Teaching English for Immigration Officers

Teaching English for Immigration Officers

Suggested topics and materials

Movies about immigration, watch or read reviews: Green Card, Kandahar, Terminal, Dirty Pretty Things, more…

Look at many types of form from textbooks and real life, agree new immigration form and forms for other purposes. Interview each other to fill in all the boxes. Interview with immigrant role cards- does the form catch all the problems?

Ranking debates- decide which is most important in number order and agree with partner, then fours, then all class: questions in immigration, factors for deciding refugee status, factors for deciding legal immigrant status, factors for deciding work permit, questions on immigration form, funding for different parts of immigration service,

Statistics- describe past immigration and emigration numbers and predict future

Moral maze- 2nd conditionals

Body language- body language of lying, gestures in different countries

Rules around the world- Modals of obligation etc.

Economic effects of immigration- Linking words

Typical grammar for their jobs, e.g. question forms, indirect questions forms, reported speech (comparing stories of two different people), imperatives, linking words to explain the steps of a process,

Typical functional language for jobs, e.g. giving orders, explaining the reasons for rules and decisions,

The alibi game and variations

Games testing powers of observation, e.g. look at picture and then test each other on the details of what was there

Third conditionals- If my grandfather had emigrated,…