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ESL forum >
Ask for help > Teaching English Foreign Language to Seniors
Teaching English Foreign Language to Seniors
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portugueseteacher
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Teaching English Foreign Language to Seniors
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Hello! I volunteered recently to teach EFL to seniors for the first time.I have to define a project and create pedagogical resources and so on. Can you please give me ideas, suggestions, ...?I �m a bit lost! I will be very grateful if you can help me!  |
16 Oct 2012
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ueslteacher
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senior school students or senior people? Sophia |
16 Oct 2012
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MoodyMoody
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If you mean senior citizens, you �ll have to remember that their learning needs may be different from those of younger students. The elderly are more likely to have visual or hearing impairments. Try to print materials in large, easy-to-read fonts. Many of the materials here at ESLP are fully-editable, so change the font size and reset.
You may need to speak more loudly or turn the volume up higher than you may be comfortable with. Sometimes a problem of understanding isn �t because the student doesn �t know the answer.
Elderly students may also have arthritis which may make it more difficult to write. At least you won �t need to teach that from scratch, assuming your students are Portuguese. (One of my colleagues has a 73-year-old student from Sudan who never learned to read or write any language. I don �t envy her.) Encourage them to print if cursive handwriting is illegible. Typing is even better, if that �s practical, i.e., the students already know how to type and you have computers available.
Make the content relative to their lives. Ask them why they want to learn English. Teach to that.
If you have to develop a curriculum before you talk to the students, I would teach travel English. Many elderly people travel a lot when they retire. Restaurants, transportation, and hotels are obvious. Banks and hospitals are less obvious, but could prove very useful in emergencies. |
16 Oct 2012
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portugueseteacher
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Thanks for your kind help! Sophia, this Project is being carried out by the local council and I don �t know them yet but they are senior citizens from all walks of life. My idea would be to foster their self esteem by developing contents related to what is meaningful to them. At this stage of life I think it would be nice to reccur to stimulating activities with a touch of fun and that �s the main challenge! If you have additional ideas, you �re free to share! |
16 Oct 2012
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ueslteacher
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thanks for clarifying that as I was confused:)
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16 Oct 2012
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douglas
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They probably have grown up in an era where the art of conversation was their focus of entertainment and social interaction (I remember sitting around the table talking with Grandma for hours as others came and went). I would consider focusing a lot on polite conversation and "shooting the breeze".
Douglas |
17 Oct 2012
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