23 September 2011 / by Radmila Gurkova

Friday Meeting 23/09/2011

Developing the S1 Beginners Course

Teaching Beginners in any language can be a daunting task, which is why this week, a group of teachers set up a workshop in order to improve the S1 course. We came up with the idea of ‘building blocks’ - common vocabulary that will be incorporated in practically all the classes. Each class taught will cover the contents from the previous class meaning that students will be continuously learning without actually skipping any material.

WORKSHOP SUMMARY  

After a very intensive meeting at Oxbridge we are pleased to report the following:

  • The S1 course is almost completed with 25 classes (previously 16)

  • The material and content is easier to follow making it teacher friendly

  • Classroom activities are not repeated but used for revision purposes in the following class.

  •  The first couple of lessons will be focused on instructions, introducing yourself and others and allowing students to not only interact which the teacher but also freely interact with other students. (At this stage we are making the students feel comfortable with the language and the class itself).

  • Each class will consist of the same format as the other levels, meaning  formatting 4 activities per class. Each class will start with a revision of the previous contents so that the students retain all the vocabulary used and put it into practice for the duration of the course.


Now, it would sound too perfect if I told you that this week has been a total success which in many ways it has, but many language issues were raised, for example some common verbs and in which order they should be taught, should they be incorporated into the same class or taught separately? How do we teach certain verbs? Are they suitable for absolute beginners? Or are we confusing students at this stage? (To go, To like, To want, etc)

Another important issue for the S1 beginners course is of course the transition to P2 level. How can we incorporate everything covered in the S1 course to P2 transition? We understand that vocabulary and simple structures are the foundation of all learning so at this stage we want our students to have a basic concept of English.

We will start the preparation of the new classes soon. We’ll keep you posted.

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