How To Say To Teach In French

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences One of the most important problems encountered while learning a foreign language is undoubtedly pronunciation. Knowing a language fluently may not always be enough. Fluency level may be open to discussion if an accurate pronunciation is not used. Therefore as teachers, we must teach our students how to use the correct pronunciation. However, pronunciation can be a nightmare for some students, especially for young learners. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Selin K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. There are some languages, in particular, no matter what language they speak, we understand where they come from by hearing their...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Each student faces their difficulties when it comes to English pronunciation depending on their country of origin. This essay will focus on the pronunciation difficulties facing ESL students in France and will also propose some solutions to help students overcome these difficulties. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kerri M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The number of English vowel sounds greatly outnumbers those found in the French language. As such, French students will have to produce sounds that they have never produced before. The short ‘ɪ’ used in ‘bit’ does not exist in French. In this case, they will...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas It is inevitable that everyone will make mistakes when trying something new for the first time. Because there is no way to avoid them, mistakes should be accepted, treated as normal, and even encouraged. It is always better to make some mistakes in the attempt than not to try at all, and this is particularly true when learning a new language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Catherine L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I studied French for four years in high school. By the time I finished my last French class, my speaking ability was still minimal and I wasn’t comfortable with anything beyond...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences In speaking of any language is global, and in our case, particularly English, several categories could be discussed to give us more understanding. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Frederic S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The first is the history of the language, where did it originate? If we say English was an obscure German dialect we can also say that without knowing more of the history behind it, there would be no way for us to plot its progression or understand its popularity. The second is the spread of the language, how and why did it occur? The third is economic, what were the factors that propelled its growth,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I have had the opportunity to study several foreign languages, some in a formal setting, some self-taught. Through my personal experiences learning other languages, I have developed some insights into language learning. I would like to describe some of my experienc| ITTT | TEFL Bloges, and some of my thoughts on what I have learned from them, and from this course. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kim T. My first experience in language learning began at age fourteen with French; by the time I graduated high school I had studied French, German and Spanish as part of my curriculum. The method in use then was ALM, so as a result, I learned language patterns very quickly. However, the only...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences French are bad at speaking English, it’s a fact, proven by many studies but also by the shameful spectacle of our politician trying to say things in Shakespeare’s language. The Elite not having a decent level it is hard to blame the population for not trying very hard. International studies are all putting French students at the last position in Europe for mastering English skills. Even more alarming in 2008 the TOEFL results were putting France at the 69th rank on 109 countries. In 9th Grade, only 14% of the students have an “independent level” according to a 2011 study of the European Commission (we also note that only 9% of English 9 graders are “independent” in French). This post was written by...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore TEFL Information Alumni Experiences This is a question I’ve asked myself. I'm looking at it from the point of view of an established foreign language teacher. For years, I’ve been thinking about learning to teach English as a foreign language. I’ve wanted to teach more than just French, so I could find more work, and because TEFL appealed to me. As a French teacher—which is a foreign language, of course—my thought was that I already knew how to teach a foreign language. At times I was even thinking, “Why do I need a course? Shouldn’t I just be able to jump into teaching ESL without additional schooling?” I tried not to be naive in thinking “I could just take all the French teaching and do it in...  [Read more]

Amanda Stern Alumni Experiences Globalization has been changing our world. Once foreign cultures have become more and more familiar, and some even hit the global mainstream, such as Bollywood film and the recent wave of K-pop. One thing aiding in bridging this gap would be the rise of interest in bilingualism and multilingualism. Many children are in education systems where a second language is mandatory to study from a young age. For example, In Canada, my home country, French is taught in the Anglophone provinces from grade 4 (about 10 years of age). In Japan, my current address, the English curriculum is changing, and now students will begin learning from 三年生 sannensei, about 9 years of age. Of course, many more curriculums of multitudes...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Several surveys, such as EF (Education First), have shown that France has the worst English level in the European Union. We shall explain, firstly, why French students have problems in learning English and what these problems are. Then, secondly, we shall share solutions to these problems. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mohamed S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Indeed, the difficulties that French students face are not recent but have deeper origins which are historical. As you may know, there has been a rivalry between the French and the English dating back to the Hundred Years War (1337-1453,) when the two countries...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas While slang and idioms may not be essential to clear communication, especially when their meanings are very different from their packaging, they do communicate something more subtle: ‘I’m trying to observe the nuances of your language to better connect with you’. Slang lets you come across as casual, intimidating, clever, or whimsical in ways that straightforward language can’t. FluentU English Educating Blog puts it this way: “Teaching Idioms Is Teaching Fluency”. Communicating your personality is easier when you are more fluent, or at least when you have more idioms under your belt. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Bailey N. Please note that this blog post might not...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I think of myself as having been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to learn other languages at a young age. I was taught French in primary school and at home, I learned or acquired Spanish. At school, I remember my language teacher being very textbook-oriented and she focused and followed the book to the “T”. I picked up easily on the grammar because I had already learned Spanish at home and I was also very keen to learn foreign languages, especially French. The grammar didn’t seem difficult or boring to me at all because I had already been exposed to the language at a very early age. However, many students didn’t feel the same way I did and had difficulty with the subject and therefore,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I think vocabulary is something that should be taught at the very beginning of the course. When you're starting with a brand new language, the hardest part of learning a foreign language from scratch is vocabulary building. This is because when one starts a new language, they typically don't know where to start. For example, should they learn how to say "Hi, how are you?" first, or should they learn some of the more substantial, yet basic vocabulary terms, such as "I give" "I eat" etc? At what point should you introduce grammar? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Brandon S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I have studied 3...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The origin of many non-native English speakers can be recognized by their accents. For instance, Indians, French, and German people are easily identified by their accent. However, there are accents that are not easily recognizable, and one of them is the Brazilian accent. We can recognize Brazilians while he or she speaks English by 6 mistakes in the pronunciation that only Brazilians make. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Monica D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. First, one thing that Brazilians do in many words that is so unique to Brazilians is to add the sound of “ie” in English words that there is not “ie” in the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas British English versus American English always sparks a lively discussion. I have read some articles so far as to compare these 2 languages and gather the information from the online resources. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Zahra J. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I am Iranian and have many American and British friends and I have been living abroad for about 6 years. As an English speaker as a second language, it took me a while to learn what is British and what is American English. As I have done some friendly interviews, the English spoken in the USA is different from the English spoken in the UK not only in pronunciation...  [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 Alumni Experiences English has undergone many changes since its roots in early Europe. It started out as a Germanic language, and standard word order along with some vocabulary still show German roots in the modern English of today. It went on over the years to incorporate numerous words and suffixes from French during the time that England was invaded and occupied by the Normans in the 11th Century. Its most recent and well-known adoption was from Latin, whose language patterns and vocabulary dominate English. Even today, the language is constantly growing and adapting as it takes on new words from Spanish due to the large Latin American immigrant population in the United States and their great cultural influence over the last...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas How to teach the differences between American English and British English can be quite fun for the teacher and students alike. The differences are very interesting and cool to discover. I know that as an American I find it quite amusing to see what British speakers say compared to Americans. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Hailey M. There are many differences in words from American English and British English. Some are similar, but some are so very different that it is almost laughable that it is the same language. Some of these different words are as follows, Aubergine versus Eggplant. Most European countries call it some form of Aubergine but America had...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In this essay, I will debate whether or not teaching slang and idioms is important for ESL students and whether or not it has a place in the ESL classroom. Teaching phrasal verbs and idioms can present many issues in the classroom, and some teacher would choose to avoid this altogether, instead choosing to stick to the safer, more tried and tested topics that are available to us. However I think that this is a mistake, as students often want to know how the language is actually used in real-life situations and how they can best prepare themselves for a trip to a particular place in the world, furthermore, these language tools can provide a great deal of motivation in the classroom. Throughout this essay, I will...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences The following blog post is about an ITTT graduate who shares his story on how learning Chinese helped him to become a better English teacher in China. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Joseph S. A common saying imparted to me by one of my professors goes like this: "What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual. What do you call someone who speaks only one language? American." I have found this to be extremely true for the majority of cases, and, as a young student, it spurred me to want to learn as much of other languages as I possibly could. I grew up in a monolingual home, however, as a child, I spent much of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas In an increasingly globalized world, English has become the lingua franca for the world. What is very interesting with English is that it is a kind of Frankenstein of languages and thus a great language to now be spread worldwide. English, which is based on a dialect of northern German, has massive infusions from the French after the Norman invasion of 1066, Norwegian and Scandinavian languages from the Vikings settlements in medieval England, as well as many other languages that have influenced it over the years. It is a language that carries with it many different languages and much history. This post was written by our TEFL certification...  [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 There are no words to fully describe the importance of parents in the education of children. They are the foremost educators in all aspects of their children’s development. Whatever a child studies - be it a subject in a classroom or private lessons for music, language, etc... they will greatly benefit from the impact of having this reinforced in their home environment through their parents’ efforts. Multiple studies have shown the increase and improvement in educational attainment when parents closely follow and are involved in encouraging the educational development of their children. Related studies also show how the more parents are involved in school initiatives and partnerships (i.e. parent-school...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Phonology is the system of sounds that exist within a particular language, while phonetics is the study of how speech sounds are produced. One difficulty for all learners of a second language is learning how to produce new sounds by moving the mouth, lips, and tongue in new ways. Several other languages also share the Roman alphabet with English but do not pronounce letters and combinations of letters the same way. These learners need to learn the English phonology so that when they read English, they will know how to pronounce the words they read correctly, and so that they speak English with a more native-sounding accent. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Rebecca W. Please note that...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Morocco’s official languages are classical Arabic, and Berber ( indigenous language in North Africa) Classical Arabic, and second unofficial language in Morocco is the French language taught in General educational curriculum from primary school, and Spanish taught in the north as a second unofficial language, Thus learning a third or even fourth language for a Moroccan learner is not a big challenge, however, there are some difficulties to learn a language efficiently and accurately. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate MOHAMMED t. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. English is emerging, especially in larger cities. And it is...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences When one begins to study a new language, they can often find themselves to be a bit overwhelmed. Language acquisition is not an easy task, and it comes with many challenges and difficulties attached. Although, as ESL teachers, we are trained to look out for common errors and given the best teaching ideas and methodologies to use in the classroom, it can sometimes feel as though something is missing. Teachers who have studied a foreign language and have had experience using the language possess that missing piece, and their foreign language experience makes them better teachers. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Gabrielle N. These ESL teachers were once in their students’ shoes; they, too,...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Sometimes non-native English speakers are discouraged in their pursuit of teaching English as a foreign language. With the right TEFL certification course and training, anyone who is a fluent English speaker can also be a great teacher. There is really no reason for non-native English speakers to worry as the following alumni report will clearly show. This post was written by our ITTT graduate Lola H. I chose this topic because I am not a native English speaker, and being a non-native English speaking teacher, in my case in South Korea, has its advantages, but also some disadvantages. I will develop the disadvantages first, then introduce the advantages. First of all, if you...  [Read more]

Anna Domiczek Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Total Physical Response is a very successful teaching method that can be used for both children and adults, particularly for beginner and lower-level learners. This English teaching approach, developed by Dr. James Asher, has been applied for almost thirty years. Asher's language learning method is built around the coordination of speech and action, and its purpose is to teach language through physical activity. In Asher's theory, children should acquire a second language just like they learn their mother tongue, by developing listening competence first and being able to understand speech before imitating it. Essentially, listening comprehension is acquired because children need...  [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]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Stefania F. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. English teachers from other countries may think that it is a topic to be skipped or only briefly introduced to students, but it is one of the most important subjects and it should be an integral part of an English course. As a matter of fact, the full understanding of a language and good communication actually depends, to a certain extent, on how correctly words are pronounced. Also, it is not only a matter of pronunciation but intonation. Every language has its own intonation and stress on words, so an English learner could find it difficult to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The English language is a peculiar, fascinating beast to teach and to learn. It comes with a long legacy of Anglo-Saxon and Norman invaders, empire-building, and globalization of the 20th century. With multiple layers of rules and culture, it overflows with idiosyncrasies and peculiarities to confound native and learning speakers alike. Whether it’s pronunciation, grammar, or even just the system of time, English is a welcoming lingua franca and an intimidating coil of strangeness at the same time. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Zachary L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Any language has their culture imprinted on...  [Read more]