I’ve taken on a private student using our lowest level adult textbook. He’s as close to an absolute beginner as I’ve encountered.
I’m talking basic expressions.
He gets through the content pretty quickly, which leaves me floundering.
I can always stretch out material with higher level students with apt expansion questions, free talk and/or extra free exercises that come to mind.
I’m really struggling with this particular student. I’ve tried very limited free talk, as I’ve established he understands “I like” “do you like?” but it’s not really getting me very far.
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You might say the fact that he’s getting through the material quickly means that he should be on a higher level text book, but he just bought the current textbook so that’s not happening any time soon.
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With absolute beginners, they need to be spoon-fed the vocabulary/grammatical structures to begin to make small talk. I use the first 10 to 15 minutes of the lesson to “perform” the same dialogue until they can actually have a conversation. For example, I’ll have the student practice talking about their schedule:
“What did you to today?”
“Work (probably pronounced “wah-ku” or maybe “bijinesu).”
[I smile, nod, praise the effort, then ask the student to Listen and Repeat the following]
“I worked.”
“I worked.”
“I worked at my office.”
“I worked at my office.”
“I worked at my office today.”
“I worked at my office today.”
I’ll drill the same dialogue for as many lessons as are necessary until the student has mastered that facet of small talk and can naturally conduct the snippet of conversation without support/repetition. From then on, every single lesson will start with the mastered small talk, followed by practicing a new q&a (maybe “what are you plans for you day off?”), finally followed by the textbook lesson. In this way, we’ll eventually be able to chat normally and the lessons will become a bit less tedious.
I always prepare supplemental material based on what’s in the textbook: dialogues, cloze exercises, review of the previous chapters. This is good because it gets the student out of the textbook.
I probably won’t express this well enough, but except for the capacity to think about the world, it’s a bit like dealing with a kindergartner. That is to say, someone who doesn’t understand you, but really wants to engage and possibly get cookies. Apply the KISS principle with a vengeance.
A warmup, like:
What’s your name? My name is so-and-so./I’m so-and-so. And you? Nice to meet you.
Where do you live? I live in town-name. (Graduate to things like “Near the shopping center” later.)
How are you?
When’s your birthday?
I’ve got all my kindergartners accustomed to answering such questions as “May I erase this?” and “May I go to the bathroom?” Some have reached the ability to ask those questions themselves. And also have become comfortable asking, “How do I say that in English?”
I’ve also gotten them used to saying dramatically, “I don’t know!” I always tell them they can say that ANYtime. This is a thing hard for most adults to remember. It’s perfectly fine to say “I don’t know!” (and with adults, you can probably sneak in, “I don’t remember.”)
Do they have motivation to study at home? If yes give some assignments especially writing diary or sentences incorporating new words.
If no, they will likely improve very little so just print out some simple past worksheets or something. During the worksheet. Ask the student to make their own sentences using the new forms
One thing I used to do was write up vocab they’d already covered on the board.
Get the student to ask a question using the vocab (correct them as necessary) as a conversation starter and keep it going as long as you can (teaching mini-points along the way for how they can answer and continue the conversation). Erase the word from the board once it’s been used.
Repeat until time is up / all the words have been erased from the board.
How many have you got and how serious are they?
I find a lot of adults are doing it as a hobby but want ‘adult content’ that’s gonna be relevant to them. Thus, you might do alright if you simply bring along a magazine or something and go through it. That or a textbook (e.g. the Cambridge or something).
It’s hard to give advice without knowing what you’re doing with the book. For example, are you just following the text exercises one by one?
Instead of doing that, look outside the book and find other materials to supplement it, such as websites, flashcards, make your own dialogs, role plays, and think of multiple situations/functions for the language and expand on it.
As an example, don’t just go over and over “do you like” – you can add “do you prefer” “I like a little/very much” “I don’t like/hate” “I like … because…” – there’s a lot you can do with even that simple concept.
Think beyond grammar – there’s also listening, discourse structure (e.g., how to explain reasons for something), pragmatics (hate is a strong word; use “don’t really like” or “prefer” to be polite) strategic competency (at that level learning to circumlocute/explain when you don’t have vocab is important) and so on. Maybe also do some reading, if s/he’s keen. And, of course, pronunciation – no doubt at beginner level is when they need that the most. E.g., individual phonemes like l/r, syllables (you could spend multiple entire lessons teaching him not to add extra vowels at the ends of words), stress, intonation …
Teachers, especially new teachers, tend to think of grammar and grammar only, but there is far, fare more to teach than that.
Tell him to give answers in japanese and then translate for him. Then teach those answers. More interesting for him I would think.
Vocab based on an interest. Car parts. Computer parts. Cinema genres. Then make relevant conversation practice based on the interest.
I like showing how reading rules with English have a minor loose connection with reading rules with kanji.
IN THE SENSE THAT if you take the kanji for Tama, but you want the word for a marble, now it’s ‘dama’. Well, if you take ‘igh’ and put it together, it’s going to be read like ‘eye’. It’s fun to look at reading and writing and it can give agency to someone to be self sufficient.
Reading and writing practice is criminally underutilized with any second language study anywhere you go.
‘Getting through doesn’t mean he can produce it & there is no such thing as small talk with beginners. Review, review, review. Try some dictation of questions or sentences with the last lesson’s vocab or phrases. Turn writing & reading into listening & speaking. Take turns asking & answering. Even a spelling test can be useful listening & pronunciation practice. For the last 5 minutes of a lesson, get him to recall new language from earlier that lesson. Spend a significant amount of time repeating & reviewing in between the new material. Adult learners need to build confidence through mastery which only comes through repeated opportunities to use what they are learning.