Grammar Teaching Method

  The purpose of grammar translation then is to basically translate between L1 and L2 and vice versa. So, we could take a simple example. Let's imagine that our native language was English and our target language was French and let's assume that we want to translate a document from French into English. Let's take a simple sentence. Here's a sentence in French "Ouvre la fenêtre" and we'll add "s'il vous plaît" at the end. What we want to do is to take this L2 and translate it back into English. Now, if we have a reasonable knowledge of French then we may well know that this particular verb "ouvre" "to open" translates directly and this female form of the and finally the fenêtre "Open the window" and this polite form of "please". This is all very well if the two structures that...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Throughout history, several different teaching approaches and methodologies have been tried and tested with some being more popular and effective than others. There are various teaching methods and techniques that are employed to help students learn a new language and this critique explains the advantages/disadvantages and effectiveness of some of the more important approaches. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Thomas C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The first technique (dominantly used ‘up to the 1960s’) (Lier and Lier, 2001) is the Grammar Translation (or Classical) method based on the translation of words/passages from...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teachers may already have a vision in their head of what kind of teacher they will be and what their class will be like. They might imagine how organized their class with being or how well behaved their students are. One thing they must consider before they start teaching is which method or methods of teaching they will use to help their students learn. Each teacher must evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching and be able to adjust their teaching style for one that may be better suited for their particular class. There are many ways to teach a class but which is best and how should teachers be conducting their classes? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kendyl W. Please note that this...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Teaching English to foreign-speaking students comes with much responsibility, creativity, patience, and kindness. On the opposite end, learning another language is challenging, requires practice and can be frustrating. To make the teaching and learning exchange seamless there are a variety of lesson structures and independent/ group activities available for teachers to implement into classrooms. Although many methods can be used, grammar, vocabulary, reading, listening, writing, and speaking are all important structures taken into consideration as learning the language comfortably and fluently is always the end goal. Throughout this summative task, different methodologies will be paired and compared to find...  [Read more]

1. Introduction 2. Why Choose ITTT for ESL English Grammar Training 3. Benefits of Specializing in Grammar 4. How ITTT Can Help You Become a Successful ESL English Teacher Are you passionate about teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) and want to specialize in grammar? Look no further than ITTT (International TEFL and TESOL Training) for all your training needs. With our comprehensive courses and experienced instructors, you can become an expert in teaching grammar to ESL students. Whether you are a seasoned teacher looking to enhance your skills or a newcomer to the field, ITTT has the resources to help you succeed. ITTT is a leader in providing TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) training worldwide. Our focus on...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences The best thing I have learned from my TEFL course is the ESA method. I discovered this method in Lesson 2 of our course which, for me, is one of the best and useful lessons in the whole course. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Horacio A. In my previous experience, I had learned most of the methodologies explained in Lesson 2, but I had never had the chance to know about this method before. ESA stands for Engage-Study-Activate, the three stages or phases of this method. This method was introduced in 1998 by Jeremy Harmer. It is the most dynamic and creative method, suitable to any level. It is an eclectic method, because it combines the best of previous methodologies used in language...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas “The role of grammar is perhaps one of the most controversial issues in language teaching” (Richards and Renandya, 2002, p.145). From the past to the present, there have been so many changes in methodologists’ views on which grammar items should be taught and how to teach them. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Man C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In the past, in a traditional classroom, grammatical competence and explicit knowledge of language rules were emphasized. Grammar teaching held such an essential part in language teaching that other aspects became either ignored or downplayed. People assumed that if the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas A method of teaching contains the techniques used by teachers to impart knowledge to students. These strategies are determined partly on the subjects to be taught and partly by the nature of the learner. In this task, I will give some examples of different teaching methodologies, compare these techniques, and explain why it is important that teachers, mostly who are teaching in a foreign country should know these methods. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nathalie L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. One of the most effective methods of teaching is ESA (Engage, Study, and Activate); this teaching method allows your student to be...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teaching a language seems to have its roots precisely in teaching grammar: one of the first learning methodologies in history was grammar-translation. Used to translate Greek into Latin, it was inefficient for speech development, yet it remains one of the most popular teaching methods in education. Unfortunately, even from my own experience as a student, this is the preferred teaching method and it wasn't until recently that a more interactive way of learning was introduced in schools. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Aleksandra Đ. We should ask ourselves: Is learning grammar truly necessary for learning a language? We acquire our first language without knowing any grammar whatsoever. And...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas As an instructional strategy, drilling is familiar to all educators. It is best defined as a disciplined and repetitious exercise, used as a mean of teaching and perfecting a skill or procedure. As an instructional strategy, it promotes the acquisition of knowledge or skill through systematic training by multiple repetitions, rehearse, practice, and engages in a rehearsal to learn or become proficient. It is also a common method used by many teachers when introducing new languages to their students. The skills built through drill-and-practice become the foundational building blocks for more meaningful learning. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kasey K. Please note that this blog post might...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The best thing I have learned from this TEFL course is that teaching methodology is no longer dominated by the framework of translation/grammar-based learning, but newer, more holistic methods are starting to be used by teachers, such as the ESA method. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Leslie H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Grammar/translation learning primarily uses the practice of finding equivalents of the students’ language in their target language. One of my main criticisms of this method is the auto-translation it encourages in students. Instead of looking at a sentence and automatically grasping the meaning,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas There are many views about learning English grammar. Many people think that learning English grammar is not important and unnecessary. This idea is not wrong because it depends on the purpose of your English learning. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate May T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. For middle and high school students, learning English grammar is very important because it accounts for the highest score in the English test sections. Confirming that, to learn English well, you need to start from learning and consolidating English grammar. Thereby, we can see that English grammar is not a prerequisite and the most important...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas For the last two years, I have worked as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) at a Japanese high school. Along with my teaching job, I have volunteered at a weekly English conversation class, where I teach English to both children and adults. Next year, I plan to transition out of my ALT job and into private ESL teaching. It is most likely that I will do most of my teaching online, where I will be one-on-one with a student. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Bailey J. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In this case, when looking at my experience with teaching...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Grammar is the rules governing the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in a natural language. Simply put, grammar is the general rule of a language. Language is logical; grammar tells us in which order we say words. It’s about how words become phrases; how words and phrases become sentences and how sentences become language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Yang S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Some of these rules are acquired naturally in childhood while others are acquired in the learning process under the guidance of a teacher. While most of the time, people don’t know which grammatical rule they are following...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teaching styles can vary drastically and no one style is king. Over time and in different parts of the world different styles have risen to prominence while others lose favor. The effectiveness of a teaching style depends on the students, their need, the language they are being taught, the language they are being taught in, and many other factors. Effective teachers will be familiar with different styles and the various methods introduced in each style. They will be capable of creating their own unique style based on what is most effective for their situation. The following methodologies of teaching all have their strengths and weaknesses, most are found to be outdated or overly flawed but we can still learn and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Teaching styles can vary drastically and no one style is king. Over time and in different parts of the world different styles have risen to prominence while others lose favor. The effectiveness of a teaching style depends on the students, their need, the language they are being taught, the language they are being taught in, and many other factors. Effective teachers will be familiar with different styles and the various methods introduced in each style. They will be capable of creating their own unique style based on what is most effective for their situation. The following methodologies of teaching all have their strengths and weaknesses, most are found to be outdated or overly flawed but we can still learn...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In the realm of English language learning, whether grammar is important or to what extent grammar should be learned has been the most debatable topic. As a non-native English speaker, the questions alike once have been circling in my mind like the “To be, or not to be” soliloquy uttered by Prince Hamlet. Compare to practice speaking, listening, and memorize vocabulary, learning grammar appears to receive less emphasis. Is it true learning grammar is not that important? Of course not! When it comes to a second language or foreign language acquisition, learning grammar is extremely vital. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Chiang M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Given that grammar is, unquestionably, one of the fundamental pillars of essentially any language, it is therefore of utmost importance to educate learners the correct grammatical rules, and even more preferably, when the learners are of a very young age, so that they can, presumably, have a better grasp of the underlying grammatical rules before they embrace on a pursuit of more advance intellectual knowledge. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate CHUN YAN T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Nonetheless, because English grammar is, by no means, the easiest to fully comprehend, not to mention the numerous grammatical exceptions...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences “ESA” is a method commonly used in teaching English as a foreign language and stands for Engage, Study, and Activate. ESA is designed to allow movement back and forth between the stages and is popular for its flexibility. The elements - Engage, Study and Activate (ESA) - are necessary for successful language learning in classrooms and they need to be present in most lessons or teaching sequences. Students always need to be engaged, if possible, so that they can get the maximum out of the learning experience. Learners need to study some aspect of language, however small or of short duration, during a lesson period. The ‘Activate’ phase involves exercises and activities which are designed to get the...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences A few weeks ago, I was pondering on what was required for me to have a successful TEFL teaching career. I came to the conclusion that I needed to start from the beginning and complete a TEFL course. There were many different TEFL courses being offered on several websites. I compared several different TEFL courses and finally decided on the TEFL course offered by the International TEFL and TESOL Training (ITTT), as it appeared to provide the best overall value in terms of quality, rating, resources, and cost. For a beginner TEFL teacher, I think there are several advantages for completing the TEFL course. First, it provides me with the essential teaching tools and materials that I will need to teach classes. Secondly, I...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas I am an English teacher for preschool children in a small village. My students are excited about the new English subject. However, after a period of studying, they become tired and distracted. "This is hard" or "why don't we play games?", My student said. I have found that traditional teaching methods make children feel bored and hard to absorb. So why don't we use games in the classroom? I tried applying some preschool games to the lesson. My students were thrilled and excited about the games. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Chinh T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or...  [Read more]

  "In terms of the things that are negative about it, we've already said that it doesn't develop speaking but perhaps the biggest negative point about this particular methodology is that it's very unnatural. Ok, so despite the criticisms of this particular method, and particularly the fact that is unnatural, this particular methodology was in use all the way through the 17th, 18th and 19th century and indeed it's still in use today. However, Gouin in the 1880s and Berlitz in the early 1900s decided that this particular methodology was so unnatural that they wanted to come up with something new. The method that they came up with, they called the direct method. You will also sometimes see it as the natural method. What these two people were saying is that if we wish to learn a...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences There is a grander purpose of education in a society and a community. Education is the cornerstone of any social community or society. When you have the education you can understand and have a basis for political, religious, and economic points. Knowing is the basis of existence, remembering holds a legacy. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Jessi H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The role of the teacher is to teach students how to think critically and objectively about the world around them, and to have an influence on the world around them. Another important role the teacher has is to teach the methods of learning so that...  [Read more]

Anastasiya Akpinar Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Do you remember the frustration you have experienced after education moved went online? While it may have been a disaster initially, most teachers have now adapted to the new streams of the educational process. Some even say distance learning is better for everyone. One of the most popular approaches to teaching is the ESA method, and in this blog post, we will discover how to use the ESA teaching method for online English lessons. After online education has become a routine part of teachers' lives, many still have problems with planning fun and productive online lessons. To let students take part in the process equally is a challenge for all English teachers, especially when...  [Read more]

  So let's take an example of what those drills might involve. So here is an example of a repetition drill. I will model the language and then my class will repeat after me. So "This is a cup." "Spoon" ? "This is a spoon." "Knife" - "his is a knife." Thank you. The reason that it's called or also called the army method is that it was the method adopted by the United States military who had personnel stationed around the world at the end of Second World War and they realized that they needed those personnel to pick up the language very quickly and one of the positive things about this particular methodology is that you do very quickly learn vocabulary. Another positive thing about it is that you quickly learn the correct pronunciation of that vocabulary. However, there are some...  [Read more]

  English teachers can expect a wide range of different benefits that vary from region to region. Regions where you can expect to receive free housing when working as an English teacher include China, South Korea, and the Middle East. 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. Unit 4 was a good refresher in grammar on present tenses! It provided some great examples of common mistakes some of my students may make that I will look for when I begin my...  [Read more]

TESOL Teaching Methods Explained In the fast-paced world of English language teaching, it is crucial to stay updated on the latest teaching methods and techniques to ensure effective and engaging lessons for students. TESOL, which stands for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, encompasses a wide range of approaches that educators can utilize to help non-native English speakers develop their language skills. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore some of the most popular TESOL teaching methods and how they can be applied in the classroom. 1. Communicative Language Teaching 2. Task-Based Learning 3. Content-Based Instruction 4. Total Physical Response Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is a widely used approach in TESOL that focuses on the importance of communication in...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Being an English teacher, teaching skills are very important. The quality of learning result depends on many factors, but the teacher's methods are the essential elements for learners' learning progress, motivation, enthusiasm, etc. to help them have the best result in studying English. I will concentrate on "How to teach vocabulary effectively". This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nhat D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. It can't be denied that the learning outcomes mainly depend on the effort of each learner, but the mission of each teacher is no less important. Vocabulary is one of the most important factors for learners, those...  [Read more]

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 Teaching Ideas Type in "teaching grammar effectively" into Google and the reader will be confronted with pages and pages of advice/frameworks/theories on how to effectively teach grammar. Most of the content does acknowledge that there is no "golden rule" for effective grammar teaching before imparting their particular key rules or areas that should be incorporated into teaching grammar. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Joe S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Also Read: Top 7 Spanish Speaking Countries for Teaching English Abroad There's a lot of theory around, much of it contradictory. It can be valuable, but I sometimes feel, to quote Mark...  [Read more]