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ESL forum >
Ask for help > Students with problems in learning
Students with problems in learning
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keninha
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Students with problems in learning
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Hello dear friends! Here I am again to ask for your help in two different situations: 1 - I have a one-to-one student, she is a lady in her 60s, but she isn �t able to keep vocabulary easily, she has difficulty in pronunciation, she doesn �t want to learn grammar (when I tried to talk about verb to be she looked at me desperately) and she doesn �t study at home. My boss sold her the Smart Choice 1 book, how can I use its content without teaching grammar? How can I make this lady learn English? 2 - The other student is also a one-to-one, but this one is younger. She took a complete English course in a big group from another school where the teacher followed the best students, so the shy ones, like her, didn �t have opportunity to ask many questions. The thing is, this girls had been a Spanish student where I work, so my boss was not worried in giving a placement test. I was asked to teach her using American Headway 3 and, at that time, the only problem I could notice was verb tenses changes (she uses past when talking about present and so on, yes, uses because we finished book 3 and 4 and she still makes the same mistakes). Unfortunately, my boss told her mother that the girl was able to take a prep course for FCE, and we started the book, but she is worst now, her mistakes are the same made by students at basic level... How can I help her to become the advanced student she is supposed to be? Thanks in advance!! |
29 Jul 2015
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Nereis
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Hi Keninha, I think that the real problem is your boss, who decides without your opinion, you are the teacher so you know what your students can or can �t do!!! I think that you should first talk to your boss!! Hugs |
29 Jul 2015
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Maria Linz
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Hi, colleague! I �m also Brazilian and I also have some learning problems with older students. I do a lot of games with my students and they love it. Nowadays, I am trying Spindow. Have you heard of it? It is an amazing tool. Have a look at www.spindow.com.br. Good luck! |
29 Jul 2015
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MoodyMoody
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Again, for the older student, make sure that she doesn �t have sensory issues making it more difficult to learn a new language. If her glasses aren �t right, she has problems reading and looking at the mouth for pronunciation cues. If she has hearing loss (diagnosed or not), she has problems hearing subtle differences in sound that are so important not only for pronunciation and intonation, but also for vocabulary and grammatical cues.
I don �t know the book you �re using, but you might consider it a starting point for lessons. Since she �s getting private lessons, you have a lot of flexibility in what you teach her. Ask her, "Why do you want to learn English?" Find out about her hobbies and interests. Work on the vocabulary of those subjects, and I bet she starts to pick it up a little faster. The way to make someone learn something is to make him or her WANT to learn.
I have no advice on the younger student, unfortunately. I know nothing about FCE. |
29 Jul 2015
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SaraMariam
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I agree with everyone. As for the older lady, you might want to come up with grammar games, where she doesn �t notice that she is learning grammar. I had such a student before. Didn �t want to learn any grammar and was really stubborn with it. So I came up with card games, board games, conversation cards in order to teach. It worked really well actually. But also needs time to prepare and creativity. You will find quite some of that here also I believe ;).
As for the younger girl. I would do as Moody said. You have to find her point of interest to make her see that English can be fun and useful. See what her weak points are. If she is always doing the same mistakes, find her areas of interest and consider also her learning style. Maybe she needs to have things explained a bit differently.
I once had a student who continued to make the same mistakes and just didn �t understand anything. I changed my methodology about 5 times until I found the right way to explain. Sometimes we just have to lay the books aside and do our own thing. I would try to talk to your headmaster about that and hope that he will understand.
It won �t help her at all continuing with the book if she can �t get the basics straight. That �s like teaching somebody geometry who doesn �t even know that 2+2=4.
I hope you will find a good method for the two <3 |
30 Jul 2015
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redcamarocruiser
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Maybe you can dumb down your grammar lessons by using everyday vocabulary instead of the actual grammatical names. For example say action instead of verb, thing instead of noun. |
1 Aug 2015
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