Section 2

Narrowing Down Where to Start

The following activities will enable tutors to bring some order and initial planning into what can seem like an overwhelming task. It also gives tutors some simple, informal assessment tools. Hopefully, this will help answer the question “What do I do first?”

This unit does not cover any formal assessment tools like Canadian Language Benchmarks. If you have tutors doing formal assessment or using information from formal assessments, you will need to add an extra section to this unit to cover your program’s approach.

Activity A

Survival language needs

This activity focuses on the basics of survival and should provide an anchor for lessons with beginner speakers and new immigrants who face a new culture and language. It will be most useful for learners who have minimal English skills, but its focus on learner needs will help tutors make lessons more relevant for all learners.

Reflection, discussion

Materials and equipment

Flip chart and markers

STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS

  1. Work with tutors to find a country in the world no one in the room has visited, where very few people speak English. Ask them to imagine themselves landing there to live and tell them, “You have to survive in this country. What are your immediate language needs?”
  2. Write their ideas on the flip chart. Try for 5 to 10 ideas. The list should have language needs around topics like housing, food, clothing, employment, socializing, health, education, religion, emergencies and so on. If you have more time, one person could be creating simple images on a large sheet of newsprint to provide a visual mural of life in the new country instead of a listing of topics.
  3. Point out that many ESL learners need to know this kind of survival language. Learning the language needs of their learners will help tutors plan lessons.