Pronounce Past Tense

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences People from different countries inevitably face problems when they are trying to learn English. Russia is no exception. Let’s have a quick look at some typical problems that my fellow countrymen face. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Sergei S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. As you may know, Russian is written using the Cyrillic alphabet, and some may think that it can cause problems. In reality, the Russians are fine with understanding the Latin alphabet and can easily pronounce each letter. However, the Devil is in the details. When it comes to speaking it becomes problematic to pronounce [θ] and [ð] sounds properly....  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences For the native English speaker, English is easy. It is only when learning another language do L1 English speakers begin to see peculiarities in their own language. It is then compounded when beginning to teach English as a foreign language. Although the English language has commonalities with other languages, especially since English is derived from other languages, there are plenty of unusual aspects of English that can cause difficulties when learning and teaching the language. For example, English spelling, grammar, and pronunciation all contain such peculiarities. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Tanya L. Learning to read and write English is no easy task since English is one of the least...  [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 Alumni Experiences Learning a second language can be difficult, and this is especially true when the learners L1 and their target language are completely different in structure, sound, and tones. An English as a second language student who speaks French, German, or any other European language will have an easier task than one who speaks a language that is not of European origins. One such language is Mandarin Chinese. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ashley L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The areas that native Mandarin speakers most often run into difficulty are pronunciation, tones, tenses, and sentence structure. A Chinese speaker might...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences While both Americans and the British speak English, there are a few variations in the language which can cause some confusion for non-native speakers. Therefore, it is important to take a look at the most notable differences between these two versions of the English language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Joseph Bart van der K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. One of the key differences in the spelling of words. British English usually has their words in the same form as where they originated from, while American English tends to simplify the spelling or to spell them based on how the words sound when they are spoken....  [Read more]

  The next thing we should look at is how our consonants are arranged for the top two rows we have P and F at the left side of our chart and G and J at the right side of our chart. They're arranged this way because if we analyze the way we speak we're using the front of our mouth to use these sounds as in ?p? and ?f? and I'm using my lips and my teeth to produce those sounds and as we move to the right on the chart slowly but surely we're making those sounds it towards the back of our mouth. We can use the examples of ?g?. The sound ?g? is produced further back in our mouth than ?p?. The next thing we'll notice about our chart is that some of our symbols are shaded. Notice that none of the symbols in the vowel sections are shaded but only a few are in the consonant section. The...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas The simple past is one of the most important tenses in the English language. As it describes past actions, it's quite an easy tense to teach using a variety of fun and interactive activities. Here are 7 activities for teaching the simple past for the ESL classroom. For more activities check out: 10 Exciting Activities for the Past Simple For this activity, the students think of significant accomplishments in their lives. After sharing with the class what they have accomplished, the students should describe what they did in order to achieve this goal, for example they graduated college, studied English, took classes, etc. It’s important that the students use the simple past to talk about these actions. Also read: 7...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Once I arrived in Vietnam to teach the English language, I realized that poor pronunciation is common in Vietnamese students as well as teachers. These mistakes are similar, as it was obvious the Vietnamese teachers passed them to the students. In this essay, I am going to deliberate on the causes of the problem and suggest a few solutions. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mohammad E. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. First, we will start with the problem origin. The Vietnamese language is monosyllabic. Vietnamese people are familiar with pronouncing monosyllabic words, thus it is considerably hard for them to pronounce...  [Read more]

  There's another activity for comparing and contrasting the tenses focusing here in this activity on the present perfect and the present perfect continuous. So in the activity, students will start at the start and roll a die. Perhaps they can roll a 5. They will read 'something you've been learning for a long time'. The appropriate sentence may be 'I've been learning English for a long time.' The next student may go and roll 4. They read 'a beautiful place you've visited.' Then, rather than the present perfect continuous, they would use the present perfect tense: 'I visited Paris.' You can encourage students to even ask follow-up questions, which would also include other tenses: 'What was so beautiful about Paris?' Now, this activity will be particularly good for your more...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences In recent years, the most popular destination for EFL teachers all over the world has been China. China is the country welcoming many foreign teachers, native and non-native, and is probably the country with the most rapid development of the English teaching industry. Online teaching has become just as important as face to face teaching and has been a teacher for an online company for a long time, I have experienced a variety of students, levels, and groups. Therefore, in this essay, I will write about the most common problems Chinese students face and some ways of dealing with them. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Aleksandra Đ. If you are ever in China, you will notice that you will...  [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]

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Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I did not realize how difficult English is until I became fluent in Spanish. I am currently studying French and I am pretty good at French. I have a basic knowledge of Esperanto. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Wayne K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I will just touch on each of these since a book could be written about each of these. Also Read: Teaching Young Learners vs. Adult Learners - The Differences You Can Expect I have found many poems(1) and articles on the internet discussing the insane way English is spelled and pronounced. On the previously sited website(ibid) an English instructor states that he has very often...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences American English and British English are two varieties which are taught in English teaching programs around the world. Although it is accepted that no one version is corrected, there are certainly preferences in use. Someone who can speak, read or understand one variety of English, he/she’ll also probably be able to understand most of the other varieties without problem. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Sumeyra Y. The differences between American and British English can be categorized in four ways: British English and American sound remarkably different. The most obvious difference is the way the letter "r" is pronounced. In British English, when "r" comes after a vowel in the same...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Over the decades, the English language has reached the status of a global language and is commonly known as the lingua franca around the world. It has become one of the most widely spoken language as a mother tongue, international communication as well as language taught in millions of schools around the globe. The use of the English language is widespread in many sectors in the global market as many organizations begin to adopt the language as an official language. In the economic world, the language plays a significant role in international trade/business between two of the most powerful global economic powerhouse mainly the United States of America and China. This post was written by our TEFL certification...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Japan is a developed country, with well above 126 million inhabitants, that during the past decade has been gaining more and more popularity as a destination for travelers and as a residence for people from all kinds of countries. Yet its inhabitants often seem to struggle with gaining English language proficiency. In this essay, I’ll try to resolve the question, which problems students in Japan typically encounter when attempting to learn English. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Philipp S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The first aspect of this issue is probably the most obvious one. The differences in grammatical...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences When learning a foreign language, pronunciation is one of the most important aspects; as well as one of the most complicated ones. Learning pronunciation takes a lot of effort from both the teacher and the students. It’s the responsibility of the teacher to find the best methods, techniques, and procedures to make the teaching-learning process as smooth and easy as possible. In the case of the students, they might be facing issues like phonetics and phonology of a language that could either have some similarities with their mother tongue, or none at all. The students will be exposed to new sounds, new intonation patterns, new stresses and new rhythms. These are more than enough reasons for the teacher to pay...  [Read more]

William Noble Destinations Teaching Ideas I have been an online ESL teacher to Chinese students for over 13 years, mostly with primary students but also with secondary and adult students. I am also a father and have homeschooled my daughter over her primary years. Like many teachers, I’ve enjoyed teaching at this level of education as it lays the foundation in English. As it set the foundation, my teaching helped students to overcome common errors in production skills, speaking and writing. Teaching both my daughter and Chinese students at the primary level also helped me also to understand the different expectations between first language and second language students. Since English is very different from China, many Chinese...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas When native Arabic learners attempt to learn the English language, they are faced with a variety of difficulties since there are fundamental differences between the two languages. Arabic words have a three-consonant root as its base, so all words are formed by combining the roots with either a fixed vowel pattern or and affix. The Arabic language has 28 consonants and 8 vowels which is three times less than the English language in terms of vowel sounds. Due to those differences, Arabic learners struggle in the following areas; writing, grammar, phonology, and pronunciation when learning the English language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ayman E. Please note that this blog post might not...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English is one of the most widely spoken languages and it is taught in a lot of countries. Globalization, fast economic development makes many people study English. People learn English for different reasons: business, education, life abroad, traveling, personal interest. Chinese students are not an exception. With the growing economies of China, the need for learning English increased dramatically. What challenges do Chinese students face when learning English? What challenges does the teacher meet teaching Chinese students? What teaching approach can be found? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Darya M. Let’s talk about the most typical challenges when teaching Chinese learners and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas I am a lifelong ESL student myself. Every day I am learning something new from the books, from the things around me, and my students. For the last few years, I've been teaching the English language here in China, which is why I chose this topic. China is a great country with beautiful sceneries and very hard-working, enthusiastic, and friendly people. Learning any language is not an easy job. It requires patience, practice, and of course, a desire. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Buned S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Chinese students are swift at...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Learning a second language is never easy but the problems that each learner faces are not all the same. Sometimes the grammar of your first language is completely different from your second language. There might be sounds you do not know how to make because your first language does not have them. You might have limited access to fluent speakers of the language you are learning. All of these are true for Lao learners trying to acquire English as a second language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mary A. The national language in Laos is called Lao. It is missing many of the sounds that native English speakers take for granted. They have no “r” sound, no blended consonants such as...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Learning a new language can be a wonderful experience. However, its success depends on several factors. Personal propensity above all. By this, I mean interest and passion for whatever language it is we have set our minds to learn. More often than not this propensity involves a sort of an innate talent which makes it easier for some students to master specific language skills. The right hint of motivation goes hand in hand with the environment. At a very early stage, this environment is represented by our teachers, masters, and tutors. Their ability to pass on the interest of another language will be crucial. How are we ever going to enjoy foreign language classes if they are carried out in a monotonous and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Grammar and the correct usage of it is a vital part of all communication whether spoken, written or read. It allows the speaker to correctly convey their message or ideas and for the listener to understand what is been said. Been able to communicate is not just about speaking or listening but been able to do this correctly and therefore the usage of grammar and how it is constructed within a sentence is important to know. Grammar develops effective communication skills and assists in fluency in the language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Dawn C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. With technology, today slang and the shortening...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Learning English is very difficult, there are many various grammatical and spelling differences between the English spoken throughout the world. Most notably is British and American English grammar. There are also differences in the pronunciation and meanings of many words. While you would think learning English would be a simple task, it is not, after all how different can English be from English? There are a few additional factors - Canadian, Australian, South African, Indian English, etc. have their own differences, these are differences that must be taken into consideration while you study the English Language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Gerald M. Despite many of the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Language has always played an important role in communication between people. Today, in the globalization, the importance of mastering a foreign language has become increasingly prominent. English is the most widely used language in the world. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Xiao W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In the 21st century, English is not unfamiliar to us Chinese. In our life, we can find English everywhere with little attention. Most Chinese learn dumb English. Few people can communicate with foreigners without barriers. Some Western netizens can't help wondering why English is so difficult for Chinese to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The country of choice I would like to speak about is China. I have been teaching in China for about a year at all levels. Several problems face English learners in this country ranging from the use of prepositions, modal auxiliary and the male and feminine pronouns. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mandella Elorm A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. ESL learners especially adult learners happen to have a persistent problem with the use of he/she, most students start speaking about a male character and then midway start using she to represent this male character and this happens interchangeably during oral lessons but never...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Teaching English in China has become very popular for ESL teachers and many are looking for job opportunities in China. Finding a teaching job in China isn’t too hard but working with Chinese students can be quite challenging. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate VIKTORIIA H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Chinese grammar is very different from English and many Chinese students try to copy the grammar rules of their native language and apply them to English. As a result, they form awkward sentences that are difficult to understand. They struggle to use gerunds and articles as these parts of speech do not exist in Mandarin....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teaching English as a foreign language is a professional activity that requires many qualities and skills. Without any prior form of study in the field, it could be very difficult for the teacher to pass on knowledge to their students and possibly at times even be at risk of being counterproductive in a classroom. TEFL course prepares future teachers or teachers needing extra training to be better equipped in their role. Moreover, TEFL certification is recognized worldwide and as such gives a better chance to get a job as a teacher abroad. Especially as it is becoming a requirement for international teaching. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Corinne R. Please note that this blog post might...  [Read more]