Teaching absolute beginners
Download as PPTX, PDF2 likes1,590 views
This document provides guidance for teaching absolute beginners who have no prior knowledge of English. It discusses the challenges of teaching with no shared language and recommends using technology, visuals, movement, and concrete goals to engage students. Key vocabulary like the seasons and months are introduced with repetition and associated images. Assessment strategies include fill-in-the-blank, rearranging letters, and matching words to pictures. Homework assigns a poem about the four seasons to help reinforce the new vocabulary.
Teaching absolute beginners
- 1. by Tim Schneider Peace Corps Volunteer English Education Ialoveni, Moldova ETRC Spring School March 6-8, 2014
- 2. What is an absolute beginner? learners who have had no contact with English at all often come from developing nations often have had very little education often more challenging to teach as the teacher can not expect learners to understand even a minimal amount of English The question, 'How are you?’ will not be understood. The teacher must begin at the very beginning, usually with no common language with which to explain the basics.
- 3. Improve the learning with: Technology - keep it interesting for 21st Century pupils Words – Simple and direct. Don’t get confusing. Pictures – Bright and colorful. Symbolic. Movement – Get the students to move. Interpersonal – Have the students share what they learn. Intrapersonal – Have the students reflect on what they know. Nature – Use nature however possible.
- 4. Have concrete goals We will learn the 4 seasons and 4 adjectives to describe them. We will learn the 12 months of the year. We will combine the months with their correct seasons.
- 5. Las Estaciones y los Meses del Año
- 7. Vocabulary Memorization Repetition – 1967 study found that 7 times resulted in an 80% recall of 216 L1/L2 word pairs. Use of an actual dictionary appears to speed retention of vocabulary. e-dictionaries increase the use of the dictionary, but don’t increase retention like a book can. Optimal number of words to learn is between 18-300, but with harder words, fewer is preferred. What is practical for your classroom?
- 8. invierno frío El invierno es frío.
- 9. Word association invierno and iarna – both start with “i” frío is close to frig in Romanian or frigid in English. notice the color choice for the adjectives; how can you use color to help with association?
- 10. primavera cálida La primavera es cálida.
- 11. caliente verano El verano es caliente.
- 12. otoño fresco El otoño es fresco.
- 13. Assessment Fill in the missing letters. _ nv_ _ rn _, pr _ m _ v _ r _ Mix the letters. - toñoo, ovaner Show a picture without the word. Give the adjective - frío Complete the sentence El ______ es caliente.
- 14. invierno enero
- 15. invierno febrero
- 16. primavera
- 17. primavera marzo
- 18. primavera abril
- 19. primavera mayo
- 20. verano
- 21. verano junio
- 22. verano julio
- 23. verano agosto
- 24. otoño
- 25. otoño septiembre
- 26. otoño octubre
- 27. otoño noviembre
- 28. invierno
- 31. Homework Poem – Tammy White Spring is wet The flowers grow It rains a lot And melts the snow Summer is hot It's full of sun There is no school It's lots of fun Fall is cool The leaves fall down The colors change All over town Winter is cold The snowflakes fall We skate and ski And make snowballs
- 32. Color and label
- 33. Where there is a desire to learn, anything is possible.
- 34. Have fun!
- 35. Bibliography Vocabulary Learning in a Second Language: Person, Task, Context and Strategies September 2003 — Volume 7, Number 2 http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume7/ej26/ej26a4/ HOW TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE - http://www.umich.edu/~lsastudy/foreignlang.html Learn the months of the year in Spanish - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga8h5d242-M http://www.coloring-pages-kids.com/ http://voices.yahoo.com/childrens-poem-four-seasons- 2132129.html?cat=25