ack. help me pretend I can teach ESL!

[nevermore]

well, I thought I was going to sleep, but I’m too nervous.

Sunday I have an info session/group interview with AEON, one of the teach-English-in-Japan programs that recruits directly from the States. One of the requirements for the interview is as follows:

*Five minute teaching demonstration. An applicant must submit a 15-minute lesson plan and present a 5-minute portion to the group. The lesson should be for just one level of student: beginner, intermediate or advanced. Other applicants will act as students.

OBJECTIVE: In a creative and interactive manner teach a lesson focusing on English conversation. SUGGESTIONS: Pattern practice exercises, American customs/culture, educational games and activities, etc. (We recommend that you consult your library or ESL sources for ideas and techniques.)*

insert inner freaking here. I’ve never taught anything before, and have basically no clue as to how to go about preparing a lesson plan. but, I plan on giving it my best shot, so I’m brainstorming for ideas.

I was thinking it might be easy and fun to teach about how to give/ask for directions. I remember it taking us like two days to get that down in Japanese, so I figure I can take up at least 15 minutes with that. I thought I could start with some basic directions-related vocabulary (including pictures to illustrate left, right, straight, traffic light, bridge, street, etc), and then maybe I could have like a little drawing with various places of interest, like a movie theater, a park, a coffee shop, and so on. then I could have the “students” first try to interpret directions I give them to get to the right place, see if they can give me directions to various places, and finally have them roleplay in groups of two as direction giver and receiver.

what do you all think? does that sound like it has the potential to be a decent demonstration?

also, does that sound like it would be considered intermediate, or advanced? should I incorporate any Japanese into the lesson, or just make extensive use of pictures? suggestions, comments, thoughts, help from AEONers, anything? hell, I don’t even know what kind of visual aids to bring-- I have no idea whether there’ll be an overhead, or a chalkboard, or if I’ll just have to use posterboard and paper.

so… yeah, I feel pretty overwhelmed. I hope I’m not going about this completely wrong. any input or criticism at all, positive or negative or anywhere in between, would be much much appreciated. thanks for reading.

[Sublight]

@nevermore

I was thinking it might be easy and fun to teach about how to give/ask for directions. I remember it taking us like two days to get that down in Japanese, so I figure I can take up at least 15 minutes with that. I thought I could start with some basic directions-related vocabulary (including pictures to illustrate left, right, straight, traffic light, bridge, street, etc), and then maybe I could have like a little drawing with various places of interest, like a movie theater, a park, a coffee shop, and so on. then I could have the “students” first try to interpret directions I give them to get to the right place, see if they can give me directions to various places, and finally have them roleplay in groups of two as direction giver and receiver.

First of all, good luck! We can always use more Japan dopers!

Second, remember that everyone in Japan studies English in school for six years, so don’t worry about spending too much time teaching vocabulary or grammar. The eikaiwa students are there to learn real-world usage.

Your example above is exactly the lesson I used many times back when I was teaching. I’d sketch a set of streets (no fancy curves or dead ends, just a 3x3 or 4x4 grid), give the students the essential vocabulary (first teach the words “intersection” and “signal”, then phrases like “How do I get to the X?” and “go to the second intersection and turn left”), while using the map to show exactly what I mean. I’d then put a bunch of locations on the map (school, station, restaurant, etc.) and then ask the students “ok, we’re at the school now. How do I get to the station?”, and then, as they tell me where to go, draw the path I’d take so they can see when they make a mistake and correct themselves. After doing that a few times, I’d have the students ask each other for directions.

I doubt you’d have time to do it in a 15-minute demo, but a good additional exercize would be to set up a situation where only one student knows the location of something, and has to describe to another student how to find it (which the other student then must do). This ensures that the student who’s asking has to pay attention, since otherwise they tend to tune out and only focus on remembering to say “thank you very much” when the directing student stops talking.

Depending on how involved you make it and how many variations you give, it could be appropriate for beginner or intermediate students. For advanced students, you could have them try to make out the directions a native speaker might give (“go down three or four blocks, hang a left on sixth, and it’s across from the 7-11.”) Generally, advanced classes are more like free conversation, so I ask the students to tell me about themselves and then try to sieze on something that I can get them to keep talking about. Really easy with some students, painfull hard with others.

Good luck!