How To Get Certified To Teach In Texas

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Idioms are great yet a challenging material to teach as they usually are culturally and stylistically influenced. Another problem is choosing a suitable idiom to teach different groups of students. In this blog post, we share ten fun English idioms and three ideas to teach these English indioms in your EFL classroom. To help students understand the meaning of an idiom and to help remember it fast, offer them a visual presentation. Draw the literal meaning of the idiom on one side of the sheet (what it sounds like it means) and the figurative meaning on the other side (what it actually means). If you don’t feel like drawing, use popular memes. This activity can be used with any idioms that have a clear literal...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Reading is one of the two receptive language skills that might seem easier to teach. When learning to read in a foreign language, a student doesn't have to deal with accents or pronunciation problems, as it often happens with speaking and listening. What's more, learning reading skills does not necessarily imply high teacher participation and can generally be done independently. Much as with writing, it might seem tempting to relegate most of reading to homework, especially in one-to-one teaching. The easier way isn't always the best one, and paying enough attention to this aspect of English during one's lessons offers many benefits. This...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Stories expose the students to more language, they engage and motivate the learner, they can be used to teach the structure of a language and the concepts about print which may be different between cultures. Stories with images can also help the students anchor their knowledge about the text. Listening to stories also helps the students hear accents and how words are pronounced. However, it is important to choose the correct book or story for the students you are working with. If familiar storylines are chosen the student is more likely to understand the story. It is also important to take into consideration the interests of the students and to find text on those topics. This post was written by our TEFL...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas ESA is a learning methodology invented by Jeremy Harmer. April 30, 1947, He has taught English in Mexico and the UK and has trained teachers around the world. He is the series editor of the “How to teach” series, and the author of the highly acclaimed The Practice of English Language Teaching and How to teach English. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nawal S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The ESA method which he invented, has all the factors students need in a classroom, for example, motivated, exposed to the language, and have the opportunity to use it. ESA is short for engaging, study activate. The three most needed...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas What opportunities do learners have to practice these core skills in the lesson? This question is often expressed by teachers when teaching a new language whereas learners do not need to produce language but receive it. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Domenica G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. There are different types of text which may be used for this purpose such as authentic texts which are written for any purpose other than language learning and are intact instead of being processed, adapted or simplified. However, not only is the text itself authentic, but also its context and related tasks as well. It may be a...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Learning a foreign language is quite challenging and reading has crucial importance in learning the vocabularies of the language and also learning vocabulary can affect reading texts. Knowing vocabulary is an important factor in language acquisition. Although grammar is very important too but to understand the meaning of the text, the students need to know the meaning of the words first. So reading offers the learner a wide range of words, different grammar and makes them more successful in speaking a language compared to those who don’t read much. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mercan H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Nothing ever comes to be without being created first. The same can be said for any lesson, without creating the materials to be used in the lesson it would be difficult for any teacher to deliver their intended lesson to students. Then one would ask the question of why is it important to create and adapt teaching materials if some already exist.in as much as using already available materials saves time and expense, it is not always effective because the materials not be intended for that specific target group and would not deliver the intended impact if not hinder it all together. Therefore materials need adjusting or adapting them to suit the requirements of the students. This post was written by our TEFL...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Nothing ever comes to be without being created first. The same can be said for any lesson, without creating the materials to be used in the lesson it would be difficult for any teacher to deliver their intended lesson to students. Then one would ask the question of why is it important to create and adapt teaching materials if some already exist.in as much as using already available materials saves time and expense, it is not always effective because the materials not be intended for that specific target group and would not deliver the intended impact if not hinder it all together. Therefore materials need adjusting or adapting them to suit the requirements of the students. This post was written by our TEFL...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas There has been a wide body of research regarding the positive effects that reading has on a student’s literacy levels. Introducing more reading material, and, even cultivating a love of reading in the classroom, can thus improve a student’s fluency in a new language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Sher L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. One of the ways reading can help a student acquire a new language is by providing motivation to further strengthen the student’s grasp of the language. As a student, I learned English as my second language. A great deal of the English language material I encountered during English...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Motivation is integral to the development of any language learner. Disengaged learners do not actively participate in or see the reasoning behind their learning. While external motivation is a prominent factor, teachers need to implement a range of strategies to encourage enthusiastic engagement in classroom activities. To provide adequate opportunities for student achievement, educators need to understand their students and utilize prior experiences in their instruction. Effective classroom instruction will implement materials and resources that are relevant to students’ lives and provide ample opportunity for meaningful communication while ensuring activities are fun and enjoyable for a diverse cohort of...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Destinations Most people who want to earn a TEFL/TESOL certificate will be planning to teach English in a country that does not speak English as its first language. This is not surprising - the vast majority of jobs available for English teachers are bound to be in countries where the local population does not speak English. However, this does not mean there are no opportunities to teach English in your home country if you are a native English speaker. From working with newly arrived immigrants to teaching international students, there are plenty of jobs available for those who have the right to work in these countries. If you are looking for work as an ESOL teacher in the United States the best places to look are those with large...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas As we know in any case when we are going to teach a new language, it is really important to pay attention to some particular skills, that is the root of the language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Gevorg S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. These skills are receptive skills and productive skills. Reading is one of the basic skills of learning a new language. And first of all, I would like to define reading. The process of reading a printed text louder or silently is called reading. For readers, it is important to know and understand the new information of the text. That is why before starting to read a text, it is necessary...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The four basic language skills are divided into two categories; the receptive (“passive”) skills — reading and listening, and the productive (“active”) skills — speaking and writing. All are invaluable skills to learn when becoming proficient in a new foreign language and teachers should try to incorporate them into their lessons whenever possible. However, this summative task will be solely focused on receptive skills and how to teach them in the classroom. Students may need to read/listen for a purpose — for example, reading an extract of a book as part of their homework assignment, or they may want to read/listen for entertainment — for example, listening to their favorite audiobook. These...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas There are two Receptive language skills; Reading and Listening. English speaker’s use both of these are used for the same two purposes, for entertainment, or to help us to achieve a particular goal. Reading and listening are not just as simple as opening your eyes or ears, each student will have different problems areas to target and understanding the received language will vary from country to country. For example, a person from England who saw the headline "Magpies destroy Red Devils" would know that the article was referring to Premier League football, and not an actual event. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate George C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas ESA is a common methodology that teachers use when teaching students another language. It is also a large part of your TEFL certification course. By using the layout of the ESA method to plan your lessons, they will be more structured, organized and effective. This post was written by our ITTT graduate Casandra L. ESA stands for engage, study, and activate. By using ESA, it gives teacher's the flexibility to conduct a classroom in an organized and productive way. ESA is extremely important when it comes to teaching, because it keeps the students interested, motivated, and eager to learn more. That is why all teachers, especially new ones, should learn the ESA method when teaching students a new language. The first...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences English language learners at high school and college levels in Mongolia face a variety of structural and cultural difficulties that often prevent them from moving beyond an intermediate or even-low level in spoken and written English. This post will look at a few of the core issues and examine some of the ways to help improve the type of instruction provided in Mongolia that could prove beneficial for future language students. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ariel W. First and foremost, teacher training in areas like lesson-planning, teacher/student talk time, impromptu speaking and writing activities, and classroom management needs to be improved. This problem stems directly from the...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Two classifications of ESL materials are Authentic and Non-Authentic (or created). What is the difference between what are called authentic and created materials? Authentic materials as the name implies are actual materials that are created for any reason outside of the classroom. Examples of authentic materials would be things like, newspapers; those are generated for the general public and they're certainly not generated for the use in the classroom. However they can be used within the classroom. Other examples would be things like songs and poems and even things such as brochures and magazines and indeed menus from restaurants. So these are...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Learning English in Russia is a very popular time-spending. People learn English in various ways. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Elizaveta A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. in most schools learning English is obligatory and most pupils do not understand why they should learn English. Mostly teachers at school do not have any enthusiasm when teaching, as a result, they only stick to soviet course books. They do not create any activities for the class. According to most of my acquaintances, the only things they did in the classroom were: Translating texts, passing tests, reading aloud some of the texts and that’s it. No...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas Teaching English grammar is an important part of any EFL classroom. Depending on the level of your students and the degree of difficulty of the topics, the teacher may encounter several problems in the classroom. However, the following 10 tips should help you to prepare effective grammar lessons for your EFL students abroad. With an increasing change in the English language and the lack of proper grammar used in the spoken language, many students aren’t motivated to learn grammar. To ensure success, you should break this barrier and show your students why grammar matters. Create a big mind-map on the board and ask the students for statements about why grammar matters. This is a fun interactive way that gets the...  [Read more]

Zainab Sadriwala Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Exposure to a language is of prime importance if one intends to excel in it. Like every language, English needs to be practiced in all its integrated skills of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Vocabulary has always been among a key component of language learning that teachers rely on. The following are 6 great ideas for developing vocabulary in English learners. Students should keep a journal for noting down every new word they learn during the day. It's also a good approach to add example sentences for every new word so that the student knows how to apply it in various contexts. Then, this list of new words should be put into practice by students at the end of the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas When we are born, our first contact with our native tongue is one hundred percent oral. Our mother is the first one to speak to us in her native language and as we grow we are constantly exposed to words, expressions, and conversations that we take in and start to understand in our everyday life. Once we reach a proper school age everything starts to change because we are introduced to a new way of communication that goes beyond body language and oral expressions. We are introduced to written language. This rite of passage is as normal as it´is expected to be, but we must take into account something that in the last couple of decades has become part of this experience; the simultaneous learning of a foreign...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Most of the Mexican learners have difficulties with English due to a lack of the use of English in daily life. Most people in Mexico do not normally have real contact with English outside the classroom. They are usually only exposed to it through the media, such as online channels or music videos but most of them never listened to a real conversation in English or practiced a real-life situation (as asking for directions, ordering food, etc). If you are interested in teaching English in Mexico, this article will be very helpful as it highlights the most common problems students in Mexico face when learning English. This post was written by our ITTT graduate Pablo P. Only a minor percentage of Mexican students...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences As a non-native English speaker, I was very scared of teaching English or even thinking about teaching English at the beginning of my teaching career. But some months later I realized that I have a huge advantage compared to the native speakers: I still remember the difficulties of learning English and I know what might cause problems to my students. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Gabriella S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. So I can always emphasize and slow down when it is needed without being impatient. Learning English requires time, and learning to speak well requires even more time and patience from both the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Receptive skills, reading and listening, are important skills that all students should master when learning a new language. They are important because they surround the world and can be used for purpose and entertainment. In my own experience, I have seen the consequences of underdeveloped receptive skills and have helped to develop my students’ receptive skills in the classroom. With this experience and the information I have learned in this course, I am hoping to continue to develop receptive skills in my students. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Chelsea S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. As mentioned above, receptive...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Words are an essential part of the structure of English sentences. If we want to speak English as a foreign language, we need to know new words and even progress. Considering a student who needs to know and learn new words as a teacher, we have to answer this question "What impressive ways do you have in teaching ESL vocabulary?" This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Yasemin A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. First, they notice a new word with help; Secondly, they recognize the name at first with help, then later on their own; and lastly, they can both...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas When we talk about teaching language, we always think about speaking, listening, writing and reading; but now, let’s just focus on reading and listening, in other words, the receptive skills. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mirazo L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The answers are: we do read or listen in teaching receptive skills because we need to know some instructions as how to control a video recorder which is not an usual task for a normal people so our a motivation must be higher than other in rather understand the difference between reading with passion and read a favorites book and listen to somebody who is not...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Teaching Ideas Perhaps more than anything, the size of a student's vocabulary puts a limit on what he or she can and cannot do in English! Because although I think that grammar certainly has a place in the teaching of English, my own experience has shown me that the number of words and phrases in your language arsenal will be a bigger determining factor of your ability to understand and to use a language actively. Here I will explain why I believe that vocabulary is key when it comes to mastering English and at the same time give some examples of how to teach English vocabulary effectively to students in line with the ESA methodology. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Jacob L. Please note that this blog post...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences It is a well-known fact that the English language has big importance nowadays. According to Ethnologue, publication about the languages in the world by SIL intl., the English have placed between the three most spoken languages with more than one thousand million speakers of whose, four hundred million are native speakers and more than six hundred million have English as second language, therefore represents a very important communication channel worldwide. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Gustavo L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Evolving with the years, became one of the most necessary tools to comprehend the daily world...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Every fresh teacher, once starting his or her career, has this question: how should I teach English? What is the best way to organize my classes to make sure students would not be bored and learn something? And how to keep them motivated and enjoy every lesson? I did have all these questions at the beginning of my teaching career, and by trials and errors, I found the approach this TEFL course is based on – ESA. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Angelina G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. My English journey began long before I became a teacher myself - as an ESL student. However, my own experience was not that enjoyable:...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences I’ve taken four years of college Russian. Throughout my time at my university, I learned a few things about both learning and teaching a language that have helped me become a better ESL teacher. This post was written by our ITTT graduate Leif O. One crucial aspect of learning a language is making sure that everyone in the class is comfortable. While this is true with young learners, this is especially true for adults. Adults don’t want to make mistakes. Business professionals have devoted their lives to one of the hardest areas in which one can make money, and if they are doing it as a career, they are most likely succeeding at it. This means that the business professionals may very well be unaccustomed to...  [Read more]