Teaching My First Lesson Tomo

[james24]

hey there

teaching my first lesson tommorow to two adult thai studnets who are below beginner. I am cacking it as i dont have a clue how to start. any suggestions?? should i really start with abc??

[Ijustwannateach]

Assuming by your post that you are completely untrained and inexperienced, I hope you aren't charging them anything.

Having said that, most Thais already know the English alphabet. If I were you, I'd pick up an English conversation book from a bookstore- they come in different levels; you can flip through them and use them as a guide (you could even purchase one and use it for your class). Typically, classes start with greetings and introductions in English.

If you are teaching such low-level students, it's also helpful to speak a bit of Thai if you are inexperienced and don't know how to model very well.

"S"

[garro]

James, it might be helpful if you give us more of an idea about your qualifications. It is difficult to be sure from such a short post, but I get the impression that you haven't had any training in regards to teaching. I apologise if I'm wrong in assuming this.

The ability to speak English is not enough to give you the knowledge to teach the subject. Good teachers make teaching look easy, but this is far from the truth. I don't think it would be possible to give you the information here on a web forum. If you are serious about learning to teach then I would suggest that you get some proper training. I agree with IJWT in that you will doing your students a disservice- especially if you are planning to charge them.

I agree that introductions might be a good first lesson. If their English is really that poor you could buy some flash cards (E.g. occupations/verbs) from most bookstores. They are meant for children but they have pictures as well as the words in English/Thai. You could make the lesson fun by getting one student to mime the action on the card and get the other student to guess what it is.

I agree that the ability to write words phonetically in Thai is a great help with beginners.

[withnail]

First get some training, then work at a place which provides books. If you have neither then it's very unlikely that you'll be able to do a good job, but you can, at least, as a native speaker, provide them with a real opportunity to communicate using English. It is for this reason why I disagree with the posts suggesting you speak Thai.

If you are lucky, the students will be able to communicate a little and if you're very lucky have an idea as to what it is they want/need to study. They must at least have a reason for deciding to sign up so you should try to find out what it is, if not from them then from whoever has given you the job. If it's just general conversation then I agree with S, you should get a conversation book and work through it page by page.

I hope that if you are charging then it's not a lot, there are Thai teachers who could do this job and would work for 200 Baht a day.

[garro]

Just to clarify, when I say that it can be helpful to write the words phonetically in Thai my point is that some new learners have no wish to learn to read/write in English. I previously taught in a rural area and some of the adults could barely manage ABC and had no interest in learning to read at that stage. I would write the English words in Thai script so as to give them a feeling for the words and so they could practice at home.

[withnail]

I'm guessing none of them can say the word shelves then. Seriously, I'm a little bit shocked that with your knowledge of Thai you would do that. It's a very short-term solution.

Edited April 7, 2008 by withnail

[garro]

Sometimes I found that it was necessary to start where people were at. Of course not all sounds are easily reproduced in Thai script but the same can be said for people learning Thai using transliteration into roman script. It is a method that I know is used by many other teachers who are working with Thais who are unable to read English. They will write it this way themselves anyway and many of the popular Thai to English dictionaries employ the same method - so they are familiar with it.

[aussiestyle1983]

Here are a few suggestions-

Swearing 101 - Swearing for beginners

Swearing 102 - The phonology of swear words

Swearing 201 - Correct usage of English swear words: Swearing in context

Swearing 202 - Swearing: swearing in pbulic v. swearing in private

Swearing 301 - Advanced swearing: swearing without offending

Swearing 302 - Advanced swearing 2: grammar and swear words

Swearing 444 - Swearing at the missus: caution must be taken

Swearing 555 - Swearing BBB: Behind Buddha's Back

Swaering 606 - Swearing to inflict mental damage and to offend: swearing in a war context

Very few people teach Thais how to swear correctly, that is, without offending others. I feel this is important because each time a Thai hears a farang swear, they get a bad impression of us and think we mean it in a bad way when that might not be the case. Teaching terms like, Get Farrrrked instead of Get F*%ked, Farrrrk off instead of F*%k off, etc. will make Thais learn that there is a sarcastic way to swear that actually means something good. This will help Thais be able to distinguish swearing with a bad meaning from swearing with a good meaning; and might help them to understand that we are not all foul mouthed animals.

From what I assume your experience to be, based on your post, I reccommend you start with Swearing 101.

Edited April 8, 2008 by aussiestyle1983

[dsfbrit]

I assume this is a small language school.

Have they given you any books at all?

Any advice ?

The first thing you can do is 'wing it' by assessing what their level is.

Say 'Hello', shake their hand, say 'My Name is ...' ask their name, etc...

That should take at least half the lesson then do as the other posters advised and get some books/training.

There are some grammar books you could work from - go to SE-ED and have a look around.

Let us know how you get on and good luck.

[james24]

I have a cambridge celta but the course I did kind of assumed that everyone I would be teaching would have some familiarity with the English language, turns out that one of them really didnt. Ive been using a few resource books so everything has gone quite well, think it was more nerves as it was my first unsupervised lesson since qualifying. Anyways thatnks for the advice :-)

[garro]

James, you will find a wealth of information on the internet. There are even podcasts devoted to teaching ESL. I listen to an informative podcast called 'ESL Teacher Talk' from here;

http://www.eslteachertalk.com/

First day nerves is/are understandable.

It is hard in the beginning, but if it is something that you really want to do then you will find your feet.

I would recommend that you go beyond your CELTA course as it is getting tougher in Thailand without higher qualification.

You can do these courses while still teaching in Thailand - if you can afford them.

Enjoy your work and good luck.

Edited April 10, 2008 by garro

[DaiHard]

I remember my first lesson here my head of department said "we'll start with 3 hours of on the job training."

"Great," I thought until the rest of the teachers (all Thais) filed into the classroom, sat at the back then looked expectantly at me.

[dr_Pat_Pong]

I remember my first lesson here my head of department said "we'll start with 3 hours of on the job training."

"Great," I thought until the rest of the teachers (all Thais) filed into the classroom, sat at the back then looked expectantly at me.

[PeaceBlondie]

My first lessons after finishing the TEFL course were a breeze. 13 year olds and 16 year olds, 51 to a class, and I taught them as my demonstration lessons. My new boss applauded me at the end of the second demo, and put me on the payroll as of 5 hours previously. A good TEFL course can prepare you, if you already have the basic skills.