Non Teacher Teaching Private Help

[toodkeng]

Hi all

I would just like to get any tips possible ..

basically my situation is this .. im living in thailand with my gf and many times my gf has been asked by her family members and work colleagues if i could teach them english privately

I would absolutely love to help them all with their english, however .. i have no degree's in any subject , i have no teaching experience in a class room etc ( i am a qualified scuba divemaster so i have some experience teaching people .. just not languages ).. but i would say that is one of my strong points as i love showing people how to do things and teach them anything i can , i have the patience of a saint and dont mind if it takes all day to help someone learn something.

i have tried helping two family members with pronounciation as they already spoke a fair amount of english .. but thats about as far as we got .. for the simple fact that i have no clue as to how i should structure a private lesson and where to start .. or how to keep it interesting ..lol

i am not looking to profit from teaching privately, but if anything is worth doing in life , its worth doing as well as you can so i'd like some help and ideas for stuff i could teach over a period of a few weeks to help out the people who have asked already , any future requests .. and if i get any good maybe i'll further a career from it ... until then though i'll leave it to the professionals

the age range is quite vast .. starting with infants of about 3 right up to adults of 55 all with different levels of english language knowledge .. so is there a way to gauge how much someone knows so i can start from that point or should i just start everyone with lesson one ?? ..

thanks for the help guys and gals

[gotlost]

You have a work permit even for volunteering?

[toodkeng]

i have no work permit .. i do have a non immigrant O visa... im fairly sure that allows me to work as a volunteer

[PeaceBlondie]

You need a WP to volunteer.

[Scott]

Yes, you need a work permit, but I don't remember the OP asking that question. I think he's asking about teaching. What you are talking about embarking on is a difficult task. In order for people to effectively learn, they need books, and a curriculum and a systematic approach to the subject. This is difficult with family members who may not be highly motivated and have varying degrees of competence.

Even having taught levels from the very young to the older set, I wouldn't embark on such a task. It's a lot of work. I would encourage them to actually sign up for a regular class and then you can help them with their homework. This is family. You can talk to them, assist them, but if it's freebie lessons they want, it might end up with a fair amount of frustration.

Language acquisition is rather complex and different techniques are needed at different ages and levels.

Best of luck to you.

[toodkeng]

thanks scott .. nice name by the way .. im scott too

i kind of got the feeling that it was all going to be a bit out of my league, atleast without some adequate training on my part .. i guess i could just stick with helping them pronounce things a little better for now and maybe embark on a TEFL course in another life time

as for the WP thing .. i'm not arguing the point with you guys .. cos no doubt your right .. but this is where i got the understanding that i can volunteer without one:

on this page, http://www.thaiconsul-uk.com/downloads-and-visas.aspx , on the general visa rules and regulations document

it reads

Category "O" (other) – this category entitles a person:

a ) to an extended stay for tourism purposes

b ) to visit Thai spouse/family

c ) to visit non Thai family/friends living in Thailand

d ) to participate in unpaid volunteer work in Thailand

e ) to seek employment in Thailand

f ) to visit as a UK pensioner

again ive no doubt your all aware of this too .. so am i missing some small print somewhere ??.. .. because ive also done an 8 month internship out here for becoming a divemaster which included plenty of volunteer work on the boats .. all without a WP and was even told i dont need one for that

Edited January 12, 2010 by toodkeng

[thunder30101]

Hey its not like you are starting a school or anything get together with some of them and try some basic conversational stuff, see how it goes, that can be alot of fun and you can learn some thai too.

[toodkeng]

Hey its not like you are starting a school or anything get together with some of them and try some basic conversational stuff, see how it goes, that can be alot of fun and you can learn some thai too.

for sure .. thats what the 1st few ''lessons'' were like .. i found a website that had a list of words to go through .. like 'bat and pat' etc .. after that i asked them what else they are interested to learn about english .. so we looked through some magazines and i had to descibe the pictures they pointed to .. mostly clothes , jewellery and makeup as they were both female students ..lol .. exciting stuff for me having to look through cosmopolitan magazines i can tell you..lol .. zzzzz

each time after that we would just sit around and talk about anything and everything (including them teaching me some thai ).. i would try to point out any words they spoke incorrectly and help with ones they couldnt manage etc .. but as much as i dont mind doing that i didnt feel they appreciated it so i then found it hard finding ways i could help improve them with their speaking.. i know for me theres nothing worse than someone constantly correcting you the way you speak .. (even though these were lessons) ... but like scott said in his post .. when its family etc they sometimes are not highly motivated to learn, which is why i started to feel like i was boring them more than teaching them and felt like i should atleast try to find something with more structure to teach them better (hence me coming here)

[Scott]

Hey if your motivated and they're motivated, go for it. Especially if what your doing isn't so formalized. It has always amazed me at how small amounts of regular conversation can take people from being relatively incoherent in English to a standard that is at least understandable. Pronunciation is a key factor in the language. I know people who have a relatively high level of English but in their speaking they can't differentiate between 'chair' and 'share' and this makes them difficult to understand.

Best of luck to you.

[thunder30101]

Get on the net and do some searches for tefl, esl lessons, teaching english, etc. There are tons of websites for the esl community with pre-made lesson plans for you to copy and use. If you PM me I can give you a website for books. The thing with thais is, if it is not fun they are not interested, so find lots of word games, puzzles, even things for younger children will work for teaching adults.

[Curt1591]

Hey if your motivated and they're motivated, go for it. Especially if what your doing isn't so formalized. It has always amazed me at how small amounts of regular conversation can take people from being relatively incoherent in English to a standard that is at least understandable. Pronunciation is a key factor in the language. I know people who have a relatively high level of English but in their speaking they can't differentiate between 'chair' and 'share' and this makes them difficult to understand.

Best of luck to you.

These are my sentiments exactly. If you are trying to "teach" them English, good luck.

But, you can help them practice speaking and listening. I know Thais you can write English better than many native speakers, but can hardly speak a word!

[thunder30101]

Oh by the way dont just stop them and correct them all the time, that sucks for anyone and will shut them down pretty quick, try "hmmm what about this or maybe we could say this". Make them feel good and have fun even when you have pulled the last hair out of your head lol

[Scott]

Thunder makes an excellent point and an extremely important one. With pronunciation take great care. If you are constantly correcting them, they quickly learn they can't say anything right and they shut up. I have taught a group of adults for many years. There quite good, but there are a few sounds some of them just can't quite make correctly and I let it go. If I know they can say the sound correctly then I will work on that sound and forget all the rest for the time being. I will also do it with all of them so someone doesn't feel like they are getting picked on.

This is especially true if someone is actually trying to tell you something--something they saw, heard or has happened. Let them communicate it however it comes out. You can use reading and word charts of certain sounds for the more corrective approach.

Slowly, positively and with the most warmth and encouragement you can give them is the best approach.

[toodkeng]

after going through the long list of 'bat and pat' ..'chair and share' sounds etc with them, i realised that after a few tries they could both produce the sounds perfectly .. it was just then later on in conversation they get lazy and forget to say their S's and T's at the end of words etc .. all of which i know they are capable of doing , so like i said . i just tried pointing that out here and there to remind them what they are doing wrong .. but like youve confirmed .. (and its great to get tips on how to re-approach a problem) it can shut them down .. as i found out the hard way .. so i will try next time to maybe make a note of those words whcih they continually get wrong the most and work them into new topics and sentences etc to give them more practice at it without directly correcting them again and again

i have had a look for free lessons etc .. i didnt find much that i would even want to learn myself .. let alone teach to someone, they all seemed pretty boring ..the type that are only made interesting by a teacher with a very outgoing personality ...which isnt me im afraid ..lol

anyway .. i'll keep looking for more interesting lessons , like with the games etc , i never thought of those before.

Thanks for all the advice so far

[jdinasia]

Yes, you need a work permit, but I don't remember the OP asking that question. I think he's asking about teaching. What you are talking about embarking on is a difficult task. In order for people to effectively learn, they need books, and a curriculum and a systematic approach to the subject. This is difficult with family members who may not be highly motivated and have varying degrees of competence.

Even having taught levels from the very young to the older set, I wouldn't embark on such a task. It's a lot of work. I would encourage them to actually sign up for a regular class and then you can help them with their homework. This is family. You can talk to them, assist them, but if it's freebie lessons they want, it might end up with a fair amount of frustration.

Language acquisition is rather complex and different techniques are needed at different ages and levels.

Best of luck to you.

I agree with both main statements ... this isn't a thread about WP's and that teaching just aint easy

I honestly would suggest taking a TEFL class if he is really interested in being productive in his teaching efforts.

[SweatySock]

Get yourself a copy of a piece of software called "Triple Play Plus".

It contains a whole host of topics with pictures and gives the English pronunciation. It also follows on to games asking students to identify different objects. You can also learn the respective Thai words.

It's simple, cheap and very effective.

Works really well in a classroom environment as well.

[toodkeng]

i appreciate the suggestion sweatysock .. thanks very much i will look into that right now