1. by Tim Schneider
Peace Corps Volunteer
English Education
Ialoveni, Moldova
ETRC Spring School
March 6-8, 2014

2. What is an absolute beginner?
 learners who have had no contact with English at all
 often come from developing nations
 often have had very little education
 often more challenging to teach as the teacher can not
expect learners to understand even a minimal amount
of English
 The question, 'How are you?’ will not be understood.
 The teacher must begin at the very beginning, usually
with no common language with which to explain the
basics.

3. Improve the learning with:
 Technology - keep it interesting for 21st Century pupils
 Words – Simple and direct. Don’t get confusing.
 Pictures – Bright and colorful. Symbolic.
 Movement – Get the students to move.
 Interpersonal – Have the students share what they
learn.
 Intrapersonal – Have the students reflect on what they
know.
 Nature – Use nature however possible.

4. Have concrete goals
 We will learn the 4 seasons and 4 adjectives to describe
them.
 We will learn the 12 months of the year.
 We will combine the months with their correct
seasons.

5. Las Estaciones y
los Meses del Año

6. Las Estaciones
invierno primavera
verano otoño

7. Vocabulary Memorization
 Repetition – 1967 study found that 7 times resulted in
an 80% recall of 216 L1/L2 word pairs.
 Use of an actual dictionary appears to speed retention
of vocabulary.
 e-dictionaries increase the use of the dictionary, but
don’t increase retention like a book can.
 Optimal number of words to learn is between 18-300,
but with harder words, fewer is preferred.
 What is practical for your classroom?

8. invierno
frío
El invierno es frío.

9. Word association
 invierno and iarna – both start with “i”
 frío is close to frig in Romanian or frigid in
English.
 notice the color choice for the adjectives;
how can you use color to help with
association?

10. primavera
cálida
La primavera es cálida.

11. caliente
verano
El verano es caliente.

12. otoño
fresco
El otoño es fresco.

13. Assessment
 Fill in the missing letters. _ nv_ _ rn _, pr _ m _ v _ r _
 Mix the letters. - toñoo, ovaner
 Show a picture without the word.
 Give the adjective - frío
 Complete the sentence
El ______ es caliente.

14. invierno
enero

15. invierno
febrero

16. primavera

17. primavera
marzo

18. primavera
abril

19. primavera
mayo

20. verano

21. verano
junio

22. verano
julio

23. verano
agosto

24. otoño

25. otoño
septiembre

26. otoño
octubre

27. otoño
noviembre

28. invierno

29. invierno
diciembre

31. Homework
Poem – Tammy White
 Spring is wet
The flowers grow
It rains a lot
And melts the snow
 Summer is hot
It's full of sun
There is no school
It's lots of fun
 Fall is cool
The leaves fall down
The colors change
All over town
 Winter is cold
The snowflakes fall
We skate and ski
And make snowballs

32. Color and label

33. Where there is a desire to learn,
anything is possible.

34. Have fun!

35. Bibliography
 Vocabulary Learning in a Second Language: Person, Task,
Context and Strategies
September 2003 — Volume 7, Number 2
http://www.tesl-ej.org/wordpress/issues/volume7/ej26/ej26a4/
 HOW TO LEARN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE -
http://www.umich.edu/~lsastudy/foreignlang.html
 Learn the months of the year in Spanish -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga8h5d242-M
 http://www.coloring-pages-kids.com/
 http://voices.yahoo.com/childrens-poem-four-seasons-
2132129.html?cat=25