How to Teach Beginners English: 13 Fundamentals You Need to Use

Summary

In this video, Chris Westergard from the Language House introduces a series on teaching beginners English, highlighting his 'Five Points' methodology. He emphasizes the unique challenges of teaching at this level and shares 13 fundamental principles for effective instruction. These include setting clear language goals, being charismatic, assuming students know nothing, minimizing teacher talk, using visuals, eliciting responses, speaking slowly, focusing on language usage, teaching language chunks, correcting errors, teaching contractions from day one, and emphasizing the importance of drilling and practice. The video aims to equip teachers with strategies to make beginner-level classes productive and engaging.

Takeaways

• 📝 Develop a clear language goal for the lesson, focusing on 3-5 questions that beginners can ask and answer.
• 🌟 Charisma is essential for engaging beginners and reducing anxiety, requiring a friendly demeanor and a playful attitude.
• 🚫 Assume beginners know nothing and elicit every word and phrase to avoid confusion and ensure comprehension.
• 🔒 Limit teacher talk time (TTT) and use only the necessary words and phrases that will be used in the final conversation.
• 🎨 Utilize visuals extensively, including props, drawings, and miming, to teach without relying on complex language explanations.
• 🔍 Elicit everything from the students to ensure they are following along and understanding the lesson.
• 🔉 Speak slowly and naturally to accommodate the slower processing speed of beginners.
• 📉 Teach less to avoid overwhelming beginners; focus on the essential language needed for their end-of-lesson goal.
• 🏪 Teach language chunks to provide beginners with useful phrases that can be easily combined and practiced.
• 🔄 Correct beginners frequently to establish a strong language foundation and encourage correct usage from the start.
• 👌 Start teaching contractions from day one to mimic natural English and improve the sound of beginners' speech.
• 🔨 Drill and practice language points extensively to ensure beginners can correctly use new language in various contexts.

Q & A

What is the main focus of Chris Westergard's video series?

The main focus of Chris Westergard's video series is teaching true beginners using an effective methodology he created called 'The Five Points'.

Why did Chris Westergard develop 'The Five Points' methodology?

Chris Westergard developed 'The Five Points' methodology after teaching hundreds of hours at the beginner level and observing what worked and what didn’t work in numerous teachers' classes.

What is the first video in the series about?

The first video in the series is about the 13 fundamentals that an English teacher needs to successfully teach at the beginner level.

How important is charisma when teaching beginners, according to Chris Westergard?

According to Chris Westergard, charisma is very important when teaching beginners. Teachers need to show big smiles, friendly gestures, and maintain a playful attitude to alleviate students' anxiety and apprehension.

Why does Chris suggest assuming beginners know nothing?

Chris suggests assuming beginners know nothing because it helps prevent confusion and anxiety. Teachers should pre-teach and elicit every word and phrase that appears in the lesson.

What is the significance of keeping Teacher Talk Time (TTT) low in beginner classes?

Keeping TTT low is significant in beginner classes because beginners do not understand much English. Excessive teacher talk can quickly overwhelm and confuse them, so teachers should only speak when necessary using simple, essential language.

Why is it important to use visuals, props, and miming in beginner classes?

It is important to use visuals, props, and miming in beginner classes because these methods help convey meaning without relying on language, which beginners may not understand.

What does Chris mean by 'chunking' in language teaching?

By 'chunking', Chris means teaching useful phrases or sentence structures that have a lot of utility, allowing students to practice a wide range of language within a simple framework.

What is Chris Westergard’s stance on error correction for beginners?

Chris Westergard believes in correcting beginners' errors frequently to ensure they use correct structures from the start. This builds a solid foundation and boosts their confidence in speaking correctly.

Why does Chris advocate for teaching contractions from day one?

Chris advocates for teaching contractions from day one because contractions are used in natural English, and teaching them early helps beginners sound more natural and fluent.

What is the importance of drilling and studying in teaching beginners?

Drilling and studying are crucial in teaching beginners because they need extensive practice to internalize vocabulary, grammar structures, and language use. Repeated practice helps solidify their understanding and ability to use the language effectively.

What are some techniques Chris Westergard plans to cover in video number two of the series?

In video number two, Chris Westergard plans to cover the specific lesson structure and detailed techniques of his 'Five Points' methodology, focusing on how to build up students' language skills systematically.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Introduction to Teaching Beginners

Chris Westergard from the Language House introduces a series on teaching beginners in English. He presents his methodology, 'The Five Points,' which he developed through extensive teaching experience and observation. The first video focuses on the fundamental approach needed for teaching beginners, emphasizing the importance of a clear language goal for the class, charisma, and the assumption that students know nothing. He encourages viewers to subscribe and mentions the Language House's TEFL certification course in Prague for those interested in teaching abroad.

05:02

🌟 Essential Teaching Fundamentals for Beginners

The second paragraph delves into the specifics of teaching beginners, highlighting the need for minimal teacher talk and the use of visuals, props, and miming to aid understanding. Chris stresses the importance of eliciting information from students to ensure comprehension and the necessity of slowing down speech. He also advises to teach less content to avoid overwhelming students and to focus on language chunks for practical usage. The paragraph underscores the significance of error correction and teaching contractions from the first day to establish a solid foundation in English.

10:04

🔨 Drilling and Practice: Key to Effective Learning

In the third paragraph, Chris discusses the importance of extensive drilling and practice for beginners. He criticizes the common mistake of not dedicating enough time to this aspect of learning, which he believes is crucial for students to correctly pronounce, identify, write, and spell new words. He emphasizes the need for repeated practice in forming statements and questions, and the necessity of revisiting and reinforcing learned material until it is firmly established.

15:05

👋 Conclusion and Upcoming Video Preview

The final paragraph serves as a conclusion to the video, thanking viewers for their attention and expressing gratitude for choosing to watch amidst the plethora of entertainment options available. Chris teases the upcoming second video in the series, promising a detailed walkthrough of the 'Five Points' methodology, providing an in-depth look at his approach to teaching beginners.

Keywords

💡Methodology

Methodology refers to a system of methods and principles applied in a particular field. In the context of the video, it is the specific approach developed by Chris Westergard for teaching English to true beginners, known as 'The Five Points.' This methodology is crucial as it guides the teacher on how to effectively engage and educate beginners, ensuring that the teaching is productive and not overwhelming for the students.

💡Beginner Level

The term 'Beginner Level' in language learning denotes the initial stage where learners have little to no knowledge of the language. The video emphasizes the unique challenges and strategies required for teaching at this level, such as simplifying language, using visuals, and focusing on elicitation to ensure comprehension and engagement.

💡Charisma

Charisma, in an educational context, refers to the personal charm and appeal of a teacher that can positively influence the learning environment. The video highlights the necessity of charisma when teaching beginners, as it helps to alleviate anxiety and create a welcoming atmosphere conducive to learning.

💡Elicitation

Elicitation is the process of drawing out information or responses from students. In the video, it is mentioned as a key strategy for teaching beginners, where the teacher guides students to produce language forms or vocabulary that they may already know or can infer from the context, thus enhancing their confidence and understanding.

💡Visuals

Visuals encompass any visual aids used in teaching, such as props, drawings, or miming. The script emphasizes the importance of visuals in teaching beginners, as they help to convey meaning without relying on complex language explanations, making the learning process more accessible.

💡Language Goal

A language goal is a specific objective that a teacher sets for a lesson, defining what the students should be able to do by the end of the class. In the video, Chris Westergard explains that for beginners, this often means being able to ask and answer a set of three to five questions, which is a clear and achievable target for the lesson.

💡Error Correction

Error correction is the process of identifying and correcting mistakes made by language learners. The video discusses the importance of error correction in the early stages of language learning, suggesting that it helps to establish a solid foundation and encourages students to communicate more confidently.

💡Language Chunks

Language chunks, or 'chunking,' refers to the practice of teaching phrases or groups of words that commonly appear together. The video script mentions this as an effective way to teach beginners, as it allows them to learn useful language patterns without getting bogged down in complex grammar rules.

💡Contractions

Contractions are shortened forms of words, such as 'I'm' for 'I am.' The video advocates for teaching contractions from the very beginning of English language instruction, as they are a natural part of spoken English and help beginners sound more fluent.

💡Drilling

Drilling in language teaching involves repetitive practice of specific language forms or vocabulary to reinforce learning. The script emphasizes the importance of extensive drilling for beginners, as it helps them to internalize new language structures and use them accurately.

💡TEFL Certification

TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification is a qualification for teaching English to non-native speakers. The video script mentions a TEFL certification course offered by the Language House, which is designed to prepare individuals to teach English abroad, even without prior teaching experience.

Highlights

Introduction to a series on teaching beginners in English by Chris Westergard from the Language House.

The Five Points methodology developed for teaching true beginners based on extensive teaching experience and observation.

The importance of having a clear language goal for the lesson and knowing the exact phrases and tenses to be taught.

The necessity of charisma in teaching beginners to overcome apprehension and anxiety.

The strategy of assuming beginners know nothing to avoid confusion and anxiety.

The advice to hardly ever speak in class to prevent overwhelming beginners with too much language.

Utilizing visuals, props, and miming to teach beginners instead of relying on language-heavy explanations.

The emphasis on eliciting everything from the students to ensure they are following along.

The suggestion to slow down voice and speech when teaching beginners to aid comprehension.

The recommendation to teach less in order to focus on the essential language needed for the lesson's end goal.

Teaching language chunks or useful phrases to simplify language learning for beginners.

The argument for error correction in beginner classes to establish a strong language foundation.

The importance of teaching contractions from the first day to mimic natural English usage.

The necessity of extensive drilling, studying, and practicing with beginners to solidify language skills.

The upcoming detailed explanation of the Five Points methodology in the next video.

Invitation to subscribe for more content and information about the Language House's TEFL certification course.

Transcripts

hello everybody it's Chris westergard

from the language house welcome to my

series on

teaching beginners in this series I'm

going to show you how to teach true

beginners using an effective methodology

that I created called The Five Points I

developed this after teaching hundreds

of hours in this level but more

importantly from watching dozens if not

hundreds of teachers teach beginners and

really sussing out what was working and

what was not working and putting it all

together into a specific methodology

geared for beginners we're going to be

covering that methodology in video

number two but this first video is all

about your approach essentially 13

fundamentals that you need as an English

teacher to be able to successfully teach

at the beginner level if you like this

content and you like what we're doing

please do me a solid and click the

Subscribe button it helps a lot and for

those interested in teaching abroad do

check out our tefl certification course

the language house we run a fantastic

four-week course in Prague you can train

with me and the rest of the language

health staff you don't need any teaching

experience we've trained about three to

four thousand teachers on our program

and we can help you out too so with that

let's um let's get into video number one

with beginners

the fundamentals I love teaching

beginners I love this level but if you

don't know what you're doing it can be

incredibly unproductive and awkward for

everyone teaching beginners is a

completely different animal than any

other level out there and it really

requires a different approach and

mindset to make it work most native

English speakers never even set foot

into a true beginner class and I would

imagine that the majority of tefl

training and tefl certification courses

out there don't even touch this level

and that makes a lot of sense because

it's difficult beginners might even be

my favorite level because it really

tests the skills of the teacher from

lesson planning to TTT to eliciting and

drilling to graded language and lesson

structures you really have to have

everything keyed in to make it work and

when you do make it work when you take

someone who speaks hardly any English

and in 45 minutes or 60 Minutes get them

to the point where they can communicate

back and forth with another student with

statements and questions and responses

it truly is something incredible and my

goal My Hope

for this series is that you too can have

the same wonderful experiences that I

had at this level without any further

delays let's go over the 13 fundamentals

that you need to teach beginners

effectively

principle number one is that I need to

know exactly what I want my students to

be able to do by the end of the lesson

so this is kind of coming up with a

language goal for the specific class and

with beginners what this generally looks

like for me is about three to five

questions that they will be able to ask

and answer with each other we're going

to talk about this more in video number

two when we go over the specific lesson

structure but knowing this like knowing

the exact words and the exact phrases

and the exact tenses

is crucial because everything that I do

from the beginning of the lesson is

going to teach up to this final Point

once again we'll talk about this a lot

more in video number two when we go over

the specifics of the Five Points next

fundamental is that Charisma is a must

yes of course you need to be charismatic

in all of your levels but beginners is

going to require a lot more so you need

to up that dramatically we're talking

about big smiles friendly gestures and

part of the reason for this is that

adult beginners there's usually a lot

more apprehension and anxiety when they

come into the classroom and this can be

compounded if you don't speak their

language or if you're choosing not to

speak they're L1 you really want to show

the students through your body language

and through the way that you interact

with them that you're a friendly person

that you care about them and almost be a

little bit playful with it I don't think

that you need to teach beginners like

their children I don't know if that

works but a little bit of a playfulness

and a fun attitude really works a lot

better with this level than it does with

say some of your higher level students

where it might not be as necessary

assume they know nothing not a zero

English you'll do yourself a favor by

making this assumption so many teachers

enter into their beginner class and they

just use a lot of extra language or they

assume that their students know some of

the vocab that is naturally showing up

in sentences or worksheets or everything

else and the problem with this is that

it's really easy to go over a beginner's

head quickly and when you do that it

leads to a lot of anxiety and worry and

apprehension the way that I solve this

is I really just assume that they know

nothing so every single word that shows

up in my lesson whether it's in a

sentence or in a question I elicit it

and I pre-teach it and I go over it

before I just put it up there the next

fundamental is

hardly ever speak beginners don't

understand anything your TTT is going to

kill you in the class with beginners

like you've never seen before a

pre-intermediate student or an

intermediate student obviously like

upper intermediate students yeah they

can handle a lot of that extra language

they can handle that TTT beginners can't

you can't go into a class and just start

talking and you really need to only

speak

when it's necessary and I would also

recommend only use the words and the

phrases for the most part that are

showing up in your final conversation so

for example if I'm teaching the word by

and they're going to be using that in

their final dialogue I don't want to use

the word get or shop or purchase if

those words are not coming up if I just

randomly use those you know just like

out of habit switching the words up

they're going to get really confused so

TTT you need to keep it low and you

really need to practice this in advance

build up your language statements slowly

I'll start with words and then I'll

teach the statements and then we'll work

on the questions to the statements and

eventually all of this slowly gets built

up to the point when students have a lot

of experience and practice with both the

questions and the answers and they will

be able to ask each other in real time

these statements but it needs to be done

in a very slow and meticulous way when

I'm teaching I'm going to be using a lot

of visuals this is going to be realia

props drawing pictures miming Etc try to

stay away from contextual explanations

or definitions or teaching that involves

a lot of language because they don't

have that language pool if you try to

explain a word using L2 it's likely

they're not really going to be able to

understand what you're saying because

all of the other words in the sentence

are confusing and as mentioned with

beginners once they get a little bit

anxious they tend to kind of stop

immediately so when you're teaching it's

all visuals it's all props it's all

miming elicit everything everything

needs to be elicited with a beginner

class there's a lot of different reasons

for this but one of their main ideas

behind it is that it you kind of like

take them with you as you're pulling

information out and if I'm not a

listening it's really easy for beginners

to get confused so I will try to elicit

everything the words grammatical

structures instructions like whatever I

can do to make sure that they're on the

same page as me so elicit whenever you

can teachers with beginners you're going

to really want to slow down your voice

of course you're not going to want to

talk that much at all but when you do

talk you have to slow it down you can't

speak to them like you would a B1

student you have to go like half speed

basically and for a lot of English

teachers we never really get practice

speaking at a slow level so I want

everyone to try to speak like this

you'll speak slowly but you'll also

speak in a natural way so that students

don't think

you have a problem or something right

work on the speed slow it down speaking

of teaching teach less try not to teach

so much I think this is one of the

biggest mistakes that a lot of teachers

make when they're teaching this level

many teachers get up in a beginner class

and they do a whole plethora of

different words or potentially grammar

points but the problem with that is that

it doesn't go anywhere what you want

again is to remember those three to five

questions and answers and those

statements that they're going to be

doing at the end and only teach what's

necessary for the most part for them to

complete that everything that I teach at

the beginning of the lesson should flow

through the entire lesson and we should

see it at the end too don't go up there

and teach dozens of vocab it's just

going to confuse your students again

basic principle focus on usage next

principle teach language chunks also

known as chunking I think it's a strange

name essentially what this is these are

useful phrases that have a lot of

utility and they allow students to learn

and practice a tremendous amount of

language without having to go over too

many like difficult structures so case

in point

I will blank tomorrow right like basic

future and the question for that would

be will you blank tomorrow and they can

say yes I will or no I won't but that

alone is an easy way of teaching the

future and you can see all of the

different utility if you change the

actual verbs that they may or may not be

doing and then the times it might be

tomorrow it might be next week it might

be next year but even in a short amount

of time you can teach and practice a

tremendous amount of language that your

students will find useful when they

leave the classroom

next fundamental error correct your

students a lot wait this is a

contentious idea with a lot of Educators

with many Educators feeling that you

shouldn't error correct beginners too

much because it kind of stifles their

confidence and their ability to

experiment and my own experience and my

own philosophy is that this is simply

not true if you can error correct

correctly do it do it a lot because this

is the time when we're developing a base

and if we can get the students to use

the right structures in the beginning

it's a great platform for them to move

forward and what I've seen personally is

that when students know that they're

saying it correctly they tend to speak

more you know they tend to communicate

more they tend to feel better about

their own use of English because they

know that it's right and if they don't

think that they're speaking correctly or

if they think that they're speaking in

poor grammar they don't want to

communicate as much so my own philosophy

with error correction is correct a lot

get it right in the beginning and that

will save you a lot of time down the

road when you have to break up these

mistakes again teach contractions on day

one this is kind of like what we talked

about with error correction with a lot

of teachers not really even teaching or

pushing contractions I personally

disagree I think you should be teaching

contractions to your beginners at day

one so I might write up something like I

am Chris but then I'll immediately use

I'm and I'll get them to do it for any

contraction that will come up in the

lesson part of the reason for this is

that we use contractions in natural

English so why wouldn't you teach that

to beginners right in the beginning and

number two it sounds a lot better and

you'll be amazed that when you push

contractions they immediately just sound

much better so push contractions right

in the beginning

final one is that it are we done with

the 13 fundamentals last one is to drill

and study to death if you look at

irregular activation set up like an Esa

setup for a an intermediate or an

advanced student you'll have like your

intro phase right and then you'll have

your study phase and then you'll have

your activation or your production phase

and those levels you really don't need a

tremendous amount of study right like

especially with Advanced students like

you can briefly go over something even

if you want to do that and they can go

right into an activation your beginners

are going to require a tremendous amount

of drilling studying practice whatever

you want to call it well

I'll go over these techniques and video

number two but the biggest mistake that

I see with new teachers is they don't

spend enough time practicing the

material students need to be able to say

the word correctly to identify the word

correctly they need to be able to write

and spell the word correctly then they

need a lot of practice in being able to

form statements

with the word you know and then they

need to practice

the question and asking the question and

then asking the question and then giving

the statement and then asking multiple

questions and giving multiple statements

and working on the negative and all of

these other things and if you don't

spend time

like a lot of time practicing this it

all falls apart and I think this is

where a lot of teachers make the most

mistakes so I always say drill to death

Practice Things To Death study things to

death

and when it's dead do it again right so

thanks again everyone for paying

attention to video number one I'm always

amazed that you watch these videos with

like Lord of the Rings out there and

Game of Thrones and all these other

great shows you're watching me it's an

honor we're going to be heading into

video number two in a week or so I'll

try to get it done soon where we'll be

going through the Five Points so I'm

going to take you through like every

single thing that I do with a beginner

lesson but these points these

fundamentals

are really important so see ya