advice on where to start please

[lornagrinch]

hi all i am hoping for some advice, a friend of a friend has asked me to teach her english for use in an office or reception situation for work. i live in benidorm so it will be mostly geared towards tourists. she learnt grammar etc in english at school and understands basics. However as i am not a teacher i have no idea where to start!!


thankyou in advance

 

[emsr2d2]

Hi all. I am hoping for some advice. A friend of a friend has asked me to teach her English for use in an office or reception situation for work. I live in Benidorm so it will be mostly geared towards tourists. She learnt grammar etc in English at school and understands basics. However, as I am not a teacher I have no idea where to start!!


[strike]thankyou[/strike] Thank you in advance.

Welcome to the forum.

If you intend to teach English to anyone, formally or informally, it's important to make sure that your own standard of English is up to scratch. Please look at the amendments I have made to your post above. It is particularly important to use correct written English on this forum because learners will read your posts, see that you are a native English speaker and will assume that you have written everything correctly.

I have moved your post to the Teaching English section of the forum, which is more appropriate for it.

The first thing you need to do is try to find out what your potential student's level of English is now. Arrange a short conversation class with her, chat casually and informally but take note of how good her comprehension is and what kinds of grammatical mistakes she tends to make.

 

[RhiB]

Hi there,

First of all, don't panic! It is likely that your new student will be nervous about speaking English, so the most important thing to do is to try and set a relaxed atmosphere. Start the first class with a chat and make a note of the mistakes that the student makes so you can prepare exercises and activities to reinforce those weaknesses. Get to know your student as much as possible so you can identify their needs in learning English, as well as their likes and dislikes, which will help you prepare interesting material.

My site [Non-functioning link removed by Moderator] has a section for volunteer and new teachers, where you can find helpful tips and lesson ideas.

 

[Benny P]

Hi lornagrinch,

Before doing the class, It would be good if you could do a bit of research. Google keywords like: English at the office or English for receptionists and I'm sure you'll get lots of resources that you can base your classes on. YouTube is also a good resource because you can watch videos together and then discuss right after :-D Watching videos is always great for improving one's listening skills so give it a try.