Saying Past Tense

  A first example of a teaching idea for the present simple tense will be a classic activity called 'Find someone who'. Here, we will be trying to find someone who has a general truth such as the ability to play a musical instrument or the fact that they have a brother and a sister. This results in students going around the room asking questions in the present simple tense, such as 'Do you play a musical instrument?' 'Are you a teacher?' 'Do you have a brother and a sister?' The answers resulting will also be in the present simple tense. They will be generally 'Yes I do,' or 'No I don't.' The students will go around trying to find somebody who fits the general truth and when they do, they will write their name in the appropriate space. The students will mill around the room for...  [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]

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]

  Connected speech is also an important element of phonology and it's involved in joining words together in an effect to make our speech more efficient. Some might say it's a product of being lazy but nonetheless it's what we all do and we want all of our non-native speakers to speak as naturally as possible, so we have to be aware of these things. Here are a few of the more common examples. We have linking, dropping, changing and extra lettering. An example of each would be with linking, we link our words together so that they almost in effect become one word. Instead of saying ?What do you want to do,? we typically will say ?Whatdoyou want to do?? Then, we can also have dropping. Rather than pronouncing each and every consonant, we can sometimes, especially in certain accents,...  [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]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Being an American living in France has given me firsthand experience as to what it is like to struggle with learning a new language. I studied Spanish for six years, in Junior High and High school. Language acquisition was easier then. I can attest to the fact that younger learners learn more quickly. For me, the two major problems with learning French are the tenses and not being able to understand what people are saying. I get stuck in the present tense, often forgetting to change tenses in conversation. I also need to hone up on my listening skills. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Patricia J. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of...  [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 TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas There are many famous games used by TEFL teachers that students know like the back of their hand. If you want to change up your online lessons and bring even more fun in your teaching, check out these seven non-trivial online ESL games to help you in every stage of the TEFL class. For this activity, you will need to prepare a digital image and share it with a student during the online class. You can find plenty of connect-the-dots worksheets on the internet. The student needs to have access to the drawing tool, so make sure the online conference program you use has this feature. Choose a picture that would accompany the lesson's topic. Ask...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I have been living in Japan for the past one and a half years. Needless to say, the experience has been enthralling. This country would have never been my first choice for a country to relocate to, from my home country, India. But if my stay has taught me anything, it is that never judge a book by its cover. When we think of Japan, the first thing that pops up is that it is a country of workaholics; it has zero English presence, and the people are highly prejudiced against foreigners and foreign culture. I was proven wrong. Japan is a beautiful country. It is culturally so rich, it makes me want to live here forever. The people, though tend to be a little distant initially, a warm-up to you eventually, and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Anyone and everyone should complete a TEFL course because it turns the English language into a key that opens up the rest of the world. Generally speaking, language can be a barrier between different peoples and countries. However, if you travel with a special intent to share your language, then those barriers have the potential to turn into bridges to new friends and new places that could be called home. Completing a TEFL course provides the necessary training for English to be shared around the world. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kaitlin Y. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. A TEFL course is required training because it...  [Read more]

  Our next consideration is going to be building and maintaining rapport. The importance of rapport is that within our communicative activities, we're asking the students to talk to each other. If they feel comfortable with each other and with us, then that interaction is much more likely to be useful. So how do we actually build and maintain rapport? Well, it's easiest if we consider two stages of the course itself. What we can do at the start of the course and what we can do throughout the course to help build and maintain that rapport. So at the start of the course, it's very useful if we ask the students to create a name card and to make that name card visible to everyone. Secondly we need to try to do some ice breaking activities that will allow the students to interact with...  [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]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas ESL teachers often encounter difficulties when teaching grammar patterns to students abroad. The following 7 activities for teaching the simple present for the ESL classroom will help your students pick up the tense in an easy and efficient way. This is a very good activity for when you start discussing the simple present and how it’s used for routines and regularities. You can place the students into groups or pairs and have them discuss their daily routines. What do they do in the morning? In the afternoon? In the evening? You can then also have them write up a schedule of their daily routines and share their findings with the class later on in a class discussion. Also read: Top Online Lesson Plan Resources for...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Grammar or grammer! The most common error in the spelling of ‘grammar’, however, it is still debatable among few teachers, whether grammar or vocabulary should be considered the most important aspect of the English language. A balanced diet makes a person healthy similarly a balanced understanding of all aspects of a language makes it complete. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Annu M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. English is widely spoken across the globe and most nationalities are now able to communicate using the basic structure. Once a learned man said, “You need not have a great grasp of the English language, as...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I would like to introduce five flashcards activities which I found fun and practical to enhance a student's vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, listening, and speaking. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate MOHSEN H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. This activity is designed to teach vocabulary as well as practice listening. It can be used for teaching various categories (animals, food, fruits, …) or a mix of them. The teacher gives each of the students a set of flashcards and asks them to show him/her the correct card when they hear the item spoken. For example: “Show me a pig” “Hands up if you’ve got a banana” “Stand...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Course materials are the ingredients of the class, that if implemented effectively, make it taste good. A teacher can be amazing at instructing but the materials are what will help the students apply the lecture and know if they understood it. It reminds me of when I was in class, listening to my teacher, oftentimes I was really under the impression that I understood what the teacher was saying. When I did my homework though, I found it difficult to apply that information to the exercises. This was often the case when the teacher explained things well, but the materials weren’t personalized and came from a textbook that has been out of date for the past 5 years. Here we’ll go over how to implement course...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas For many years, drilling has been used in foreign language classrooms. This approach to language teaching places an emphasis on repeating structural patterns through oral practice. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Jazmin W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. When using the technique of drilling, if used appropriately, it can be a very productive and proactive way for students to memorize and retain vocabulary and structural context within a sentence. It could be argued that when learning a foreign language, the thought that repeating phrases correctly lots of times can lead to master that language. Yet, it dials down to a far...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The popular saying which states: never judge a book by the cover has once again reminded me to always be optimistic about a new experience. Before I entered the school I had already concluded what a bad experience it would be in this new environment which I would pass on numerous occasions and hear different external noises coming from inside of the school, I imagined how hard the job of a teacher could be. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Chantal S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. On Monday, September 3, 2018, the first day upon entering the second gate I was led by the security to a teacher namely Ms. Hamilton. She was...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas When teaching reported speech the potential for mistakes, errors, and the general difficulty is enormous due to the number of changes that are made with verb tenses, patterns, pronouns, questions, time expressions etc.. It’s important to cover the subject slowly with lots of verbal practice at every opportunity. There are plenty of standard ‘change the direct speech to reported speech’ activities, but your students will soon tire of these if you overuse them. Here are some ideas which have worked well in the EFL classroom and will give your students a good amount of talk time in a variety of ways. This is a fun dispute roleplay that is ideal when students are split up into groups of 3, although 4 can work too....  [Read more]

Russ Tuff TEFL Information So you are in two minds whether or not to do a “Teaching English as a Foreign Language” course. I get it, I was there as well. Trust me, I understand; that’s a lot of money to outlay, and what’s more, you don’t even know if you are going to pass the course. Any of those statements or questions starting to sound familiar? Let me tell you a bit about those statements and questions; those statements and questions completely disappear once you commit to your future. And when I say “completely disappear” I mean, you don’t even think about them again until you are asked to write a blog about your experience whilst studying. First, I’ll give you a bit of background on myself, trusting that you’ll be able to...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Hey guys, nice to see you again. It's Liza here, I'm glad to welcome you to the weekly live session. If you can hear me and see me please let me know that everything is working smoothly, because just three minutes before the live session my home wi-fi connection cut off and I had to switch on the mobile internet. I'm scared that something might not work that well, so please let me know that it works. I really hope that this internet connection problem won't cause any troubles. Hello Rosie, thank you so much for letting me know. Hello guys, I can see that there are some people from Pakistan. I can also see some regulars, thanks for coming. Let's move on to the first part of the...  [Read more]

{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ [ {"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh0","name": " Where can I teach English abroad?","url": "https://www.tefl-certificate.net/faq/how-to-find-tefl-jobs/#nameh0"},{"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh1","name": " Which is the most popular region for teaching English abroad?","url": "https://www.tefl-certificate.net/faq/how-to-find-tefl-jobs/#nameh1"},{"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh3","name": " Where can I earn the most money teaching English in Asia?","url": "https://www.tefl-certificate.net/faq/how-to-find-tefl-jobs/#nameh3"},{"@context": "https://schema.org","@type":...  [Read more]

{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ [ {"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh0","name": " Where can I teach English abroad?","url": "https://www.tefl-certificate.net/faq/what-are-tefl-jobs/#nameh0"},{"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh1","name": " Which is the most popular region for teaching English abroad?","url": "https://www.tefl-certificate.net/faq/what-are-tefl-jobs/#nameh1"},{"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh3","name": " Where can I earn the most money teaching English in Asia?","url": "https://www.tefl-certificate.net/faq/what-are-tefl-jobs/#nameh3"},{"@context": "https://schema.org","@type":...  [Read more]