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HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH TO BEGINNERS

If students are doing better than expected, simply use the free lesson period to review or better yet, have fun with a cultural lesson or holiday activity.

1. Lesson Material:

Especially with beginners it is important to go slowly. There is a steep learning curve at the very beginning of their studies especially if you are the first to introduce them to the Latin alphabet. Try to introduce manageable chunks of information and do not add in more information until your students are comfortable with what they have already covered. This may mean that they are not able to understand the purpose of learning certain things initially but perhaps after a few lessons on a topic, you can help put it all together and then they will be amazed at how much they have learned. For example, in one lesson you may teach your students the words I, you, he/she/it and what they mean but they cannot make sentences with this vocabulary until you give them some verbs to work with which may not be appropriate until a later lesson.

2. Teacher Talking: 

In the classroom you will also have to slow down your talking speed. Students are never going to understand you if you are talking a mile a minute. If you assist a teacher who is not a native speaker and would like you to speak at a normal speed, you can speed up slightly but a normal speed would not be appropriate for beginners. At the intermediate and advanced levels, you may speak more rapidly as their grasp on English increases and they can follow you better but it may still be challenging for them. When you do choral repetition or drill exercises, be sure to enunciate clearly and be loud enough for the entire class to hear you. It is often difficult for people to understand you, if your mouth is hidden from view which is odd because your students are supposed to be listening but even so, try to direct your attention towards your students, as opposed to the blackboard for instance, when you are talking to them and hold flashcards at an appropriate level. 

3. Practice 

Choose practice activities that are simple, easy to understand, and easy to explain. Using lots of words that students don’t recognize to explain how to do a practice activity is only going to further confuse them. In many cases a demonstration may be your best option. As your students improve, you can introduce more complex activities but if an activity ever takes longer to explain that to complete, it is not worth doing again. Practice activities should revolve around students having the opportunity to speak English so even worksheets should be used for that purpose. After a worksheet has been completed, ask for volunteers to read the questions, translate the questions, and give the answers. Try to involve as many students as possible and give them continuous positive feedback. 

4. Have Fun 

Language studies give students the opportunity to learn in a different way. 

English should not be taught the same way Mathematics or History is taught. 

There is no room for lectures because luckily as the teacher, you already know how to speak English while the students really need to practice more than anything else. Getting students to communicate with you and each other in a positive creative environment should be the goal of every language teacher. You can incorporate many different games into your lessons and with lots of miming and role plays students will probably laugh at you, in a good way, on more than one occasion. Taking the focus away from grammar rules and focusing on communication will encourage them to try their best, which is all you can really ask of them. 

5. Prioritize Learning Goals

Absolute beginners have had so little exposure to the English language, they have absolutely nothing to build on. Naturally, you’ll start with the basics, but consider what they’ll need to know first. Does it make sense to start with a list of foods in English? Or colors or numbers? Probably not. What they need to know first is how to introduce themselves and greet others. The natural progression from there is the use of the verb “to be” (I am from…; He is from…, etc…). Then you’ll progress on to possessives (my country, your name, his family) and so on…Give priority to the language they will need first and foremost.

6. Don’t Assume Anything

Don’t make assumptions about what your students know. Assume they know nothing. For example, to practice the verb to be, you ask them what nationalities they are, only to find out they don’t know how to say nationalities in English. Countries and nationalities should be taught first, and then practiced with the verb “to be”. And this goes for a multitude of vocabulary and expressions. Don’t assume a student will be able to answer you if you ask, “How are you?” Absolute beginners won’t know how to reply, unless you’ve specifically taught them.

7. Celebrate Small Achievements

Absolute beginners will tell you they don’t speak English – till the very end of the course. What they’re thinking is that they don’t speak English fluently, or like you, for example. But make sure they’re aware of what they can do. If on the first day of class they’ve learned to greet each in English, end your lesson by celebrating this, “Congratulations! You can now introduce yourself and greet each other in English”. Take the focus away from what they can’t do and focus on what they can do instead. This proves to be tremendously encouraging!

8. Use Their Senses

Absolute beginners may not have enough knowledge to understand explanations, synonyms, definitions, i.e. anything you describe with words. Instead, use their senses to maximize learning. The easiest to use with beginners are visual aids like flashcards, but don’t’ forget to include plenty of gestures, as well as real life objects. The use of realia will allow you to utilize several senses at the same time, and it’s often more engaging than two-dimensional pictures. Don’t forget to use things they can smell and taste, too!

9. Show, Don’t Tell

Because they haven’t been exposed to the English language enough, try to minimize their reading of dialogues and conversations, and act out the situations, instead. Consider this: when you teach students to reply to a “How are you?” do you have them read this short exchange first or just act it out directly? Of course, it’s a lot better to simply show them how to reply. This goes for most of the expressions and functions they will have to learn.

10. Build on What They’ve Learned Before

It is essential for absolute beginners to review what they’ve previously learned, and it’s a great idea to start each lesson with a brief review. But you can also re-use previously taught language points and introduce them into a new context. Say you are now teaching your students how to ask for directions. Student A is walking down the street with a friend, Student B, when they run into Student C. A introduces B to C (they review how to introduce someone), and then C asks A for directions.

11. Keep It Real

Use pictures so you don’t need words to explain concrete nouns. Use mime and intonation (when you want a student to self-correct, just repeat their error with a questioning, rising intonation, for example.)  

Just because students are absolute beginners, it doesn’t mean they can’t handle real life situations. You should still teach in context, and provide as many examples of real life situations and real props as you can. Even though real maps, brochures or catalogues are filled with vocabulary they won’t understand, it is important to help your absolute beginners deal with, precisely, these types of things. Show them how to pinpoint the information they may need like a phone number, address or website. Make sure they understand that it doesn’t matter that they can’t read the entire brochure, the important thing is that they learn to obtain what they need from it.

12. Build confidence

Most beginners are not complete beginners at all. Use what they know to build confidence and to break through inhibitions. In one of my classes I used a book with a "chapter zero" I remember the smiles of all students that have indentified words such as hotel, cafe, bike, street, sun, car, etc.(this words are simmilar the mother tongue), when I asked "What is it" from the picture. The result was an easy introduction to English in which everyone could participate and a real boon to student confidence. 

13. Don’t introduce too many new words/phrases

About 7 or 8 might be enough if they are words you want them to actively remember. Then find new ways to reinforce and repeat new vocabulary/phrases and structures through different activities. These might include choral repetition (repeating as a class) matching exercises, gapfills, miming, picture dictations (1 person says, the other draws) and writing dialogues. Just choose  a variety of activities to reinforce the same vocabulary so repetition doesn’t get boring.

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