Wait.........what are you going to eat? I am going to eat an APPLE!

This simple yet surprisingly complicated line for second language learners is the heart of the basic English classes we are teaching at Academia Europea........or at least a variation of that line. Prior to our employment and training at this institution three weeks ago, Trisha and I had relied solely on our own resources and creativity to structure our English lessons. In Spain and in Granada it was "you want to teach some English?..... great, they're beginners...... have fun with it" and away we went. All of the curriculum we developed for teaching English was from scratch, and we hope effective. Much to our surprise, Academia Europea actually has a curriculum and even a particular methodology they use for teaching English to beginners. Before I get to that, let me share how Trisha and I landed these jobs with this new company here in Matagalpa.

It all began about four weeks ago while we were sitting in a local coffee shop, "Cafe Latino," sipping on some iced cafes. A fellow wearing a suit (rare in these parts) and driving an SUV with El Salvador license plates came up to us, introduced himself, asked if we wanted to teach English and get paid for it. He told us if we were at all interested to stop by his office the next day for a chat. The first thing that came to my mind when he left was "scam." Yeah right someone is going to randomly offer us a job with pay in one of the poorer countries in the Western Hemisphere. He mentioned at the time that the company, Academia Europea, was just starting a school in Matagalpa, as well as other major Nicaraguan towns. He also said that this company has been established in Managua for the past nine years and in every other Central American country. The headquarters were located in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. So we had our meeting with this man, Marcos, and were convinced to come the following Monday morning for two weeks of training.

Two weeks later and Trisha and I actually have begun teaching. And we love it! The school wasn’t a scam after all and is actually a highly regarded language institution in these parts. We both have basic classes on the weeknights and teach a marathon day of basic on Saturdays. There are intermediate classes, but there have not been enough students at that level for us to teach those classes too. So we are content with our basic classes, which consist of adults on the weeknights and high school age students on Saturday mornings.

The unique part of this teaching experience is the methodology we use with the basic students. It's all about repetition and lots and lots of oral communication. A typical night focuses on one verb, such as eat or drink or write or get. If it is eat for example, I first begin by pretending to eat something, and then say the word aloud each time I pretend. Following this, I say the word aloud again and have the students repeat each time the word is said (usually three times). Next, if we are focusing on simple future tense, I use eat in a role-play. The role-play consists of a command "Travis eat .....an apple." I then move to the other side of the room and pretend eat at an apple. Then I move back to the original side where I say, "wait, what are you going to eat?" I then move back to the other side, and answer "I am going to eat an apple." Following this I have all the students repeat each of these lines both as a group an then individually. We then take time to brainstorm, discuss, and write vocabulary on the board of things that you can eat.

The lesson then moves to telling each student to eat something, telling them to wait, and then asking them what are they going to eat. After awhile, we move to "he" and "she" questioning. "What is she going to eat?" The lesson finishes with having the students practice the same command to each other, using the same command and ask procedure.

Later on during class, we might also tackle "eating" and "ate." The fun part is we can use "where are you going to eat", or "when." Each verb takes two nights of practice, and then it’s onto another verb. We also do a lot of review on the lessons we covered the first week, which consisted of personal information, months, days of the week, time, color, body parts, and other basics.

Trisha and I have found the most enjoyable part of teaching these classes to be the students. The adults in particular are all excited to learn and are generally both funny and warm individuals. Some have had some English and are do fairly well with the lessons, while others struggle as this is their first ever attempt at any English. No one in the basic class is perfect at these lessons however, so boredom does not seem to be a factor.

The Saturday morning classes are high school age students, and most have had more exposure to English and have taken classes in school. They are also much quicker to pick-up the new language than the adults. The classes on Saturday morning are four hours long, which isn’t so bad as the time really flies. The only negative for us is Trisha and I had to teach a four-hour class in the afternoon too. Eight hours of teaching is way too long! So we are hoping the academy uses someone else for the afternoon slots soon. The problem is there are other teachers, but the few who could fill the afternoon slots are at a high intermediate level of English themselves, and are not quite ready to begin their own classes. Trisha and I are the only native English speakers in the academy, so our brief time here is being utilized to its fullest. But again eight hours..... way to long. During the school year my students are only at school for six hours, and I am definitely not leading them in non-stop language repetition and practice the whole time. So we will see what happens.

In summary, we are happy with our little language school jobs, albeit brief language school jobs. Teaching English to adults is enough to inspire Trisha to want to maybe pursue some similar work in the future when we return home. She is really enjoying it.