Top 10 ESL Speaking Activities for False Beginners I for almost a decade and most of that time was spent teaching false beginners. False beginners are students who’ve studied English at some point in the past but had to stop for whatever reason. Or more commonly in Korea, they’ve studied English for years, sometimes very advanced level concepts but didn’t really even grasp the basics.
It was all too common amongst my students! Some students realized that they were actually at quite a basic level, and they were easy to teach because they were willing to listen and accept my feedback. Those that believed they were far more advanced than they actually were, of course, were a bit of a struggle! Anyway, let’s just say that I have plenty of experience teaching English to false beginners! The key is to use activities that don’t appear “beginner-like” but which you can adapt to keep the grammar and vocabulary simple enough for them.