| One of a 'toolbox' of teaching techniques that I use | | | | of things interested him. I knew about the music - that's |
| with my overseas students in my role as a Teacher | | | | what he's studying at home - but the art and the dogs, |
| of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) is our local | | | | that was a good cue for me. I was able to follow up |
| paper! When you consider this, remember that I'm | | | | the interest with visits to a gallery to see the artist's |
| talking from the standpoint of an intensive, one-to-one, | | | | work (which we didn't like), and also a visits to see the |
| course, but I am sure that this would work equally well | | | | dog at the kennels. The key here is that the teacher |
| in a small group situation. Our paper arrives early on a | | | | has got to find the buttons to press to get |
| Thursday. On both of the weeks he was with us I | | | | conversation going. |
| gave the paper to our student at breakfast and asked | | | | From conversation comes vocabulary, confidence, and |
| him to have a look through (this particular student was | | | | practice - all the things that the teacher wants to get |
| pre-intermediate level), finding three articles or | | | | across! Week two's paper saw the results of a |
| advertisements that interested him. | | | | week's immersion in my language: he chose the |
| The idea was then for him to bring the stories to our | | | | headline article (about the closure of local police enquiry |
| 'classroom' for discussion: here's what happened! | | | | offices); we considered an advertisement for a job at |
| Week one saw him choosing three brief articles. The | | | | a local (world famous) tourist attraction; and we |
| first was an article about a musician returning to her | | | | discussed a review of a classical concert which took |
| home town for a concert, the second a piece about a | | | | place during the previous week. Again, the paper |
| local artist offering to teach people at home, and the | | | | stimulated words, grammar, phrases, sentences, points |
| third a regular slot from the local branch of the Dog's | | | | of view. What makes this tool particularly useful is that |
| Trust advertising an individual animal. In each case my | | | | it keeps the course content fresh, and, most |
| student was able to tell me a few things about the | | | | importantly, is based on the interests of the student. |
| content of the article, and by looking at each in a bit | | | | When the student is trying to understand the English |
| more detail, the exercise gave me an opportunity to | | | | for something that interests him or her, THEN he will |
| assess his English level (what did he clearly | | | | want to learn: and teaching a student who wants to |
| understand?; what was he struggling with?). | | | | learn is the only kind of teaching that's going to work |
| Giving him the opportunity to pick the content was also | | | | well! |
| a good strategy, as I was getting an idea of what sort | | | | |