Is it good to teach ESL to adults (20 to 25 years old), by starting only

[Writer]

with listening actitivites? Such as grammar and vocbulary songs etc?

[vilgessuola]

If your students are living and working in an English speaking country, the best thing to do would be to get them to the point where they can handle common greetings, ask for things in shops and cafes, state destinations and ask about fares on buses and taxis, fill in their name and date of birth on official forms and make appoinments at the doctor's for themselves and their kids, and all that sort of everyday practical stuff.

Listening activities in class are definitely useful but their main disadvantage is that they place learners in the position of eavesdroppers. Eavesdroppers don't need to respond, but language learners DO, and in real time. So you could use a listening activity as a basis for the lesson, and then devise some kind of speaking activity that would lead on from it, using similar language. So if you had a tape / CD of a customer buying several items at a small shop, and asking about the price, you could then lead into a pairwork activity were students take turns to be customer and shop assistant and ask for different things from a list you provide for them.

Songs have their place as well, but they rarely have any really immediately useful vocab or grammar, and songs written for language classes are usually excruciating... Also if your students are 20 to 25, they may well have things that they want to know how to do in English, so ask them. I would save the songs for the last 15 minutes of a lesson and ask the students to choose the songs they want to do.

As a general rule choose things that are immediately useful for your students outside the classroom.

[Steve]

Try to incorporate some speaking activities too, even if they only repeat what they have just heard, it would be something for them to practice. Getting them to sing the vocab songs can also provide a lot of fun to the lesson thus making the whole learning experience enjoyable - this will make the learning process so much easier and quicker.

Don't forget that you need to vary the methodology as mcuh as you can, otherwise the sudents will quickly lose concentration and just 'switch off'.

Good luck in all that you do!