Ideas are appreciated ...
 

I'm finally getting in to a rhythm of teaching English to my one and only student (who already knew some English when I started working with him).

I am soon to have another student (who, I am told, knows nothing of English) - so first I must interview her. I am having a bit of trouble in knowing what questions would be best to ask, to find out what level of English she is really on.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

A friend of mine, commented that I should use flash cards with the following item categories: Food, Colors, Numbers, Animals, etc.

While this is all well and good, are there any important things I need to know to determine the level, or would the flash cards be sufficient?

Thanks

Re: Ideas are appreciated ...
 

Since the student knows "nothing of English", don't stress about it. Ask simple questions like name, age, birthdate, colours, family... when these questions are answered, you'll know which level you're working with because you'll hear word order, vocabulary, prepositions, etc. If the student can answer these, go into daily rountine and hobbies- do you like...? what do you do in the morning?

Re: Ideas are appreciated ...
 

Hi,

thanks for the ideas. I did go through some of those... I (being an idiot) didn't think to go through the alphabet to see if she knew the basic sound that each letter made individually vs. added to words. Nor did I think to ask more daily routine, hobby questions, but that gives me good ideas for a first lesson!

Thanks again

Re: Ideas are appreciated ...
 

About.com has a good program for teaching absolute beginners. Check it out:
Absolute Beginner English - 20 Point Program

Good luck!

Re: Ideas are appreciated ...
 

Thanks for the link, it's very informative!

Well I had my first "new" student class yesterday... it went pretty good (though I was a nervous wreck up until roughly 10-15 minutes in to the class). The night before, I drew the four seasons, and made small cut-out clothing/accessories. I had my student tell me the name of each article of clothing and in which season they are best used. I made it memorable by acting like I was trying to fit myself in to the tiny paper clothing!

This morning my student sent me a message (in English) telling me she could not remember the Spanish word for "earmuffs" (orejeras). Haha, I was expecting her to tell me that she could not remember the English word for "earmuffs"... Nice!

My first student whom I've been teaching now for about 3 months has asked me to evaluate him. So next week I have that to look forward to. I, in return asked him to give me feedback on my job as his teacher and to let me know which areas or themes he would most like to learn next (we are just finishing with "Parts of the Body").

So now my "not-so-much-anymore" dilemma is how to create an eval set... Thankfully I have, a couple of mentors that also teach EFL and loads of gold-mine sites and forums to research ;-)

And that's all she wrote about that.