[General] How to start TESL program for a student who does not even know a word of English

[surennishan]

When we plan to start an ESL course for a student who does not even a word of English, we are following the below mentioned procedure:

1. An hour's class is divided into four quarters:
The first quarter: Samveda Synthetic Phonics
Second quarter: Vocabulorey- Picture Dictionary
Third quarter: Pictures and mathcing sentences
Fourth quarter: Rhymes and songs( listening and repeating)

2. Continue Sythetic Phonics, Graded vocabulary, Picture dictionary and sentences, more listening

3. Graded vocabulary, more of listening, sentence comprehension using graded readers

and so on...
Do you think, this is a good method? Do you have any other standard procedure?

Thanks ,
Suren

[John F J Allen]

Dear Surennishan!

I liked your overall approach, the lesson plan was great with logical progression -

With adults, student interest is normally high, but with children it can and may vary considerably!

The average 'attention span' of any student on any topic is only about 20 minutes - beware of this!

I have followed many different variants of 'standard procedures' - some work - some do not - it depends on the student!

For a 'first time' student with absolutely no knowledge of a 'second language', I can suggest a method that works, and can bring them to a decent level of competence in ESL within about 6 months.

Initially aim at 'basic english'

Work with and encourage the student, but not intensively!

In their home (with your help) they should 'stick' little labels in English on everything in the house, with only verbs, articles and nouns - the rest can follow later.

What then happens after a short while is miraculous! - Try it!

Good Luck

Within a short time they will have accumulated quite a large vocabulary, and achieved a good level of competence!