Teaching English...

[GIS]

My wife and I live close to a Chinese buffet we frequent and made a couple friends there. A few of the employees would like to learn English from us.

Any current or former ESL teachers that can give us a few tips on some good ways to approach the lessons?

 

very much appreciated

[dnoblett]

I have not taught it, but my wife has taken several classes.

 

The first one focused on reading comprehension, the teacher had her read several novels, she had to keep a double entry journal of what she read. Double Entry Journal

 

Other classes focused on speech, she had to give a couple of speaches in the class.

 

Anytime she had classes that required writing, I would have her write report triple space, I would the do corrections in the report and have her study the corrections. Other times I would have her read the report out laud asking her to listen to what she is saying.

[Randy W]

Hate to say it, but "Google is your friend" - try TOEFL (Teaching of English as a Foreign Language and ESL.You'll find MUCH more than you could ever wade through on your own.

[Mick]

For restaurant employees, the first important lesson is to learn how to say to you: "It's on the house."

[Rob and WeiLing]

This is about a month late, but maybe it's still relevant. My wife had some prior English experience in school, but what she remembered was nothing more than "Hello" and literally "san-ku-yu" (as she was originally taught).

 

When WeiLing found a Chinese person to tutor her English in China, she studied out of a set of New Concept English (NCE) books, level one. A few of our Chinese friends that speak very good English swear by this series, one of whom is now in graduate school in America. Having watched WeiLing study from this, the results are pretty impressive; though I must say we paid for a tutor for 2hours/day, 4days/week, and WeiLing spent her free time practicing, endlessly writing words, etc.

 

The only problem: all of the pronunciations and spellings are British. I commonly tell WeiLing to put more emphasis on the ending "R" sounds in words. (For example, British would say "Robert" as "Robeht").

[dnoblett]

This is about a month late, but maybe it's still relevant. My wife had some prior English experience in school, but what she remembered was nothing more than "Hello" and literally "san-ku-yu" (as she was originally taught).

 

When WeiLing found a Chinese person to tutor her English in China, she studied out of a set of New Concept English (NCE) books, level one. A few of our Chinese friends that speak very good English swear by this series, one of whom is now in graduate school in America. Having watched WeiLing study from this, the results are pretty impressive; though I must say we paid for a tutor for 2hours/day, 4days/week, and WeiLing spent her free time practicing, endlessly writing words, etc.

 

The only problem: all of the pronunciations and spellings are British. I commonly tell WeiLing to put more emphasis on the ending "R" sounds in words. (For example, British would say "Robert" as "Robeht").

Oh yes, I know the NCE books well, my wife has a collection of them!