Suggestions: Perl is a language best learned by writing Perl. Finding a way to solve problems increases confidence in the language.

Learning Perl is a great intro text, if they handle English well.

Use lots of code examples! Pick a problem, show code that solves it, ask students to figure out how it works. Perl Monks contains a ton of living code, so using examples from the Perl Monks archives would give you a terrific resource for modern practical Perl.