Esl Class Activities

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I took the ITTT online TEFL course not to prepare to teach English as an employee working abroad, but as a volunteer in the United States to teach refugee and immigrant adults. I completed the units a few months ago, but I waited to do this summative task until I could begin teaching classes as a volunteer teacher and reflect on that experience. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Sherri V. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I’ve found that teaching ESL as a volunteer in the United States is associated with several factors that may be different from the experience of an employed TEFL teacher abroad. This essay describes key...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas The present progressive is one of the most important tenses in the English language. As it describes actions currently happening, it's quite an easy tense to teach using a variety of fun and interactive activities. Here are 7 activities for teaching the present progressive for the ESL classroom. Have your class make observations about what’s happening all around in the classroom and outside the windows. Make sure they students use the present progressive when describing what they see. Ask your students to write a letter to a parent, relative or friend describing their life as an ESL student. What are they doing to improve their English? What are they doing right now in class? Also read: 7 Activities for Teaching...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Different classes have different requirements for appropriate teaching materials. These requirements are influenced by several factors, such as the skill level of the class, their age, ability, their native language they speak, and the unique problems native speakers of that language have when learning English. Cultural factors also need to be taken into account. Course material could become problematic in a classroom if they deal with family relationships or gender in a way that particular culture of a country or the students may find inappropriate. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Joshua W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT....  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas Schools are starting again and students and teachers flock back to the classroom. Check out these simple and powerful back-to-school ideas and your students will surely remember this first lesson of yours for a long time! Have your students write a short report (or let them do it verbally) about something newsworthy that happened in their neighborhood or town during the school break. Introduce a weekly journal to your students. The focus of this should be on fluency practice and less on correctness. Have your students write in the journal every day based on a topic that came up in class. Divide your class into groups and hand out one paragraph of a reading topic to every group. Then, have them share the information...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas When a class is managed well, there is a minimum of disruptions that distract from learning. This is more of an issue in a class for children, as opposed to adults. Nevertheless, in all classes, maintaining the comportment of the group to facilitate learning is the objective of sound classroom management techniques. Furthermore, it is also important to develop cordial and friendly relations with learners on an individual basis, and with the class as a whole. Having a rapport with students, and creating a classroom community that is based on shared rules and norms that are understood and reasonable for everybody, is an essential part of classroom management. When accomplished, this creates a classroom culture that...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Learning a new language is an inherently challenging task. One important way for ESL teachers to help beginner students learn English is to focus not only on teaching language concepts but on building their confidence to experiment with the language and persist with their learning. This essay will firstly examine why building confidence is important in ESL teaching, and different strategies teachers can employ to do this, including how they interact with students and the content they choose for classes. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Emily U. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Different groups of beginner learners might be...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences There is no doubt that it is the Information Age people are currently living in. And it is cannot be ignored that online education is one of the fastest growing teaching and learning methods in recent years due to different reasons and needs, which takes the advantages of the Internet and save both teachers' and learners' time and energy that has been spent on the distance and traffic. Among that, ESL online learning gets a great acceptance from the ESL learners. And here is a discussion about the advantage of ESL online education. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Xue L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Compared to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Teaching aids have become fundamental for teachers in all types of classrooms. These aids serve in honing the students’ reading skills and comprehension, keeping the class from becoming boring for the student, and presenting material in practical ways that can be applied in everyday activities. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Katrina K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Being organized plays a big role in teaching, no matter what the subject is. Part of being organized is knowing how to use your resources. The teacher may have a dozen wonderful teaching aids, but if the teacher doesn’t know where they are, or must spend...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas ESL teachers implement a variety of strategies to help students learn English as a second language. Even with a repertoire of methodologies, activities, and resources, however, teachers still find that some students fall short of reaching their academic goals. This is especially apparent with younger learners who may not have an intrinsic motivation for studying English. Many efforts on the parts of teachers may fail because learning is a process that fundamentally begins with effective classroom management: the connections between teachers and learners, the establishment and following of class rules, the use of daily routines, the strategies for keeping students’ attention and the impact of positive...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The role of a teacher conceals in itself the huge responsibility of shaping the world and making it a better place. A teacher should be able to cultivate a sense of strong positive emotions and self-confidence, should be well aware of the different needs of the students and should be capable of providing an endless number of opportunities for them to learn and grow. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Anil K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. However, many teachers find the mixed-ability classes, a challenging situation to deal with. The students' demographics change according to a lot of parameters. The term mixed-ability...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas We all know what it’s like to teach a class with reluctant students who don’t want to talk. It’s like pulling teeth. However, with these 7 awesome ESL conversation activities, you can really get your students talking! For this activity, you simply use a tumbling block game such as Jenga and write 1 simple ice breaker question on each block. Before a student places a block on the stack, they must first answer the question on the block. This activity is especially great for small ESL classes or for small groups in a big class. Also Read: The 5 Best Ways To Build Rapport With Your TEFL Students First, take a few minutes to brainstorm characteristics a person might have. This could be something like “has flown in...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Every English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher desires to successfully teach their students how to proficiently speak, understand, and use the English language. English is a very complex language, and teaching it presents many challenges. Because of this, an ESL teacher must be willing and able to take on various roles throughout the teaching of a lesson. During a typical ESL lesson, a teacher will have some, or all, of the following roles: a manager or controller, an organizer, an observer, an assessor, a prompter, a participant, and a resource or facilitator. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Jennifer N. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas The simple past is one of the most important tenses in the English language. As it describes past actions, it's quite an easy tense to teach using a variety of fun and interactive activities. Here are 7 activities for teaching the simple past for the ESL classroom. For more activities check out: 10 Exciting Activities for the Past Simple For this activity, the students think of significant accomplishments in their lives. After sharing with the class what they have accomplished, the students should describe what they did in order to achieve this goal, for example they graduated college, studied English, took classes, etc. It’s important that the students use the simple past to talk about these actions. Also read: 7...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Effective teachers not only possess expertise in content knowledge but they are also great classroom managers. If teachers cannot manage their students then they cannot teach their students. Learning will only take place when the classroom is well managed. The first day of school is the most important day for teachers to create 'rules' in the classroom. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nikki D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Classroom management must happen on the very first day of school can be effective and successful. An effective teacher manages to create a 'task-oriented' environment in the classroom. Teachers should...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This blog post is devoted to modal auxiliary verbs. Our TEFL graduate shares some effective techniques for teaching it. Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In this blog post, our TEFL graduate shares their thoughts on the importance of teaching skills. Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Prompting and motivation are extremely important in an ESL class. Our TEFL graduate shares their opinion and ideas on the topic. Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This blog post contains information on the importance of productive skills. Elizaveta Pachina ...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas As an ESL teacher, getting your students talking can be one of the most difficult things to accomplish. English learners often lack the necessary confidence to speak openly and freely in English. The following activities are perfect for getting your students out of their shells! Pair up your students and let them write a short dialogue. After all the pairs are done, they go in front of the class and perform their dialogue like a play. Hand out a role-play scenario and let two students perform the role-play in front of the class. After they have been talking for a while, freeze the conversation, and choose two new students to pick up and continue the play. Do this several times. Interviews are a great way for students...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas When a student describes a class that they’ve enjoyed, they often attribute their positive experience to the interesting content of the class, friendly classmates, or an inspiring teacher. A well-organized class can contribute to building these healthy student-student and student-teacher relationships, as well as create an environment in which a student can comfortably listen and learn the content given. From this course, I’ve learned how an effectively managed classroom can have a significant impact on the student’s experience, and furthermore can help a student succeed in an EFL classroom. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Gabriella P. Classroom...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teaching in the field of ESL learning is a task that has plenty of challenges that can arise in the classroom. Whether students are young learners or adults, learning English as a second language requires a lot of time and dedication in and outside of the classroom. Teachers must put a lot of patience, care, and effort into their lessons for the sake of their students’ success. They can find themselves teaching various types of classroom environments such as class sizes that are big or small, online or in-person, or multilingual or monolingual environments. These can affect the way a teacher chooses to run their class lessons. One of the biggest influences on a teacher’s methods is the number of students in...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Prompting and motivation are extremely important in an ESL class. Our TEFL graduate shares their opinion and ideas on the topic. Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Globalization is shaping the world around us but what about the learning environment? Our TEFL graduate shares their opinion. Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This blog post contains information on the importance of productive skills. Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Every student has their own motivation and purpose to learn English. Our TEFL graduate dwells upon this topic....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Based on the enormous knowledge obtained from the TEFL online study, it is obvious that one of the cornerstones to being a good Teacher especially an ESL Teacher is having excellent knowledge or skill in managing a class, which serves as a requisite to achieving the aim and purpose of the daily lesson. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate NEFE K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. As stated by Evertson and Weinstein, they described classroom management as the actions taken by the teacher to create a supportive environment for the academic, social, and emotional learning of students. They further explained that teachers who are...  [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]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The lesson plan is a structure of the course that you will give to your students, a clear guide as to what you want to achieve and how you are going to do it. A good lesson plan generally consists of learner objectives, personal aims, language points, procedure, phase, and interaction, etc. It is of great importance because it can help teachers to have confidence in class, make the class go more smoothly and help to improve the course. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Yanfen G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Firstly, it can help teachers be full of confidence in class. As is well known to everyone, people will easily get...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I have been teaching ESL classes professionally for two years. In addition to this experience, I have several years of experience as a volunteer teacher/mentor with ESL students. Through my experiences, I have learned that importance of establishing immediate rapport in the classroom. In this short article, I will talk about why it is vital to establish rapport from the very first day between the students and teacher as well as among the students. I will offer advice from my own experience of teaching both young learners and adults. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Michael S. Establishing rapport between the teacher and student is something that begins on the first day of class and it...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas One of the key elements to being an effective teacher is variety. One cannot teach by using the same lesson structure, the same activities, the same worksheets, the same plan every single time. No matter how effective it may be, students will still tire from the repetition, and their engagement will wane. And that is exactly why teachers have a toolbox from which to draw a wide variety of skills, activities, plans, and ideas to keep the classroom fresh and engaging. Changing scenery, environments, and going outside is all part of this toolbox, and can be used to an effective extent to keep lessons feeling stimulating and varied. And by doing so, the teacher is opening up lessons to a fun and exciting range of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas When it comes to teaching a lot of teachers are set in their ways, especially if this has been their career for a while, but over the years we have learned that teachers need to be flexible with their methods because there is a wide range of learning abilities in every classroom. Each child has their own learning styles and the way we approach a lesson should be tailored too, hopefully, to meet the needs of every child in the room. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Alexandra M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Teaching children with varying learning abilities means adapting and providing curriculum and course activities that...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas For the past couple of months, I have worked as an ESL teacher for the company Qkids. I took this course in order to obtain a certificate and meet the Chinese national standards. Even though I took it for that purpose only, it has been a very informative and helpful class. I have learned so much that I can apply to my own online ESL classes. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Rebekah P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In my experience, and from what I have learned in the class, it is very important to keep the students encouraged to maintain their motivation. The platform I teach on allows me to rewards a student’s good work...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas While sentence structure and grammar are the foundation of the English Language, vocabulary is the glue that holds it together. An expansive vocabulary allows students to feel confident in their abilities and communicate more effectively. There are many methods of teaching vocabulary and in each class, the teacher may need to use different methods. This is because each class will be made up of different students each with their own learning style. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Caitlin O. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Vocabulary is important to teach in the very first lessons because it is how students will be able to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The lesson plan functions as a roadmap for the teacher, providing an organized framework for the planning, preparation, and execution of the lesson and serving as a record of what has been completed. It should not be a detailed script, but rather a guide that allows for flexibility and adaptation in the classroom. The plan is a living document that may continue to be refined and enhanced after execution, incorporating lessons learned. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Simona H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Through the process of developing a plan, the teacher will be able to organize their thoughts on the lesson objectives...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Establishing rapport with students can be challenging sometimes, especially if this is a class of students who’ve already had different teachers or the students change around a lot. When there is inconsistency in teaching style or people, it can be more difficult for students to create a more meaningful bond. One of the key things I’ve always found in establishing rapport is to be friendly, positive, kind, consistent and understanding. There are different ways a teacher can show this. The way s/he introduces her/himself and shows interest in students initially, the level of professionalism displayed, the teacher’s attitude towards students, the reward system put in place and the expectations set among many...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Outdoor games and activities can be motivating and fun for English language learners. According to my research, there are many different activities that teachers can use to practice and develop students’ English language skills. Outdoor learning has many benefits: Students can be highly motivated and energized by being outside. When a class has become boring or the students disinterested, going outside can help students return to the classroom refreshed and more focused than before. Furthermore, being in the new surroundings opens up unique, memorable ways to teach English in the great outdoors. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Krista W. Please note that this blog post might not...  [Read more]