Elicit Example

Federico Riva TEFL Information Teaching Ideas Here we're going to consider the use of visual aids in the classroom. Visual aids can include examples such as, real objects (which we call realia), the use of pictures and photographs and also the use of models. So let's consider some of the ideas surrounding the use of visual aids. First of all the use of a visual aid can reduce teacher talk time (TTT) which is always desirable. It is much simpler to just show a real object than to try to describe it, so that we could just ask the students, “what is this”? and they would say, “that is a pen” rather than trying to actually describe the pen. Again if we were eliciting names of fruit and vegetables, rather than to try and...  [Read more]

  This video is part of our series on the past tenses in English. We start off the series with the past simple tense. In this video, we focus on the usages of the past simple tense, which mostly include completed actions at a definite time in the past. 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 lesson teaches the various forms of the future tense, including various forms of present tense (present simple and present continuous) that can be used for...  [Read more]

  So, let's have a look at a typical receptive skills lesson. The main focus of this lesson is going to be reading, although there will be some listening involved as well and it?s going to be a patchwork ESA lesson. As a patchwork lesson, it will start off with an engage and this engage what we're going to do is to play an extract about Elvis Presley and it's going to be an Elvis Presley song and we can ask the students if they know who it is and if they know anything about him can help generate the interest in this. We can also ask them what they'd like to know about it. What we can then do is just to introduce them to the text but they're going to read the detail later on but just at this stage we'll do a quick skimming or scanning exercise to find some information from that...  [Read more]

  The next idea we're going to consider is the use of visual aids and visual aids can include some examples such as real, objects, which we call realia, the use of pictures and photographs and also the use of models. So let's consider some of the ideas surrounding the use of visual aids. Well, why are they useful? Well, first of all the use of a visual aid can reduce teacher talk time. It's very much more simple just to show a real object than to try to describe it so that we could just ask the students ?what is this,? and they would say ?this is a pen,? rather than trying to actually describe it. Again if we were trying to show examples of fruit and vegetables rather than to try and describe them why not use an actual model and this is going to be much more visually stimulating...  [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. Straight arrow ESA Lesson Plan Class level: Elementary Number of students: 8 Lesson aim: After the lesson the students should be able to look at an animal and make sentences to say what it “can and can’t” do. Sample sentences when looking at the picture of an elephant. It can walk. It can’t fly. Show the students a video of animals and they are going to say what they like about those animals and try to create a list of...  [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]

  This video covers the difference between 'discreet' and 'discrete'. Their similar spelling and pronunciation makes them a word pair that is often confused. The word 'discreet' describes something that is unnoticeable and/or modest, whereas 'discrete' refers to something that is separate and distinct. Watch the video for detailed examples on the two words. 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 cleared out some mistakes that I do...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Teaching can be a gratifying career, but with it comes great responsibility. Possessing a high grasp of grammar, teaching theories, techniques, etc., will hold you in good stead. However, there are many other wide-ranging characteristics required to be a great teacher. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Elicia B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. A great teacher needs to be adaptable as they are not just a teacher. They are a motivator, organizer, entertainer, prompter, corrector, and participator, to name only a few. It is essential that the teacher can...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In this essay, I will give an introduction on how to teach beginner level students and I will not only outline how to approach the subject matter to teach first but I will also highlight techniques to create a positive learning environment to keep students motivated about studying. I will focus on teaching adults because young learners will need a slightly different approach. However, some common rules apply to both groups of students. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Dennis S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In general, it is very important to adjust the classroom environment and teaching style to the needs of beginner level...  [Read more]

  The first part of my study phase is going to be the board work and I'm going to use the information that I generated in the elicitation part of my engage phase to move on to the actual board work. What I'm going to do is to show the structure of this particular tense. So, the phase study I'm expecting to take about ten minutes on this particular part and, again, the interaction will mainly be the students talking to me. So, how am I going to achieve that with this information? Well, we could ask the students to have a look at the sentences themselves and to tell us what they can see. If we look at each of the first words in here, then at this level, I should hopefully be able to elicit from my students what each of these words have in common and they may well give an answer that...  [Read more]

  This video is part of our ESA Methodology series. The ESA methodology consists of three stages. In this series, we look at the individual purposes of each stage and typical activities for each stage. This second video introduces the study phase of ESA. The purpose of this phase is to cover the actual teaching of the lesson and to check the understanding of that material.The second stage or phase of the lesson is known as the study phase and really the purpose of this phase is to cover the actual teaching of the lesson and to check understanding of that material. Typically in an ESA lesson, the study phase will have two parts. The first phase of the study is to cover the actual teaching component in what's known as the board work and what we try to do in the board work phase is to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences When I first made the transition from primary school to university, I knew that my lesson plans were clearly going to have to change. As I began to come up with ideas for my new job, I was disappointed that most of the content I previously used had no place in the university. Games, such as Hangman and Pictionary, worked excellently in capturing the interests of my young students, but I didn’t think these childish games had any place in a university classroom. I found out weeks later how wrong I was when I used Pictionary at the beginning of one of my courses to ‘preview’ the vocabulary we would be covering in class that day. I discovered that day that games can support a lesson if the educator...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The best thing I’ve learned from this course begins with the EFL teacher as an instrument of facilitation. The creative spark that ignites a flame in every student that is trying to master a new language. A teacher doesn’t need to be perfect but must be fully present and prepared with a positive, supportive vibe. The successful teacher is a role model, a subject matter expert, and a skilled conductor of English language learning and immersion. Course books aside, from the very first lesson, a teacher identifies the level of learners and builds rapport with students through engaging activities that aim to reveal the students’ needs and interests. These interests can then be incorporated into future lesson...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Although it is important that a teacher maintains the students' motivation throughout the course, the initial stages are particularly important because they lay the foundation for the course. For example, if a strong motivational atmosphere is not initially established then he/she will have more difficulty motivating them when correction is needed in the later stages. If a strong motivational foundation is laid then the students' will understand that the teacher has their best interests at heart and is trying to help them as best as he/she can. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ann R. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. A teacher's...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas A highly motivated student is one who is goal-oriented, driven by passion and focused. He/she does things from the bottom of the heart. Motivation can be viewed as an internal impulse that brings us to complete an action. Without motivation, there is no action. Motivation is what moves or inspires the learner to achieve set objectives. It's the motor that drives the student to achieve pedagogical objectives. Hence it's an essential tool to equip students with, so that whatever they do it effectively and with perfection. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Owen G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Behavior can be a very close...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences When I think of my earliest childhood memories, I remember that I used to love to play games in the classroom (charades, 7-up/head down-thumb up, categories, bingo, etc.). Going from a boring ‘copy from the board’ type of class to a competitive, fun and activity-filled class gave me the ability to open my mind, so I could find the subject being taught more interesting and made it easier for me to absorb the information. Young learners may not have an interest in studying because they don’t yet have any motivation from learning, so they are only interested in games, songs, and other fun activities. When playing most of the games in the classroom, young learners are compelled to communicate with each other...  [Read more]

  Once we're satisfied that all the students have been engaged and that they've been given the opportunity to say something, we can move on to our study phase. Here, it may be necessary or useful to actually pre-teach some gaps in knowledge that have been shown from the engage phase and those gaps in knowledge may include actual grammar structures or indeed useful vocabulary and it's very important that, before we move on to doing any forms of activity, we check their understanding of this material. So, we need to do some study exercises. It's also very useful if you leave this information up on the board through all that study period. Those study activities can just be the normal types of gap fills or matching activities and, as always, we need to demonstrate those activities,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Thom P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Lesson Objectives: Students will practice recognizing homophones and practice the correct, indefinite, and zero articles. Summary of tasks/actions Warm-Up: Vocabulary Review (10 minutes) Tell students that they will play a game to review some of the words that they talked about last week. Divide the class into two teams. One person from each team stands at the back of the room, and one person from each stands by the board. Divide the board into four parts. Label each piece the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas One of the repeating themes of this TEFL course has been the games a classroom may participate in, and the many variants of games appropriate for the learning of English. Examples are hangman, crossword puzzles, word jumbles, 20 questions, and many more to mention. The games can often serve very specific purposes, which were perhaps not the original intentions for the games, however within the classroom they can perfectly fit into their role. Tongue-twisters are an excellent choice when practising pronunciations on students in the fluency stage of the lesson, as it allows them to make mistakes without the fear of embarrassment from failure (as failure is almost certain for everybody, at least once), and forces...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Games have proven to be a useful approach within a classroom environment when teaching English. In this essay, I will be discussing in further detail why it is beneficial for the teacher to use games as part of their teaching practice and the different types of games that can be played. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Alexander K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Games are exciting and fun, they are a good way to break the ice and engage students. Games can help build good relationships between students and the teacher because they are informal, so, this creates a comfortable environment for students to make mistakes without...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas There are many benefits to using games in the classroom, including the creation of an engaging learning experience for students, a positive learning environment, and the potential for students to practice real-life situations with instant feedback. Also, gamification of learning can use students’ natural inclination for socialization, achievement, and award. Thus, games can be a great tool for teaching English as a foreign language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Tassyn M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Games should be used with a direct purpose and should be monitored carefully to see if the intended results are...  [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 Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas ESL students face the rules for the degrees of comparison early on in their English learning path. However, this topic may become daunting and lead to constant mistakes later on due to problems like confusing different degrees, doubling up, formulating unbalanced comparisons, etc. In this blog post, you will learn five easy steps you should take to teach this grammar point in your ESL classroom. Before you start digging deep, elicit some ideas of what adjectives are from your students. When you see they understand what adjectives are and don't confuse adjectives with other parts of speech, you can continue further. You need your ESL classroom to know two main functions of...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Alumni Experiences As an aspiring TEFL teacher, I have to be ready to teach students of all ages. While the language and lesson-planning follow frameworks that stay consistent for all students, the topics I utilize depend on who I am teaching; for example, the ESA lesson plan works for all classrooms, but different students require different engage-phase activities - a game of battleships is better suited for young learners than adults. In this report, I explore the similarities and differences between teaching young and adult learners. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kevin Y. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In general, adults seeking to learn...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Having recently moved to Spain with the full intention of completing a TEFL course and making a new life outside of the UK, whilst studying how to teach English, at the same time as learning Spanish so that I can communicate reasonably, it is this juxtaposition between this my English competence that has underlined for me just how difficult it can be for anybody to learn a new language, having been humbled by the gaps in my knowledge. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Justin S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Broadly speaking the first two questions to ask when considering the differences between the formal and informal sides...  [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]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas If you have already switched to online ESL teaching, you've definitely been using an online board. There are many good options out there, but I prefer using Miro over the others. Miro is a convenient online whiteboard with lots of fun and interactive tools to use during the class and outside. In this blog post, I'd like to share several interactive ideas to enhance your online ESL lesson. At the beginning of the online ESL lesson, start with a warm-up conversation. Ask your students about their mood, day, weather, etc. Just do some small talk of any kind. To support the conversation, you can encourage your students to draw pictures on Miro...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Motivation refers to a psychological process that gives purpose and direction. Motivation in the classroom helps students to be interested in learning. It's a process involved in the arousing and orientation of someone towards achieving a given goal. As a teacher, motivation in the classroom has a lot to do with my personality. I have to be a role model, a good leader and a good example for the students to follow. I have to listen to each and every student with keen interest, making sure I understand them and give them the attention they deserve. I'll also need to apply discipline as well as compassion. All this will help to maintain and ensure self-confident within the students. In addition, there are certain...  [Read more]

  Now an example of a straight arrow ESA lesson for our engage phase. What we're going to do is to show the students a video of animals and they are going to say what they like about those animals and try to create a list of some more. So, remember what we're trying to do here is to get the students talking and thinking in English. We're using a typical engage activity, which is to create a list and we try to make sure that all the students have been involved in some way in creating those lists. Moving on to the study phase, the first part is going to be the board work and the teacher is going to try to elicit from the students what each of those animals can and can't do. Typically, what the students will say is just single words, so "run," "jump," "fly," etc. What we would then...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The Engage, Study, Active (ESA) method is a combination of different methods. It was created by Jeremy Harmer when he wrote the book called “How to Teach English” in 1998. In this book, he gives an overview of the different methodologies such as Task-Based Learning, Community Language Learning, and Suggestopedia. He then describes a new methodology: ESA. This method has three main parts that are utilized in different ways to create three distinct ESA lessons discussed below. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kelly H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The first part is the Engage Phase. This phase is used to warm students up....  [Read more]