How do people teach English when they can't speak the students language?

[David M]

I'm just curious how volunteers go to Sudan or wherever and teach English how does everyone understand each other?

Do you need to be very good with grammar to teach it?

Thanks

[heyhey]

No, you do not need to be very good with grammar for all classes. If you are teaching people with no English at all, grammar can just be confusing and just speaking English - with mimes, pictures, real objects - is best. This is immersion, and the teacher may need the pupils to mime to him/her as well!

If you are teaching people who have a bit of English or who have already learnt another language, knowing grammar can be useful. Even then though, speaking and listening are the best ways of learning a new language in the early stages, just as children learn to speak.

[Angry Jew]

Apparently it really takes no skill, especially if you're going somewhere like Sudan. A friend of mine is an English teacher in Hungary and she really had no prior training and cant speak a word of Hungarian. I think they just try to teach people young by way of total immersion.

[jk8846]

Well, in short, yes. You do need to be very good and consistent with grammar.

Don't underestimate the enthusiasm these people usually have for learning. They have a reverence for education that we, in the West, lack. They will WORK as hard as it takes to make it work.