How can I teach the Gospel to my pupils?

[Born4Jesus]

I teach English in a state (public) school and, which is a junior secondary one I mean a middle school. Well, in state schools we do not teach the Gospel but most of my pupils are Christian or attend a church then I would like all of them to know Yahweh the Lord God and obey Him every day and every where. Then I think of teaching them the Lord's Prayer for example which they canb repeat every day before starting a class ort another prayer I found online and in which we are going to pray with submitting the whole of our school, including all the teachers and the head teacher and the pupils and all clssrooms so that everything be under the Holy Spirit's control.

Most like singing and I also want to teach them English canticles without neglecting the fact they dislike English for most I wonder how I could manage with.

I am very motivated to do it when thinking of Colossians 3:23 and 1 Corinthians 10:31.

Thanks for your replies and God bless you in Jesus Christ. Amen!

 

[GandalfTheWise]

I find having parallel texts helps me when learning foreign languages.   This means I have both an English version and the other language of the same book.  As a Christian, this is nice because the Bible has been translated into many different languages.

I started learning Spanish about 2 years ago.  I recently finished reading the NVI version of the Bible in Spanish.  I would try to read a section in Spanish, and then I would look at English if I needed help.  After a few months of doing this, I found that my Spanish reading had become comfortable.  It took me about 5 months to read the Bible in Spanish.  I'm now doing it again and it is going a lot faster.  Sometimes I read for awhile and forget that it's not English.   I find I can read other Spanish books more easily now.  I also found audio of the NVI so I could practice listening.   (The NVI is a modern Spanish translation that is at a fairly easy reading level.  It is similar to the NIV in English.)

The web site biblegateway.com has many versions of the Bible in text and some of those have audio.

If your students have access to the Bible in their native language (Lingala?  Swahili?) and if an English Bible were available, this might be a way of using the Bible as part of actual lessons or practice.  Maybe pick out some simpler verses or short stories that they could then see and hear in both languages and get used to reading, hearing, and repeating the English version of it.

I would recommend an English version that is more modern and is aimed at being closer to spoken and easier English.  Some English translations are older English (that sounds unnatural to a modern speaker).  Other English translations are almost word for word from Greek and Hebrew and are not how a native English speaker would naturally use English.

Anyway, just some ideas.  Many successful language learners use parallel texts as one method of practicing their new language.  They of course use other methods too.  I don't know how well this might work for younger students.  

[Justin Adams]

Wow. Great job and great ideas! You probably mostly speak French there, so there is a ton of French stuff online. In school I learned "Sur Le Pont d'Avignon" and other children's songs. 

Welcome and may the Lord Bless and Keep you and Cause His Countenance to Shine upon you!

[Born4Jesus]

Hello GandalTheWise and Justin and i thank you for your contribution.

In our country pupils rarely like studying English and they can say they will never go to England. But many of them like singing English songs. And as a teacher of English I must havve them to be in love with English. The government do not open a way of teaching the Gospel in schools but there are some denominational schools then we find moslem or christian schools here in the Congo.

Religion is not taught in state (public) schools. Moreover there are lots of Christian teachers throughout the Congo.

I wonder whether I can start every class by saying a common prayer together with my students. For example I plan to use the following prayer before starting class every time we meet in class:

Almighty God

We give You our school.
We give you all the teachers

and staff who work here,
We give You all the children who study here.

We pray our school would be place

of great discovery, adventure and creativity.
May it be a place where we love to learn

and where we learn to love,
A place where everyone is respected

and all are deeply valued.
We ask all this through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

I think that every pupil will be interested in saying a prayer at every meeting but we must avoid it becomes like a routine then we can alternate with the Lord's prayer in two versions. I don't know if it can work. We must comply with the national syllabus but, not in the whole since we have some freedom to teach some items when we judge them necessary to the pupils. We teachers manage ourselves with running oral session but the teachi,ng of English is more written than oral or read. Of course grammar is very important to speakEnglish very well but we need to speak it too. And in case we comply with the national syllabus we teach songs three times a year I mean one per term.

I conceived a booklet with bilingual introductory dialogues and i thonk it helps.

Thanks a lot for your comfort and chiefly your prayers.

Markus 10:13-16