Hello! Jeehyun writing here...I have a question regarding the village students' level of English proficiency. Maybe Jon, Zsofi, or Kinga can help me?
So, as the time of departure nears, I actually got myself to sit down and generate some concrete lesson plans. But I think they can be improved a lot if I knew exactly how proficient my students (both villages are in Romania) are. Would the younger students understand me if I explained the rules of a game in English? I've been trying to learn Hungarian, but couple weeks of cramming can only get me so far...
Thanks!!
JH
3 comments:
Its a helpful question. You should expect that you will have a group of younger students that speak no English at all. This of course makes teaching them more challenging on the one hand, but wildly fun on the other.
Three thoughts:
*I imagine you will have much less trouble communicating with these children than you might expect. They are super observant and absorbent at this age, and through gestures, drawings, and the limited Hungarian you might possess, you will manage to get things across to them. There will certainly be things you tell them that they won't understand at all, and there will be things they tell you that you won't have the slightest clue about. But their enthusiasm mixed with yours will drive most of your communication.
*You can also enlist one of your advanced students to help during your beginning classes. He can help you in translating anything you are unable to get across.
*With younger classes (6-9 year olds), I would encourage you to approach lesson planning in as fun and creative a way as you can. They're much less interested in learning English than they are in playing games and having fun. Don't fight these priorities. Rather than lead them through worksheets, and formal lessons, lead them in games and songs that center on English vocab. In my opinion, the most important thing you can accomplish as an LE teacher, ESPECIALLY with this age group, is to get your students excited about learning the language. The hard knowledge will follow.
I'm also quite impressed that you've been trying to learn Hungarian. You might need to be our tourguide through Budapest.
Thanks Jon, this helps a lot. I was actually thinking of bringing some worksheets along, but I guess I'll just discard that idea.
And also, you probably don't want me to be the guide (hahaha). I'll probaby get everyone lost... :D
Szia! It's great that you're preparing ahead of time, although there's only so much you can do without meeting your students.
As Jon said, expect to have some absolute beginners who won't understand anything beyond yes or no. It's best to have a more advanced student attend the first couple of these classes to help with the translation (you'll probably get a volunteer for this) but even if that's not a possibility, Jon is right that the children will understand more than you expect. The most important thing is to come up with the simplest way of communicating with them.
Good luck with the Hungarian! I know it's a super hard language, but even a few words and phrases will go a long way...
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