Almost all my background in teaching ESL has been with beginners. I've taught Spanish-speaking adults and children who know absolutely no English. I've taught Arabic-speaking students who are just beginning to form their own sentences in English. I've taught a Cambodian refugee who knows no English at all. The only exception is the six months I spent volunteering with university students who needed help editing their papers.
Today M. and I met with three Chinese students who need help with their conversational skills. When it comes to reading and writing, they are so diligent that they just work and work on it until they understand. But they have real difficulty understanding their professors in class. And sometimes they also have real difficulty expressing themselves.
Since I don't have any experience AT ALL with the Chinese language, I'm unsure what the trouble spots will be. I don't know which phonemes (basic sound units) they don't have in their language. I don't understand the differences in grammatical structure. I don't know the students' skill levels. All I know is that I want to help.
Today went pretty well! Lesson one was on the topic of "studying." M. taught slang like "hit the books," "let's get the ball rolling," and "slacker." I read paragraphs aloud, explained vocabulary, and asked comprehension and discussion questions. I also tried to pick out the problems each student has with pronunciation. There is one student who is very hard to understand, so it's difficult to isolate problems. I did notice he has a problem with "t" as well as "th."
I'm really looking forward to planning future lessons. It looks like we'll be meeting weekly for about 90 minutes. I know some other students were also looking for help, but they are on vacation this week. It's possible that we could eventually have two classes per week. I am so excited to actually be able to serve people in some tangible way!
