ESL Tutor Training Podcast

Below is the accompanying script for my podcast:

Hi. My name’s Stephanie Franco, and I’ve been working with Literacy Lubbock and Texas Tech in their ESL Initiative for two and a half years now. Today I’ll be discussing a few training tips for new tutors as well as some ideas for lessons. Before we get started, one thing I’d like you to keep in mind is that no student is exactly the same, so you might find yourself needing to modify the lessons I suggest in order to better fit your student or students. Also, just the fact that you’re listening to this podcast says something about your character and giving nature, and I applaud your decision to help another. I think we tutors don’t often realize the impact our volunteering has. Teaching someone English is so much more than just giving a person words. Truly, you are giving your students the knowledge they need to feel confident, proud, and able, and those are things that every person ought to feel.

Okay, enough with introduction-- let’s get started.

The first thing you should know is that no matter how nervous you are, be it the first day or every day, the students are even more nervous than you. I know I always get a little nervous on the first day of meeting new people, so I can’t imagine how much more intimidating that would be if I couldn’t speak English or if I felt I couldn’t speak it well. But I’ve found that the best way to put people at ease is to smile. It is, after all, the best thing you can wear. So that’s my first tip. Smile. It sounds simple, doesn’t it? Well, it is. Be happy and excited to see your students everyday, and they will be happy to see you and be there.

Alright, let’s get started discussing some lessons. The first lesson I’m going to share is good for students at a variety of levels. Ask students to bring their favorite recipes to class one day, and then take turns having the students present the recipes to the group. This might sound very simple, but much work will have to go into the preparation for their individual presentations. Depending on their levels, for example, you might lead up to this lesson by having a few classes in which you discuss items in a kitchen and their uses. You might even bring in objects from your own kitchen to visually and tangibly make the words real for your students.

Any time you discuss new key terms or vocabulary, it is extremely important to relate the words back to the students and their own lives. So as you are teaching your students about the words for things in the kitchen, for example, ask them what kind of items they have in their kitchens. “Oh, Mary, you have a crock-pot? And what do you do with your crock-pot?... You make stew. How often do you make that stew? John, Sarah, have y’all ever made stew before? You haven’t, John? And have you ever used a crock-pot, John? You have! Oh, you make chili…” By making the lessons personal and relevant to your students, it contextualizes the new words and increases the chances that your students will remember them.

Okay, so once you’ve given your students a fairly broad knowledge of items in a kitchen, you can then begin the recipe assignment. This is really one of my favorite assignments because the students get to be the teachers. Every person, no matter what their first language or how much they know of English, has knowledge to share, and this activity will remind the students of that. Every class should, and I believe you’ll find, will be an exchange of knowledge between you and your students, but this activity more than ever will ensure that the students feel valuable and knowledgeable.

They might feel embarrassed and nervous, of course, when you tell them that they will be teaching you and the other students how to cook their favorite recipe, but once they do it, I promise that they will feel so accomplished and so proud of themselves and that you will feel a rush of joy and accomplishment just from seeing their happiness.

So just how do you get started? Let’s assume that you’ve already asked your students to bring in their recipes, and, if their recipes are in another language, to translate. The first thing you’ll want to do at the start of class, once you’re past discussing how their days are going and what they’ve done so far is to go around the group and ask the students one at a time to read through their recipes aloud. As most of them will have had to translate their recipes, there might be a few errors or missing words, and this will be your opportunity to find those out and help your students correct them. It is important that each student read one at a time so that the other students can learn from one another and also simply to build confidence regarding their speaking and reading in front of others. The more you have your students do this, the more comfortable they will be doing this, so much so that by the end of the semester they will hardly think twice about speaking in front of others, and this is as important a skill as learning past and future tense.

As you are helping your students fill in missing words or find the right words within their recipes, try to get the other students to help with answers. For example, if Susan doesn’t know the word for “mix,” before just offering the term up for her, ask the others if they know the word Susan is looking for. “Does anyone know what the word is? What is it called when you put things in a bowl and use a big spoon to stir it together?” (You will find yourself often and easily using hand motions and pictures to describe what you mean, and you should embrace this.) Again, when you turn the question back to the students, you remind the students that they have knowledge to share, and anytime you can do this, you should.

If, after asking the other students for help, no one has the answer, then tell them. As this will be a new word for them, do not just move on with having the students read their recipes aloud but instead take a moment or two to contextualize the new word for the students: “What are some other things you ‘mix’? I like to ‘mix’ bananas into my cereal? Do you like to ‘mix’ anything into your cereal, Mark? Do you ‘mix’ cream or sugar into your coffee, Beth?”

Once each student has read through and corrected their recipes, then you can teach them some words used when giving directions. Some of these words are: first, second, then, after that, finally, and so on. After you’ve taught them some key instructional words, you can now demonstrate, using your own favorite recipe, how they should do the presentation. You may stand up or sit down—whatever you are comfortable with. Put a big smile on, and slowly and clearly walk them through your recipe.

At this point, I recommend pairing up the students and having them practice with each other. As they do this, walk around the various pairs and listen, compliment, and give suggestions. Usually, by this point in the lesson, class will nearly be over, so for homework ask them to practice their recipe presentation so they can show the whole group at the next class meeting. At the next meeting, begin with the usual greetings and daily discussion, and then begin the presentations. Again, you should give the presentation for your recipe first to break the ice. Try to be a little silly and over the top about it to help put the students at ease and see that the activity is meant to be fun and not just scary.

As the students go through their own presentations, take notes. Be genuinely interested. I’ve found many a great recipe this way, and the students will love that you are really trying their foods out.

Okay, we’re almost out of time, so I’m going to briefly share just a couple more lesson ideas. I’ve offered a lot of general teaching practices during the recipe activity, so I won’t go into as much detail in the following activities. As always, you should adapt these activities to fit you and your students’ personalities.

A good activity for practicing listening and comprehension skills is to print out copies to some song lyrics, preferably a song that is relatively slow, but leave a few blanks within the lyrics. Play the song for your students, and ask them to just listen the first time through. The second time through, ask them to try and fill in the blanks. Play it a third time if the students would like you to. Then, go through the song lyrics, taking turns asking the students what words they placed in the blanks. After everyone has filled in each of the blanks, discuss the song. What was it about? Have the students ever experienced anything like the singer was experiencing? A lot of songs will contain metaphors, so you’ll be surprised and maybe even challenged by the level of discussion you will get out of this activity. I’ve done this with Garth Brooks’s song “She’s Gonna Make It,” and it was really fun. I warned my students, though, that in country music, correct grammar is not always employed, but that since it’s Texas music, that makes it okay. For some reason, they thought that was really funny.

One last quick activity I’ll leave you with is to have your students be tour guides and show you around. Depending on the facility where you tutor, you might have this inside and have the students make up various uses for the rooms (they might have to use their imagination for this one) or you can take them outside and have them describe what they see to you. This activity is fun because it gets the whole group moving and it creates a real memory for the students. I once had a student say that this was his favorite activity out of everything we did.

Okay, those are just a few ideas to get you started. It takes a very special person to be a volunteer and a tutor, so as I said, if you’re listening to this, you’ve already proven you have what it takes. Be confident and adapt and create activities to best fit your students. Most importantly, remember to have fun. I guarantee that you will look back at your time as a tutor and relish every moment.