Tips/Hints/Recommendations for Small Groups? (4-6)

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
1

Hi there, I’m very new to this forum and I’m hoping to learn a few things here and there.

I’ll be teaching some adults in a group this coming June and was wondering if there are any suggestions about which books to use, methods, etc etc.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Kevin

2

you’ll be able to get more specific responses if you include a bit of info about the students, starting with as their level(s), and what they want/need to focus on …

3

xtrain, thanks for the reply. =)

Well, it’ll actually be a group of 3 and they’re at the introductory level, meaning that they only know a bit of English from high school and from college. But most of them still a lot of problems with the language.

I’m actually a bit more interested in general techniques that you guys might use for a group teaching setting.

Please let me know.

Thanks!

4

I would recommend you go over to Caves Books and look at their selection of coursebooks. Look over several books and find something that would be suitable for their level.

Also, you should learn some basic teaching skills. Read Learning Teaching by Jim Scrivener or Planning Lessons and Courses by Tessa Woodward. Both books have a lot of useful advice.

Also, visit this page:

http://www.geocities.com/allhou/lessgames.htm

for lots of links to websites with games and activities. I find using an activity or two during each lesson helps break up the monotony of simply following the book.

5

Thanks for the reply! I really appreciate it. =)

6

Hi and welcome, Kevin. In addition to Tatterdemalion’s helpful tips, I’d like to make a general suggestion. You should include lots of interactive goal-based tasks, such as discussions aimed at reaching a conclusion, roleplays, information exchanges (where the information is actually interesting and relevant) and so on. Textbooks have some suggestions for this kind of activity although the ideas are often limited and boring. It’s well worth using a supplementary book for interactive activity ideas. One old but very good book is Penny Ur’s “Discussions that Work: Task-centred Fluency Practice”. There are quite a few other decent books available too, though. Tatterdemalion seems too modest to recommend his own book: “The Creative Classroom”, to you, but from what I’ve seen so far of it that could be very useful in your situation.

Go to Caves and spend some time browsing around.