Structure suggestions for 60hr (non-false) beginners course?

[Chocmonster]

Dear all,

My darling HOS has given me another course, and this time it's beginners.

60 hours, 8-10 students, middle aged+, no, or effectively no previous knowledge.

Undoubtedly this question has been asked before… but here it is again:

'What's in a decent course for total beginners?'

The course:

2 hours one evening a week
German native speakers
Possibly some English learnt at school (30+ years ago)
No materials provided
OHP projector, CD player and whiteboard in room only (possible TV and DVD)
Neither students nor school have course books
Small East German town - minimal or no exposure to English in the student's every day life


About me:

I prefer not to work exclusively from a book
I am prepared to dip into one if it suits the matter at hand
Last time I taught beginners I intimated them and 50% fled after the first lesson


What I'm looking for:

A chronological checklist of things to teach
Pitfalls and things to watch out for when teaching them
Ideas for good games/course books/real life materials
List of things to avoid!

If anyone can help me, either on this thread, or per PM/mail, please do so.

Apologies in advance for not checking the forums for similar posts, time does not allow it.

Best regards and happy new year to you all

Edd

[Loulou]

Hi Chocmonster (great name!),

I read your post and Lucy's answer at the top of the forum and I have to say that I agree with her. No-one likes to follow a book page by page, suggestion by suggestion but there are some realy good books out there that will cut yor workload in half!
I also have a class like yours, but in France, and I have been using the Penguin Instant Lessons Elementary book for structure and ideas. Some of the material is really helpful and some I just don't use. I also don't follow their lesson plan but the excercises are ready to be used and that's great! I was just saying to another teacher the other day how long some of their lessons would have taken me to prepare if I didn't have this book! I have also designed some material myself and found some on internet eg: board games and communication excercises but that's because I don't like to work from one source only, like yourself.

As you have beginners, begin at the beginning - sounds stupid but it is difficult for some teachers to get a feel for the level of english they shoUld be teaching their beginners.

Hope this helps...

[Chocmonster]

Lucy wanted me to share any follow ups to my original question, so here goes:

start with alphabet, numbers,

numbers are a good place to start because you can take in one activity eg pair dictation and bingo and make it more complicated if students know the basic numbers. then do intros, keep that simple, my name is.... i am german (or whatever).

start with verb to be + name + nationality + job (if they find the others easy).

[Chocmonster]

Well, I just survied my first lesson.

Cornelsen Verlag have a book for A1 learners (A1 fast, or some such) and I was able to cobble together a lesson from the first chapter.

We had plenty of fun translating other people's job titles (and trying to pronounce them!) and introducing ourselves - we had a little bit of listening and we kept ourselves occupied for 90 minutes.

It helps that it's a free time course, it meant we could take it a little more relaxed.

People, as ever, enjoy talking about themselves, I just helped them to do some of it in English!

[Chocmonster]

***And a little update, after 5 lessons***

It's going fine.

We go nice and slowly thought the book (about 3 sides in 90 minutes is more than enough), and I give them plenty of drilling practice - they love it!

I've adapted nicely to using a book, and it's a real pleasure to not spend the week running round preparing new exercises all the time.