Teaching ESL Beginners: an ESL Teacher's Handbook

By Ieva Grauslys

You are a busy ESL teacher and sometimes you need the information right here, right now. And that's exactly what you get in Teaching Absolute Beginners: an ESL Teacher's Handbook- no-fluff, ready-to-utilize tips that will help you succeed in as little time as possible:

- the most important topics (including grammar, strategies, lesson planning and more) on how to teach absolute beginner ESL students covered in just 7 easy-to-read chapters

- tools that you can implement in the classroom right away (lesson plan templates, printable checklist)

- ideas that will help you collaborate with other teachers more effectively

- a resource page for both elementary and secondary English learners

- and more!

It is simple, straightforward and actionable and is meant for both ESL and mainstream teachers. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ieva Grauslys
• Release date: Nov 12, 2018

Book preview

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Dedication

For my mom

Skiriu mamai

Introduction

Language is among those topics that can cause passionate debates and raise more questions than an average person could answer. After all, it is our means of communicating our wins, losses, loves, hatreds and everything else in between that makes us human.

Learning to speak another language and/or teaching it are extremely important and rewarding; yet no easy feat.   Learning  and teaching a  language involves so much more than just grammar and sentence structures. It uncovers a completely new world for both the teacher and the student.  Teaching the language that you speak to others involves even more learning about your own background as well as opening up to that of your students.

How it all began…

Sometimes we go through experiences that literally pave the way for the rest of our lives. We may not know it at the time but, as they say, hindsight is always 20/20.  My experience, now that I am looking back at it, shook my world then and ignited my passion for teaching English learners .

I was born in Lithuania when it still was part of the Soviet Union. Lithuanian is my first language and Russian was required for all to know - speak it, read it a nd write it. I started learning English when I was in 5th grade and it quickly became one of my favorite subjects. Possibly because my dad, who was one of my first teachers of English, was extremely passionate about learning it. Possibly also because English was a gateway to a new world, a world that was more promising than the everyday behind the iron curtain.

Then,  at 15, I won a national English-language competition and 6 months of living and studying in the United States. And yes, this was THE experience that I mentioned at the very beginning - the one that shaped the course of my life. I was deposited in to a developed Western country from a tiny Baltic state that was recovering from Soviet PTSD. The culture shock was indescribable and the learning experience priceless.

I have since gotten my BA in English and a Master’s in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. Although teaching was not my initial course of action, I believe that we end up where we’re meant to be no matter how winding our road to it is.

So here I am, back in the States (after I’d sworn I’d never be able to live here), in my 12th year of teaching English to students who, much like me many moons ago, enter an American school with no idea what to expect and with little to no English knowledge to help them through it.  Still, every time a new student enters the school I work at, I always remember the feeling I had when I was 16 and   in the U.S.A. - totally overwhelmed but deep down knowing that I could do it. I had no idea how I would make it work but I hoped that the teachers would help me navigate.

I know you are the teacher who wants to help those students. The ones, who have come with families where both parents have some English knowledge and are able to help their child; the ones, who have come here following one parent in search of a better life; as well as the ones, who are the only ones in their family that understand the basics of English. And all of them trying to make sense of who they