Is Extremely An Adjective

  Moving further down our list of parts of speech, we have our adjectives. Adjectives modify or describe nouns. Basically, they give more information about the noun. Here, we've used a noun such as chair. It could be any old chair. It's only the noun. If we want to describe the noun, we need to use an adjective before it. So, I could say "I have an old black leather chair". Here, we have to be concerned about the adjective order. In this instance, I started with age, as age typically goes before color and then I use the color to go before the material. This is a certain pattern. Depending on the adjectives you want to use, you always have to use certain patterns to which you'll need to be aware of when teaching your class. Another way to describe a noun is by showing possession. We...  [Read more]

  Now, let's move on to our adverbs. Rather than describing nouns, our adverbs describe our verbs. There are four types of adverbs when describing verbs. They are manner. These describe how things are done. Two examples are: quickly, cleverly. We have adverbs of place, describing where the action happened. Two examples are: here or there. We also have adverbs of time, describing when the action happened, two examples being now or recently. Finally, we have our adverbs of frequency telling us how often the action happens, two examples being often or never. There's also another type of adverb but here, we're going to describe adjectives or other adverbs instead of verbs themselves. These are called adverbs of degree. If we were to take the adjective "intelligent", we could easily say...  [Read more]

  People often confuse "its" and "it's". "Its" can be a possessive pronoun or possessive adjective indicating ownership. "It's" is the contraction of "it is". In the example "It's great to see the dog play with its toys", "it's" at the beginning is a contraction while "its" at the end is a possessive adjective used to express ownership of the toys. 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. I have learnt in this unit to effectively manage the classroom,...  [Read more]

  Adrian from Canada is living and teaching English in Japan. In this TEFL review video Adrian discusses what he and his students have got out of his TEFL course with ITTT. Adrian found that taking the TEFL course was extremely helpful in improving his confidence in the classroom. During his regular feedback sessions with his adult students they have noticed the difference taking the course has made to Adrian’s teaching and are appreciative of this. With his new certification, Adrian intends on staying and teaching English in Japan for the foreseeable future. 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...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word catastrophic. This word is used as an adjective and means extremely tragic or horrendous. Some synonyms for catastrophic include tragic and disastrous. The word comes from the Greek word katastroph?, meaning to overturn. 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. This lesson was about different types of lessons, theories, methods, and teaching techniques we can use for different levels of students...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences When I think of my earliest childhood memories, I remember that I used to love to play games in the classroom (charades, 7-up/head down-thumb up, categories, bingo, etc.). Going from a boring ‘copy from the board’ type of class to a competitive, fun and activity-filled class gave me the ability to open my mind, so I could find the subject being taught more interesting and made it easier for me to absorb the information. Young learners may not have an interest in studying because they don’t yet have any motivation from learning, so they are only interested in games, songs, and other fun activities. When playing most of the games in the classroom, young learners are compelled to communicate with each other...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Even though native speakers claim that it’s always possible to understand people speaking English regardless of their accent, sometimes it might be extremely difficult. My native language is Russian and I can tell for a fact that Russian and English are very different in multiple things – but right now I’d like to focus on pronunciation. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Viktoriia Z. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Russian learners of English tend to make the same mistakes due to peculiarities of their native language, which results in the infamous “Russian accent” we sometimes see on the movie screens. One of the...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences When starting a career in teaching, regardless of age,gender and nationality, a prospective teacher should always bear in mind one fundamental skill:patience. This particular talent is what I personally believe distinguishes a competent teacher from the incompetent one, and is crucial in establishing the overall success of each and every student. So, how patient should teachers be and, particularly, how patient should the teachers at beginner levels be? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Katarina K. I have been a TEFL certified teacher for a short time. However, I have been teaching for the past 5 years. I distinctly remember how every level of teaching used to be hard when I lacked the proper...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In today’s world learning English is no longer a possibility, but an essential part of being a world citizen. However, we must face the fact- for some people- to learn English grammar is not so easy and fun, they hate grammar and even think it is the most boring part of learning a new language. On the other hand, others are extremely interested in learning grammar rules and practice it as much as they can. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Glaucia S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Whoever wants to become an effective language learner cannot run from grammar lessons; it is a crucial part of the learning process besides...  [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 Alumni Experiences If you’re thinking about starting your EFL teaching career, the first thing you should do is taking a TEFL course. It helps you decide where to teach, as it contains information about differences between students from different countries and regions, i.g. Asia and Latin America, as well as information on how to work with students’ cultural backgrounds. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Vladimir P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. If you have prior experience in teaching, though it’s useful to refresh your knowledge because it’s important basics you should know. Moreover, you can find some new information, i.g. how to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I would like to start by first explaining what means to teach, which by a vague definition is to cause the student to learn and acquire the knowledge that is taught in the classroom to meet all the objectives that are previously set by the institution and by the teacher. In other words, the process of teaching is formulated and organized in such a psychological and educational way for both the learner and the teacher to be able to attain some prearranged goals. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Alexandra R. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Being a teacher is not a simple task, let alone an easy profession, as it bears an immense...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The benefits of using flashcards in the ESL classroom are well-documented. When teachers use flashcards, they typically provide their students with three learning pathways: visual, kinesthetic, and audio (assuming that the exercise requires the students to say something related to the flashcard). This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Joseph O. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In addition to appealing to a wide range of learning styles, flashcards are very multifunctional. They can be used to teach simple things such as basic vocabulary words, advanced grammar structures like complex sentences, and many things in between. Flashcards...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Teaching Ideas Hello everybody and welcome to the ITTT weekly live stream. It's Liza here and I'm super excited that this stream happens every week and we can talk about teaching and TEFL and stuff like that. So welcome and thank you for joining me. Today, we are going to talk about online ESL game design. Last week I started showing you the game I was designing, it was Monopoly. Today I'm going to show you the outcome of the game and also tell you a little bit more about online game design. Thanks a lot for letting me know that you are watching and right now please let me know at what stage of your ESL career you are at. As for me, I'm an online ESL teacher currently. I used to teach in a real classroom several years ago, but then...  [Read more]