LCFS Adult Education

One ESL topic that you could focus on for the remainder of October and into the beginning of November is Housing or the Home. There are a lot of language skills related to housing that could be focused on related to the home, from finding a place to live, to calling for repairs, to paying utility bills. Below, I will break these topics down into levels.

Note: Because my program has a contract with the Fair Housing Council of Suburban Philadelphia to do community education on housing discrimination, I may be contacting each of you in the next month to see about coming in one time as a guest speaker to each of your classes (except for those teaching the lowest level students).

Competencies for Low Beginner Level:

Vocabulary

• Know the names of rooms.
• Know the parts of rooms (window, floor, ceiling, wall, door, curtain, carpet)
• Know common furniture or appliances.

Grammar:

• Know prepostions to describe where things are in a room or in a house.
• Know how to ask where questions.
• Know: Subject - Be verb - Prepositional phrase sentence structure. "He is in the attic."
• Know: There is/ There are - Noun/Pronoun - Prepositional phrase sentence structure, including statements and questions. "Are there mice in the building?"

Skills:

• Telephone: Be able to prepare a message/ leave a message on a home answering machine. Be able to respond to unwanted sales calls. Be able to take a message another family member who is not home.
• Utility bills: Be able to read a bill, determine how much is due, and when it is due.
• Know how to write their address correctly and the correct placement of a recipients address and a return address on an envelope.

Competencies for High-Beginner / Low-Intermediate Level: In addition to the skills listed above, students should learn the following:

Vocabulary:

• Types of home: apartment, duplex, twin, farm house
• The names of common household problems: leaky roof/pipes, clogged drain, termites, cockroaches, "The fire detector/ furnace/ electrical outlet is not working."
• The names of people to call for household problems and improvements: plumber, painter, exterminater, HVAC, landscaper, carpenter, home energy auditor

Skills:

• Be able to ads listing houses for rent in the newspaper (I have a handout that can help with this) or on the internet.
• Be able to call and ask questions about a house listed for rent.
• Be able to find contractors to do home repairs and improvements, by using the yellow pages and/or the internet.
• Be able to call a contractor and describe a problem with their home.

Competencies for High Intermediate Students: In addition to the skills listed above, students should learn the following:

• Find and read real estate listings on line.
• Know where to look to participate in state/county/federal first time home buyer programs.
• Describe the type of home where they would like to live in the future.
• Be able to dispute charges on a utility bill or call the phone company and learn if they are paying for services that they are not using (caller id, call waiting, voice mail, cell phone services such as internet, texting)

These are some of the ideas I have thought about for this topic. Feel free to add COMMENTS with lesson plans or suggestions for activities.