Hey guys, hope you are all well...

As I have recently posted, I have started casual English lessons to some Turkish friends. My first student who told me in Turkish that his english was at a zero level actually turned out to speak and write English very well!! This has kind of thrown me off track as he seems to know everything in the book I was using as a guide and had planned my lessons around.

I´m thinking that a good way to teach him would be to find basic Turkish short stories/ text/ paragraphs which he would then be able to try and translate into English. I´m just struggling to find the right kind of material. I´ve been googling for over an hour but have had no luck!

Any help would be greatly appreciated. His next lesson is tomorrow!!

Thank You!!

Ceyda

 Sorry I´m a bit late in replying (as tomorrow is already today!). I haven´t got any links to exercises but how about you give him some sentences in Turkish to translate to English and then with those translated sentences, make a story. To make sure his word order is correct when joining English sentences together.

If not then you can be a bit more technical and explain English grammer so that he understands the structural rules that govern the composition of sentences.

Have a look at this site:

http://elt.oup.com/students/?cc=gb&selLanguage=en

There´s a number of exercises for different levels, age groups and purposes, based on the main Oxford University Press courses.

If you feel like breaking the law, you may try to download or buy a book and CDs and go through it with him. The method you´re suggesting is not very recommended by modern language teaching theories if implemented on its own. Book-based courses are easier to do because they integrate all skills - reading comprehension, writing, listening and speaking. I have found The New English File to be quite fun to do with both adults and secondary school students. If he already has some basic knowledge, I´d suggest starting with the intermediate level. If you´re looking for a course packed with words, I´d suggest Enterprise elementary or Upstream elementary - great coursebooks for demanding students who are focused on expanding their vocabulary

Thank you both of you.

And don´t worry, I wasn´t planning on using that technique only! The translation part is just a fraction of what I have planned.

Thanks again for your advice.

Ceyda