30 minute class with Spanish adults - low level

Teaching ESL to adults

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sunflower
Member
Posts: 1
Joined: 07 Feb 2012, 09:22
Status: Trainee Teacher

30 minute class with Spanish adults - low level

Unread post by sunflower »

Hi

This is my first post here, so apologies if it´s in the wrong place. I´m working as a Language Assistant in Spain and I have 30 minute classes with each group. I´m due to change groups next week and I´ll be working with first year intermediate and second year basic levels. I´m a little worried about the classes because their level is quite low and usually the students are reluctant to talk. I don´t want any difficult silences. It´s also difficult for me to remember all the names because I only see my students once a week and there are roughly 22 in each class. I´ve tried asking them to make name cards, but many students forget to bring them the following week.

Can anyone give me any advice?

Thanks.
jamesdavid
Member
Posts: 1
Joined: 26 May 2012, 11:08
Status: Teacher Trainer

Re: 30 minute class with Spanish adults - low level

Unread post by jamesdavid »

Hi
I am teaching similar sized classes and found http://www.designerlessons.org to be helpful. It has a lot of material for adults and the lesson plans will help you encourage them to speak. It's good for when I'm stuck for ideas or need something different. the only thing I would say is that 30 mins is a very short time, so you would have to adapt the plans quite a lot.
If the site isn't good for your needs - try looking at onestopenglish.com - it has a lot of variety, but you have to pay for their resources.
MarkTeacher
Member
Posts: 19
Joined: 09 Aug 2013, 19:47
Status: Teacher

Re: 30 minute class with Spanish adults - low level

Unread post by MarkTeacher »

Hi James,

I am teaching a very low level group at the moment and have found that the students are very 'involved' if I do simple conversations. FOr example, last class I did family and just started the conversation with 'do you have any siblings'? Then I asked about the age, profession, where the person lives and the studies of each sibling. I will carry on the class moving on to cousins, uncles, parents etc and asking simple questions about each as I go along. I find that new questions come to my mind as I go along and this keeps the conversation going and natural. The students appreciate that they are able to converse albeit at a low level and with errors.

Remember to be yourself.

All the best.

Mark
English classes via Skype with native teachers, free trial: http://www.clasesinglesonline.com
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