How can i teach english to an absolute beginner?

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corker

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I am from a non English speaking country and people here find it very difficult speaking and learning English.I am an English teacher in a school and i am having a lot of difficulty on how should i start my class because the students out here are an absolute beginner.They do not know the basic English. So i would be really obliged if could get any help from this site.
 

ali.metal

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I am from a non English speaking country and people here find it very difficult speaking and learning English.I am an English teacher in a school and i am having a lot of difficulty on how should i start my class because the students out here are an absolute beginner.They do not know the basic English. So i would be really obliged if could get any help from this site.

i think this is very good question, i suggest you that using pictures and very simple sentences in teaching your students.
 

corker

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thanks for the suggestion.
 

Tdol

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Can you get hold of a beginner coursebook? If so, that would help you have a plan for how to proceed. Starting with absolute beginners is easy- you can use pictures, but then moving on to more complete and complex things can be less easy, so a book would give you a scheme for steps to take.
 
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esltutor

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Another tool is Total Physical Response (TPR), which is good for teaching for some limited things. Wikipedia has a great little write-up on this approach. But one quick example would be to give the commands "stand up" and "sit down." The teachers models what he or she wants the students to do. (There is a lot more to it than this, and it is just one more tool.)

I hope this helps.
 

emsr2d2

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I suggest that both Corker and ali.metal remember that it's very important to capitalise the word "I" at all times and to start every new sentence with a capital letter. Certainly an English teacher needs to know how to write English correctly.
 

Kevin1992

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Well, that's really a topic that needs a second thought
In my humble opinion I'd like to say that anytime you get involved in teaching any subject and in this case English you must never focus your lessons mostly on grammar, and exercises realization, why?, where is the communicative approach of your lesson? Remember that there've always been misconceptions at the time of conducting an English lesson, misconceptions which not every teacher has, that have mislead the very own process a good example of this it's the ways many teachers of English teach by having their students become familiar with communicative functions, grammar and exercises. And it's not about that It's about making them speak, which is the most important. Remember that the four basic skills to be developed in your students are speaking, listening, reading and writing, and the most important which doesnot exclude the others is speaking. Have you ever noticed the lack of knowledge somehow natives have on grammar?, they don't know most of the time why they use a lot of words such as prepositions, and the like, they just use them, 'cause they learned to speak not to how to use the grammar related.

Practice, that is what our students need.

I agree that the inductive approach you used helped you students to gain practical knowledge of grammar directly from their own experience. Such approach must have also helped them to understand in which real-life situations they might apply this kind of knowledge. That is for sure one of the advantages of this approach.

On the other hand, you mentioned that some of your students needed more explicit explanation of grammar rules. Why do not give them additional home grammar exercises with the appropriate grammatical theory included and then discussed it online.

Teaching my students English Grammar, I often use the following structure:
In Class
1 – Oral practice of a number of grammar constructions. Rules are not explained. Situations, in which these grammar constructions are used, on the contrary, are well-explained and described.
2 – Small group performance of a short sketch that contains the same grammar.
3 - Discussion about the nature of grammar constructions just used.
At home
4 – Grammatical theory to be read and appropriate grammar exercises to be done.
5 – Online discussion if needed in order to gain more understanding.
 
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