Languages More Difficult To Learn

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences From the 60-year-old successful businessman who has never studied English to the third grader who is learning it for the first time in a school setting, each student has their own motivation and background. Their unique experiences will dictate what they bring to the table and be a factor in their success or difficulty in learning English. Understanding what brought the learners to the classroom, will help a teacher tailor the lessons to be most beneficial to her students. This includes understanding their culture to a certain extent, specifically as it relates to faux pas or misunderstandings that could arise in the classroom setting. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Lindsey D. Beginners...  [Read more]

Laura Payne Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Authentic materials are media that native speakers of a language encounter in their everyday lives, which are not specifically created for language students. TV programs, newspaper articles, books, songs, YouTube videos, and more all fall under this term. Incorporating authentic materials into ESL classrooms has numerous merits, but the high language level required to understand these materials often causes teachers to rarely or never include them in classes below an intermediate language level. However, the difficulty of language in authentic materials does not necessarily mean that they have no place in lower-level classes. With some research, planning, and creativity, any teacher...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences A global language is a language spoken internationally, the most popular one being English. It is learned by many people as a second language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Damian B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. A big part of the lexical units in the English language was taken from German, Latin, French, and other European countries. People think that languages have a strong relation between dominance and cultural power. Also read: What to Watch Out for Before Signing Your TEFL Contract in China To have a common language is important because it's one of the main ways to communicate and interact with other people...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas There are many different types of peculiarities when concerning the English language, and this essay is aimed at the difficulties in teaching those peculiarities to learners that are not fluent in the English language. It can be difficult for native English speakers to progressively learn the subtle nuances as children graduating to young adults and navigating complexities of the language as adults; deciphering whether or not these peculiarities warrant further investigation or retention based on usage and context. These oddities of the English language can be exponentially more difficult for those attempting to learn the English language as a second language, having fully grasped the complexities of their own...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences Difficulty with pronunciation is likely something that every EFL teacher will face at one point or another in their career. Every language in the world has different ways of pronouncing different words/ letters. In addition to this, most speakers of other languages have heavy accents that can make pronouncing English words very difficult. This can be a challenge when teaching English as a foreign language. It can be especially challenging because not all learners around the world will face the same problems. Students in Vietnam will likely have different pronunciation problems than students in Kenya and students in Brazil will likely have different pronunciation problems than students in Morocco. For this essay, I will...  [Read more]

  In this episode, Linda takes on the pronunciation of the word "estival". Enjoy the episode! 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. Every learner is different and will have different needs. These needs can be based on a number of things like their ability, culture and willingness to learn. I learnt from this unit that every student's needs to be considered as well as the overall well-being on the class. It has been great to learn more...  [Read more]

Kavinna Batra Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas English is a fun language to learn; however, it can even throw off the most professional learner with complex spelling rules and difficult grammar. Learning English quickly could seem difficult, even though it is considered to be accessible and reasonably easy for many to learn. I'm here to tell you that as long as you have the right plan, you can learn English quickly and easily. If you start to feel like you're not making ground, which at some stage happens to all learners, don't say, "I don't speak English," or "I'm never going to get this." Honestly, ban those words from your vocabulary! They just blur your comprehension of the progress you are making and remind you that it is...  [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]

Federico Riva Teaching Ideas Language acquisition is not an easy feat for anyone at any age, whether you are learning your first language as a baby or your fourth language as an adult. Learning foreign languages will always be difficult however, having a teacher that understands the challenge with first-hand knowledge, can make a huge difference to students. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Randi B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. 1st language acquisitions are much easier to learn given the fact that it happens almost naturally. While it will surely take time, babies typically learn their first language organically from listening to those around them and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences In everyone's life, there is at least one person that can be called a teacher, and it doesn't matter who is it — our older neighbor living next door or the person standing at the blackboard in a classroom for hours and trying to give you a piece of knowledge in some way. Anyway, we get something in the result. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ivan S. The teaching profession is very difficult. Teachers are people who play a big role in the formation of personality. Any teacher needs to realize what a huge responsibility he has. He can reach out to every child, pass on his knowledge, and even become a good friend. Trying to find the answer to the question «Who is a teacher» I would...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Throughout high school and college, I mainly focused on learning how to speak Japanese as my second language. Unlike English, Japanese is a fairly phonetic language. Two of its three writing systems, hiragana and katakana, are phonetic. This makes it easy for foreigners to learn because each syllable, also known as sound clusters in some circles, is almost always said exactly how it is spelled. The third writing system, kanji, is not and, as such, is much more difficult for foreigners to learn because kanji are essentially pictures that describe their meaning. They are much more difficult to learn and use in everyday speech. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nicole H. Please note that...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I have moved to the Czech Republic with my girlfriend who is Czech after we met in New Zealand, where I am from. Teaching English here was a business idea that she came up with because she taught English here before for 8 years. In Czech people are more interested in taking English lessons from a native speaker and they also like New Zealand over here. So from this perspective, it makes a lot of sense for me to do this course. Since I am going to be teaching in Czech to begin with, I have already started to see some issues with the language learning that I will be faced with. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Patrick A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Learning is always hard especially learning something new such as English learning. English is a different new language compared with Chinese, so when we are learning, definitely we will meet all kinds of difficulties in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate XIAO J. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Due to the lack of vocabulary, beginners can not get the main idea of a story. They usually expect to know every single word and if they miss some words, they will become extremely nervous so that they lose their confidence at all. The best way to avoid it is to pre-teach some potentially...  [Read more]

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  http://www.teflonline.net The teaching idea covered here is one that would be particularly appropriate for more advanced English language learners, those who can use different tenses accurately. The activity is a board game that focuses on comparing and contrasting the tenses, focusing on the Present Perfect and the Present Perfect Continuous. Each student takes a turn at rolling the dice and moving around the board. For example a student could land on a square that says "Something you have been learning for a long time." An appropriate answer for the student could be "I have been learning English for a long time." The next student takes a turn and could land on a square that says "A beautiful place you have visited." This time the student could use the Present Perfect rather...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In my experience teaching elementary and junior high school level English in Japan, several different pronunciation problems appear frequently. The Japanese phonemic inventory is smaller than English’s phonemic inventory, and the sounds present in each language differ from each other quite dramatically. Because of this, it can be difficult for native Japanese speakers to learn and master English pronunciation, but there are a few teaching techniques that can help students overcome this difficulty. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Vladlena H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Several consonants are difficult for native Japanese...  [Read more]

  This is Chantelle’s video diary entry after completing unit 16 of her online TEFL course. Unit 16 covers conditionals and reported speech. Both language points can cause difficulty for English language learners and teachers alike. The unit outlines the structure and use of the conditionals and also provides some useful teaching ideas that can be used in your own classes. It also goes into detail about when we use reported speech and the changes that occur when changing direct speech into reported speech. You will also find teaching ideas to help you understand how this language point can be taught in the classroom. 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...  [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 Alumni Experiences Japan is a country with a long history, deep tradition, and vibrant culture. Within this culture sits the Japanese language. At first, being a spoken language and then adopting the Chinese Writing System, Japanese has grown and changed into what it is today. If you look at all languages, most Western languages originate from a set family, such as Romance Languages (which became today’s Spanish, French, Italian, etc). But Japanese (as most Asian languages) was formed from entirely different roots. These fundamental differences mean that the method of learning these languages has a lot to do with memorization and repetitive practice of the Chinese symbols and the words they represent. Which means it is...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences If you're a native language speaker, you've likely heard the phrase, “You can't teach an old dog new tricks”. There has been little evidence found to support this claim, but the belief persists. Many adult learners believe that it is too late for them to learn a new language. If you are teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language you may find yourself teaching a class of adult learners. Adult learners differ in many ways from young learners, and one such issue you may encounter is a doubt from the learners that they are capable of picking up a new language now that they are no longer children. Though the style of learning and the issues encountered will inevitably differ from those of young learners,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Learning another language is one of the most powerful tools for connecting people around the world from different cultures. Opening an immeasurable amount of opportunities, learning English has many benefits including but not limited to expanding career options, exercising another part of the brain, and improving the ease of traveling to a foreign country. However, particularly for natives of Eastern countries, learning English may be very difficult due to the exoticism of sounds, writing, pronunciation, and structure. While Japan is unique in a sense, having a booming influence of Western culture after World War II, native Japanese learners face difficulties in learning English due to phonology differences,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Michela C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. You are in a classroom with people that have the same level of linguistic skills as you and your teacher is there to help you, not to judge you. Mistakes are part of learning, you can’t be fluent without making mistakes. Nothing is too difficult or too easy! Try to learn whatever you can during your lessons, sometimes you can think it’s boring revising grammar structures because you already know it…believe me, revision lessons are a good opportunity to revise and reinforce your knowledge. Put in all the effort that you can and nothing will be...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Teaching Ideas In a world where teaching English online has become the norm, stress levels among teachers seem to have risen significantly. ✅ The truth is that teaching online doesn’t come naturally to most teachers, no matter how experienced they are. Take a look at these common issues and a few tips for reducing their impact. Mark Crocker Teaching Ideas When teaching English at home or abroad it makes sense to use every option available to help you plan and deliver the highest quality lessons possible. ✅ In this post, we look at a range of different online apps that are designed to do just that, from organizing and planning to in-class activities and homework. ...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Koreans take education very, very seriously, yet there are many problems for learners in South Korea. Society deems those who are not good at studying as lazy, and good for nothing, therefore most students study to death. Literally. They go to school extremely early, finish around noon, and then stay at a cram school until late at night. They repeat the same routine over and over again every single day. They even have to study during vacation. This results in students that do not study because they are motivated or because they want to, but simply because they are forced to, and if they do not, they can’t enter the college they want or land the job they’ve always dreamed of. Studying until 2 or 3 am has...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Teaching Ideas In a world where teaching English online has become the norm, stress levels among teachers seem to have risen significantly. ✅ The truth is that teaching online doesn’t come naturally to most teachers, no matter how experienced they are. Take a look at these common issues and a few tips for reducing their impact. Mark Crocker Teaching Ideas When teaching English at home or abroad it makes sense to use every option available to help you plan and deliver the highest quality lessons possible. ✅ In this post, we look at a range of different online apps that are designed to do just that, from organizing and planning to in-class activities and homework. ...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The ability to speak more than one language broadens a person’s worldview, from job opportunities to the ability to relate with people from different cultures. It is no secret that learning English as a foreign language has become popular across many non-English speaking countries and Russia is no different. The English language has slowly been incorporated into the Russian educational system and many English language learning centers have been established all over the country. As much as most Russians are motivated enough to learn English, it is not as easy as one would hope due to dissimilarities between the two language systems especially the lettering systems, cases, pronunciations, and other factors....  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences In this blog post, I plan to examine why English may be such a challenging language for Chinese speakers to master, namely in comparison to their European peers. For the purpose of this examination, I will focus on four main aspects, from quite glaring differences to other aspects that some may not initially consider: written language, grammar, vocabulary, and language exposure. These points are drawn from my own experience of living and teaching English in China, from learning Chinese myself and from conversations with my students. I will be focusing on those who have not had experience in learning other languages before English, as I feel this constitutes the largest proportion of Chinese learners. This by no...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas English is not the native language of those who begin to learn English. For children in Vietnam as a country using English as a second language, learning English grammar is difficult for children to learn. So how to teach children grammar effectively and children remember and use it most naturally. Young children have a habit of imitating and following quickly and not selectively, so if we understand this point, we should teach them how to develop naturally. There are many ways to teach grammar to children. Here are some ways I recommend when teaching grammar to children. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Le N. Please...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas When it comes to learning English, some students already have a strong source of motivation. This could be for many reasons, such as a desire to move to an English-speaking country, to be able to communicate with English-speaking friends, or even simply because they enjoy the language and culture. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Julianna W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. When teaching adults, it is more common for them to be independently motivated, since they are likely taking the class by their own choice. For children, however, they do not necessarily have a choice in learning English. For this reason, they can easily...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas A teacher’s job is to teach pupils. While that sounds straight forward the question arises what makes a good teacher. If a teacher teaches all day, the outcome of the work lies in what was being taught. Pupils are taught what the teacher teaches. Now an easy thing to say is, that a good teacher should provide good teaching. But what would be, if the majority of students would not learn anything in a specific lesson, that would be regarded by other teachers as good teaching? The answer, of course, is, that all students are individuals and respond differently to the teaching. Making it dependent on the students, a more practical definition of good teaching is: Good teaching is, which makes the pupils learn and...  [Read more]