Authentic Text

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas What opportunities do learners have to practice these core skills in the lesson? This question is often expressed by teachers when teaching a new language whereas learners do not need to produce language but receive it. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Domenica G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. There are different types of text which may be used for this purpose such as authentic texts which are written for any purpose other than language learning and are intact instead of being processed, adapted or simplified. However, not only is the text itself authentic, but also its context and related tasks as well. It may be a...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Two classifications of ESL materials are Authentic and Non-Authentic (or created). What is the difference between what are called authentic and created materials? Authentic materials as the name implies are actual materials that are created for any reason outside of the classroom. Examples of authentic materials would be things like, newspapers; those are generated for the general public and they're certainly not generated for the use in the classroom. However they can be used within the classroom. Other examples would be things like songs and poems and even things such as brochures and magazines and indeed menus from restaurants. So these are...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Language acquisition is a process that engages different skills and is therefore influenced by them. Reading, which is among the four main language skills, is considered to be influential in this process in many ways. In my opinion, it is one of the best contributors to the journey of learning a new language and although its advantages seem to be exclusive to reading comprehension, it involves other skills to a high degree as well. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Faezeh C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. To begin, it is crucial to note that the type of reading material plays an important role in the efficiency of the activity...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The four basic language skills are divided into two categories; the receptive (“passive”) skills — reading and listening, and the productive (“active”) skills — speaking and writing. All are invaluable skills to learn when becoming proficient in a new foreign language and teachers should try to incorporate them into their lessons whenever possible. However, this summative task will be solely focused on receptive skills and how to teach them in the classroom. Students may need to read/listen for a purpose — for example, reading an extract of a book as part of their homework assignment, or they may want to read/listen for entertainment — for example, listening to their favorite audiobook. These...  [Read more]

  The term materials can apply to virtually anything that a teachers uses to help the teaching process in the classroom. Common teaching materials include items such as worksheets, newspapers, pictures text books and video recordings. These materials are usually classed as either authentic or non-authentic depending on their origin and the ways they are used. Authentic materials refer to materials that have not been designed or adapted for use in an English language classroom such as magazines, newspapers, video clips and song lyrics. Non-authentic materials on the other hand are anything that has been specifically designed to aid the teaching process such as worksheets, text books and instructional CD’s or DVD’s. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I’m a young ESL teacher in China, and I is Chinese. English is a compulsory subject for all Chinese students and reading skills have gained raising importance in the national tests for English subjects. Besides this, reading itself is fun and beneficial. I always try to let my students “learn through English” instead of “learning English”. From my experience, a successful reading class for young learners should consist of the following steps: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Fang W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. If the book is about animals. I may ask the students some questions like “what animals do you know?”...  [Read more]

Elaheh Rezvani TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Among the four main language skills, reading is considered to be influential in the process of language acquisition. Indeed, reading is one of the best contributors to the journey of learning a new language, and its advantages are not exclusive to reading comprehension. It enhances the other skills of language to a higher degree. Book reading has been found to have the power to create interactional contexts which nourish language development. There has been a famous quotation by Dr. Seuss (1904-1991), which says, "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go." Reading, even at a slow pace, exposes students to more...  [Read more]

  This video provides a comprehensive overview of all the future tenses in the English language: future simple, future continuous, future perfect and the future perfect continuous. This is especially helpful for ESL teachers around the globe teaching speakers of other languages. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. in my opinion, authentic and created materials work better than course books. depend on the class type, it could be a newspaper or...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word "jinni". This word describes an entity or a spirit in Muslim beliefs that can take human or animal form and influence human with supernatural powers. The word came into the English language from the Arabic word "jinn?" that can also mean demon. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. This unit has shown me the difference between the condition of a sentence that contains 'if'. I've learnt how to...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences There are many challenges for second language learners to gain the fluency with the English language. That includes reading and listening. It is found that with second language learners there is a sense of being lost when they are attempting to speak to native speakers. Simple greetings are something that is learned to the point where a second language learner would have mastered that concept. But what would happen if the native speaker speaks too fast or they don’t enunciate like their teachers do? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Callie L. There are also instances where the native speaker will use a more complex string of vocabulary that is uncommon for the learner since they are more...  [Read more]

  And now we'll have a look at the present perfect continuous tense. As its name suggests, what we're going to do is combine the present continuous usages and the present perfect usages into a tense that basically expresses the fact that we've got an action continuing up until the present point in time. For the form of this tense, again, we're going to combine into various aspects of both the perfect and the continuous tenses. If we have a look we always begin with our subjects, then we have our, two now, helping verbs. The helping verb 'to have' for the perfect tenses, as well as the helping verb 'be' for the continuous tenses. For our subjects 'I', 'you', 'we' and 'they', we leave 'have' as 'have' and for 'he', 'she' and 'it', we conjugate it to 'has'. Because it's a continuous...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Course materials are the foundation of an English as a Second Language class, as they are a key component for moving the course forward and are essential for the student’s success. Thus, the materials that an educator selects significantly impact the outcome of the course for teachers and students. Whether choosing a textbook, authentic materials, or created materials it is important for the teacher to consider the benefits, disadvantages and how best to use the materials they have selected. This ensures the creation of an engaging program where they, as educators, may grow along with their student’s English language abilities. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Rachel M. Please note...  [Read more]

  Despite the many things the countries in Europe have in common there are plenty of ways in which the customs and cultures differ and each country has its own unique way of doing certain things. As an English teacher and visitor, an understanding of some of the manners and behavior of people in your chosen country can go a long way to improving your experience of teaching English abroad. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. I know all these tense...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Reading is an integral part of the process of acquiring language skills and can be strong support for the development of listening, speaking and writing skills. We will explore the benefits of the diversity of written material - both in topic and style - the ways it can be utilized or expanded upon. We will also look at its shortcomings and some strategies for overcoming them. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Jason T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. A key benefit of written texts is that they provide complete and properly formed sentence structures that are static, allowing students to process the information at their own...  [Read more]

  This presentation is going to have a look at the idea of receptive skills and how we can go about teaching receptive skills lessons. There are two receptive skills and they are reading and listening. If we think about first of all, why do we read or listen, then there are probably two main answers to that. Firstly, it could either be for entertainment or it could be for a specific purpose. Within the reading and listening areas there are a number of sub-skills that we can teach our students. Firstly, what we can do is to show different examples of reading. So, let's say, for example, that we have just bought ourselves a new video camera and along with that video camera came a whole book of instructions. In order to find out how to get that camera working, then we would need to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas There are two Receptive language skills; Reading and Listening. English speaker’s use both of these are used for the same two purposes, for entertainment, or to help us to achieve a particular goal. Reading and listening are not just as simple as opening your eyes or ears, each student will have different problems areas to target and understanding the received language will vary from country to country. For example, a person from England who saw the headline "Magpies destroy Red Devils" would know that the article was referring to Premier League football, and not an actual event. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate George C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas Business students are most likely already familiar with using computers and particularly the Internet for learning English. The Internet can provide a teacher with an enormous array of teaching resources from non-authentic and authentic materials to lesson plans and ideas. Here are 7 great resources for teaching business English at no cost to the teacher! This post was written by our ITTT graduate Shannon S. This is a website that features hundreds of free online non-authentic teaching materials such as vocabulary exercises, grammar quizzes, listening comprehension videos, and reading comprehension articles. The materials are related to such business areas as accounting, sales and marketing, project management,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Reading competence involves making sense of the written text and requires the complex interaction of knowledge and skills. When children learn to read, they need to learn to integrate the use of visual, phonological and semantic cues and relate to their own experience to construct meaning. An effective reading instruction thus involves a combination of phonological instruction (decoding) and whole language (reading for meaning), with the use of authentic literary experience. This paper will provide a summary of essential areas of reading instruction, coupled with various strategies that I have used in my work as an educational psychologist and teacher, helping young children to read. This post was written by our...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Motivation is integral to the development of any language learner. Disengaged learners do not actively participate in or see the reasoning behind their learning. While external motivation is a prominent factor, teachers need to implement a range of strategies to encourage enthusiastic engagement in classroom activities. To provide adequate opportunities for student achievement, educators need to understand their students and utilize prior experiences in their instruction. Effective classroom instruction will implement materials and resources that are relevant to students’ lives and provide ample opportunity for meaningful communication while ensuring activities are fun and enjoyable for a diverse cohort of...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas It is said that textbooks are either embraced or feared by a teacher. Attitudes aside, a textbook is often used as core material for the classroom in carrying out the syllabus. After the selection or assignment of a textbook, the teacher’s next task is to figure out how to effectively use it. The common ways of adapting a textbook to suit a specific class include omission, replacement, adaptation and supplementation, with the latter two being the most effective. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Katrina T. The first way a teacher can adapt the textbook is through omission, that is, either through cutting out a whole activity, lesson, or parts of it....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas When I think of materials in terms of English Second Language (ESL) teaching, I think of a broad range of items, from worksheets to pictures, flashcards to figurines, exercises, tests, and so on. To put 'materials' more in perspective, these are materials needed to deliver an ESL course. I have created course material and training material since 1995, firstly for training artisans in development projects in South Africa, and later from 2001 to 2006 in Wales, training Voluntary Sector groups. For one employer, I created a 'Behavioural Based Safety' course for North Sea Safety Standby Vessels (Offshore operations), which included four...  [Read more]

  So, some of the ways in which we can avoid these problems occurring in the first place is to reteach the vocabulary that's going to be required in the particular activity and the grammar. Now, having said this, it doesn't mean that if we think about a particular article that they're going to read or a listening activity that they're going to listen to. They don't have to know every single word in there but they do need to know a certain number of words in order to actually make sense out of it. Secondly, most of the materials that we'll be using for both reading and possibly for listening will be what's called an authentic material. In other words, it's a real piece of material from a newspaper or magazine that hasn't been created for a particular class and so we need a very...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Reading is one of the key elements for all English learners. By reading authentic stories and books, not only do we learn reading and understanding the text we are working with, but we also expand our vocabulary by discovering new authentic words you wouldn't be able to find in your course books, and more importantly, you can see it in context which makes it easier to remember and use those words and structures in the future. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Julia P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. It's important to know which stories to choose based on your student's age and English level. Younger learners would find...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Grammar plays a very important role in learning and teaching a foreign language. What is grammar? Crystal describes grammar as “the business of taking a language to pieces, to see how it works” (as cited in Bentsen, 2017). This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Meral B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. According to Swan ‘‘grammar is essentially a limited set of devices for expressing a few kinds of necessary meaning that cannot be conveyed by referential vocabulary alone’’ (as cited in Hu, 2012). Ur believes that ‘‘grammar may be roughly defined as the way a language manipulates and combines words (or bits of words)...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas With the opportunity of teaching English online comes the opportunity of using items outside of the classroom. Exactly what materials can be used for teaching English online? Most importantly, online teaching requires specific equipment for enabling a quality connection to students. For the classroom, any items that can assist in teaching students the language can be used for online lessons. Using some regular classroom materials is a great option but objects found at home and online resources are extremely useful, too. This summative paper will discuss the types of materials mentioned above. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Priscila E. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Reading is one of the two receptive language skills that might seem easier to teach. When learning to read in a foreign language, a student doesn't have to deal with accents or pronunciation problems, as it often happens with speaking and listening. What's more, learning reading skills does not necessarily imply high teacher participation and can generally be done independently. Much as with writing, it might seem tempting to relegate most of reading to homework, especially in one-to-one teaching. The easier way isn't always the best one, and paying enough attention to this aspect of English during one's lessons offers many benefits. This...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Motivation provides learners with an aim and direction to follow. According to Gardner motivation is the combination of attempt and desire to obtain the aim of learning the language and favorable attitudes toward learning the language. If students are motivated they will be excited about learning and willing to work hard. Motivation, both intrinsic and extrinsic, is a key factor in the success of students in all stages of their education, and teachers can play an important role in providing and encouraging that motivation in their students. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Saritha B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The seating...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Lately or, it is better to say, since the “boom” of the globalization processes in the middle of the 1990s the world is facing many profound changes in different aspects of life: the way people communicate, the way people buy and sell things, new services and professions has emerged, the way people travel, the way people move from one place to another in their day by day activities, the way people know new cultures and so on. And all of these changes are also true to companies and their business, to the development of new technologies, to governments and to the way heads of states rule their countries. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mitchi R. Please note that this blog post might not...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas When we are born, our first contact with our native tongue is one hundred percent oral. Our mother is the first one to speak to us in her native language and as we grow we are constantly exposed to words, expressions, and conversations that we take in and start to understand in our everyday life. Once we reach a proper school age everything starts to change because we are introduced to a new way of communication that goes beyond body language and oral expressions. We are introduced to written language. This rite of passage is as normal as it´is expected to be, but we must take into account something that in the last couple of decades has become part of this experience; the simultaneous learning of a foreign...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences Within the past 20 years we have seen great advancements in technology. Mobile phones and laptops that are thinner than a short novel, voice activated software systems, robotics, high speed internet etc. Much of the world is now technologically developed, but often the ESL classroom is less so. However, in many areas there has been a gradual introduction of newer, more educationally oriented forms of technology in the classroom. From the introduction of the overhead projector and cassette players to modern day equipment such as Smart Boards and laptops. So what has been the effect of this technology in language learning? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Joshua P. With the inclusion of...  [Read more]