How to teach from this book

Introduction and Notes to the Teacher

This course isn’t intended as a self-study guide. The aim of Speaking About Jesus is to get intermediate level students of English to actually speak about the things of Jesus, under the guidance of a competent local teacher or native English speaker. By the end of the course, the student will have read the Gospel of Mark, and will also have studied grammar relevant to intermediate level students.

The idea is that each lesson begins with the group reading the chapter from Mark, each student reading a few verses each. The teacher can interrupt to correct or demonstrate pronunciation. Define any difficult words, and encourage students to write them in their language in the box provided. The grammar explanations and exercises can then be talked through by the teacher, perhaps with further explanation. Whenever possible, encourage the exercises to be done in pairs. The students can write the answers, but should be encouraged to speak them to each other in their pairs. They can practice asking questions and answering them. Remember that the emphasis is upon speaking. It may be an idea to ban the use of the local language for the duration of the lesson. Intermediate level students should be able to speak with each other in English. There is no specific homework as such; but every few lessons, there is a revision section. This can serve as homework.