I am a new BE teacher and I just got a job with someone who wants to brush up his English in the area of vocabulary, presentations, grammar and conversations (one to one).I have taught English to teenagers for a number of years but this is totally new to me and I don't want to fail at this.
I am to recommend a course book as well as establish a plan of action. I would appreciate how best to go about it; especially the first lesson. I want to begin with a needs analysis but I am not sure what to do after this, the format of the lessons and which book to recommend. I may be wrong, but it seems to me as though following a course book might be the wrong thing to do. How do I ascertain and determine which level the student is at? or do I base my lessons on his needs? and if so how do I ensure that we have done enough in just a 30 hour course? Which grammar book will be adequate for this?
I would appreciate all the advice you can give me.
You're absolutely right in starting out with a needs analysis.
You'll have a much better idea of his level and needs after that. YOu can then decide if a course book is needed or if each lesson will be researched and prepared by you.
How did he decide that he needs to brush up his vocab, presentations, grammar and conversation? I'd find a way to check his level in those areas and others (listening, writing......); not all students have a realistic view of their weaknesses.
For the first lesson with him, I'd choose a grammar point that stands out on the needs analysis as needing improvement. I'd work on that and then do some conversation work that practises that language point. For one of the later lessons, ask him to do a presentation for you; it can be a topic of his choice. That will give you pointers for work on his presentation skills (pronunciation, structuring the presentation, etc).
Thank you for the tips; they really sound great and I will definitely work with them . I do have some other questions; if you don't mind. If I understand what you are saying correctly, the needs analysis determines the course of action. Does this mean that establishing his CEF level is irrelevant or do I still need to administer a placement test for this? If so, I have searched and searched and can't find any suitable one online to download. If I do decide on a course book, how then do I know which level to purchase?
I would really appreciate any websites of lesson ideas for listening and writing etc that you mentioned. Do you think that focusing on grammar should be the way to go or should I focus on fluency? I know this may be difficult to answer if one does not know the student but any tips will be greatly appreciated.
I quite like the idea of asking him to do a presentation and working from there. Are there any course/student books and/or CDs you can recommend for this that will work well for this purpose?
I thought of using materials from the workplace, do you think this is a good idea? The skills mentioned that need brushing up were just sent to me as I have not yet liaised with the student. I just want to be prepared for all eventualities.
I did a quick search on google and came up with this site that provides tests that can establish a CEF level.
http://examenglish.com/leveltest/index.php
The placement test can be whatever you design it to be. It’s true I was talking about it in terms of establishing a course of action but it can be used to ascertain levels as well. If you use the test in the link above and a basic placement test, I think you’ll be fine. In any case, you never find out everything there is to know about a student before actually working with them.
Definitely use materials from his workplace. Ask him to bring in things that he finds challenging, just slightly above his level. If you want ideas for using such texts, please write in again.
I can’t say about focusing on grammar or fluency: it’ll depend on what comes out of the tests and your first lesson with him. If you have enough time with him, I’d aim to brush up all his skills.
