The English with Newcomers Guidebook and sixty lessons for Phase One (Beginners) are available for download from this page, along with a word list of words included in those lessons. Helps for Phase Two (Advanced Beginners) and Phase Three (Intermediate Learners) are also available below. Lessons have options for both American and British English vocabulary.

Beginners

• English with Newcomers Guidebook (Word, PDF)

• Word List for Lessons 1-60 (Word, PDF)

• Lesson Plans 1-5 (Word, PDF)

• Lesson Plans 6-10 (Word, PDF)

• Lesson Plans 11-15 (Word, PDF)

• Lesson Plans 16-20 (Word, PDF)

• Lesson Plans 21-25 (Word, PDF)

• Lesson Plans 26-30 (Word, PDF)

• Lesson Plans 31-35 (Word, PDF)

  • Lesson 31 Maps: Word-UK, PDF-UK, Word-US, PDF-US

• Lesson Plans 36-40 (Word, PDF)

• Lesson Plans 41-45 (Word, PDF)

• Lesson Plans 46-50 (Word, PDF)

• Lesson Plans 51-55 (Word, PDF)

• Lesson Plans 56-60 (Word, PDF)

Advanced Beginners

• Ideas for Advanced Beginners (Word, PDF)
   

Intermediate Learners

• Ideas for Intermediate Learners (Word, PDF)

1.  I’m not a teacher and I don’t have ESL training. Can I still use this curriculum?  

Yes, in fact, it may be easier for you to use than for a trained teacher because teachers have already developed their own ways of teaching, and may find it hard to try doing things a different way.
 

2. Where can I get training on how to use the curriculum? 

For some people, just reading the introductory materials and the lesson plans is enough. But we are adding training videos to our website, and offering occasional Q&A sessions through our Facebook page.  

3. Why does this curriculum teach listening first? 

The initial focus is on understanding. Focus on listening makes the method accessible to those who cannot read or write or who are not familiar with our Roman alphabet. (See the Learning by Listening section on page 5 of the English with Newcomers Guidebook.)

4. I don’t know anything about grammar. How can I teach it? 

If we expose the study group to a large number of sentences that they can understand, they will get the English word order “by themselves” and use it correctly as soon as they start speaking. This is similar to how a child learns their mother tongue without taking any grammar lessons. If, later, certain grammatical errors become a problem, they can be addressed by including comprehension exercises that focus on that grammatical aspect. (See the English with Newcomers Guidebook.)

5. What about reading and writing? 

Not all immigrants have experience with reading and writing in their mother tongue. Others use a writing system which is very different from the “Roman” letters we use for English. This approach postpones reading and writing, to focus on the conversational ability the newcomers need. (See the Reading and Writing section starting on page 12 of the English with Newcomers Guidebook.) 

6. We want to start an ESL program. Can we use this curriculum? 

Yes, this curriculum will help you build relationships with people who want to learn English. We strongly recommend that you start by using the lessons with a small group of learners so that you have the experience to lead other volunteers through the challenges of helping people form a new identity in a new language and culture.

7. What resources will I/we need?

You will need to use your smartphone for recordings, and will also need to print out picture pages and bring easily obtained objects from home, as listed in the right-hand column of each lesson plan. (See the Resources section starting on page 8 of the English with Newcomers Guidebook.) 

8. How much time will this take? 

For the first phase there are 60 sessions, designed to take about 90 minutes each. Learners review with their recordings before the next session. The ideal is to do 5 lessons a week, which means that the learner would complete this phase in 12 weeks. A more realistic goal would be 3 times a week, which would take 20 weeks. These lessons can be split among different volunteers. (See the How much time will this take? section on page 4 of the English with Newcomers Guidebook.) There are two guides for more advanced lessons, as adapting to a new language and culture is a process which takes many years.

9. What size group does this method work with? 

The ideal group is 2 to 6 learners per nurturer. (See the The nurturer and the learning group section on page 8 of the English with Newcomers Guidebook.)

10. What if people speak different languages? 

This is not a problem since the lessons are completely in English and are comprehensible through the resources used.

11. Can students without any English and people who already know some English be in the same “class”?

For the best progress for all, learners should be grouped with others with roughly the same ability. 

12. What are the activities like?

You can watch Greg and Angela Thomson, the originators of the Growing Participator Approach, the inspiration for English with Newcomers, explain and demonstrate the Quick Dozen activity, used in every lesson, at https://vimeo.com/808367627.

13. Are these lesson plans available for other languages?

Yes. Similar plans are also available to for French and German speakers wanting to help newcomers learn those languages. You can find those lessons and additional information about training in German and French at these sites:

German – Wycliff (Germany)
German – Wycliffe (Switzerland)
French – Wycliffe (Switzerland)

14. How do I get in touch with someone from the EWN team?

You can email the team at english-with-newcomers@sil.org to ask any unanswered questions or to arrange the help of a consultant if you or your organization would like more specific help.