VoRTCS - Volunteer Refugee Tutoring & Community Support Program

What should we teach our family?

There are no rules about what you must or must not teach your refugee family. Each student is different, and each student will be looking to gain something different from the Refugee Tutoring program. What you teach your students should depend on what they already know, what they want to know, and what you are able to teach them.

Try to include a wide range of activities in each tutoring session that focus on the four macro-skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening.

If the parents of your refugee family do not have a high level of English, it is often a good idea to ask each week whether they have received any mail that they don’t understand. Sometimes you will need to explain letters to them, and tell them where to go if they need more assistance with any issues.

Some basic skills that you should try to work on with your family, if needed, are:

literacy
numeracy
spoken language skills
grammar and phonics
vocabulary

For more information on how to teach literacy and numeracy, select these sections from the left-hand menu. Some tips on how to teach the other skills are outlined briefly below.

Spoken language skills
Obviously, being able to communicate in English is a must for everyone who lives in Australia. Wherever possible, include spoken language skills as part of your tutoring session.

More important for adults who may not get to practise speaking English often. It may be quite difficult for your student to decipher the Australian accent at first, let alone English at the speed at which native speakers normally talk. They may also lack the confidence to speak English frequently, and may need vocab on certain topics. Make sure that you talk to your students wherever possible – but more importantly, encourage them to talk to you. Give them time to respond to questions and translate their thoughts from their native language into English.

Grammar and Phonics
Grammar is obviously an important part of speaking English – if you don’t use the correct grammar, you may not be able to get your meaning across. Phonics are also important as they teach students what sounds make up words, and are therefore critical to reading ability.

You don’t need to be an English teacher to help a student gain a basic grasp of grammar and phonics. But it is still best to make sure that you go into any sessions prepared, and if you’re not sure about a particular grammar point, look it up! Tell your student that you will tell them the answer next week rather than giving them a made-up answer and confusing them.

Grammar should not be taught by using a ream of worksheets taken completely out of any context. Rather, it can be taught progressively, using real-life examples. Repetition is the key to teaching phonics.

There is more information on teaching grammar and phonics in the Teaching literacy section.

Basic vocabulary
For the younger students and those with little English, this should probably be done orally, but for older students can be written, too.

Some useful vocabulary for low level English students is:

Colours

Animals
Common household objects (bed, chair, window)
Days of the Week
Things in their community (school, church, hospital)
Body parts
Items of clothing
Food
Methods of transport (car, bus etc)
Shapes
Weather

Some useful vocabulary for higher level English is:

States of Australia and their capital cities
Months of the Year
Seasons
Emotions
Actions (running, jumping)
Occupations
How to fill in a form
Sport/Leisure activities
Countries
Things in nature

Using only worksheets to teach these things can get a bit boring. If you are structuring a session around one or more of these themes, you could perhaps experiment with using a variety of different materials, like games, pictures, books, puzzles etc. Try to make the learning as ‘tangible’ as possible – eg. if you are teaching colours, instead of just pointing to colours in books, you could get some paints from the library, or flowers from the gardens. You might like to review what you have learned at the beginning or end of each week.

Other things of interest
Board games, bingo, puzzles, flashcards, songs, rhymes and poems – all terrific and they help keep the students interested. Not to mention the world around you…take a look around in immediate neighbourhood and see what you can find to teach them – it might be botany, mechanics or hip-hop moves.

What does your student want to know about? Do they have an interest in fighter jets, rap artists or crocheting? Do it in English and you’ll get away with an unorthodox lesson every now and again! Using something they are interested in to teach grammar, vocab, reading, writing and language skills can be amazingly effective.

Their areas of interest may also be a chance to provide them with vocab and skills which may help them get a job in the future. If they are hoping to become a nurse, for example, talking about nursing might enhance motivation for them to study hard to attend uni, or to do a nursing course.

Some more ideas
A magazine can provide enough material for a whole session. From chats about the pictures, vocabulary (point to something blue, are there any cars in this one?), letter/ word identification, reading practice, discussions about issues or events (for the older students in particular), cutting out and pasting. If you find that your student has a particular interest (soccer, animals, hiphop music) you could even find a magazine on that topic.

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