Hi! How are you? I hope you �re doing well. I have been teaching adults for about 20 years and this is what I do with beginners. They usually tend to think- or rather feel, even if they are unaware of it- that they will never learn, that English is difficult, that they left school too long ago and things along those lines. In order to give their self-esteem a boost, I try to take advantage of the English they DO know. What I say is something like this:* Why are you here in level 1 (or for that matter, at a beginners level)?
They usually reply:
* Because we don �t know anything/ Because we know no English at all.
To which I respond:
* Are you sure you don �t know any English?
And I challenge them by saying:
* I �m not so sure about it.
It is at that moment that I:
1) either start showing to them flashcards or photos of things they usually handle in English but in their own culture (here in Argentina, for instance, words such as PIZZA, TAXI, CLUB, TENNIS, FOOTBALL, SANDWICH, RESTAURANT, etc. are of every day use and nobody even notices that they are in English!).
2) or I begin to mime I am eating a SANDWICH as I say:
* What am I eating?
And I continue doing the same with as many items as I can think of.
In both cases, as they discover and tell me the words in English they already use/understand, I write them on the board. When I �m done with the list of words I ask my students:
* So... are you sure you know NO English?
And in this way, they begin their learning process with a much more positive outlook on what they might expect from the course.
This is just and idea to start classes. I hope it �s been useful.
Best wishes from Argentina.
Silvana
