Trying something new
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The library has all kinds of resources for volunteers to use, but staff mostly point you to links, flash cards, the hand puppety model of the mouth used to teach pronunciation, and you're on your own. Part of the challenge is that they have ESL students at all levels and in quite a few languages. And the students' needs are all over the map. Some are professional people looking to improve and refine their already pretty advanced language skills. Others are looking for help in figuring out how to navigate things like setting up internet service or order food! And others are at a very basic level and are just trying to keep afloat. There's no one-size-fits-all road map to give the volunteer tutors. I'm sure I'll pick things up over time, but right now I'm short on practical knowledge and skills!
My Ukrainian student is very motivated and creative. She is using all the library resources and has enrolled in English 101 at a local community college. As far as tutoring, she is specifically looking for conversation and for someone to correct her pronunciation and grammar in real time.
She is quite fluent already, but seems to need help in navigating the real world in America. She asked if we could work on how to order food in a restaurant. She's not always sure about the options being offered really are. She says she has ordered food and then been totally surprised by what shows up on her plate! I figured we could pull up some menus from restaurants she goes to and then go from there.
She also mentioned that she was setting up internet service and had a hard time understanding what the sales person was offering her. One line? Two line? What's that?
I think we may end up role playing some of these everyday life scenarios.The Japanese student is very shy and more than a bit nervous. I think part of the reason she signed up for tutoring is that she was feeling pretty isolated. As you know, there's a pretty large Japanese community here and I'm guessing she could survive without learning much English, but that does limit her in a lot of ways, so she's braving it and trying to learn. I don't think she's attended any of the library's group ESL conversations because I suspect she doesn't want to feel stupid. It's much safer to be one-on-one with a tutor. My short-term plan was to use some of the easy English news resources like this one as a springboard for discussion:
https://breakingnewsenglish.com/
Recommendations for a text that I could use to teach someone like her would be great. Thank you!
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Here's an overview of the kinds of things the library offers.
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Yeah, it sounds like the Ukrainian student is probably better able to tell you what she wants and you'll have an easier time helping her.
The Japanese student may not know how to articulate what will help her the most, so that makes your job much harder.
I used to use this series, American Headway, when I taught adults in Japan. You might see if the library could you get a few different levels to see what would be best.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=american+headway&crid=3OHWA9G13WBEZ&sprefix=american+headway%2Caps%2C181&ref=nb_sb_noss_2But this actually isn't the series I was thinking of, and I can't remember the title, so let me poke around some more and see if I can find it...
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this book popped up while I was searching, I've never seen it before but the title caught my eye
https://www.amazon.com/No-Prep-Low-Prep-ESL-Speaking-Activities/dp/1514244640/
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By the way, I'm guessing that the Japanese student has had maybe as much as 9 years of English instruction in Japan, JHS, HS and college. So she probably has a ton of passive knowledge and a lifetime of "grammar translation method" getting in her way....
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@wtg well, I cannot for the life of me find the kinds of books I want to recommend to you.... All I'm finding are short stories for ESL learners (i.e., fiction), nothing like the short readings about a topic (nonfiction) like the ones I used to use in Japan. I had maybe 8 different books like that when I taught English to adults in Japan.... One of them I can picture the cover even, but I can't find them on Amazon or Amazon Japan. Hmm, if I figure it out, I'll post.
In the meantime, see if any of the links I posted would be helpful for you.
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Good for you. I worked with a guy from Egypt at the Brooklyn Public Library as part of their literacy volunteer program many years ago. I did not know when I signed up I'd be working with someone who was quite literate but needed ESL help.
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Probably you don't want this one...
https://www.amazon.com/English-Second-cking-Language-Effectively/dp/031214329X/@ShiroKuro said in Trying something new:
Probably you don't want this one...
https://www.amazon.com/English-Second-cking-Language-Effectively/dp/031214329X/Yea, I think we'll skip that one.
She mentioned that she is looking forward to a visit back to Japan later this year. She wants to buy some clothes, as she finds American styles a bit too revealing...that was one of the words she learned during our session....
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Well it's been quite a while since I taught, before the Internet, but maybe something in the following will help.
I taught students of all ages from 4 to 44 in graded classes, in London and in Spain.London lessons (mostly 14-18 year olds) were usually structured to include new vocabulary and/or a bit of grammar; then reading (understanding) something pertaining to the new vocab/grammar; then writing answering questions proving their understanding; and some role play in pairs using it in speech.
Next lesson ought to very briefly go over the previous one to reinforce learning.We always used graded books and teachers gave out photocopies of extra material.
We used current newspapers(for more advanced students as you need a lot of vocab), local menus, and cinema adverts (from Time Out) for easier reading and understanding.Needs varied from mature adults studying for advanced qualifications, lots of young teenagers at school sent by parents to help with exams (25 enthusiastic spanish girls aged 10-13 crammed into a classroom), to children so young I reckoned the parents were using us as baby sitters cos they couldnt even speak spanish.
Main thing was to make a lesson both useful and interesting. Sounds easy.
Always speak English even if you can speak some Japanese/Spanish.
Smallest 'class' I ever had consisted of three earnest intelligent Spanish teenagers about 17 years old. It was also the most intimate & demanding as they truly wanted to learn and all three inevitably asked lots of advanced grammar questions and wanted pronunciation corrected (often things other teachers in the small school had failed to satisfy answering).
I recall they were sitting the International Baccalaureate and half way through the course asked for all the vocab in advance to learn - which I supplied (the sudden increase in workload was not welcome but was much appreciated; and why other teachers hadn't given it at the beginning I never found out). Needs!Although in Spain the spanish staff generally taught most grammar & writing I always kept my own TEFL grammar book with me - literally always. No teacher knows everything.
End of the day I was usually shattered but had to prepare for next day. I quit after a year and a half.
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Well it's been quite a while since I taught, before the Internet, but maybe something in the following will help.
I taught students of all ages from 4 to 44 in graded classes, in London and in Spain.London lessons (mostly 14-18 year olds) were usually structured to include new vocabulary and/or a bit of grammar; then reading (understanding) something pertaining to the new vocab/grammar; then writing answering questions proving their understanding; and some role play in pairs using it in speech.
Next lesson ought to very briefly go over the previous one to reinforce learning.We always used graded books and teachers gave out photocopies of extra material.
We used current newspapers(for more advanced students as you need a lot of vocab), local menus, and cinema adverts (from Time Out) for easier reading and understanding.Needs varied from mature adults studying for advanced qualifications, lots of young teenagers at school sent by parents to help with exams (25 enthusiastic spanish girls aged 10-13 crammed into a classroom), to children so young I reckoned the parents were using us as baby sitters cos they couldnt even speak spanish.
Main thing was to make a lesson both useful and interesting. Sounds easy.
Always speak English even if you can speak some Japanese/Spanish.
Smallest 'class' I ever had consisted of three earnest intelligent Spanish teenagers about 17 years old. It was also the most intimate & demanding as they truly wanted to learn and all three inevitably asked lots of advanced grammar questions and wanted pronunciation corrected (often things other teachers in the small school had failed to satisfy answering).
I recall they were sitting the International Baccalaureate and half way through the course asked for all the vocab in advance to learn - which I supplied (the sudden increase in workload was not welcome but was much appreciated; and why other teachers hadn't given it at the beginning I never found out). Needs!Although in Spain the spanish staff generally taught most grammar & writing I always kept my own TEFL grammar book with me - literally always. No teacher knows everything.
End of the day I was usually shattered but had to prepare for next day. I quit after a year and a half.
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I think you will find the tutoring to be an interesting experience. My wife tutored ESL for several years after she retired from her job. I asked her what advice she might have. She offered a few suggestions, some of which have already appeared in this thread.
Try to discern why student wants to learn - is it to make everyday activities easier, in which case familiarization with things like shopping, banking, hobbies, etc. may suggest particular agenda items? Do the students have children or other family members that they might share materials with, like student reading materials? One of my wife's students chose to work on reading a Harry Potter book because her son was also reading it. Do they read pretty well, but have trouble with spoken language? My wife said that some of her students learned to understand her well, but struggled with other speakers. She used podcasts to give them greater exposure to different speakers and accents. Would they like to go on outings to stores, restaurants, gas stations, public transit, or such to learn how to deal with activities in such places? What might they like to show you or explain to you that they know? Confidence in a subject can help conversation concerning it. Idioms can be a stumbling block because their literal translation often makes no apparent sense.
My wife's career as a teacher in an adult community corrections facility gave her some background in dealing with students who had limited language capabilities, but her ESL students fell into different category, being generally capable in their native language, but trying to absorb the complexities of English and how to use it in the USA.
I hope you enjoy this experience and find it rewarding.Big Al
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I think you will find the tutoring to be an interesting experience. My wife tutored ESL for several years after she retired from her job. I asked her what advice she might have. She offered a few suggestions, some of which have already appeared in this thread.
Try to discern why student wants to learn - is it to make everyday activities easier, in which case familiarization with things like shopping, banking, hobbies, etc. may suggest particular agenda items? Do the students have children or other family members that they might share materials with, like student reading materials? One of my wife's students chose to work on reading a Harry Potter book because her son was also reading it. Do they read pretty well, but have trouble with spoken language? My wife said that some of her students learned to understand her well, but struggled with other speakers. She used podcasts to give them greater exposure to different speakers and accents. Would they like to go on outings to stores, restaurants, gas stations, public transit, or such to learn how to deal with activities in such places? What might they like to show you or explain to you that they know? Confidence in a subject can help conversation concerning it. Idioms can be a stumbling block because their literal translation often makes no apparent sense.
My wife's career as a teacher in an adult community corrections facility gave her some background in dealing with students who had limited language capabilities, but her ESL students fell into different category, being generally capable in their native language, but trying to absorb the complexities of English and how to use it in the USA.
I hope you enjoy this experience and find it rewarding.Big Al
