Do They Speak English In Bali

Shirin Sophy Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas No matter how seasoned and confident a teacher is, there are occasions specifically before starting a new class that every teacher might wonder, "what if they don't like me?" This nightmarish query may cause even more distress when one is getting ready to start a job at a new school or a new country. Considering the fact that students don't basically walk into a class with a bias against the teacher, and they tend to take a liking to him/her based on the very first impression they get, can clarify the importance of the first session. In fact, you can work towards establishing a strong rapport by having various fun warm-up activities ready in hand in order to provide your students...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas No matter how well-prepared a teacher may be, every classroom is different, which means each student is different, and each teacher needs to be able to adjust and be able to establish rapport with the new class. For some teachers, working in a foreign country may cause them to feel uneasy; however, a teacher needs to overcome this feeling to be successful in the classroom. Indeed, building rapport with all students will help. Although this is a continuous process throughout the term, the key to establishing a friendly learning environment starts on day one. Thus, the best way to build rapport is to know the students’ names and interests by the end of the day or week (depending on class size). This post was...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas When teaching young learners, it’s important not to spend too much time on any one activity as they can soon lose interest. It is also a good idea to have activities that give younger learners the chance to move about and use the boundless energy they have at that age. Below we present a list of short activities suitable for young and very young learners of English. This is a good activity for practicing time with small classes. Clear a space in the center of the classroom and have a student stand in front of the board with their back to the class, this person is the wolf and the rest of the class stand at the back of the room. For each turn, the class asks the wolf ‘What's the time, Mr. Wolf?’ and the wolf...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Challenges are inevitable especially if you want to be successful at what you do and teaching EFL is not devoid of them. In fact, teaching English as a Foreign Language can be very much exciting but also very challenging as it comes with lots of problems. Among these problems are what to do for the first lessons and how to get students motivated for the EFL course. These problems like many others have solutions and this essay seeks to highlight the problems and provide some practical solutions to them. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Belinda S. What to teach for a first lesson can be very problematic sometimes and as the proverb goes, “First impressions are the most lasting”. First...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Practicing conversational skills is often daunting for students. However, with these awesome activities, you’ll engage your students in speaking quicker as they will like the tasks. Jenga is a favorite stack game to millions of people. Your students will get excited as soon as they see the blocks. For this activity, you need to customize the blocks a bit by writing 1 ice-breaking question on each piece. Students need to pull a block and answer the question before putting it on the top of the stack. You can adjust this game to online classes by using online Jenga. Also Read: Can I teach English as a foreign language online? Before the lesson, brainstorm as many personal characteristics as possible (e.g.: have a...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The use of reading in the course of language acquisition is valuable and often underrated. Before undertaking a detailed explanation, I will first offer a general example to demonstrate the problem of teaching without it. Imagine you are teaching the word “ball” to an older student. You could ask them to say “ball, ball, ball” in a drilling manner. This can be inefficient and above all, boring for the student. But suppose that you do teach it enjoyably. How many words might they learn? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Peter C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. For most teachers, they will give one or sometimes two...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Learning a second language is never easy but the problems that each learner faces are not all the same. Sometimes the grammar of your first language is completely different from your second language. There might be sounds you do not know how to make because your first language does not have them. You might have limited access to fluent speakers of the language you are learning. All of these are true for Lao learners trying to acquire English as a second language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mary A. The national language in Laos is called Lao. It is missing many of the sounds that native English speakers take for granted. They have no “r” sound, no blended consonants such as...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas We all know that exciting lessons make you learn things easier and faster. So how do we bring some life into the boring lesson? There are a lot of ways. Some teachers use songs and cartoons, which are great for kids. The others find class discussions and debates helpful. They are a good choice for older students. But what do all of us love? Of course, games! Both children and grown-ups enjoy playing games. They bring fun into the studying process and can be productive. Games can be used at every stage of the ESA lesson. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Oleh K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas One of the great things about teaching conditionals is that once you discover some classroom activities that work well for one, they can be adapted to suit any of the conditional patterns that you may be asked to teach. Here are 7 fun activities for teaching conditionals for the ESL classroom that you can easily adapt to help your students understand the correct structures and usages. Tell your students to stand up and form in two lines (teams) and have an item that can be thrown and caught without causing injury or damage. Set the timer on your phone to sound after about 30-45 seconds. The teacher calls out the beginning half of a conditional sentence, throws the ball to a student at the beginning of the line and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Trang V. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Also Read: Moving Forward: My Personal Teaching Experience, Changing Careers STAGE 1 - Understanding And Learning The Meaning Of New Words (10’) Firstly, students watch a video that is related to colors. Students give their attention the main words: Black, white, yellow, pink, blue, green, orange, grey, brown, purple, red Help them to understand what topic we learn today. They watch the video once and try to remember some of the colors. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4XUBGJK180 Then the teacher will move around class make them have more focus:...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Setting a solid foundation for any learner is crucial. There are many different factors to consider. The students' age, culture, religion, learning abilities, and difficulties are capable of reading and writing in the Roman alphabet. This is only looking at the learning as an individual. When you have a group of learners, you need to consider things such as the class dynamic, personality clashes, quiet vs. loud, making sure all students are comfortable. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Megan H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. When setting up a good foundation for students, you may only...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The more a teacher speaks the less attention the learners will pay. Decreasing teacher speaking time can be done with a few practical steps and wonderful teaching methods. It all starts with proper planning. When designing a lesson plan be sure to include assignments and activities that will engage your students and do not call for a teacher dominant role. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Johnelle M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Using activities in the classroom that engage the students is very important. For example, instead of going right into a lecture, using a pass the ball activity allows the students to get engaged...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Why does the English language break all its own rules and have so many words or phrases that simply make no literal sense? How does one learn such a language like this? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Bridget B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Football in most countries is a game where a ball is kicked around with one’s foot. In American English, this sport is called soccer. The sport of American football has much less to do with the kicking of the foot but yet is still called football. And we still also have soccer and handball. We have many other words in the English language that can be very confusing to those learning...  [Read more]

Shirin Sophy Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Today's pedagogical approaches put considerable emphasis upon the importance of providing students with the opportunity to have a joyful educational experience through adding enough and well-located variety to the lessons. One practical way to do so is designing and adding aimful games to your plan in order to inject positive energy into your lessons, improve the mood of your class and make your lessons stick in students' long-term memory. Since not only young learners but also grownups enjoy playing fun games while taking English lessons, teachers, therefore, are always trying to come up with games that serve this purpose. So here are some ESL game ideas that you can adapt to your...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Teachers who walk into a new classroom are never sure what type of students will be there. Many times, they will get a class that has a mixed ability. Some of the students may have a stronger grasp of the English language than others. An experienced teacher would know what to do. But what about an inexperienced teacher? This post will describe some of the steps and strategies that would assist them. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate James O. On day one, the teacher does not need to use the text. The teacher’s job on the first day is to develop a rapport with the students. This would include getting to know the students, what they are interested in, what their level of English proficiency...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Teaching Ideas Many students struggle with paying attention during class. It could be the material lacks interest, is too challenging, or it could be the students themselves are tired or overworked. By incorporating a peaceful environment, adding creativity and variety, incorporating movement and managing time, you can help students with short attention spans to be successful in the classroom. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Corby K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The environment plays an important part in how we learn. Is the classroom a clean and welcoming place that the student wants to be? Look around and reduce clutter. Keeping the...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas Teaching speaking skills is an important part of an ESL class. Sometimes, entire conversation classes are established that focus solely on speaking. Here are 7 great games for your ESL conversation class. Write down the names and key points about five celebrities and assign them to the same amount of students in your classroom. One by one, a student enters a “party” with another student playing the host. The host must then find out the identity of each guest by having a conversation with everyone. Have your students stand in a circle. Choose a specific grammar point and have the first person asks a question using the grammar structure. The student then throws a ball to another student who answers the question...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Words are an essential part of the structure of English sentences. If we want to speak English as a foreign language, we need to know new words and even progress. Considering a student who needs to know and learn new words as a teacher, we have to answer this question "What impressive ways do you have in teaching ESL vocabulary?" This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Yasemin A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. First, they notice a new word with help; Secondly, they recognize the name at first with help, then later on their own; and lastly, they can both...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I have been living in Japan for the past one and a half years. Needless to say, the experience has been enthralling. This country would have never been my first choice for a country to relocate to, from my home country, India. But if my stay has taught me anything, it is that never judge a book by its cover. When we think of Japan, the first thing that pops up is that it is a country of workaholics; it has zero English presence, and the people are highly prejudiced against foreigners and foreign culture. I was proven wrong. Japan is a beautiful country. It is culturally so rich, it makes me want to live here forever. The people, though tend to be a little distant initially, a warm-up to you eventually, and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Learning a new skill can be difficult, and applying that skill can be even harder. Now teach that skill to someone else so they can adeptly apply it, and there might be people who become intimidated by such a task. However, teaching is a rewarding skill and there are several ways to improve a teacher’s confidence in the classroom. Although not an all-encompassing list, a few ways teachers can improve their confidence is through proper preparation, building rapport with students and self-reflection. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Courtney N. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. If a teacher is prepared to teach the lesson then...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Young learners and adults have different needs and goals in the classroom. Young learners want to be engaged and have rapidly changing activities while adult learners will enjoy a more serious classroom setting. It is the job of the teacher to ensure that these needs are met for both age groups. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Preston M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. If a teacher is teaching classes with young learners, visual cues are very important. Many young learners are not able to read at all or can read very little, so young learners need to be using material that is picture based. When the teacher is preparing...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Teaching English in China is exciting (sometimes) but teaching beginners in China can be a game-changer that is if you are up for the challenge. I mean of course if you weigh the options and if you are one of those people who are willing to compromise, learn and grow. Because honestly just like anything else it can be tough in the beginning but later you get the hang of it and end up loving it. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Joan A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Teaching beginners in schools and training centers differ a lot. I think many teachers freak out when they hear about beginner classes, but from my experience...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences A teacher has an important responsibility to get to know his or her students to ensure that they are engaged with the lesson on a daily basis. Learning another language is not easy so it is imperative that a teacher does everything in his or her power to get to know their students and become as familiar with them as possible. One of the most effective ways a teacher can begin to do so is by establishing rapport with their students. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kathyrine L. Establishing rapport with students is ideally something that should happen at the beginning of the course. It is better to get to know your students as soon as possible rather than later. There is much to be...  [Read more]

Russ Tuff Alumni Experiences I had been the owner of a tourism business in Bali, Indonesia when Covid-19 came along and spoiled all the fun. It was time to take my business and personal coaching skills from a previous life and build a new income stream. Having just completed the 120-hour online TEFL course in March 2020, I had the thought, “yeah okay I’ll do that Young Learners course offered by ITTT”. I did that course, and then quickly followed up with the Business English course, before applying for more than 22 online teaching positions over two days. I naively thought I was ready to go for online teaching positions with those qualifications. Of those 22 positions I applied for, one came back to me within days and said, “Thanks but no...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Vemund V. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Also Read: "7 Great Games for Your ESL Conversation Class" Also Read: How do I choose a TEFL course? Children’s natural ability to acquire new languages is strong before adolescence. Pronunciation comes easier, and vocabulary sticks during this time. A classroom of young students maybe a handful, but in terms of English instruction, everyone will be more or less on the same page. Adults, on the other hand, will have more varying levels and difficulties. The natural ability to pick up a second language drops, we must deliberately and consciously...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Prior to starting a class, an English teacher needs to take into consideration many parameters. How many students will I have to teach? How old are they? What are their levels? What knowledge did they already acquire in terms of vocabulary and grammar? What are their nationalities? In this blog post, we are going to focus on the problems that an English teacher can encounter when teaching to students of different nationalities and cultures. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Manon L. First of all, it is important to define what a monolingual class and a multilingual class are. Monolingual students are students who all have the same native language. For example, teaching English to Thai...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Every teacher in his/her career is faced with the first lesson in a new class. This lesson is vital for the teacher to establish rapport and set the tone for the rest of the course. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Irina B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. First of all the teacher should introduce her/himself and write her/his name on the board, in case the students forget it. After that, ask the students to make a card with their names and put it on the desks. From this time the teacher should call her/his students only by their names. It is a pleasure for every person to hear his/her name. So the teacher and the students have...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas For many kindergarten students, their English classes are likely the first time being introduced to and interacting with a native speaker. As such, the experience that the children have in the class can have a huge impact on their future outlook of learning English. It will be my job as a teacher to make the class fun and engaging so that the kids associate English with fun. The importance of the formative years in learning means that there are several aspects to consider when approaching English teaching in a kindergarten, many of which I picked up throughout the course. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Eleanor R. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Everyone and everything that exists in this world have what it is called or known by, and that automatically is the name of that person or that thing. We can then define a noun as a name given to persons, places, animals, objects, substances, qualities, actions, and measures. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate NICODEMUS U. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. This is a name given to each member of a group of persons or things that share some common characteristics. Examples: car, television, girl, boy, house, man, book, cup, student, home, watch, leg, hand, clothes, cap, goat, pen, chair, bulb, pencil, door, window, fan, marker,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teaching English as a foreign language has some very specific techniques as opposed to general classroom instruction. Just a few of these techniques include not correcting students immediately, encouraging a more open classroom, and using presentations or group work to present material. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Maggie H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Like any teaching, it is critical to get the students engaged, but with ESL there are specific techniques as well as a suggested order to be successful. This includes engaging students, then several levels of studying the material, and finally activating the learned...  [Read more]