How to teach everyday English to advanced learner?

[Monique]

I am trying to teach an individual everyday English for life/situations in the United States (things like form filling, shopping etc).

He is in his early 20's and is moving to the US for employment reasons. He is very motivated and is improving English through self study and individual lessons.

The individual is also at an advanced level so most material is too easy for him (e.g. ordering in a restaurant.) I am at an absolute loss as to how I can challenge him.

During the lesson we only focus on speaking - any reading or writing would be homework.

Could anybody give me tips/ideas for what kind of topics we could cover and which sort of activities we could do?

Many thanks!

[Lucy]

I suggest you get hold of some of the forms that he is likely to encounter when he arrives in the US: opening a bank account, getting a mobile phone, etc. You can ask him to fill them in and go over the language together. Even advanced students have difficulty with the sort of language you find on forms of this sort.

You can also do a lot of authentic listening practice. Get hold of real recordings - either audio or visual - and build listening activities and language practice around those. You can also work on pronunciation, especially understanding how sounds are produced by native speakers in a familiar situation.

Hope this helps!

Lucy