Beginning Lessons

One possible sequence for beginning lessons for a student who speaks no English is outlined in this section. The lessons are very basic and are simply intended to help an inexperienced E.S.L. teacher or tutor get started. Many books and materials progress too quickly through these beginning steps and can be frustrating to both teachers and students. It's important to provide plenty of practice in as many interesting ways as possible because further learning is dependent on the mastery of very basic vocabulary and syntax.

The materials needed for these lessons are a set of objects and pictures glued to cards. "Getting Ready to Read" books are a good source. Glue one item (say a dog) on one card, and two (dogs) on another (to teach plurals). Also, collect pictures of people with names, either pictures of classmates or fictional characters (try cartoons). Students may bring or draw pictures of family members or other people they know, including sports stars, movies stars, etc. Students can do some of the work in preparing these materials.

Any experiential lessons, such as going for a walk around the school, visiting a store, etc., can be used to teach appropriate language, even if not in precise structural sequence. Some children respond more readily to situations in which language is "caught" rather than "taught."

The following components can be worked into lessons:

• pronunciation practice
• review of vocabulary and syntax
• presentation of new material
• practice of new material
• conversation or sharing of interesting things.

The language skills, listening, talking, reading, and writing, may all be used to review and reinforce language learned. Generally only one or at most two new structural items should be presented in a lesson, and these tied into language previously learned. Some students will be able to progress quickly, but don't skim over the foundational lessons for those who need more time. You'll make up that time in the long run if the understand the fundamentals.

After a period of time, when the student begins free-producing English, transcriptions of oral language may be used to prepare worksheets and determine the next specific objectives to pursue.

Go on to "Orientation - Expressing Needs"
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