Beyond the “To Be” Syndrome: An Alternative Method to Teaching Language by Armen Kassabian & Megan Meyerson (Brazil ETAs)
Apathy. It’s one of the biggest challenges ETAs face as we walk into the classroom and meet the glazed-over eyes of our students, so drained from years of drilling “to be” phrases that they are utterly disinterested in learning English. In order for English to truly flow naturally, students need more than just workbook grammar; they need interactive group activities to get them speaking and communicating. However, developing and implementing a variety of such activities without falling into a cycle of repetition can be a difficult task.
Fortunately, two former Brazil ETAs—Armen Kassabian and Megan Meyerson—have quite literally written the book on this subject. After meeting at a conference and discussing the challenges inherent in engaging ESL students, the two developed Beyond the “To Be” Syndrome, a book filled with communication activities.
Kassabian and Meyerson have been gracious enough to share the link to their book (for free!) with the Fulbridge community to kick off our new series of Lesson Resource of the Month posts. In addition to our Lesson of the Week postings, Fulbridge will now be featuring special lesson resources towards the middle of each month.
Links to a more detailed description of Beyond the “To Be” Syndrome as well as the book itself are found below:
As we transition grant years, we will be taking a month’s hiatus from lesson postings, but check back in mid-August for our second Lesson Resource of the Month on first-day lesson materials!