Teach Survival English Words First

When teaching a newcomer, you need to help them learn the words they need to know. This sounds simple, but it depends on age level:

Spoken Vocabulary Identification For School Age children from: colors, numbers, letters & sounds, classroom objects, school locations.

Then Teach survival verbs: sit, walk, stand, raise hand, walk in line, run etc. (TPR techniques)

Next Teach prepositons such as : on, in, at near, by, in front of, behind, below, under etc.

Next Teach Relia: Fruit, vegetables, food items etc. Go get tiny toy play packs from Toys R Us, kids love them

Colorforms: Little plastic stickers in themes help to learn vocabulary. You can get farm/city/house/clothes and other themes.

Silent Periods: The intermediate student may stay in a silent period (several months is normal) and want to read before writing. The primary student may want to write before reading.

The adult needs to make lists of words in their language that they need to be translated. They can still follow the primary learner words too!

All teachers need to remember to start where the student is at and build knowledge. I went to a meeting the other day with wonderful Somali-Mai Mai moms who had no written language. Something I cannot forget is our definition of clean or dirty clothes is very different from theirs. They came from a rural country and wasting water to clean shirts/bodies more than once a week is a waste of precious water. We need to respect their culture and educate them into Western cultural rules.