i'm teaching esl in korea to kids, but i just picked up a class once a week teaching a group of adults. does anybody have any good tips or a good website to help me with adults. it's a completely different ballgame than teaching kindergarten and elementary kids. i take it competition games and candy bribing won't work as well. thanks.

Hi...

Try partnering your students based on English speaking abilities.

Now each student has a study buddy..they help
each other learn and they will always be communicating

LEVERAGE!!!

Now you need partner exercises for them to do.

I just read your question. You're kidding about teaching English, right?

I'd build their English vocabularies by using lessons based on situations. For example, "When going to the market/grocery store what do you see?" "How do you introduce yourself in a business setting?" "Can you make a family tree using the English words for family relationships?" This can be a great way to go over vocabulary words in context. It is also a good way to introduce cultural differences in the English-speaking world.

Depending on the level of your class, I might have them debate in class. I don't think you can say you know a language until you can argue in it. The debate can be political, social, or just about the events in the local paper, as long as you can get them to talk about it in English.

Good luck!

Teaching adults is a great adventure and is so different from teaching young students. Adults have a totally different approach to learning. Very often they learn a foreign language for their own purposes and therefore, they are more motivated, disciplined, curious and very patient. I particularly enjoy their deeply analytical questions on almost every sentence structure, grammar and the meaning of the word. I find that adult students are often happy students. They enjoy their language acquisition, although the latter one comes to them slightly harder than to young students.One is for sure, this conscious study brings an effect and gives us the proof that for the second language learning is never too late.

One thing you can do with adults is asking them to help you design your course plan. Adults are more aware of what they need than children. If they are there, it is that they want to learn for a special purpose. Maybe they want to travel, maybe they need English for work. However, they will be able to say what they would like you to teach them. You can ask them to make a list of 5 subjects that they would like to explore in English, and create a course plan that will keep several of their ideas.

Once you have the subjects, you can do a little bit of research on "collaborative learning activities", it will help you find different activities to do with your students. Here is a link that I found about "collaborative learning structures" www.gdrc.org/kmgmt/c-learn/methods.html

Then you will be able to build on that. Each time you will teach a lesson it will give you hints on what the learners need to practice for next time. It will also give you the grammar points you will need to teach them in order to communicate more adequately.

I know it ia a bit late to answer but I hope it helps somebody else!

I totally agree with your message Ana, it's true that most of the time adults learn English because they need it whether for their jobs or just because they ant to acheive this goal.
Since they study for a purpose, they are much more receptive to any form of teaching then usual teenagers that must assist to these classes sometimes against theur will.
For this reason, adults are more respectful toward the teachers and toward the manner of teaching that they are face to. Bottom line, if you have the opportunity to teach to adults, take the occasion, it won't be as demanding as with teenagers.

Personally, I've had more experience teaching children and teenagers than I have in teaching adults. As was previously posted, it is a whole other "ballgame". What I enjoy about teaching adults is the fact that they are there to learn. They are not necessarily forced to go to class. They are attending class because they are getting something out of it. Adults are more attentive and focused since they know the importance of learning. Being older, they are mature and respectful towards the teacher. They also have a lot if insight and input when it comes to the material they are learning.

I think that the trick with adults is to use subjects that they can relate to. I used to teach to adults and I would have discussions about the newspapper and their lives. I think it is important for them to learn how to communicate and one of the easiest way is to talk about personal experiences. For example, when I reviwed the Simple Present I would make them talk about themselves ( description of the family, work, hobbies, favorite hockey team and their jobs), when I reviewed the past I would ask them to talk about their favorite vacation or their childhood. I think that making adults talk about themselves create a stronger and more meaningfull bound to the language. I also found that using humour is a good way to start the conversation or just a nice tool to use.

in my opinion teaching adults is much more interesting and chalenging than teaching kids:)