advanced ESL class question?

Question

Hi, I'm a new esl teacher, and I work for a brand new school with no textbooks or curriculum for ESL. The students I teach seem native speakers, but they have weaknesses in writing and spelling, as well as grammar and punctuation concepts. What is a good approach to teaching them? Also, keep in mind, I don't have books, and might not get any for a while. I'm also open to book suggestions for next year. thanks!:)

Answer 1

The first thing you need to do if your school hasn't done it is assess where you want your students to get in terms of achievement. You cannot just teach them any topic to fill up time, you should know which objectives you want them to reach. You don't mention your students' age or reason for learning English, this is a good place to start. I have taught ESL students in different environments and I have had to adapt my planning to what my students needed. When I worked with adults they were very worried in being as grammatical accurate as possible when talking and reading; when I taught teenagers they wanted more than anything to "sound" as native as possible, so what I did was adapt my planning to give them what they wanted.
Once you have identified your students' needs and interests you will have an easier time looking for material in books and in the internet.

Answer 2

I hope I can be of some help ,,,first put up in the classroom the
alphabet in cursive writing ,,make sure it is large ,,small letters and capital letters ,,,the students will absorb naturally as time goes by,,and should practise three letters each day ,,ex. a b c ,,,as they proceed with this they will feel some accomplishment and feel some success,,,,as you continue with this give grade two spelling
words to study and write , not print and have little spelling tests each
week ,,even though the words might seem simple it will lead to
better spelling of larger words and when reaching a higher level
they should know how to pronounce and understand the meaning
of each word ,,,grammar can be really fun if executed in the
right way ,,,you as the teacher can say a sentence ,,ex,
I am going to the store ,,,then say ,,I go to store ,,then ask which
statement was correct grammatically ,,,ask your students about
their language ,,,it will make them feel proud ,,,the philosophy of
others can be wonderful and you as a teacher are in a position
of learning great things from your students ,,,punctuation can be
taught in different ways ,,,always stressing that there is no
commas normally when using the word and ,,,also stress to
your students that there are no failures ,,,,that each step no matter how small is a big achievement ,,,,I could say more but
I think this is enough to give you a bit to work with ,,,you can
make yourself a good guideline just by putting yourself where
they are in their learning ,,,good luck

Answer 3

I guess you're somewhere where you can't go out and buy or borrow books? But if you have access to the internet there are lots of websites where you can find lessons - even if you can't print them out you can use some of the ideas. Try:

http://www.insideout.net/e-lessons.htm

http://www.oup.com/elt/catalogue/teachersites/headway/?cc=global

http://www.usingenglish.com/english_forum.html

http://www.churchillhouse.com/english/downloads.html

Something I do for writing practice is get the students to write something (normally for homework) then take it away with me and underline all the mistakes. By each underlined bit indicate what type of mistake it is:
g - grammar
v - vocabulary (ie they need to pick a different word)
r - register (too formal/informal for the type of writing)
mw - missing word
wo - word order
sp - spelling
or simply 'Rephrase'!
Then get them to re-write it in class making the corrections - asking classmates to help them with as they all have different bits of knowledge and vocab in English and can help each other a lot. Then take it home again and this time correct whatever is still not right. Normally the second bit of writing is a huge improvement!
It could be a piece of writing on a topic or in answer to a question, or it could be a task like writing a letter (in which case, set a situation - who to? why are they writing? etc) Whatever it is try to pick a something which is relevant to them and give a guide to the amount of words.
Though, if you have huge classes, this would be very labour intensive for you!

Also, apparently there are EFL chatrooms. So if you can find a good one you could keep on going back for ideas.

Hope this is helpful! Good luck!

Answer 4

I taught ESL briefly and played a spelling/vocabualry game with the kids which they loved!! You take one student and tape a word onto their back. They face the wall and the other students describe the word on their back. The student with the word on their back has to guess which word it is. The kids in my class did really well with this game and started improving with their spelling and vocab! OH! they have to speak English during this game. As far as books any folk tales or stories from their country are really good. The kids respond well to them and also it makes them feel special in front of the other kids. They can also answer questions about the story and why the story is important, it helps them to communicate better with everyone in the classroom.

Answer 5

Well first you have to get them use to the concept of reading and writing, so they get use to it, ask each of them to borrow a book from the library, (depending on their age level) have them read outloud to you, correct them if they read a word wrong, stop them occasionally and choose a random sentence that they just read and ask a question about it like, what is the subject in this sentence. This helped me when I was in ESL, now i speak great english and i know all the grammar and punctuation.

good luck

Answer 6

With my person ESL training, I frequently lead off with 2 Truths and a Lie. provide the class 3 statements approximately your self, one in all that's a lie. If the class' skills is low sufficient, you are able to write an consumer-friendly version of each and every on the board, yet attempt to maintain it minimum so as that this might properly be a conversing pastime. clarify that each and every pupil gets to invite you one question (greater if the class is small), and that in the event that they ask you a pair of authentic assertion, you will tell the actuality. in the event that they ask you with regard to the lie, you will proceed the lie. After one around of questions, the class will vote on which one is the lie. by ability of how, finding on the point, this could be a sturdy time to omit the fundamentals of question shape (confident/no and wh- be conscious). After the class votes on your assertion and you demonstrate the actuality and communicate it, the scholars create statements approximately themselves. If the class is small, you are able to play it an identical way, with your self as a participant. If the class is vast, destroy them into communities for this, with each and every pupil getting 2-4 questions. As a wrap-up, I frequently ask pupil A to tell the class some thing he/she found out approximately pupil B, B approximately C, etc. This pastime can truthfully pass an hour, 2 finding on the class length. The greater outlandish and superb the statements, the greater advantageous it is going, so attempt to think of of the least plausible issues approximately your self. desire I have been given to you in time! sturdy luck.

Answer 7

get esl books from the library and check what they teach..

Answer 8

take material off the internet and have your school pay for copies for your students.