reviewing the basics.

Hello,

My experience has been that students tend to play down their English ability. An advanced student is likely to tell you that he is a beginner. This is a natural defense mechanism. If I'm not using a formal assessment, I will just start up a conversation. I'll make sure to speak in the past tense and the conditional and see how the student responds. After about five minutes, you can usually get a good idea of the student's basic level. Good luck!