text: teaching a language? what are some essential things you must teach when teaching a language to someone else? for example: i am teaching someone english, who speaks spanish. i obviously speak spanish, but are there any suggestions / things i need to know before i start? like strategies, how to approach it, etc. thanks a lot! you need to establish for what purpose they are learning english. there are threee main areas to language; speaking, & listening, reading then writing.  it takes longer for non native speakers to sound native once they reach around age 12, on the other hand the true second languge learner (one who already reads, write and composes in correct gramatical form in their native language) will be able to comprehend and produce more content area language than younger learners.  younger than 12 year olds will sound more like native english speakers at an amazing rate but may have little to no idea what they are saying. if your spanish speaker already is a literate spanish language learner there will be alot of transfer (translation & relation) to their native language.  the easiest thing to do is find out what they know alot about that you also know alot about (perhaps the bible, hollywood movies, music) and do lessons/conversations around this topic.  provide as much illustrations and props as possible.  good luck from a second language learner & teacher=: