How to get started teaching ESL?

Question

I have just volunteered to take over a class from an experienced ESL teacher. Yikes! I have some lesson plans from esl-images.com and some other information. I am looking for good, practical advice to get started teaching classes. I am not a teacher by profession but have taught internal courses for my companies before. Good ESL web sites are welcome too.

Sorry, I should have added this detail originally. This is an ESL class at my church that I am volunteering to teach. We get almost all adults, primarily from central America. The current teacher is certified as a teacher and teacher trainer, but is going on maternity. She will be spending some time with me to train me, but at this point I am needing all the help I can get!

Here is a good book that I've recently checked out of the library: Teach Yourself Teaching English as a Foreign Language.

http://www.teachyourself.co.uk/ltefl.htm

He's got a lot of good stuff for people like me. I bet even teachers with some experience will benefit from this book too.

Answer 1

Start by finding out what they know and what they want to know. Are your adult students interested in bare survival skills, job-specific vocabulary, etc?
Explore the TPR and TPRS methodologies which have been very sucessful with new speakers of English.
The main idea is 'comprehensible input'--that you speak and they listen or they read language they can comprehend. They will be able to comprehend far more than they can produce. The language you use should be interesting, but repetitive, and use common structures over and over again, but with variation of vocabulary to keep them interested.
a simple example would be 'work at'. John do you work at McDonald's? No? Where (pause, wait for comprehension) do you work? Aah! Class, John works at Sear's! Does John work at Sear's? Does John work at Sear's or at McDonald's? Who works at Sear's? Where does John work. Does John or Sara work at Sear's. Does Sara work at Sear's? Where does Sara work? Sara do you work at home? Yes, Sara works at home.

I'm assuming in this example that 'works at' is a new structure or vocabulary. You should say the phrases in declarative, interrogative, positive and negative sentences until the students all understand it and your more advanced students are answering in sentences. You can add more structures around that vocabulary (Have you always worked at Sear's? Where did you work before? Class, John used to work at Joe's but now he works at Sears...) You don't really need to explain the grammar, but if you keep your language at the students i + 1 level (just beyond what they can easily produce themselves), they will acquire language.

Answer 2

All of the sites below are excellent. They require free registration and will give you lots of great resources (worksheets and activities) that are legally photocopiable and look extremely professional. The first two have everything and the third is especially good for grammar activities.

The typical ESL lesson goes like this:

Presentation - show them the language they will be learning in an authentic context; review meaning, form and pronunciation

Practice - create opportunities for the students to use the target language in a controlled way that minimizes opportunities for error (usually two activities with the first being very closed [matching, gap-fill, changing verbs, etc] and the second being less closed [answering questions, writing short sentences, etc])

Production - this is the activity that allows the students to use the target language in the most real setting you can set up in the classroom (role-playing, writing letters, etc.)

Your lesson should have a linguistic focus (a specific aspect of grammar, spelling, sentence structure, etc.) as well as a communicative focus (shopping, going to school, visiting the doctor, etc.).

Answer 3

www.abcteach.com has some good reading comprehension materials, but without knowning the grades you are teaching and what levels the kids are at, it is hard to tell you where to start. I am also curious to know how you are able to teach an ESL class without a teaching certification?!

**Thanks for the added info and good luck with teaching ESL at church! The person below me has some great ideas, but also google ESL or English as a Second Language, you will have countless resources!