TEFL - A Lesson About Pig Farming

TEFL – A Lesson About Pig Farming Here’s a lesson all about pig farming – it’s delivered by an ex pig farmer (me) to a group of students eager to improve their second language – English. There is a basic framework here – you can adapt it to your job quite easily. As you read on, you only need to know that ‘George’ is a life sized ceramic pig, quite realistic, who would be around 7 or 8 kilos if he were real (he would smell and make a mess in that case too!).

Greeting. Ask class to ‘mingle’ (get out of their chairs and mix) for a couple of minutes and greet each other – in English, of course (this assumes a class that is a well established group, already getting used to relaxing into their second language). “Hello”; “How are you?”; “How do you do?” and so on, with appropriate responses. Call everyone back to their seats, and ask for ‘family news’ – i.e. what students have been up to between English lessons. Use this information as the basis for question and answer discussion.

Brief presentation. Me as a pig farmer (or whatever you, the teacher, used to do for a living). Show slides/ pictures and give a few basic facts about the job and the industry. Invite students to ‘meet George’, bringing him out from hiding. Use this technique to reveal something tangible related to your old / other job – a model car if you were in the automotive sector, for example; a uniform for an ex service person; use your imagination! Back to George: use your ‘prop’ to encourage students to ask questions and find out more about you and the job – how many pigs did you have?; what was it like?; didn’t it smell bad? and so on. (If you’re interested: 200 sows, hard work and not so bad when you get used to it!).

Brainstorm. Get students into pairs and ask them to discuss what is good and what is not so good about being a pig farmer. After five minutes, ask for feedback and write words and phrases on the board. Revise new and familiar words, highlight today’s new words and tenses (I imagine that you will teach the past perfect tense in this lesson – you are talking about something that you did a few years or months ago)

Feedback. It’s always a good idea to review (briefly) any lesson with the students – what did they think of the style, content, lesson format? Use the feedback to improve your next session!

Article Source: http://www.content.onlypunjab.com

Andrew is a qualified TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teacher, with 15 years experience of the global Automotive Industry as a Sales manager with an International component and systems supplier. For more information about learning English with Andrew at his home in the UK, visit the Lets Talk 2 website.

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