Where to begin

[Amy lynne]

Hello,

I'm a new EFL teacher in Mexico and I have a few questions.

I have a class that speaks no English only what I've taught. Tomorrow is are 3rd class. How do I know what to teach them in order to best suit them. I have 2 classes like this one children ages 7-12 and the other teens and adults. I've taught them greetings, ABC's, Introductions, farewells, a few basic questions and replies oh also my children's class played Head, shoulders, knees, and toes so they know those body parts. I guess what I'm asking is do I just teach what I want?

I have an inter. class also and I wondering how important is it to teach them vowels? I've had other people tell me they don't need to learn them. But, I just can't see them not learning them. Thanks for your help in advance. Amy

[english grammar man]

Seems your school has no set cirriculum or text book assigned to students, which is rather unfortunate.

If the students have no (very limited) English abilities, then best to start of with everyday actions, nouns and reading / writing and greetings.

ACTIONS
I have used huge flash cards showing the following verbs: jump, turn around, sit, stand, walk, close your eyes, listen carefully etc. Kids love these flashcards as I then place them on the floor face up in a scattered order and ask them to pickup the flashcard I say. The student with the most flashcards wins. Obviously before all this we move around in the classroom acting them out.

NOUNS
Similiar to the action cards above, but they will include nouns such as desk, ruler, eraser, chair and so on. In this situation, my flashcards come in pairs. Eg: chair / chairs, turn off the light / turn on the light, eraser / erasers. So we shuffle all the cards, I deal them out, and members take it in turn in drawing one card from another player and if they get a pair, they lay this pair out in front of them whilst repeating the pair. The player that gets all pairs and reduces their hand is the winner.

GREETINGS
Have a list of basic greetings / phrases and work down this list EVERY lesson. Spend the first 5 minutes or so doing only a few on this list. Eg: How are you? / What's your mother's name? / Where do you live? / When were you born? etc.

READING / WRITING
Very very important. The faster they can read, the quicker they can learn. Use the ABC song and get students to point to the letters as the song progresses. Then practice phonetics. Eg: A ah A ah A ah Apple. B ber B ber B ber Banana. Lastly, get students at random to write a letter on the whiteboard that you dictate.

I also suggest taking a look at my other thread at Teaching Kids aged 8~11.