How To Teach English To 4 Year Olds

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Put simply, children think and learn differently than adults. Jean Piaget, as one of the leading psychologists to explore these differences, puts forth the four stages of cognitive development, unified by an overarching idea called constructivism. He specifically focuses on children rather than all learners and, further still, focuses on development rather than learning. His constructivism theory posits that children form an understanding of the world around them and modify that representation based on their experiences and shifting environments that either contradict or confirm what they have built. (1) Therefore, in working with young learners, teachers should be mindful of this as they promote the...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences Teaching classes containing a wide variety of ages can be a great challenge. I have recently experienced such challenge. Below I am going to share my teaching experience and how I managed to overcome the difficulties. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Yan Z. In Spring this year, I was asked to teach an English Drama class in a children’s training center. Before the class started, the students were recruited and assigned by the center, which was not in my control. There were 12 elementary-school students in the class. Students were age-mixed, ranging from 7 years to 12 years old. Two thirds of the students were from Grades 1-3 and one third were from Grade 4-6. In order for the younger students...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences As a kindergarten teacher working in China I have a lot of experience dealing with students, fellow teachers; Chinese and foreign, management and parents. A few years ago I came to China to learn Chinese. To pay for my living expenses I started teaching young learners. Pretty soon I got a full-time job in a kindergarten and I fell in love with the work and I decided to stay in China and keep teaching. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Paul E. One of the first problems I faced was of course the language barrier. In the schools I’ve worked at so far not many people speak English; especially the schools’ management. It’s always quite a task to find out what is expected of you. In China don’t...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Five years ago, I didn't have the experience, nor the knowledge to teach English. However, I have the skills to speak like a Native Speaker. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Amina C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. At first, I have 3-4 students between 2-3 years old. I was given lesson plans to follow and instructions on how to teach this group and I simply followed it. Teaching 2-3 year's old non-Native speakers were both difficult and fun. It's difficult because they are not familiar with the English language. Moreover, I am not familiar with their native language either. It is fun since typically all they want is to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas As a part of receptive skills, reading is so important that children start to read both English and Chinese books at the very beginning of their lives. Reading is a beneficial way to learn English well, especially for young learners. They can accumulate more and more vocabulary as well as the way native speakers communicate with each other by reading various kinds of books. As we all know reading a good book just like talking with a great author. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Xiangnan G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Here I will share my experience of teaching English reading to young learners. I worked in an...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I came to China 4 years ago to teach English. I have not managed to learn Mandarin in that time frame but I did learn quite a bit about the differences in pronunciation between Mandarin and American English. The most common errors made by Chinese students generally come from the habit of translating to their native language. English and Mandarin share some similarities such as word order and sentence structure which also complicate the issue. In this essay, I will discuss teaching pronunciation, the problems that can occur when teaching pronunciations, and the issues that occur with Mandarin speakers learning English. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Paris S. Please note that this blog...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Until now, I have been an English teacher for 6 months. Before that, in 2016 I was a teaching assistant. That is my part-time job. And this is a journey even though I have not yet taken a TESOL class but I am still confident that I can become a teacher. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Tieu T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. For the first half of the year, I was an assistant tutor for the preschool. I had very little contact with kids before so I was very confused at the time. I told the teacher that I couldn't make them obey. She is a master of special needs education. She told me to play with them and not to care about...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences In the past, some scientists thought young learners do not learn as fast as adults. However today even parents are aware of the importance of starting learning a second language early. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Safak İ. When people start learning at early ages of their life, they increase the probability of gaining better language skills and favorable attitudes to other languages and cultures. Moreover, it will be possible for them to acquire native English levels without an accent. Besides this being bilingual will provide the kids with many cognitive advantages such as mental flexibility. Looking through different language spectacles, their brain will develop the ability to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Teaching has been my dream since a very young age! This should be the normal and most common answer when you ask a teacher about his childhood dream job. For me, It was absolutely the opposite. I have never seen myself teaching anybody even my closest friends and relatives! I have always considered myself an introvert. My best friend used to be a book I’m reading! I have never liked crowded places or getting to know new people! Going to a wedding or a party was more like a nightmare to me. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate MANEL R. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Anyways, all of this has changed when I helped a friend in...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I would like to divide groups of learners into 4 categories: children (from 5 to 12 years old), teenagers (from 12 to 18 years old), adults (from 18 to 60 years old) and seniors (from 60+). I had the chance to teach all of those groups in some points of my life. The conclusion of this experience made me see the major difference in the abilities and motivation among those 4 different groups. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Lara M. Children are a very nice audience when it comes to preparing fun exercises. They also don’t require detailed knowledge, because they are just at the beginning of their English experience. It is also very likely that they will not question teachers knowledge....  [Read more]

Federico Riva Alumni Experiences People say: “Children today, the world tomorrow “. So, what is child development and how do you develop foreign language abilities for children? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Anh P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Child development is the sequence of physical, language, thought and emotional changes that occur in a child from birth to the beginning of adulthood. During this process, a child progresses from dependency on their parents to increasing independence. At the same time, child development is strongly influenced by genetic, environmental factors and the child’s learning capacity. Some age-related development...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The one thing l liked most about teaching was the many jackets one gets to wear. To some l was a fashion icon, to others a role model, to others someone they could easily go to and talk about their life and personal challenges. Hence, the code of conduct for teachers stretches even to their communities and homes. Their mere being impacts the lives of the country's generations and helps build a nation, academically and socially. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Trish A. In 2002, l was doing my grade 4 level, taught by a tall slim and soft-spoken woman from Bulawayo. During the second term of that year, she got married to a local pastor and she had just turned thirty years old. I remember...  [Read more]

Carrie Kellenberger Visa and Legal TEFL Information Learning how to answer common questions in an ESL interview is easy if you’ve researched and prepared in advance, even if you’ve never had a formal job interview before. Before we head into answering the top 15 most asked questions in a TEFL interview, there are a few things to check off your to-do list before interviewing: 1. Tell me a little about yourself. This is an icebreaker question that gives you the opportunity to sell yourself. Be positive and tell the interviewer about your good points, especially the parts of your personality that make you a good teacher. Explain why you are interested in moving abroad to teach and focus on the care and attention you will give...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Deciding to be a teacher in a kindergarten can be intimidating for some inexperienced teachers in the beginning. In my case, I was quite unsure of teaching very young kids and would rather teach adults. However, I ended up in China and started to teach English in a kindergarten and it resulted to be easier than expected. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Samy H. I would say that the key point in order to be a good kindergarten teacher is establishing a good rapport with the kids since the beginning. Kids at this age are very young and some of them won’t like the teacher in the beginning. Some warmers, songs, and games with them will quickly solve the problem. In a few days, all the kids...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences I chose to take a TEFL course to make me more professional. I am an English teacher and I teach young kids from the age of 4 to 12 in China. I have been teaching kids for around 7 years. I was teaching kids from Grade 1 to Grade 5 in a public primary school in China. Now I teach young kids in a language training center. Teaching in a Chinese public school is totally different to teaching in a private training center. In a public school, what the teacher does everyday is giving the questionnaire to the students and have them complete as many questionnaires as possible. The goal is for students to remember the grammar rules and know how to give correct answers so that they can do well in their tests. So in a public...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences As a noun, development refers to the end of a process of bringing something from latency to fulfillment (American Heritage Dictionary, 1993). As a verb, it means to "cause to become more complex or intricate; to cause gradually to acquire specific roles, functions, or forms, to grow by degrees into a more advanced or mature state." In biology, the term means "to progress from earlier to later stages of a life cycle; to progress from earlier to later or from simpler to more complex states of evolution" (American Heritage Dictionary, 1993). Miller (1983) asserted that “What is critical about developmental theory is that it focuses on change over time.” This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Trying to gain confidence in the classroom is a hurdle that all new teachers must face when first starting. Every teacher I’ve spoken to, tells me about the horror they felt when they stood before their very first classroom full of students. As for myself, I am a teacher in training enrolled in an Elementary Education Bachelors program. In my program, we get a lot of practice creating lesson plans and teaching various subjects to our class. This practice has helped increase my confidence in teaching, but I still remember the first exposure I had teaching to children in an educational environment. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Eric W. Please note that this blog post might not...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences For two years I have been teaching Italian children in a nursery, a group of 5,2-3 years old. They are still not able to speak well their mother tongue and have a short vocabulary. They have no experience yet in being taught traditionally, may still use pacifier and diaper, so how can you teach so small children English and is it even worth it? Shouldn’t they first learn their native tongue? Many parents think so. I am sure they benefit from being exposed to English vocabulary and getting used to the sound of English as young as possible. But of course, it must be done in the right way, they are not going to study English but going to “play English” It must be a funny experience for them. This post was...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas In a previous post, we looked at various teaching ideas for future simple and here we’re going to describe some fun ideas for teaching three other future tenses. There are a wide variety of usages for future tenses and it’s always important to make sure your activities focus on the usages that you’ve taught in your lesson. For example, future continuous can be used to talk about an ongoing action at a point in the future, a fixed future event, polite enquiries or to predict the future or the present. Predicting the present is one that students often have trouble conceptualizing, so we might as well start from there. When someone we care about is going on a long journey we often think about what they might be...  [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]

Anna Bondar Destinations Alumni Experiences Being in China for over ten years, I've worked at more than 30 places, combining schools and training centers, kindergartens and private classes, etc. For the past five years, working as a recruiter, I would like to give you a few valuable tips on getting hired for your dream job. Moving to a new country could be stressful enough, so make sure to do your research about the schools and places before signing the contract. First of all, I'd like to ask you, mainly as a new teacher, to think about what kind of school is suitable for you? Keep in mind that different institutions have different requirements. There are several institutions you can choose to work at, for example: Before you...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Learning through games has become more common over the years. The traditional academic-oriented learning method of repetitive memorizing is slowly becoming outdated, and most students prefer to learn in a fun and interactive environment. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Katherine I. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Children of all ages love to play, from the tiny infants to the toddler who sings ABC songs, to primary children who plays memory games. Children learn important skills by playing. Playing enhances children’s ability to problem solve, memorize, concentrate, imagine, be creative and interact with others (EYLF, 2009...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Good discipline is one of the keys to an effective lesson. Not only new teachers meet difficulties to manage students, but some veterans in this profession also can face problems. In this summative task, I will share my experience on how to maintain classroom discipline with young learners. I started to work with young learners (4-7 years old kids) two years ago and it was a big challenge to hold their interest and attention for hours. First thing I have learned about kids: “There are no bad or good students. They are all kids with a unique soul, qualities and interests.” I am a teacher and my work is not to put labels about their personalities, my work is: * to find a common language with each student: * to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas As we know, Music affects human life. Music – a subject that is quite interesting for students. Especially, when children aged 0-6 years old, there is 2-6 years old called the period of sensitive music of children. If at that time, parents give children a lot of music, they will receive very well. So, how do the songs affect children, and how are the benefits of using songs in English classes? Two of these problems will explain clearly the reason why the is song important. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Hien Phan Thi D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Music supports children in the learning process at school. For example,...  [Read more]

Gianluca Costa Destinations Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas When I started working as a TEFL teacher in Hong Kong without any teaching experience, I was scared, and I thought, how am I going to teach English to someone who needs to learn English from scratch? Well, believe me, how surprised I was by the high English level of the children who were only between 3 and 6 years old. Before I came to Hong Kong, I knew that many of its citizens speak the English language widely, but I didn't expect that such young children could talk with great confidence in English. However, there are differences in the children's English levels that depend on two main factors: their family social status and mainly how much the...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Budget and Salary TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Hello everybody, my name is Liza and I am super glad to welcome you to my weekly live session. Please let me know that you can see me clearly and hear me clearly. Today's live session is going to be devoted to a really popular question in my direct messages. I've received several requests to talk about teaching career advice and I hope everybody will find something interesting in this live stream. We've got the chat box here and you basically can comment with whatever you want. As I have already mentioned my name is Liza and I am a TEFL expert and a former ESL teacher. I’ve been teaching online since 2020 because of the quarantine and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I started my journey as a TEFL tutor by having classes online. I just tried my luck and applied for some random ad postings on social media. A few days later, I received a call and it turned out to be a phone interview. I got the job soon after that phone call ended and later that day I was introduced to my trainer. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate John K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Next, I was trained for just one day about the tools, the materials and how to handle classes online. Soon, I just need to pass the demo and I’m good to go. Without any background in teaching, I managed my way to become a top tutor with just...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Children are the future, our future, the generation that will take the world, and all it encompasses the next age of the world; whatever that may be. Children are the future. This phrase is repeated all around the world, in different countries, continents, and even across the vast array of cultures that exist on planet Earth. One would be hard-pressed to find any one person who would disagree with this statement. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nisaa S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. What, then, do we do about this? We educate them, we teach them all we know, share all the knowledge and information that we have accumulated...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The purpose of flashcards is rather simple and mundane; we use flashcards to introduce and review vocabulary or concepts. My first language teacher said, “The only way to learn a foreign language is repetition, repetition, repetition.” Can’t argue with that. Unfortunately, it can be really… repetitious and boring. But, if you watch children playing, they’ll show you how to make it fun. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Thuy N. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Here is my list of 41 Flash Card Activities. If you have an activity, not on this list, leave me a comment below! I’d love to hear how you use flashcards in...  [Read more]

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