Phrases In Different Languages

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Understanding the use of slang in a different language is a benchmark for fluency. Once a speaker is able to navigate society by listening and speaking slang, they are better able to assimilate among native speakers. But whether or not colloquial speech has a place in English classrooms is debated among teachers. While formal English takes precedence in many classes, teaching slang can be important depending on students’ reasons for learning English and their experience with the language. Incorporating slang can also be a motivational tool for teaching disengaged students. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Emma M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Imagine going back in time to the late nineteenth or early twentieth century in Great Britain. If the question of whether it is proper to teach slang and idioms to students were posed to a teacher in that period, I do not doubt in my mind that any proper English teacher would frown upon the notion of it. If you were to ask an English teacher today, you would receive a much different answer. The gradual globalization of the English language has been driven by various factors, one of which is business. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Allison S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. There is no doubt that English is the world’s...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Teaching Ideas Of the four language skills taught in an ESL classroom, listening skills are often overlooked as teachers can be unsure how to make these lessons interesting and relevant to their students. However, as listening skills are a fundamental part of the language learning process, it is vital that we give them the classroom time they deserve. The good news is that there are many ways to make listening skills lessons both fun and productive. Here are 6 ideas for livening up your lesson plans. One simple way to engage your students in a listening lesson is to use popular culture as a tool. Most students would much rather listen to music, TV shows, movies, or podcasts than sit through a dry monologue from a textbook. To add...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Grammar is the rules governing the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in a natural language. Simply put, grammar is the general rule of a language. Language is logical; grammar tells us in which order we say words. It’s about how words become phrases; how words and phrases become sentences and how sentences become language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Yang S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Some of these rules are acquired naturally in childhood while others are acquired in the learning process under the guidance of a teacher. While most of the time, people don’t know which grammatical rule they are following...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I am currently living in India and I interact with many people with varying levels of English fluency. In a country like India, many people speak English as their first, second, third, or even fourth language. This can provide many benefits for students who want to learn English as you come in contact with many English speakers and get plenty of opportunities to practice speaking English in your home country. However, there can be many hindrances as well. The most common issue is the fact that most of the English speakers in India are also fluent in Hindi and other regional languages. A student trying to practice English can always fall back on their native language when they don’t understand. This bilingual...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Teaching slang and idioms is essential for ESL students and should be an integral part of any ESL curriculum. Learning slang and expressions can help an ESL student understand better native speakers who will almost universally use some slang and some idioms in their natural speech. Studying slang and idioms can also help an ESL student speak more naturally, either compensating for a weaker English grasp or adding to a вstrong English base. The application of studying slang and idioms that have perhaps the most relevance in a classroom and to a teacher is that it can help to elucidate complicated grammar by showcasing how slang twists the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas ESL classroom is quite a sensitive place. Students can quickly get excited about what they learn if a teacher finds the right key to their motivation. However, sometimes ESL teachers may unconsciously use words that could hurt students intensely. Read on for the top 7 things that ESL teachers should avoid saying to students to make sure your students feel comfortable. This phrase is very unpleasant to hear and irritates many students. Nobody wants to hear that they are bad at something when they spend a lot of time on it. Hearing such words from their teacher is even more frustrating. Instead of demotivating your student with this phrase, try saying "If you keep learning...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Some form of Slang language is universally used all around the world. Almost all countries have words and phrases that could be identified as ‘slang and so, when is it appropriate to use this type of language? Is it a good idea to let students be exposed to slang language whilst they are studying English at a formal level and as a non-native English speaker? There are many instances where some slang form of English should and should not be used, here are a few examples with discussion. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Samantha Jane K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In one’s place of work, there will be those to whom...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Stepping onto my flight from Miami to Santiago, Chile, I was confident in my Spanish skills. After all, I had taken nearly seven years of Spanish classes in middle and high school. However, when I landed I found, not only did I not understand 80% of what my host family said to me, they couldn’t understand me either. Over the course of my two months there, I came to appreciate the significance of slang in understanding and mastering a language. Even though slang words and usage can vary tremendously throughout the English speaking world, this is not an excuse to avoid introducing slang in the classroom. Being able to identify and understand some common slang words and phrases will help English learners reading...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Drilling is a simple yet effective teaching technique used to practice and master language skills. The teacher models a word or a sentence, and the learners repeat it. It is a way of developing a standard pronunciation of the language and introducing a language easily. Drilling started about 70 years ago when the armed forces used it to teaching language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Sunita T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Drilling was called the Audio-Lingual Method or the Army method, where soldiers were taught language in the same way they were taught to march, by constant...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In January, I stood in front of a class of breakthrough English students at a university in Bogotá, Colombia. I’d never taught students in an ESL classroom before, but I was pretty confident having seven years of experience under my belt and a degree in literature. I was naive. I began the lesson with the class that my co-teacher had lent me for the first time. The objective of the lesson was to practice using past tense through storytelling; five minutes into it, I called on a student with his hand in the air. “ What up, My Nigga!” He said it and I almost lost all of my composure on the first day while I should have been thinking about building rapport. This post was written by our TEFL certification...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Why does the English language break all its own rules and have so many words or phrases that simply make no literal sense? How does one learn such a language like this? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Bridget B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Football in most countries is a game where a ball is kicked around with one’s foot. In American English, this sport is called soccer. The sport of American football has much less to do with the kicking of the foot but yet is still called football. And we still also have soccer and handball. We have many other words in the English language that can be very confusing to those learning...  [Read more]

  This video provides a detailed overview of the passive voice of the English language. Watch the video to find out exactly what distinguishes the active voice from the passive and vice versa. 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 unit was short and sweet. It did have ample information on what to do when confronted with certain issues. However I believe there is no textbook answer as to how to deal with certain issues as all are very different...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English as a spoken language has become the international standard for people as a first or second language, whether it be for business, science, or just recreationally. This, of course, means that a lot of people are learning the language as a second language. For anyone who knows English as a native language, you know that it has many difficult learning curves along the way to the true understanding that make for many difficulties in how new learners communicate. This essay will touch on a few examples that people undoubtedly run into when learning English, and why it's so difficult to master. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kelson l. Please note that this blog post might not...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences There are many learning techniques and the course covered four major groups – constructivists, maturationists, environmentalists, and others. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kathi Z. The fundamentals of the maturation theory is the natural biological process humans go through. There is a natural sequence of events that take place despite external stimuli. The fundamentals of the environmental theory is the environment in which we exist. How we behave is a response to what is happening around us. This idea is different from how maturationists believe that we will develop in a systematic way. Our behavior is a reaction to our surroundings. The constructivists believe that learning is a...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Today there is a worldwide trend that parents want their offspring to be able to speak English and they hold the notion that the earlier kids start learning the foreign language, the more impressive results they will receive. This post talks about the advantages and disadvantages of teaching English to very young students. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Marina B. On the one hand, small children benefit substantially from learning a foreign language. They consider English classes to be fun and interactive. It is next to impossible for a teacher not to use games and songs in the classroom. Singing Super Simple Songs, young students learn sounds, words, and even phrases. Such songs are...  [Read more]

  This diary entry was completed after Chantelle finished unit 15. Unit 15 looks at different ways of evaluating and testing your students and the importance of doing so. Types of test covered include placement tests, progress tests, diagnostic tests, and practice tests. The unit also looks at the different external examinations students are likely to take such as TOEFL and IELTS. 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 found the explanation of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Sometimes problems may be encountered when teaching students from different nationalities due to varied reasons. When teaching English to students that are culturally and linguistically different from one's own, the teacher must take great care to prepare and identify the specific problems one may encounter as well as be attentive to the problems that occur in real-time. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Roman S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The problems an ESL or TEFL teacher may encounter can vary widely but are usually identified in these areas: pronunciation, grammar, and syntax as it pertains to language but also...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas As with all living languages, English is constantly evolving, slangs and idioms is an example of that. Slang and idioms are an integral part of written and spoken English; often it is employed by native speakers and has a deeper meaning than the literal phrase. Some might argue that slang and idioms are not ‘proper’ English and should not be part of the syllabus but people around the world are increasingly getting exposed to Western media. Students might encounter slangs and idioms when consuming authentic materials such as English films and books, where the characters would interact using normal lay speech. Perhaps the students are interested in all these words and phrases that are nonsensical when taken...  [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]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Over the span of time, many educators from around the world have been using different techniques to encourage and productively teach students about any topic at hand. Oftentimes, various games or activities are incorporated, along with academic courses, to create more fun and encouraging the atmosphere for students to effectively acquire more knowledge from. Over the years, the format for classroom games has changed drastically, and now there are many more options that incorporate the use of technology and interactivity. Although this can be very challenging, and time-consuming, interactive games tend to motivate, collaborate, and encourage student participation in the learning process. This post was written...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences What does it mean to learn a language? Generally, when we talk about learning a language, we mean a process that starts with a person not knowing a language but ends up knowing it, regardless of the number of languages a person might already know. Of course, this is an overly simplified definition, but it gives us a decent starting point. So why are our experiences and the mental image of acquiring our first language so different from one of learning a foreign language? In this essay, I will consider the perceived difference between first and second language acquisition. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Eszter E. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Throughout this course and my professional career as an online English teacher, I have learned that there are many differences between teaching one to one, but to teaching to groups of students as well. I work with an online company, and I teach one to four students that live in China for about thirty minutes daily. Each lesson is different with different students every time, so I get to experience a wide variety of students at different levels every day. However, the content of the lesson can differ greatly depending on if I have one or four students in that class. My teaching can change drastically by the number of students I have assigned to certain classes. This post was written by our TEFL certification...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Nowadays, many parents want their children to approach and learn English early. This stems from an objective cause when English becomes the language of globalization. English training for elementary students should be focused on because children at this age can absorb language very well. This article will explore methods for parents to help their elementary school children learn English well. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Phuong N. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Like joining an English class, parents who study with their children will build their...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas Teaching the English language to total beginners is a challenge for any teacher - but it’s so worth it! English teachers abroad are regularly faced with two possible situations: A) teaching English to a class with zero knowledge in English (often young learners), or B) having to integrate a new student into your class who has never studied English before and now he/she has to pick up the language quickly. Where to start? Many teachers panic when having to teach total beginners of English because no matter how much you learned about teaching English in your TEFL certification course, the reality often looks quite different. However, there are a couple of easy techniques and tips for teaching absolute beginners in...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas When studying a new language, a student needs to learn more than what vocabulary can be found in a dictionary. To have a better grasp of the new language, a student must be exposed to other aspects of that language as well, such as the use of slang and idioms in that new language. This is because languages, especially English, are particularly fluid with regards to the use of slang and metaphorical language. Teaching students of English some common colloquialisms would thus be useful, especially in providing students a more cohesive understanding of the language. Providing students with this knowledge is especially important if the student intends to seek opportunities in countries where English is the most...  [Read more]

  In this TEFL review video, Maria discusses how she is very pleased with her experience of studying with ITTT. Having completed the 120-hour online TEFL course with videos and tutor support she received her certificate within just a few weeks. Maria points out that the course is suitable for anyone no matter their level of expertise. 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. In this unit I learned that a beginner may have learned vocabulary but it is...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Reading is important in developing language skills. While we may speak every day, the vocabulary used is often limited. For people who speak more than one language, reading is an easy way to help o develop their language skills and fluency. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Lidi L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Reading books ensure exposer to vocabulary on different topics, words that may not be head otherwise in our daily lives. Many studies have shown that people who read every day have a larger vocabulary than those who don’t. this is because they are exposed to more words which turn to increase their vocabulary....  [Read more]

Regan McAllister TEFL Information Alumni Experiences In our global and connected world, knowing more than one language serves many benefits. Although technology has enabled communication across countries to be possible through translation apps, these apps fail to account for cultural etiquette and language nuances. Metaphors, figures of speech, and tone get easily distorted, which can lead to altered meanings and giggle-worthy translations. On top of the ability to communicate with more people, many researchers have linked foreign language study to enhanced cognition and behavioral skills. One such benefit that I have observed in adults as both a language learner and language teacher is a deepened understanding of your native...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences In 2016, I was given the amazing opportunity to teach English in the beautiful country of Brazil. In my first few weeks there, I learned how to teach by observing a professional instructor at the English language school and then practicing in front of my new colleagues. These were my first steps into the world of teaching. This post was written by our ITTT graduate Kyler J. During my first month at the English school in Brazil, I learned as much about the culture of Brazil and the students who lived there as I did about being a teacher. When I finally began working directly with the students in my second month, I started with the advanced and master classes. Later on, I would begin my work with the intermediate...  [Read more]