HELP! English Lessons for Adults
 

Hello. I am giving English lessons in Italy on the side to a friend of my husband's family. English is my mother tongue but I am not experienced in tutoring/giving lessons. The lady owns a hair salon and would like to learn some English in order to bring in tourists. She has no interest in learning to write or look through a textbook. She speaks little or no English. Does anyone have any suggestions? Where I should start? I was thinking to start with the alphabet, the numbers, greetings/goodbyes, a/an/the and the verb to be. Please help!

Re: HELP! English Lessons for Adults
 

You are right about some things. If she speaks no English, and can't read English at all, she needs to learn the alphabet, days of the week, months of the year, greetings, and a lot of other basic things.
She's going to need hours of speaking practice every week for months in order to get even basic speaking skills.
Don't expect too much from the few hours of tutoring you give her.
I teach at an adult school in California. Our classes combine all the skills. Someone who starts with no background in English needs 11 hours a week for at least 40 weeks just to have basic skills (and that's someone who learns rather quickly; many people don't.)

Re: HELP! English Lessons for Adults
 

Hi there,

Quite early on I would do hair cutting terms so that this lady can communicate with English speaking customers about how they want their hair done - long, short, layered, permed, dyed, and then get her to look through all the gossip magazines in her hair dresser's picking out different styles and describing them in English.

She'll find that more motivating than the alphabet. I wouldn't teach the alphabet at first myself, seeing as it's not something that we use in conversation, like EVER! It would be more useful to do phonemes for pronunciation.

All the best
Shelley
One to One tutoring for KIDS
Teen/adult classroom games

Re: HELP! English Lessons for Adults
 

Thanks for the great advice!!
I actually have another question. I am one of the few English speakers in a small town in Italy, I have been asked by a few people for lesson and since I am not working right now. However, I did not study education in college (I was a business major). One lady would like to improve her conversational and listening skills. It seems pretty straight forward, but I want some activities to do with her so I won't be wasting her time or money.
I was thinking the first lesson to find an article online and work on her pronunciation and reading. Then I would read it for her and practice listening and comprehension.
Any suggestions? Thanks again for the replies!

Re: HELP! English Lessons for Adults
 

There is an english student book introduces students at the novice level or starter level to English language, focusing on linguistic knowledge and real-world knowledge through ‘bottom-up’ processing. I think this could help you a lot to start teaching a beginner.

Re: HELP! English Lessons for Adults
 

Hi I own a private languages school and we usually teach Esl to adults...I always use a book with them. If you'd like to know which one (I don't know if I can post the book title) write to saraven0613@hotmail.it.bye for now:)

Re: HELP! English Lessons for Adults
 

Thanks for shaing.It's great