Teaching Upper Intermediate One on One

[Wilko_BOS]

Hi there,

I am about to start teaching a one on one class for an upper intermediate level student. He is a very high ranking business man and has a pretty good grasp of English.

I have basic plans for his lessons but what I am missing are some good activities for a one on one class or some ways to make it more fun. I have so far included a lot of debates, role plays and open questions to get him speaking but I am finding it difficult to come up with anything else that is not too juvenile i.e does not involve running around the room etc.

Can anyone post a few ideas to get me started?

Many thanks

 

[Tdol]

Have you tried this site- it has mature and topical materials without much running around the room: Breaking News English Lessons: Free - ESL | Current Events

 

[Esredux]

film-english.com is another must for 1-2-1's

 

[emsr2d2]

I used a lot of TED.com presentations (videos) in my classes with a high-ranking government official in Spain (upper-intermediate/advanced). I varied the topic each week, sent him a link to the video in advance in case he had time in his very busy schedule to watch it, and we would then discuss it. The videos are only 12 minutes long so even if he didn't have a chance to watch it in advance, we just watched it together at the beginning of the class. He was a very serious man who certainly wouldn't have stood for any "running around the room"! However, he was very interesting, very studious and extremely intense. I was probably lucky that he had wide-ranging interests so we could talk about a huge number of topics. In addition, as long as the TED presentations were interesting and well-presented, he was always willing and enthusiastic to take part.

I've also used Breaking News (link in Tdol's post) and Hot English Magazine, although the latter used to be more geared to beginners and intermediate.

 

[konungursvia]

Fantastic links here... has anyone seen similar ones for French (FSL?)

 

[Tdol]

I used a lot of TED.com presentations (videos) in my classes with a high-ranking government official in Spain (upper-intermediate/advanced).

I've used TED presentations too and they worked well.

 

[Wilko_BOS]

Thanks everyone. The links are a great help.

 

[konungursvia]

By the way, what age range does the term "upper intermediate" represent to you? Here in Ontario, it's Grades 5 and 6, or 10 to 12 year olds.

 

[5jj]

It's a level, not an age range. It's CEF Level B2

 

[konungursvia]

Thanks 5. In the Canadian government, we also use those A, B, and C definitions, with the subdivisions. I simply didn't make the connection to the word.