What is the best way to teach English as a second language?

Question

A co-worker has asked me to teach him English so he can eventually pursue his goal of business ownership, but I am not sure where or how to begin. He speaks Spanish, but knows a little English.

I need some tips or advice on how to start this process. Also, any information on lesson plans, quizzes, etc. would be amazingly helpful and appreciated! Thank you!

Answer 1

Well, I'm from Latin America, so my language is spanish.  I went to a public school so we didn't have enough hours of english per week.  What I did to learn more english by myself was reading.  First, with little articles, written in English, and every time I didn't know the meaning of a word I used to run to my dictionary to looking for the meaning in spanish.  Other thing you could do is seeing with your friend a movie, not a one with a very complicated plot, perhaps something like Spiderman.  And let your friend see it first in Spanish.  Then he must see the movie in English but now in English and with the English caption.  He can write down the phrases he doesn't know, and everytime he sees a new phrase he can write down.  What else ? Let's see... You give your friend a list of related words, for example: Things you get in a supermarket.  You make a picture of every item so he can relate it to the word.  Of course, he must repeat and memorize every word so if you go to the supermarket and you ask him: what it is? he could answer you: It is a can of beans.

Also teach him simple phrases like: Good morning, Can I help you?, How much does it costs?, and so

One of my teacher's favorite method was that he assigned me to learn a song in english.  Of course a song I loved more.  Once I got the lyrics I used to translate them in to spanish, phrase by phrase.  Then by hearing the song I learned how to pronounce the words.  You could help him with this, too.

Finally, if you could get a text book to learn english, it would be great.  Right now I don't have the name of one of my favorite english books.  But there must be a lot of them.  They used to be totally in english and the way to learn from them is following all the activities.

Good Luck!!!

Perhaps ther is a lot of my english I have to improve, but I am still learning with all this things I have mentioned.

Answer 2

Tell him to get rosetta stone..its expensive but definitely worth it..believe me

Answer 3

Do not go by a textbook ! I speak 3 languages and I can honestly tell you from personal experience that the best way to learn a language is to learn the culture and immerse yourself in it. Start with describing everyday things around the office (aka Practical Use) so that he is able to put a visual image from his everyday life to a saying/sentence/word etc. It may sound condescending, but this is how most children learn their first words. Also, try to encourage him to say easier phrases in English (Hi, How are you) so that the easier things become more natural to him and he can progress from there.