My two new methodology ideas, and they're related.

These are my new methodology ideas that I'm planning on incorporating into my teaching. First of all, I read this article that employs the communicative method. It seems simple, and she says it works well for her group classes. They read two stories and then partner A asks B questions about the story and vice versa and then they go over the stories again. (Of course, I teach private classes so far, although I'm interested in getting into teaching small groups.) But I do plan on incorporating this to the extent that I can.

I have been sort of writing an EFL book. I have some VERY rough drafts of 5-6 chapters, outlines really. But my idea is that each class should have a theme, for example: going out at night, food, family, perhaps cultural differences-I think this one could be really interesting-talking about the "latin lover", "el cariño latino" "the puritanical, paranoid American", "latin time", gringo tourists, etc. With each theme, the student learns vocabulary, and I would incorporate grammar into the class depending on the level of the student and the topic we are discussing. With food, we might learn about stative verbs (it tastes, it smells, it feels, etc.) With family, perhaps "used to" talk about how family members were in the past, ké sé sho?

Thinking of this, I was remembering a Physical anthropology class I had in the University where the instructor would teach us a concept/argument, and then terminology that went along with this argument. His advice for the exams was that when we were studying, we pick a concept and remember the "story" of that concept and so go, linking the vocabulary together, so actually with each concept you may remember five or so new vocabulary words. His advice worked quite well for me. I found it to be a good teaching method. So when I came across this today, I was surprised and said, that's it! This is great for all language students.