Teaching English Different Levels

Once you know the level and age of your students, you can start to formulate an idea of the content that will go into your lesson plan.

Beginner:

At the beginner level, the student will know very few words in English. It's a rewarding level to teach because everything is new. A beginner can be a child or an adult. Remember to set everything in a meaningful context when teaching all students.

Lexis and Grammar Syllabus for the Beginner Class

Here are typical areas of lexis and structures for your beginner class:

• Subject pronouns: I, he, she, it, we, you and they

• Question words: what, who, where, when and how

• Demonstrative pronouns: this, there, that, those

• Possessive adjectives: my, yours, his, hers etc.

• Nouns: singular and plural

• Verbs: 'to be' and 'to have' in positive and negative forms

• Vocabulary: whatever the context is

• Numbers: 1 to 100

• Jobs

• Countries and nationalities

• Basic food

• Days of the week and months

• Family

• Different types of room

• Everyday objects

Elementary:

An elementary student can form very basic phrases in English. 

Lexis and Grammar Syllabus for the Elementary Class

Here are typical areas of lexis and structures for your elementary class:

• Verbs: Present simple in the positive and the negative, past simple, future simple

• Adverbs: Adverbs of frequency, which include 'sometimes' and 'usually'

• Quantities: How much?

• Lexis/vocabulary: teaching new vocabulary to cover: shopping, cooking, directions, telling the time including months and years

• Comparatives

Pre-intermediate:

A pre-Intermediate student has knowledge of basic grammar structure and a good range of vocabulary.

Lexis and Grammar Syllabus for the Pre-Intermediate Class

Here are typical areas of lexis and structures for your pre-intermediate class:

• Verbs: Modal verbs: I can/can't and I must/mustn't, present perfect tense, past simple with irregular verbs, past continuous

• Adverbs

• Vocabulary to cover the following topics: movies, shopping, clothes, booking hotels and holidays, and many more useful areas that you think your students will enjoy.

• Possessive pronouns: Mine, his/hers/theirs/ ours

Intermediate:

An intermediate student will be able to handle more complex structures.

Lexis and Grammar Syllabus for the Intermediate Class

Here are typical areas of lexis and structures for your intermediate class:

• Verbs: Modal verbs, conditionals, gerunds and infinitives, present perfect continuous, past perfect tense

• Vocabulary to cover the following: Comparing and contrasting

• Deeper level understanding of form: newspaper and magazine articles.

Upper Intermediate:

A student at this level will be confident and have a good command of all structures and will have a wide range of vocabulary.

Lexis and Grammar Syllabus for the Upper Intermediate Class

Here are typical areas of lexis and structures for your upper intermediate class:

• Third conditional

• Reported speech

• Modal verbs in the past

• Passive verb forms

• Verbs: I wish, to be used to/ to get used to, past perfect continuous tense, future perfect

• Vocabulary: Feelings and more specialised vocabulary depending on the learning needs of your students. For example: medical terminology, marketing words in Business English.

Advanced:

They will have an in-depth understanding of English Language.

Lexis and Grammar Syllabus for the Advanced Class

At the advanced level, students can communicate in English to a very high level and we suggest the following syllabus for advanced speakers.

Try to cover the following:

• Question tags

• Future perfect continuous

• Phrasal verbs

• Vocabulary to include the following:

• Idioms like 'he kicked the bucket'

• Connotations from words in newspaper articles or reports

• Humour: Monty Python and Peter Sellers!

• Metaphors and similes

The syllabus provided should be used as a guide. It's crucial to identify your students' needs and teach what they need and would like to learn.

Always set the learning in meaningful context and play to your strengths.

You will all have a number of wonderful experiences that you can bring into the classroom at any level. Sharing your life (to a degree) with your students will create a warm and friendly classroom.

Many of you will use a textbook with a syllabus when you are teaching the different levels of students, so don't worry about creating a brand new syllabus every time you walk into a new school or classroom.

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