I've decided to write here, because the majority of you are the english native speakers and the rest speaks english very well, so I guess that's the best place to post my thread and ask for advice.

For about a fortinght I've been an english 'teacher'. By saying this, I mean I'm not the regular teacher at school (I am myself still a student) but I give lessons to an 11-year old girl. Her english is very poor (considering the fact that she's been learning the language for almost 4 years) and by far she knows the alphabet, numbers and colours. On the last lesson I was trying to teach her things like 'What's your name?', 'What's his name?' , 'How old are you' etc.

By the end of the lesson I asked her how old was she and she answered that her name was Eliza...

So, here's my question/request. Is any of you an english teacher? Do you know any games and things like that to help your young students learn more effective? I would also like her to enjoy the lessons, I'd like her to start loving english (as I do ). I don't want it to be like an ordinary school where students are bored and don't understand anything. I would like her to have fun on my lessons and in few months I wish I had a quite fluent conversation with her.

Any suggestions?

http://www.canada-esl.com/

http://www.marks-english-school.com/games.html

http://www.eslgamesworld.com/

http://genkienglish.net/games.htm

julia319 said:

I've decided to write here, because the majority of you are the english native speakers and the rest speaks english very well, so I guess that's the best place to post my thread and ask for advice.

For about a fortinght I've been an english 'teacher'. By saying this, I mean I'm not the regular teacher at school (I am myself still a student) but I give lessons to an 11-year old girl. Her english is very poor (considering the fact that she's been learning the language for almost 4 years) and by far she knows the alphabet, numbers and colours. On the last lesson I was trying to teach her things like 'What's your name?', 'What's his name?' , 'How old are you' etc.

By the end of the lesson I asked her how old was she and she answered that her name was Eliza...

So, here's my question/request. Is any of you an english teacher? Do you know any games and things like that to help your young students learn more effective? I would also like her to enjoy the lessons, I'd like her to start loving english (as I do ). I don't want it to be like an ordinary school where students are bored and don't understand anything. I would like her to have fun on my lessons and in few months I wish I had a quite fluent conversation with her.

Any suggestions?

learn the language first before you teach it...?

I believe ZombieKitten is/was part of a group that created learning aids to help kids with reading and learning the language in general.

BlackAdder7 said:

learn the language first before you teach it...?

Could you be any more assholic? She didn't ask for your "English is my mother tongue" criticism... She asked for SUGGESTIONS on how to tutor an 11 year old child. Shame on you, Adder.

Yeah I used to be someone else and this is an account for lurking. Deal with it. To insult a young org member for making a common typo and a simple mistake that would be understandable for ANY non native speaker was enough to draw me out of lurkdom. Congratulations. I would love to see you attempt some Polish.

Julia, there are a few teachers on this board including some that have done ESL. There are also many amazing non native english speaking europeans around.

Perhaps they would have more insight than myself, shamefully unilingual.

[Edited 3/1/11 19:53pm]

english is way 2 overrated....

maths is way more exciting

nipples said:

BlackAdder7 said:

learn the language first before you teach it...?

Could you be anymore assholic? She didn't ask for your "English is my mother tongue" criticism... She asked for SUGGESTIONS on how to tutor an 11 year old child. Shame on you, Adder.

Yeah I used to be someone else and this is an account for lurking. Deal with it. To insult a young org member for making a common typo and a simple mistake that would be understandable for ANY non native speaker was enough to draw me out of lurkdom. Congratulations. I would love to see you attempt some Polish.

Julia, there are a couple of teachers on this board including some that have done ESL. There are also many amazing non native english speaking europeans around.

Perhaps they would have more insight than myself, shamefully unilingual.

[Edited 3/1/11 19:41pm]

u know i'm taking that to another thread

nipples said:

BlackAdder7 said:

learn the language first before you teach it...?

Could you be any more assholic? She didn't ask for your "English is my mother tongue" criticism... She asked for SUGGESTIONS on how to tutor an 11 year old child. Shame on you, Adder.

Yeah I used to be someone else and this is an account for lurking. Deal with it. To insult a young org member for making a common typo and a simple mistake that would be understandable for ANY non native speaker was enough to draw me out of lurkdom. Congratulations. I would love to see you attempt some Polish.

Julia, there are a few teachers on this board including some that have done ESL. There are also many amazing non native english speaking europeans around.

Perhaps they would have more insight than myself, shamefully unilingual.

[Edited 3/1/11 19:53pm]

Well, I thought exactly the same after reading Adder's comment...

Thank you nipples for your support

And, Adder... I give my best to speak English well but it's impossible as I'm 17 and have been learning for about 5 years... But yeah, I'm going to learn it and some day I will be able to speak it perfectly, promise...

I've been teaching children in English for just over 3 years now in South Korea. I've found that games and activities are what they respond to the most. In terms of learning and remembering English, try to make what it is as simple and as relevant to their own lives as possible.

There are plenty of websites that can give you further ideas for games. A group game I like to play with a group of students is vocabulary soccer. They can either pass/shoot a soft ball or dice towards a goal drawn on the board. The teacher acts as referee by reading the students questions to which they give answers. If they get it right, they may shoot at goal. To maintain their attentiveness, you can use a yellow/red card system if they do not sit in their chair or start to argue.

If you are teaching only 1 or 2 children, a fun board game to purchase would be 'Guess Who'. This helps children to study third person singular and present progressive grammar.

BlackAdder7 said:

julia319 said:

I've decided to write here, because the majority of you are the english native speakers and the rest speaks english very well, so I guess that's the best place to post my thread and ask for advice.

For about a fortinght I've been an english 'teacher'. By saying this, I mean I'm not the regular teacher at school (I am myself still a student) but I give lessons to an 11-year old girl. Her english is very poor (considering the fact that she's been learning the language for almost 4 years) and by far she knows the alphabet, numbers and colours. On the last lesson I was trying to teach her things like 'What's your name?', 'What's his name?' , 'How old are you' etc.

By the end of the lesson I asked her how old was she and she answered that her name was Eliza...

So, here's my question/request. Is any of you an english teacher? Do you know any games and things like that to help your young students learn more effective? I would also like her to enjoy the lessons, I'd like her to start loving english (as I do ). I don't want it to be like an ordinary school where students are bored and don't understand anything. I would like her to have fun on my lessons and in few months I wish I had a quite fluent conversation with her.

Any suggestions?

learn the language first before you teach it...?

sorry, but i thought the same thing when i read the OP's post

julia319 i'm not an expert, but try taking your lessons into the real world, away from the classroom. learning language is a hands-on experience. real-world visual aids help a lot for new vocabulary.

a walk in the park, for example, teaches the names of trees.

a walk in the city teaches shopping words. etc.

good luck!

ps: i wish the entire planet would use learn and sign language. it would be wonderful to be able to directly 'speak' to people in different cultures that way imo

julia319 said:

I've decided to write here, because the majority of you are the english native speakers and the rest speaks english very well, so I guess that's the best place to post my thread and ask for advice.

For about a fortinght I've been an english 'teacher'. By saying this, I mean I'm not the regular teacher at school (I am myself still a student) but I give lessons to an 11-year old girl. Her english is very poor (considering the fact that she's been learning the language for almost 4 years) and by far she knows the alphabet, numbers and colours. On the last lesson I was trying to teach her things like 'What's your name?', 'What's his name?' , 'How old are you' etc.

By the end of the lesson I asked her how old was she and she answered that her name was Eliza...

So, here's my question/request. Is any of you an english teacher? Do you know any games and things like that to help your young students learn more effective? I would also like her to enjoy the lessons, I'd like her to start loving english (as I do ). I don't want it to be like an ordinary school where students are bored and don't understand anything. I would like her to have fun on my lessons and in few months I wish I had a quite fluent conversation with her.

Any suggestions?

Not a regular teacher either but been giving lessons since ten years (after my A-level) to kids, teenagers and people of any age. By now my youngest is nine years old.

Regarding your pupil, what's her native country? (I'm asking because I'm also teaching to a chinese girl who got difficulties with pronounciation) Did you try to break phrases/words down? Is she's ok with the "good morning/good afternoon" thing? (Best way to start teaching short sentences IMHO) If so she could get into the "what's your name" part easily. You can also try to teach slower, one step at a time. If it takes her an hour to get "what's your name?", well better late than never, she builds strong language foundations in her mind at her own rythm somehow.

Regarding games, I'm trying to make it the funniest for them. For example, why not trying to stick a label with her name on her T shirt (do the same with yours) and start a dialogue from a "what's your name" game? Kids need to link words to a fact, the more concrete the lesson is, the quicker they will unterstand.

BlackAdder7 said:

julia319 said:

I've decided to write here, because the majority of you are the english native speakers and the rest speaks english very well, so I guess that's the best place to post my thread and ask for advice.

For about a fortinght I've been an english 'teacher'. By saying this, I mean I'm not the regular teacher at school (I am myself still a student) but I give lessons to an 11-year old girl. Her english is very poor (considering the fact that she's been learning the language for almost 4 years) and by far she knows the alphabet, numbers and colours. On the last lesson I was trying to teach her things like 'What's your name?', 'What's his name?' , 'How old are you' etc.

By the end of the lesson I asked her how old was she and she answered that her name was Eliza...

So, here's my question/request. Is any of you an english teacher? Do you know any games and things like that to help your young students learn more effective? I would also like her to enjoy the lessons, I'd like her to start loving english (as I do ). I don't want it to be like an ordinary school where students are bored and don't understand anything. I would like her to have fun on my lessons and in few months I wish I had a quite fluent conversation with her.

Any suggestions?

learn the language first before you teach it...?

Get yourself some decency

MarySharon said:

BlackAdder7 said:

learn the language first before you teach it...?

Get yourself some decency

it's not 'indecent' to make a valid point.

[Edited 3/7/11 3:58am]

XxAxX said:

MarySharon said:

Get yourself some decency

it's not 'indecent' to make a valid point.

[Edited 3/7/11 3:58am]

I meant it in the sense of politeness.

MarySharon said:

XxAxX said:

it's not 'indecent' to make a valid point.

[Edited 3/7/11 3:58am]

I meant it in the sense of politeness.

oh. you were being courteous. i take your point but some people would say it IS courteous to point out a shortcoming when someone asks for business advice regarding their profession in a public forum.

[Edited 3/7/11 9:58am]

XxAxX said:

MarySharon said:

I meant it in the sense of politeness.

oh. you were being courteous. i take your point but some people would say it IS courteous to point out a shortcoming when someone asks for business advice regarding their profession in a public forum.

Good point But she specified she's still studying. To me it was sounding like a rude way of stating the obvious.

'Nuf gas. Let's make the most of it

I'm preparing a class for tomorrow and I'd like a second opinion. Orgnote me if you feel like helping.

Some of the American and British native speakers here on the org make some ridiculous mistakes, too ( grammar, spelling etc., and don´t even get me started with the "should of/would of " crowd). Why make fun of a 17 year old Polish girl who is showing a genuine interest in the English language?

But hey, I digress...

Here´s an interesting link:

http://www.onestopenglish.com/

[Edited 3/7/11 13:20pm]

Thanks for all your help.

I would also like to thank people who do comprehend that i'm still learning the language...

Peace & B Wild!