Brandon Bryan

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I think vocabulary is something that should be taught at the very beginning of the course. When you're starting with a brand new language, the hardest part of learning a foreign language from scratch is vocabulary building. This is because when one starts a new language, they typically don't know where to start. For example, should they learn how to say "Hi, how are you?" first, or should they learn some of the more substantial, yet basic vocabulary terms, such as "I give" "I eat" etc? At what point should you introduce grammar? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Brandon S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I have studied 3...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas For this essay, I have learned that teaching a second language can be challenging especially when teaching a younger group of students. Before taking the TEFL course I have had numerous experiences in tutoring and mentoring, which is quite different from actually being an English Language teacher. In the past, I have taught small groups that focus on one subject as well as one summer teaching an art class at my local Boys and Girls Club. Most of my personal teaching experience has been limited to small groups of four to eight students, who all speak the same language and are around the same level and skill of reading, writing, and math skills. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Bryan S....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences When I started this course, I was seeking a TEFL certificate as well as some tips for being a teacher. What I learned along the way is that to be a good teacher, your focus must be on your students. Of course, a teacher needs to have a certain set of skills to be able to teach, however, those skills in themselves will never make you a good teacher. This course taught me that a teacher needs to be less focused on themselves and more focused on the needs of their students. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Brandon B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. From their very first lesson, a teacher needs to be establishing rapport with...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences While English isn’t the most spoken language on earth, it is the language that is spoken in most places in the world. This is what designates English as a Global Language. If you want to study Neurosurgery at Stanford University, you’ll have to know English. You have a startup company in France, that’s going to revolutionize the smartphone industry. If you want to have your phones manufactured in China, you’ll need to know English. You’re from Russia, and spending your holiday at a hotel in North Bali. When you go out to the restaurant to order coffee from a native Balinese, you’ll need to know at least enough English to get your needs met. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Becoming an English teacher can present many great opportunities, among such may be learning the skill of navigating issues and culturally sensitive situations unique to instructing students with a wide array of nationalities. Much of this skill comes from learned experience but a teacher who has had proper training and time for adequate research can steer though these issues with greater ease. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Brynn G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Putting aside cultural matters for the moment, the strictly linguistic issues that may come to fruition in a multi-national classroom are plentiful. The most...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences My experience in teaching English to young learners is based in Japan. At the start of my time teaching, my student group consisted of two children of the same family. The siblings are a boy, age five, and a girl, age three, who participate equally in the English conversation sessions. Three main factors of this situation present difficult walls, preventing forward progress. Those three factors are distracting objects, counter-productive classroom philosophies, and personality conflicts. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Brandon F. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. First, the English conversation takes place in the children's...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The differences between many Asiatic languages' pronunciation and that of English form the basis for a multitude of miscommunications between international interlocutors. My experience living in Japan provides plentiful evidence to support this assertion. When my Japanese associates and I communicate in English, I notice three significant pronunciation struggles for my conversation partners. For the Japanese who are learning English, the clear enunciation of the /th/ sound, the fricative quality of the /v/ consonant, and the distinction of /l/ versus /r/ formation of the tongue. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Brandon F. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This essay seeks to discuss the possible disadvantages of negative reinforcement, specifically corporal punishment, as a means of discipline, when used by educators teaching young learners. Also, positive reinforcement, such as praise and feedback, as an alternative method to discipline young learners will be discussed. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Desriel G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. As mentioned, the negative reinforcement measure that will be discussed in this essay is ‘corporal punishment. The definition for ‘punishment’ when referenced herein, follows that of The Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2001,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This essay focuses on what “multiple intelligence” is, a comparison between multiple intelligences and the traditional notion of intelligence, what these multiple intelligence categories (“modalities") are, and their significance in the classroom context. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Stephanie T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. "Multiple intelligence" was a theory developed by Professor Howard Gardner in the early 1980s to describe the various innate talents that everyone possesses. Multiple intelligence theory was a reaction to the conventional teaching methods that cater predominantly to the book-smarts, those...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Whilst the focus of this essay is on the teaching of English to indigenous students in remote parts of Australia where English is in all likelihood, not the first language, all situations are relevant in which the local; indigenous population forms a significant part of the local community. For instance, the writer teaches at a secondary school in south-east Queensland, in a town where some 10% of students are of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent. This is less than an hour’s drive from the state capital, Brisbane, to the north-east, and a similar distance from Australia’s sixth-largest city, Gold Coast, so is not remote, as so many towns, stations, and settlements in Western Australia, South...  [Read more]