The first English lesson is always a surprise

For your first English lesson with a new student you never know what you are going to get. It’s pointless preparing a lesson really, since you won’t see the student’s actual level until you meet them. The student might have told you that they have been studying English for seven years, but that doesn’t mean much. Some people know virtually nothing after seven years of English lessons!

Your new students’ actual level of English

Since you never know where your students are really at, I recommend giving students a language test in the first lesson. You’ll have concrete evidence of what they know. You can find free tests online. Here are three links, but you’ll find more if you search yourself. Copy and paste the links to go through to the page:

www.cambridgeenglish.org/test-your-english

www.ilsenglish.com/quicklinks/test-your-english-level

When a new student joins a class

If new students join your existing group, the golden rule is not to hold up the students already attending. Likewise, if a student misses a lesson, don’t go back over old ground and hold back those there before. Instead, when the new student joins, please give them a language test to complete alone while teaching your regulars something new. Then, in the second part of the lesson, you could ask the students to learn about each other with interviews. Work in pairs, find out as much as you can, and then present the other student to the class. It might happen that one of the students will interview and introduce you, which could be a nice thing to do in the first English lesson. Also, this type of multi-level activity allows more advanced students to use more language, while those with less ability can stick to questions at their level.

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Further reading

Check this blog for ideas on the first day of term.