Speaking Course

[sidan]

I am a new English Teacher in Thailand. I was asked to be an English tutor for speaking English. But I have never taught such the course. I don't know how to start, what topics have to be involved, what methodology or approaches and materials. Do you have the course syllabus for teaching speaking or any useful ideas on this? I have to teach only ten students next week and worried about preparation.

Any suggestion from yours is considered highly appreciated.
Sidan.

[Kevin Vosper]

Dear Sidan

I've answered a very similar question from DBCharity so you might want to look at that.

Best wishes

Kevin

[Shelley]

Hi there,

Re tutoring, if you have small groups of adults that should be a LOT of fun.

With adults I'm v. keen on getting them to do the preparation as it involves them more in the subsequent class and in a way makes them more responsible for their own learning.

For example have them prepare presentations about something they are passionate about or that they love and put them on to the other students, first in pairs and then to the whole group. Have the group come up with questions on the presentations, vote the best talk. Use lots of language games to drill in new vocabulary and grammar - especially for the lower levels.

Or you probably have heard about using role-plays - well these can be hard work to prepare. For example with ten students you'd probably split that into two groups to give more speaking practise. So you'd need five roles per group. Each role has a character and an agenda. So you have the boss who wants to promote the sales manager. The sales manager is thinking of quitting because the job is too stressful. The secretary is fed-up because he is bored and that's why he is off sick the whole time. The personnel manager needs to have words with him and so on.

Well you prepare one such role-play that fits in with the needs and interests of your group - i.e. if you are teaching medical students you create some kind of scenario in a hospital. And then you ask each student to prepare something that can be acted out by the class. Bingo you have ten role-plays done for you and you keep the best ones for future use.

For a ton of ideas on teaching adults check out this page:
http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/adults.htm

Then if EVER you want to teach your own child or you have private pupils who are children there is a great demo video on the site below that should inspire you to get started right away, when you see how much fun it is!

http://www.homeenglishteacher.com

Bye for now!
Shelley

[shubh]

The course topics would be provided by your employer. You just need to plan your teaching strategies: knowing them, assessment of the requirements of the students, identifying their short comings, preparation of the teaching content, delivering it in impressive manner and testing the results.