Does Brazil Celebrate Halloween

Linda Dunsmore Destinations Lunar New Year is one of the most important holidays in a variety of Asian countries. This holiday marks the beginning of a calendar year whose months are cycles of the moon. Typically, the Lunar New Year is celebrated in January or February depending on the lunar calendar. Teaching English in Asia is a great way to experience Lunar New Year celebrations and different customs in the various Asian nations. Chinese New Year is the most important Chinese festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional Chinese moon calendar. Chinese New Year is a 15-day-long festival period with the Lantern Festival concluding the celebrations on the 15th day of the year. The first day of Chinese New Year begins on...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas October is here and Halloween isn’t far away! Whether you teach in your country or abroad, this festival is exciting as it has specific cultural features. In this blog post, we share five fun Halloween decor ideas for your ESL classroom. Get inspired, and feel free to encourage your students to help you decorate the classroom! If you prefer to celebrate in style, you can pick a particular topic to decorate all parts of your classroom. Also Read: "6 Great Ideas for Developing Vocabulary in English Learners" Use all time favorites - pumpkins, lanterns, web, and wreaths - as the basis of your decor. You can either DIY them or buy them at a...  [Read more]

Barbara Harrison Teaching Ideas Celebrate the universal language of music with your students. With music, students at all levels work on the basic skills of learning and improving their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills while having fun! Music improves attitudes toward content and learning, as well as classroom participation. It’s also been shown to decrease anxiety and tension on scary topics and increase memory of grammar concepts. The benefits are many, including improved concentration and memory, help to absorb material, inspire creativity, and encourage learning. Music makes learning fun! A student’s previous class or activity can determine the best song choice. Ask yourself: Is your student coming to class from...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Teaching Ideas Motivation can be categorized into two types: intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is a drive that comes from within a person. People are intrinsically motivated when they enjoy doing an activity. Extrinsic motivation is a drive that comes from outside of a person. People are extrinsically motivated when they want to gain a reward (like a prize or a good grade) or avoid a punishment. Motivating Students to Learn English with some Smart Tactics are as follows: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nigar S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. One way to encourage students’ intrinsic motivation is to make class communicative. Part...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences As babies and toddlers, learning a language is a natural thing. We listen, watch, learn, and eventually try speaking for ourselves. We make many mistakes. As a toddler, mistakes are adorable. Our parents, siblings, and grandparents can't get enough of our attempts at language. However, as we get older, mistakes are no longer cute and can become somewhat embarrassing, causing us to fear trying new things. This fear can make learning a new language particularly difficult as we get older. As teachers of foreign languages, it is important to help our students feel comfortable trying new things and even making mistakes. If our students can feel confident, even when they are wrong, they won't be afraid to try. This...  [Read more]

Amanda Stern Destinations Alumni Experiences Are you planning on teaching abroad, but worrying about how you can get involved in the community and leave a memorable impression on the locals? Language barriers may make this seem like a harrowing task, but fear not, the following is a list of a few jumping-off points for those planning to take the plunge into their new community. Celebrating multiculturalism in a community is a worldwide phenomenon, even for unassuming towns. In our rural port-town in Japan, we have multiple events throughout the year to promote understanding and celebrate the various cultures and people who have made Japan their home, temporarily or forever. These events included Filipino traditional dance...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences To many students, the school can feel like more of a chore than a pleasurable experience. Whether it is struggling to pay attention to lectures or to complete homework assignments, all students will lose focus at some point or another. One way to make the learning process more pleasurable is by transforming the classroom into a game-like environment. This does not necessarily mean playing games in class, but it does mean applying similar concepts to the classroom. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Heather H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Many of the games we enjoy also happen to build real-life skills such as...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Destinations TEFL Information Whether it’s a small present or a simple card - these cute sayings for teacher appreciation add a special touch to your gift! Your teachers will truly appreciate your thoughtfulness with these cute sayings. Around the world, there are several holidays dedicated to celebrating your teachers. In the United States, Teacher Appreciation Week is the first full week in May. Here is a list of when it is celebrated in other countries: “Thanks for helping our child ‘bloom’ “ or “grow” tag with a bouquet of flowers or growing plant “Thanks for giving our child a hand” tag with hand lotion “Thanks a ‘latte!” tag with a gift card from the local coffee shop, special...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas English has become a worldwide language, leading to early learning of English in the school context is becoming more common nowadays. It has been suggested that children should master their mother tongue before moving on to their second language. However, if you learn a language after the age of seven, you can never turn it into your mother tongue. You should learn it as soon as possible. After that age, they won’t learn it the same way as they do their native language. This is the reason why there are more and more kindergartens teaching English and what does a teacher need to put in mind when teaching EFL for children? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Tran T. Please note that this blog...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Urban education can be described as a complicated topic for school reformists in America. With critical issues, such as inadequate funding, lack of resources, and uncertified teachers, the myriad of problems with public education has reached a new high. Many big-city public education systems have turned into melting pots by bringing together members of different racial, social, economic, and ethnic groups. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Crystal H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Per the Bureau of International Information Programs (2011), the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas There is an ancient Chinese quote which says: "Tell me, and I forget. Teach me, and I remember. Involve me, and I." - We can apply this old quote to our days, even though our challenges may be more extensive. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Rodrigo O. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Today anyone can go through the web and seek information; this made the task of teaching a bit harder since we have to deal with an immediate gain of information. It is easy to open a Wikipedia article and just read what happened 100 years ago somewhere, but it is the teacher's task to involve the students, to connect the facts, to know details...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Many English language learners have different motivations, interests, and skills in learning a new language. In a classroom with diverse backgrounds and skill levels, it’s very important that a teacher strives to understand each of their students to the best of their abilities and support them along in their journey to learning English. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Tessa S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. As we discussed in ITTT 120-Hour Course: Teachers and Learners teachers take on multiple and diverse roles in the classroom, sometimes during a single lesson. These roles include manager or controller, organizer,...  [Read more]

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Jon ITTT TEFL Information As with most professions the world of [Teaching English as a Foreign Language](37 Key English Teaching Terms Explained) has many of its own particular and sometimes peculiar terms and jargon. Getting to grips with the wide array of acronyms in the industry can sometimes feel like learning a whole new language! So if you have trouble telling the difference between your IWB and your OHP this article is a great guide to what’s what in the English language teaching industry. Two of the most commonly used phrases in English teaching relate to certification, and they are the two that cause most confusion. The culprits are TEFL and TESOL. TEFL stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language and TESOL means Teaching English...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences I have had the pleasure of living and teaching in Brazil over the past 2 years and in my time in this country I have learned a great amount about the difficulties that are seemingly unique to native Portuguese speakers trying to learn English as a second or even third language. There seems to be deeply ingrained assumptions within the way Portuguese speakers approach both the pronunciation of words based on their spelling, and their understanding of grammatical structures and the usage of said structures. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Brian P. The first and foremost point to address with respect to what the typical Portuguese speaker has ingrained as an instinct with respect to the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Throughout the modern and ancient world, across all cultures and empires, generations have been inspired, entertained and educated through the process of storytelling. Before such modern practices of documentation, word of mouth was used to keep the spirit of generations alive, these served as a purpose of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and to instill a sense of morality into their young. Since the written word, our desire for storytelling has evolved and allowed us to reach and inspire further audiences on paper. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate florence c. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. To separate and...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas A multilingual class is a class where the learners speak a variety of first languages. A monolingual class is a class where all the learners speak the same first language. I have been working in international school setting for over 13 years. The classes are multilingual classes where students come from different cultures and English is the common language for them to communicate with their teachers and classmates. By contrast, English classes in local schools and universities in China are considered to be monolingual classes since the students use their first language, Chinese, to communicate. The teacher has to remind them to not use their mother tongue constantly during class...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Budget and Salary TEFL Information Welcome, I'm Linda from ITTT, and we are doing a live Q&A session today, so let me just check if this is working. Is anybody here if you're here, if you can see me if you can hear me. Please, leave a comment. That would be great so that I know that you are here. And, please, let me know where you guys are tuning in from? I would be super interested to see where you are tuning in from. I'm in South Korea. I'm about an hour and a half outside of Seoul, like in the middle of South Korea in a city called Cheongju. It's not that big. It is quite big, but it's not pretty well known, but um, I've been here for five and a half years already. So, hello, some people are here great! Hi,...  [Read more]

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Umber Sherjeel Destinations Alumni Experiences Being in the teaching field for more than a decade and having taught in Saudi Arabia for the last 7+ years, I will give some pointers about my experience here as an English Language teacher. The education industry in Saudi Arabia is very blooming. There are many international schools, colleges, and universities - and the English education field in Saudi Arabia continues to grow and expand. Due to the rapid shift in the education system during the past few years, the country has established an insatiable appetite for ESL English Language teachers. English language learning has become mandatory in pretty much the entire school system. Since English is considered as a key skill for...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I have chosen this subject because I have some experience in teaching young learners and motivation has always been a hot topic of discussion with my peer teachers. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Lenuta M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Young learners have a short attention span and teachers or educators have to manage this issue in the first place. When dealing with teaching English to little ones, a first step is capturing their attention and interest since the intrinsic motivation is not yet developed. One method is to engage them using songs and movements. Even if they don't understand the lyrics, the rhythm and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Confidence - how many times we’ve heard about it. That it’s important, that we should have it, that we should build it, that we should help students or any other people develop it. But what does it mean? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Iuliia S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. It’s been always difficult to explain what is it, as it’s something that comes from feelings of well-being, acceptance of yourself, belief in your abilities, skills, your own experience. I would say it’s a ‘self-power’, that lets you move through any difficulties, helps you to grow and become a ‘someone’. The Merriam-Webster dictionary...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In my opinion, classroom management is the most important part of teaching. Classroom Management does not have only the skill of organizing and managing but also a relaxing manner. It is a critical skill. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Huyen P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Simply put, classroom management refers to the wide variety of skills and techniques that teachers use to ensure that their classroom runs smoothly, without disruptive behavior from students. According to me, it boils down to having a structured learning environment with clear rules that promote learning as well as consequences that diminish or...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Last fall, I taught students of varying abilities in the same EFL classroom. For example, I had students from China and France who were false beginners, students from Brazil whose placement tests assessed them at the intermediate level, and students from Italy who were intermediate/advanced. This course took place in the United States and was a challenge to teach because I had students who were not accustomed to the Roman alphabet, students who were accustomed to being academically successful, and a student who had developed a love-hate relationship with school settings. In addition to their various EFL-learning needs, the students ranged in age from late teens to mid-fifties. In simplest terms, I was concerned...  [Read more]

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  Globalization and the increasing demand for English speaking professionals all over the world, especially in emerging regions, has brought about a new, steadily growing sector: English as a Second Language (ESL). An ESL teacher is, therefore, an educator who works with English Language Learners (ELLs) whose native language is not English. The goal of the ESL teacher is to help the students reach a certain level of fluency in English, on both a spoken and written level. ESL educators are not to be confused with foreign language teachers. ESL teachers do not share the same native language and are specifically trained to offer explanations and directed teaching methods to non-English speakers. This teaching style is mainly focused on repetition, drills, demonstrations, and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Monika B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Extrinsic motivation is a push that comes from outside of a person. When people want to gain a reward (good grades) or avoid punishment, they are usually extrinsically motivated. Intrinsic motivation is a push that comes from inside a person. When people enjoy doing a certain activity they are intrinsically motivated. At times, when a person has an intrinsic motivation, rewarding them can reduce their intrinsic motivation, which could make them less interested in the activity, thus decreasing their performance. Also Read: How Will Brexit Affect...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Brazilians are learning English all over the country, for various reasons and with diverse goals. In this text, I would like to approach some very common deviations to standard English dialects, such as General American and Received Pronunciation, by Brazilian speakers. I have chosen to address some problems in phonetics and pronunciation that are the most frequent in my classes. I also give attention to some problems in word linking that generate tough challenges for English teachers. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Linecker M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The country's official language is Portuguese. As a result of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences In 2010, I was on a cultural fact-finding mission. While living as an ex-pat in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China, I decided I would like to teach English to Chinese students. I thought it would be a fun, constructive way to spend my extra time while my husband was working. So, I took the challenge! I call this a challenge because I had no prior ESL experience at the time. I soon found that understanding the Chinese culture was going to become a priority. Is sensitivity to the Chinese cultural norms significant in teaching ESL in China? A very important puzzle piece in successful teaching in China is defined by their culture. Learning about it and implementing it in my teaching classes smoothed many a...  [Read more]

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