ESL material for children

May 30, 2007 1:47 AM

Where can I find material for young (7-9 yo) ESL students online?

I teach ESL to the boss' daughter and neighbor for an hour every month... generally speaking, the time doesn't exactly fly by. Good material helps - their level of English is quite low so at this point the idea is just to get them used to hearing English and asking/responding to basic questions via a fun medium like drawing/coloring. Does anyone know of any sites where I could find this material?

posted by mateuslee to Education (4 answers total)

Are you doing this in an English-speaking country/environment? If so, I wonder if you could supplement your time (which seems pretty short, actually) with some trips out into the community, like to the zoo, where she'd see all the names of the animals on signs, or perhaps to the movies.

That said, I've taught some 8 year olds in an ESL environment in Indonesia, and they love - LOVE - stories that they make up, color, and then explain to me. This was in a group/class setting, though, so it might be a good idea to perhaps color with her and talk about what she's drawing ("What's that? Who's this?"), and ask her to ask you about your drawing too.

There are a few English/ESL teachers here, so perhaps someone else has some other ideas, and the volumes of posts categorized as "writing and language" have some good tips too. Good luck!
posted by mdonley at 2:06 AM on May 30, 2007

Response by poster: Yes, thanks for the drawing idea... I do this often! We are not in an English-speaking environment and trips out are not really an option because our time together is so short. BTW, I just came across a pretty good site - check this out

http://www.teachchildrenesl.com/games.htm

Thanks again
posted by mateuslee at 2:21 AM on May 30, 2007

Here's a pretty long list of ideas.
posted by waterlily at 7:22 AM on May 30, 2007

The site is down right now, but ESL kidstuff has some good online games.

As always, about.com has good stuff including an extensive list of ESL sites for kilds 5 - 18. One should fit what you're looking for.
posted by willie11 at 8:36 AM on May 30, 2007