How to engage 18-21 year olds with low level of English?

[iannz]

Hi there

Great website! I discovered it by accident while trawling for teaching resources. A bit about myself:

I moved to China about 6 weeks ago and I'm teaching ESL at a private vocational college (polytechnic for 18-21 year olds) just outside of Nanchang. I'm new to the game and would just like a bit of coaching here and there. We follow the ICON course book (elementary). The students are great but their level of English is quite low and some just don't want to be there. Early on I fell into the trap of spoon feeding them as I was struggling to elicit responses. I've since learned this was a mistake and doesn't make for good learning. I've read on your website tips to better engage them which have been very useful.

So in a nutshell, what I'm really wanting is some tips and advice on teaching 18-21 year olds with a low level of English and how better to engage them.

Many thanks

Ian

[BrianGrover]

You can use simple word association exercises to start building more spontaneous, meaningful responses in the class. It's a pretty complex topic so I'm not going to attempt to elucidate it in its entirety here. I've just published a book on the subject. You don't have to buy it to get enough insight to put this approach to work for you in the classroom. If you or a friend has an iPad just search for Catalyst: A Conversation Taskbook for English Language Learners at iTunes and download the free sample. The introduction is included in its entirety. Read that and you'll get a sense on how you can start using the students themselves as your primary source of classroom content. If you can't find it on iTunes, there are also links on my website [refer to the signature below] to get you there. Good luck.