Dont Give Up In Japanese

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas What comes to mind when one thinks of an English classroom? Is it organized rows of desks filled with students writing vocabulary and grammar into their notebooks while the teacher talks in the front? This is the classic image of a classroom. A student goes to school to learn what they don’t already know. When teaching English, it can be easy to fall into the trap of rote memorization and reliance on grammar and vocabulary. However, is this method effective? Does this way of learning motivate students to become lifelong learners of a foreign language? It is less useful to teach students many things than to teach them the skills needed to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I work in two schools. I am an assistant language teacher at one commercial (low-level English) high school, and an integrated (high-level English) academic junior high and high school. I have had experiences with different kinds of students, Japanese-English teachers, and classroom atmospheres. In Japan, students take an entrance exam to get into high school. If they scored low on the entrance exam, then they are placed in the lowest ranking class. Each school has a certain number of classrooms for each grade. Both of my high schools have six classes total for each grade. There are usually around forty to forty-two students in each class as well. Teaching forty plus students in a crowded classroom is...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Japanese are known for being disciplined, dedicated, and hardworking individuals not only in their work but also in other aspects of their life like hobbies and studies. But why is it difficult for them to learn English despite their strong dedication, patience, efforts, and determination? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Princess D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I’ve been teaching English in Japan as my part-time job for more than one year now. I have seen and handled students of different ages, backgrounds, language levels, and experiences. Most of them are university students and young professionals, and I couldn’t...  [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 Alumni Experiences In the wake of the upcoming 2020 Olympics in Japan, there has been an increase in elementary school level English classes. As an assistant language teacher half into my fourth year, I have had the rare chance to work the entirety of my time in one elementary school where I have had many great memories. However, being present every day I began to notice that some students were struggling or in some cases, not even trying when it came to English class. Talking with my peers and colleagues from other elementary schools as well as my own, there are some common problems that many students seem to experience in an English class. These problems include learning in a counter-productive environment, inconsistent...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences As a speaker of 5 languages (French being my native one), I’ve been exposed to different ways of teaching how one particular language sounds and why it sounds that way, what kind of meaning is conveyed using what sounds in what order, and so on. Quite often, I’ve noticed that in the school system, not enough emphasis is put on studying the sounds that pertain to the language itself. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Luca D. When learning English in a French-speaking country, the main goal for the teachers and the students alike is generally “to be understood” by the English-speaking person one is having a conversation with. Almost no importance is given to pronouncing the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English is my first language, however, I studied Spanish throughout high school growing up in the Midwest and eventually received a Master’s degree in Spanish Literature. I learned to speak Spanish very well after becoming a high school Spanish teacher for eight years and then a principal for elementary and secondary schools for 26 more years speaking Spanish to new immigrant students and parents the whole time. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Rex P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In reflecting on the title question I first asked myself how Spanish had influenced me over the years. The first obvious answer was that I...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences ESL students will receive many formal grammar lessons that will give them a good grounding in proper English sentence structures, when to use who and whom, various verb tenses, the importance of noun-verb agreement and proper punctuation—and much more. Proper grammar will give them a thorough understanding of the elements of grammar and equip them to navigate through formal English-language communication, such as business letters and reports, meetings, emails to clients, and formal assignments in English classes. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Brenda Q. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. But I believe we have a...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences India is a developing country in South Asia with at least 22 major languages and more than 1500 minor languages (Reference – Wikipedia, languages of India). The figures could be much higher if we include the dialects across various areas within each region. This diversity in languages is very wide in rural and urban parts of India. Having this established, English is mainly considered as an official language of the country, especially for most schools, colleges, jobs and major political and government dealings. The Urban Indians are expected to interact in English throughout their lives at schools, colleges, businesses so they do have an environment where they can communicate in English. This post was...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas In this blog post, we will look at an actual example of an ESA straight arrow lesson plan. We will include examples of the activities used and their purpose. You can adapt this plan to a variety of other uses and levels. Mudita Yajnik TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Setting up the classroom is often overlooked by teachers - but it's oh-so important! In this blog post, we take a look at the importance of the ESL classroom setup. Shirin Sophy Destinations Alumni Experiences Are you...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas In this blog post, we will look at an actual example of an ESA straight arrow lesson plan. We will include examples of the activities used and their purpose. You can adapt this plan to a variety of other uses and levels. Mudita Yajnik TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Setting up the classroom is often overlooked by teachers - but it's oh-so important! In this blog post, we take a look at the importance of the ESL classroom setup. Shirin Sophy Destinations Alumni Experiences Are you...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas There are many different types of teachers in the world: funny ones, boring ones, excitable ones, monotonous ones, stern ones and ones that are just too laid back. In my lifetime, I have had many teachers and experienced many different types of teaching styles. As I considered all these in retrospect, I realized there was a common theme in the handful of teachers that had a special place in my heart. These are the teachers that not only communicated genuine care for me and my success but exuded enthusiasm for what they did. This life in them changed my perspective on subjects I had always detested, like algebra and calculus! These teachers have played a major role in my life and have encouraged and inspired many...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In my experience of teaching in an institution in South Korea, I have found one of the most vital elements to my students succeeding, is to establish a positive and comfortable environment in my classroom. To do so, it is essential that my students be highly motivated. In the following paragraphs, my aim is to show why motivating students is so important and to give examples of some of the most effective ways to do so. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Andrew B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. As a teacher, one of the worst things I can imagine is a classroom full of bored, yawning students idly gazing out the window during the...  [Read more]

Lydia Pincott Destinations Alumni Experiences For being a fairly small country, Japan sure packs a punch for the endless amount of things to see, do, and eat! As teachers though, we aren’t living that high roller, bullet train life, yet we usually have enough days off for a decent holiday. So how do you get out and see Japan, while still having a few yennies left over for fried chicken at Family Mart? Often with transport passes in Japan, you’ll be traveling the ‘scenic route’. But during periods like summer vacation, there’s time for this. Though it takes a little longer you can enjoy stunning views of rural Japan pass by while reading, listening to a solid podcast, or sketching. The Seishun 18 Kippu is a pass that...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas As an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) working at an elementary school in Japan, I have to mainly work with seven different teachers and teams to teach the English lessons together. The number of teachers I work with more than doubles if I include the grades that I only teach occasionally and also the classes at the other school that I go to only once a week. It is no surprise that ‘flexibility’ is often mentioned as one of the most important traits to have to be an effective ALT. In this summative task, I would like to share some of my experiences and how I have learned to work with multiple teachers with different teaching styles. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Seong H. Please note...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences From both taking this course and my experience in teaching Japanese children English, I have seen the importance and impact of establishing rapport with students right at the start of the class. Starting from the first lesson, a teacher must establish what kind of relationship they desire to have with the students. That relationship must often be with a relaxed atmosphere where the students can feel that they are supported by the teacher. Thus from the very first lesson, the teacher must get to work on getting to know basic information about the students. What kind of interests do they have? Why are they learning English? At what level are they currently in with regards to their English skills? Knowing this...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teaching English online is an excellent opportunity for English speakers since it requires no formal teaching experience. A persons’ understanding of the natural turns of English and idioms is what many adult learners need to improve their English use. It gives the teacher the ability to create his teaching path and teach in a way that is believed best for the students (Salmon, 2011). This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Yuanchun L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. According to Hewett, tutoring English online requires video contact with students hence requires a laptop or desktop with a high-speed internet connection and a webcam...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas When you teach English as a foreign language it’s important to pay attention to details that we sometimes ignore when communicating with other native level speakers, either in spoken or written English. Some people have got into the habit of writing in uppercase/capital letters, use abbreviations, and don’t think much about punctuation. We also tend not to be too critical of people’s spoken English as long as we get the point across. ‘There’s a lot of cars on the road today’ is grammatically incorrect for example. We also tend to enjoy speaking when we should be letting others speak. This is a particular issue in the classroom when you should be maximizing student talk time and minimizing yours. Here are...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Teaching Ideas Hi my name is Linda from ITTT, international TEFL and TESOL Training and I'm back again today for another live session. If you can hear me and see me please let me know as I'm trying out a new mic today so if that is working well it would be good to know. So please leave a quick comment to say hi and where you're watching from. I have been living in South Korea for five and a half years, so for me right now it's 10:00 a.m. Friday morning. Let me know where you are tuning in from and what time it is where you are. We can get started on today's topic which is the best government programs for teaching English abroad. If you're interested in teaching English abroad then you should...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Teaching Ideas Hello everybody, we are just about to start our new live session. Thanks for joining me and while we are waiting for more people to join please let me know that you can hear me clearly and you can see me clearly. There is a comments box so you can use it to communicate with me. I really appreciate it if you use it because when there is interaction during the live session it's always much easier for myself to present it and I feel a little bit more comfortable because I am not just speaking to myself. Let me share the topic of today's session so that everyone can see it. Today we are going to talk about different online teaching platforms. I hope that this topic will be interesting...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Welcome guys, Linda here from ITTT for another live session. I'm so happy to be here today, the weather is great today, the lighting is good. If you were watching last week it was pretty much like the end of the world weather here, but today it's great, I feel good. If you can see me and hear me please drop a hi into the comments. We are live on Facebook and also on YouTube and if you're listening to this as a podcast episode thanks for the download. We always turn our live sessions into podcast episodes and you can find them on all major podcast platforms like iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts etc. It's called the TEFL and TESOL Podcast by ITTT....  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Hi everybody, thanks so much for tuning in. It’s Linda here from ITTT with my morning coffee, because if you've watched me before in one of our live sessions you will know that I am in South Korea and it's currently 10:00 a.m. on Friday morning. So I'm having my morning coffee and I'm going to have a chat with you guys. If you can see me and hear me, please drop a hi or something into the comment box, I would really appreciate it. As you may or may not know, at ITTT we go live twice every week, me on Fridays or maybe Thursdays depending on where you're watching from, and my colleague Liza she goes live every Tuesday. Actually Liza went live on Tuesday and also on Saturday last week because she had a really...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Destinations TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Hi everybody wherever you are right now. I'm in South Korea and it's 10 a.m. Friday, so good morning. I'm back here again today, my name is Linda from ITTT if you've been here before hi and if this is your first time watching thanks so much for tuning in and taking the time, we really appreciate it. If at any time during this live session you have any questions, feel free to drop your comments in the comment section from whichever platform you're watching from. We are streaming live on Facebook and on YouTube at the same time. If you can see me and hear me just leave a hi in the comment box, that would be highly appreciated so that I know that...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Destinations As one of the world’s largest and most populated countries, Brazil offers a wealth of opportunities for TEFL certified teachers. In recent years, the country’s rapid economic development has fueled further growth in the job market with a huge increase in business-related English teaching jobs in particular. Positions can be found in all major towns and cities throughout the country, but the following 5 areas are where you will find the biggest selection of teaching jobs to choose from. Rio’s international fame as a glamorous tourist destination ensures that it is generally the number one choice for foreign teachers looking to teach English in Brazil. Thanks to the tourism sector, there are always plenty of teaching...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Teaching Ideas Hello everybody and welcome to the ITTT weekly live stream. It's Liza here and I'm super excited that this stream happens every week and we can talk about teaching and TEFL and stuff like that. So welcome and thank you for joining me. Today, we are going to talk about online ESL game design. Last week I started showing you the game I was designing, it was Monopoly. Today I'm going to show you the outcome of the game and also tell you a little bit more about online game design. Thanks a lot for letting me know that you are watching and right now please let me know at what stage of your ESL career you are at. As for me, I'm an online ESL teacher currently. I used to teach in a real classroom several years ago, but then...  [Read more]

  Located at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, Singapore is the world’s only island city-state. Since independence from Britain, the country has developed at a phenomenal rate and is one of the leading economic centers in the world. However, its colonial history is evident almost everywhere you look in the architecture, place names and monuments, such as the Raffles Hotel, named after Singapore’s founder Sir Thomas Raffles. There are four official languages, English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil but English is the language of government and the education system. Although Singapore is heavily urbanized, the “garden city” initiative of the government in the 1960s means that today there are plenty of green spaces to enjoy with almost 10% of land devoted to parks and nature reserves. ...  [Read more]

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