Teaching English for Adults 2

 

Teaching English 

 

for Adults  2

I am Mr. / Girgis (Egypt).

1-What about teaching English to adults?

2-What are the differences between teaching

 

 English to adults and

teaching English to younger learners?

1-The biggest difference is that it is usually possible

 

 to use a wider range of texts and subject matter 

 

with adults than with younger learners.

2-It is safe to use any subject matter when you

 

 are teaching adults.

3-Adults can concentrate for longer than 

 

younger students can.

4-Adults don't learn as fast as children do.

5-Adults are more motivated to learn than

 

 children.

6-You shouldn't play games with adults as 

 

they like to be serious.


Everyone has a preferred style of learning 

 

and some people do prefer

to learn by doing exercises, 

 

reading a book, and serious conversation.

But it is always a good idea to inject a little

 

 fun into the lessons to make

them less monotonous, and educational

 

 games are a good way to do this.

Other suggestions for teaching 

 

English to adults

I suggest that teachers should consider :

Get to know your students.

The better you know them, the better you will

 

 be able to provide interesting, useful activities.

Make the resources you use relevant to 

 

your students.

For example, if the majority of them are

 

 looking for a job, use job advertisements, 

 

applications and interviews in a lesson.

Have your students tell you subjects they 

 

want to cover in the lessons.

If students are involved with lesson

 

 planning, they are usually more

motivated to learn.

Vary the location as well as the activities

 

 if you can.

Lessons outside, in a coffee shop, or in 

 

a shopping mall or library can

be useful and interesting for adult learners.

Teaching English to adults can be really 

 

rewarding and it can also be

fun. It doesn't have to be boring at all.

How to Teach Practical ESL Lessons 

 

to Adults with Real-world English Needs:

Many of the adults who are learning ESL are 

 

what we call false beginners.

They feel and act like they are beginners, 

 

but they have actually tried to learn English

 

 before.

This post will help you figure out how to

 

 teach ESL to adults who

aren’t quite absolute beginners 

 

but still need a lot of guidance. Contents

 

What are the differences?

1-Unlike carefree children, adults may be feeling

 

 quite stressed as they first poke their noses 

 

into your classroom.

2-As the teacher, you need to be aware that

 

 there could be all sorts of things in their lives

 

 that make these lessons extra stressful.

3-Maybe they had English lessons way 

 

back when they were still in

school, but somehow the lessons didn’t

 

 stick and now they need to start again.

4-Maybe their whole school experience 

 

for some reason was frustrating and 

 

unhappy.

5-Maybe they are generally skilled at

 

 their job but their boss insists

they need to learn English.

6-Maybe they have migrated or 

 

are planning to do so (possibly under

very difficult circumstances) and they

 

 need to learn English to be

successful in their new country. 

 

Their children and other family

members may have already gone

 

 ahead and learned faster than

them—or maybe the whole family 

 

is relying on this one person to

 learn English and help them adapt.

7-Maybe they are afraid that they 

 

are too old and therefore

unable to learn.

If they have taken the leap and put 

 

themselves “out there” enough to

have arrived in your ESL class, or if

 

 they are working one-on-one with

you, then they are trusting you to 

 

make sure that they are not wasting

their time.

While kids generally love surprises, 

 

adults often prefer to avoid

surprises because they are afraid:

    of seeming undignified.

    of being made to look silly in 

 

front of others. of “losing face,

 

” which is a very important concept

 

 in some cultures.of failing—again.

That doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t 

 

have fun! It just means you do

not want to scare them off with too

 

 many spontaneous activities or by

putting them in the “hot seat,” 

 

answering questions in front of the

 entire class.

So how can you make sure that

 

 

 your adult students are having fun?

1-Make sure you provide an activity-based

 

 program—not just “chalk and talk.”

   
2-Make sure that they succeed in their

 

 learning by checking in regularly.

3-Make sure that they notice that they 

 

are succeeding, and encourage

self-confidence.

4-Make sure you encourage them to

 

 keep going even if they feel like

they are failing. Mistakes are all 

 

 

part of the learning process.

5-Make sure that you have the

 

 

 right training. If they’re expecting

someone with TEFL certification, 

 

 

you should have it—and let them

know that you do. Luckily, nowadays

 

 it’s quite easy to obtain TEFL

certification online with a quality course

 

 like you'll find on Premier

TEFL.

Activities to teach adults:

 1-Take a Survey

 

Asking questions and giving answers 

 

provides a basis for many of our

conversations, but correctly phrasing 

 

questions can be tricky in

English, especially when you add 

 

various degrees of politeness and

indirect questioning, such as “I wonder

 

 if I could ask you about…,” etc.

Prepare questions or help your students

 

 to create questions around a

 particular topic, using vocabulary 

 

that you may be focusing on at the

time, for example, food, transport, 

 

reading books, hobbies, etc.

To start with, each student could 

 

have three related questions. It is not

 necessary for every student to have 

 

completely different questions,

but some variety will help to keep

 

 it interesting for everyone. You can

see some examples of surveys.

Tell your students to survey a number

 

 of other students—maybe 6 or

10, depending on your class size—

 

and keep a record of their answers.

 They can also answer questions 

 

for each fellow student that they

survey.

This is easier to do if the questions

 

 are carefully worded to limit the

number of possible answers. 

 

Then they can collate what they have

found out and prepare a short talk f

 

or the class about their results.

*One-on-one:

 You can help your student prepare

 

 some questions to ask you, and

you could also ask them questions,

 

 more in the nature of an interview

rather than a survey. Then you could

 

 each give a “talk” (maybe in front

 of a camera) reporting on the interview.

You could also arrange some people

 

 for your student to survey

—maybe in your school hallways, 

 

or in a local shopping center or

library—and accompany them as

 

 they take their survey.

2-Reading Activities

Hopefully the adults you are teaching 

 

are already literate, able to read

and write in their own language.

 

 If not, then you will need to do some

very specialized work with them on

 

 basic literacy skills such as phonics.

Even people whose first language 

 

has a different script—such as

Chinese—often also learn Roman 

 

script at school. So you are not

teaching them how to read, the 

 

mechanics of reading, like when you

learn reading in grade one at school. 

 

They are really just learning the

peculiarities of English spelling 

 

and pronunciation.

3-. Reading Aloud

Children in school are frequently asked 

 

to take turns at reading aloud.

 Due to their level of familiarity with it, 

 

adults often find this quite a

relaxing activity in the classroom.

 

 It shouldn’t be a competition, but

rather a cooperation.

Everyone should have a copy of the

 

 story or article and be following

along and engaged. This could be

 

 done as a whole class, in pairs or

 in small groups.

Depending on the material, if the students 

 

are interested, this could

lead to a role play or drama activity.

*One-on-one:

 With a one-on-one student you could 

 

take turns reading through a

story or article. You could each have

 

 a newspaper or magazine, and

take turns reading out short excerpts.

4- Scavenger Hunt Reading

This is particularly fun if you can get a 

 

bunch of free local newspapers,

 but you can use other texts as long 

 

as each student or pair has the

same. Get them to find a particular

 

 word/expression/answer to a

question on a particular page.

Again it is usually better to have 

 

cooperation rather than competition.

 It can be a lot of fun as everyone is

 

 engaged in scrambling through

 the paper and scanning pages for clues.

 

 They can also have turns

to suggest things for others to look for.

*One-on-one:

 In a one-on-one arrangement, you 

 

and your student could take turns

 to set items for the other to search for.

5-Dictionary Scramble

If you have enough (English to English) 

 

dictionaries to go around, see

 who can find and read out a 

 

definition for a particular word. Students

could select a word and set it as a t

 

ask for everyone else to find and

read. Practice reading and correctly 

 

pronouncing difficult words using

the help provided in the dictionary.

You could start by reading together

 

 (silently) through an interesting—

but maybe slightly difficult—article

 

 and choose some words to look up

in the dictionary.

You can also use technology for

 

 this activity, with FluentU. Search

through the program’s many authentic

 

 videos, like movie trailers,

 news segments and commercials, 

 

and find a video that you think will

be engaging to your students but 

 

also slightly above their current skill

level. (You can do the latter by 

 

filtering by difficulty level, as Fluent

organizes all its videos into six 

 

skill levels from absolute beginner to

nearly fluent.)

You won’t need all those dictionaries

 

 if you use FluentU, since the

program has a built-in contextual 

 

dictionary. Students can simply click

on any word to see what it means,

 

 view other videos that use it or add

it to a flashcard list

6=-Writing Activities

Most of your adult students will not 

 

be wanting to write creative stories

in English, merely to get by on tasks

 

 that are relevant to their daily life

and work.

7- Reality Hour

Let your students decide what they 

 

need to learn. What kind of writing

will they be using most often at 

 

work or at school? Talk to them to find

out. Then, assign them a writing hour 

 

in class that lets them practice

that type of writing.

8-applications:

Find some authentic job openings 

 

on the Internet, print them out and have

 

 students practice writing applications, 

 

cover letters and CVs.

9- News article:

This is great practice for describing

 

 an event that has occurred or

an imaginary event. Students can

 

 be required to bring in a news

article that is relevant to their

 

 lives or make up a news story that

matches their own interests. 

 

Then they’ll need to write their own

articles. Try making a class newspaper.

10-Class blog:

There are lots of options for setting 

 

up a free blog, such as Blogger

 and WordPress. Encourage your

 

 students to all write a post every

 week.

11-Emails:

 Encourage students to write emails

 

 to each other and to you.

Then have them answer those

 

 received emails.

For their own sake, to improve their

 

 learning skills, it is a really good

idea to encourage your students 

 

to keep a Reflective Journal. It could

 be handwritten in a notebook or 

 

kept on a device or computer

according to their preference. 

 

They could choose whether to share

what they have written with each 

 

other or with you.

To keep everyone engaged with 

 

their writing, display printed efforts

 on the classroom walls or make 

 

a series of books that they can flip

through to see what each other

 

 wrote in the interest of getting them

to encourage each other.

 

I wait dor your comments.

 

Thanks a lot.

 

Signature,

 

Mr. / Girgis.

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www.bchmsg.yolasite.com

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