Dear Mariethe,

 

Your English is OK, you just seem to have the problem we all have.

 

It is very likely that there is no coursebook that would suit you 100%, so you will have to spend (a lot of) time on the Internet.  If you need texts with certain vocabulary or  theme/topic, you need to type  in more than just the name of your topic or key words: like for instance: Shopping in a (con)text esl and you might add reading or listening. Once you get the text you are looking for which isl too long/difficult, you can adapt it and leave out what you don �t like or need and you you simply add your own (nteresting/funny) activities. Talking of shopping again, you can ask your students to divide into male and female groups and ask them to make a list of items that they buy when they go shopping. You can then find great articles about the differences between men and women and their shopping habits, There are also recordings on this topic which you can use for listening comprehension, there are videos  on yt about men being shopaholics/spendaholics, etc. 

 

I hope this is of some help 

I actually never give a list with words. Usually I use a text first or I  have some other activities to explore the vocabulary that students already master together with tnew words (that would probably work even better if you teach adults) You can introduce the topic, ask questions for discussion, brainstorm ideas/words, write mindmaps, etc.

At the end of the topic I might ask students to complete a "word bank" for the topic with all new words that they have learnt (I focus a lot  on collocations and idioms). 

It works well for me.:)) 

I teach adults and I found that this website has the main "local" news stories in English. Content is not too long and easily digestible for a lesson. http://www.thelocal.fr    [The also offer �sister � sites in most european countries.)

 

Adults like it because they know most of the stories in their own language and for me as a teacher its a springboard to many aspects of teaching English language in use.

 

Hope this helps. 

Hi Mariethe

 

For differences, this article explains it nicely.

 

I LOVE teaching adults and I rarely use a course book. I tailor my activities to what they need (within my module requirements) using authentic materials and topics that are relevant to their everyday survival and leisure needs.

 

I start most days with conversation from here: I tailor the questions to suit my needs. The students love these discussions because it really gets them thinking. Last week I did Identity Theft and the next day I focused on a newspaper article about tax office scams.  This led us to hop onto the tax office website and check it out.  The students were all very interested in this  and learned so much. Tax is important, the ability to recognise a scam is important, and identity theft is important.

 

If you source topics of interest to them, topics for everyday survival (particularly relating to government services/requirements) the lesson will naturally flow: vocabulary, grammar for speaking, pronunciation, fluency etc. 

 

Also, I find that they don�t know how to use functions on their smartphone, so I do spontaneous lessons on that, such as saving bookmarks, using the calendar, etc. Even just setting up voicemail and leaving an appropriate message. You don�t need worksheets, just their smartphones.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Cheers

 

Jayho

Wow! You are great , all of you! Thank you so much Zvonka, Hifly and my dear Jayho! What a lot of useful advice.