teaching english to a german child

[admylin]

hi I live in Germany and my sons best friends mum has asked if I would teach him some english and she wants to pay for proper lessons on a regular basis. My problem is, I have never taught english and definately not to a 7 year old, any tips or books I could use to get started? I have offered a trial run to see if it works. I know loads of parents are willing to pay for private lessons here as they start english early in the 1st year.
I often do proofreading of english work for students at the university but even then some times I correct things but can't explain it, they just have to accept! (mostly they are scientists so they are not interested in learning english just in getting their papers published!)

Not a good idea unless you are trained in thisfield and esp. not with friends/acquaintances.

You could do a TEFL course (teaching English as a Foreign language)

Hijack

Sut mae Pixie? You ok?

Friend of mine has done this in Switzerland. They do a lot of word and board games, cooking, go for walks and collect/see things, arts and craft activities all to bring in basic vocabulary like colours, numbers, animals, transport. There are some Usborne materials in English and German which may provide a starting point.

However unless you are trained to teach anyway I think you may quickly find limitations. He may benefit from being spoken to exclusively in English for a session or two a week or he may just get bored.

That was exactly what I thought when she asked me to teach her child, I think speaking a language does not qualify you to teach it! Even here in Germany I am always trying to improve my german but when I ask friends why they say something in such and such a way, they can't explain it. I have never really wanted to do teaching - thanks! Our children have learnt German by the "throwing in at the deep end" method. I just sent them to kindergarten and they picked it up day for day!

We lived in the south of Germany for a while which was really a nightmare but now we are in Berlin for 2 years then we have hope of getting a job in UK or USA butI would be willing to go anywhere really ..especially when you see your kids aren't happy.
Yes I know their english books are wrong too! My son had to sit through english lessons at school (german state school) and he would come home and say he didn't like it because he couldn't do the funny accent and he had to correct his teacher when she read something wrong which he felt uncomfortable about!! There is a welcome book from the berlin rathaus available in english, it is so full of wrongly or word for word translated english I prefered to read the original german version!!

Oh boy Adymlin, this is what I'm dreading! My daughter starts school in Berlin this year. I'm sending her to a local Catholic school because I wasn't impressed with the state bilingual schools. She'll have to sit through English classes in year 3. It seems mad. I was hoping they would allow me to pay for a private tutor to come and do something with her when the class has those lessons but they said it wouldn't be possible, there wouldn't be a room she could go to and maybe she could "assist" the teacher and wouldn't it be nice for her to have a subject that she would be so good at (!)

If you do want to try and teach kids, maybe have a google for Helen Doron who has a method. You pay to learn it and get the material, then pay a franchise for the right to use it. If you don't want to do it, get your friend to contact the John-F-Kennedy Association in Steglitz, they offer English for beginners for German kids as well as activities in English. There is also a school in Mitte which does the same - yoga in English etc and one in Charlottenburg called LingoLive (guitar, sport, baking in English).

I wouldn't fancy teaching small children myself. I would also think they learn best in a group with other little kids.

admylin/sssandy, I would be so cross with the school if they'd expect my kid to 'assist' the teacher! Are they going to pay a salary for that???

I'm German living in the UK btw :) and dd (4) speaks fluent English with the odd german word interspersed.

Admylin, as for 'teaching' your ds's best friend... My friend teaches for Berlitz (grown ups) and basically the whole lesson is in German, no English/hebrew spoken at all if it can be avoided.
so I would say to the mum, that you would be more than happy to have him round and speak only English with/in front of him with some easy flashcards games, and activities etc. but not to teach him 'properly' as you don't feel qualified. That way she can't take offense :)

I think as long as a kid gets exposed to the language that's the important thing.

Mrs Big,
Hi there! I suppose you can't expect a school to change their curriculum because your child is a native speaker of the language all kids have to start learning in year 3. Probably I was just being unrealistic to assume they could make some kind of an exception. Dd says she does not want to help the teacher, but she may see things differently by the time she's 9. I hope to get her into a gymnasium for year 4 so it will only be one year.

My idea is to make the best of it, since I can't change the situation. I plan to offer an English club for my dd's class once a week, where I read to them in English, teach them a song or two, bake biscuits, maybe watch an easy dvd with sub-titles together, that kind of thing. It will help them progress with their English and stop dd being held back too much, I'm hoping the teacher will appreciate my efforts and help me push dd a bit.

I'm thinking I'll spend time teaching her how to write English essays at that point. So she'll have to sit through "I am, you are" lessons, but I'll see to it that she isn't held back.