Teacher Support Groups

1. Introduction 2. Benefits of Joining an ESL Study Group 3. How to Find an ESL Study Group in Tokyo 4. Conclusion Are you looking to improve your English language skills in Tokyo? Joining an ESL study group may be the perfect solution for you! ESL study groups provide a supportive and collaborative environment where you can practice speaking, listening, reading, and writing in English. In this article, we will discuss the benefits of joining an ESL study group, how to find one in Tokyo, and why it can be a great way to enhance your language learning experience. There are numerous benefits to joining an ESL study group in Tokyo. Firstly, studying in a group setting allows you to practice your English language skills with fellow learners who are also motivated to improve. This can help you...  [Read more]

  Edina decided to take a TEFL certificate course with ITTT after joining an NGO providing English teachers to students in Turkey. In this TEFL review video Edina talks about the many benefits of taking the course, including the extensive materials covering grammar, classroom management and lesson planning, the post course support and the fact that the certificate is recognised around the world. 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...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas One of the main differences between teaching groups and individual students is the lesson plan. Several factors need to be considered when planning a lesson for a single student: The aforementioned factors should be taken into account even when teaching groups but in one-to-one lessons they are crucial. Considering that the whole lesson is dedicated to one individual, material covered should be graded to his/her exact level to achieve the best result, giving the teacher freedom to make the lessons challenging to stimulate further self-study. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ivana P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Unlike...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences To understand the difference between teaching one to one and groups this essay aims to provide a discussion of the factors which exert influence on choosing one of these types of teaching or learning according to their advantages and disadvantages. Nowadays teachers and students often ask themselves a question: “What should I choose: individual or group studying?” There are a lot of things they need to bear in mind for making this decision. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Iuliia S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The first section illustrates the popularity of one to one education, which increases every year. Both...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This essay will focus on the differences between one-to-one teaching and group teaching. With both teaching approaches, there are advantages as well as disadvantages. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Alida K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Recently, there has been an increase in demand for one-to-one lessons, particularly within the business industry (Teaching Special Groups, Unit 19). Students feel they are receiving a service tailored to their wants and needs than that of a group lesson would. Furthermore, teaching one-to-one allows the teacher to create a plan that directly suits the learners' needs; for example,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teaching English as a foreign language can be done one of two ways: teaching a group of students or by teaching on a one-to-one basis. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Xiaobing W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. On the contrary, one to one teaching is made more special by the fact that many teachers have to develop their strategies, approaches, and materials. One-to-one courses are, by definition, tailor-made courses. On the one hand, the teacher not only has a greater opportunity to engage in real interaction and to learn. But no need to worry about the problems of large groups- mixed ability, group dynamics, early finishers,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas When beginning work with a new group of English Language Learners, there are many factors to consider. For example: How do I assess their prior knowledge? How do I engage in the classroom? How do I make sure my students are comfortable to ask questions? All these questions are all hinged on the instructor’s ability to create a positive classroom culture and troubleshoot potential problems. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Maria H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The first few lessons are critical to this process. It is imperative that instructors set the tone of their class. They need to establish a positive rapport with...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Classroom management is an important and essential skill for teachers and students. Classroom management aids teachers in organization and time management. Teachers who manage and instruct the class using eye contact, their voice, and group the students together using pair work and group work have more effective classroom management. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Costas P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Keeping eye contact with the students establishes a good rapport. It helps them to show their involvement in the lesson and ensures that the students understand what is going on in the classroom. It maintains discipline and...  [Read more]

1. Introduction 2. Benefits of Fun and Interactive English Teaching Activities 3. How to Incorporate Fun and Interactive Activities in the Classroom 4. Resources for Fun and Interactive English Teaching Activities Are you looking for ways to make your English teaching sessions more engaging and enjoyable for your students? Look no further! At ITTT (International TEFL and TESOL Training), we understand the importance of incorporating fun and interactive activities into your lessons to create a dynamic learning environment. In this guide, we will explore the benefits of using these activities in the classroom, provide practical tips on how to incorporate them effectively, and share valuable resources to help you enhance your teaching experience. Engaging students in fun and interactive...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences In the classroom, there can be different ways of teaching, and ways this can be adjusted to meet all students’ needs. This helps ensure all students are on the same level of understanding by the end of the lesson before moving on to another topic. Teaching one-to-one can help meet individual students’ needs and wants, while teaching in a group allows all students to work together in pairs to help each other out, and may even make them feel more comfortable. This essay will look at the specific differences, including the positive and negative factors, of teaching one-to-one and in a group setting. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Seniz G. Please note that this blog post might not...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I think the teacher plays an important part in teaching English. And to be an English teacher needed professional teaching methods and cultural background. Because for many learners, the teacher is the font of all knowledge on English grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation, and in these areas, they have particular responsibility and authority. At the same time, in different lesson parts, teachers need to switch roles to help students learn English. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Shu Y. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. During a different lesson, the teacher will have a different role. And different roles have different effects...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas A multilingual class is a class where the learners speak a variety of first languages. A monolingual class is a class where all the learners speak the same first language. I have been working in international school setting for over 13 years. The classes are multilingual classes where students come from different cultures and English is the common language for them to communicate with their teachers and classmates. By contrast, English classes in local schools and universities in China are considered to be monolingual classes since the students use their first language, Chinese, to communicate. The teacher has to remind them to not use their mother tongue constantly during class...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teachers play an intricate role in children's formative years, both intellectually and socially. For schools to have a positive effect on children, they will be dependent on good teachers. A good teacher has many specific attributes with some being professional roles they have and others being embedded in their personality. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Shelby W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. During the class, the teacher must be able to manage and control the students. This means the teacher needs to be able to stand in front of the class as a whole and instruct the students in a different way than when they are in...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences The seating arrangement is one of the most important topics in classroom management. Classroom management refers to the various skills and techniques that teachers use to keep students organized, orderly, focused, attentive, on task and academically productive during the class. However, this essay is going to explore more on the various methods of seating arrangement and how they influence classroom management. There are three most common seating arrangement methods that can be used by the teacher. These include the traditional rows and columns, horseshoe or U-shape and clusters. These are going to be explained in detail outlining their advantages and disadvantages in relation to the classroom size and shape,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The learning process of a foreign language inside a classroom has been demonstrated as one of the best ways in which different competencies can be practiced at the same time. Abilities such as grammar, reading, listening, and conversation skills are put to the test, all of them supervised by a teacher whom a conversation can be established. This same teacher is the one in charge of creating and maintaining an environment based on trust and positivism, so the student may appropriately develop his aptitudes. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ilse G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. We know that different types of classroom...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas There are many types of English learning groups and each group requires different teaching techniques. In my opinion, English learners can be divided into 2 groups: beginners and English learners for specific purposes. Beginners can be students who have no English at all or know a few simple structures. They can be children or adults. English learners for specific purposes are students who have a basic English level and want to achieve their specific aims of learning. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nhung T. Children are quick to learn but prone to forget. Therefore, they need frequent repetition and revision. Here are some tips for successful lessons with...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teachers of ESL will often find themselves in charge of a class with students at different levels of proficiency. When this happens, the teacher needs to know ways to adapt and manage the class and activities in a way that benefits all the students. The stronger students could become bored if the teacher caters to the weaker ones, and, reversely, the weaker students could become demotivated and feel forgotten and left behind when they cannot keep up with the advanced students. So how can a teacher make sure all the students get what they need from the class? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Leigh K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas As a student, there were many different kinds of ways my own teachers helped me understand difficult subjects. These teaching methods helped me then tutor and mentor young children and adults and I will also pass them on to my future students in Asia. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nikolai S. Bringing dull academic concepts to life using visual and practical learning experiences helps students understand how their schooling applies to the real-world. Examples include using an interactive whiteboard to display photos, audio clips and videos, as well as encouraging your students to get out of their seats with classroom experiments and local field trips....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas When teaching, regardless of the chosen method, the first aspect to consider is how to find a way to connect with the students, because a good relationship with the learners is the foundation on which everything else rests on. I consider this statement true when thinking about both groups of students and one-to-one teaching, because I believe that subject knowledge is not the only important element of teacher practice, particularly when teaching a subject that it is not mandatory, as an EFL lesson. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Laura R. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In some respect, teaching one-to-one is easier, because...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas How important is it for EFL learners to learn slang and idioms? Let’s clarify what is slang? What is an idiom? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Laura B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Slang is an informal language and should be used only with people one knows very well. Slang can change constantly, appear today, disappear within month or year and some words have been used by English speakers since medieval times. Also Read: "How Can We as Teachers Motivate Our Students?" The earliest use of the word “slang” (eighteen century) referred to the vocabulary of “low” or “disreputable” people. Later, in the early...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Morocco’s official languages are classical Arabic, and Berber ( indigenous language in North Africa) Classical Arabic, and second unofficial language in Morocco is the French language taught in General educational curriculum from primary school, and Spanish taught in the north as a second unofficial language, Thus learning a third or even fourth language for a Moroccan learner is not a big challenge, however, there are some difficulties to learn a language efficiently and accurately. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate MOHAMMED t. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. English is emerging, especially in larger cities. And it is...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The range of roles EFL teachers plays to ensure that learning takes place is undoubtedly wide. Among these, we may see teachers as planners, deciding which aspects of the subject to teach and how to do it; as facilitators, providing learners with strategies to guide them in the quest for knowledge; and as managers, establishing the patterns of interaction among students and making sure they focus their attention on the lesson and engage in the proposed tasks. Considering these roles, I think the latter seems to be the hardest one to perform since it involves managing people’s attitude and behavior, which means establishing and maintaining discipline in such a way that it does not affect teacher-student rapport...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The personality of a teacher, their attitude towards teaching and their relationship with the students have a major impact on the motivation of the class to learn a foreign language. Being kind, patient, entertaining and with a good subject, knowledge is some of the characteristics of a good teacher. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Vladislava B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Their ability to interact with the class, to involve all the students equally through the lesson, to correct them without offending or affecting their motivation and to give individual attention when necessary, proves that a good teacher cares a lot...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Back in 2014, I worked at a nursery school here in South Africa. I was the English teacher for the three to four-year-olds at this school. There were 32 students in my class. My class was so small that during nap time two students had to sleep on one mattress. There was no space to leave the class once the children had fallen asleep. I had to make sure that all my belongings were out of the class once the students came in for their naptime or I had to leave whatever was forgotten behind once I was one my way to my next job. In unit 3 on page 21, they talk about the whole class grouping pros and cons and that is really explained well where they say "class grouping is suitable for activities where the teacher...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Establishing rapport with students can be challenging sometimes, especially if this is a class of students who’ve already had different teachers or the students change around a lot. When there is inconsistency in teaching style or people, it can be more difficult for students to create a more meaningful bond. One of the key things I’ve always found in establishing rapport is to be friendly, positive, kind, consistent and understanding. There are different ways a teacher can show this. The way s/he introduces her/himself and shows interest in students initially, the level of professionalism displayed, the teacher’s attitude towards students, the reward system put in place and the expectations set among many...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The role of a teacher conceals in itself the huge responsibility of shaping the world and making it a better place. A teacher should be able to cultivate a sense of strong positive emotions and self-confidence, should be well aware of the different needs of the students and should be capable of providing an endless number of opportunities for them to learn and grow. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Anil K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. However, many teachers find the mixed-ability classes, a challenging situation to deal with. The students' demographics change according to a lot of parameters. The term mixed-ability...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences It is generally agreed that education is one of the most important issues in every country these days and China is no exception. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ekaterina G. It’s a well-known fact that China is the most populated country in the world with a long and mysterious history, rich and varied culture. China recognizes 55 ethnic minority groups within the country in addition to the Han majority. Standard Mandarin is the only official language, though there are more than 200 hundred living languages spoken all over the country. While being China’s capital, political and cultural center, Beijing is also known as a melting pot where you can meet the representative of almost each...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The activity of any teacher necessarily has its own style. This is a permanent set of techniques that manifests itself with varying degrees of intensity depending on the situation. The stylistic pedagogical activity depends on several factors, both on the activity itself and on the students. The style is very much due to the individual characteristics of the teacher’s personality. There are five main types of teaching styles. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ekaterina V. The first one is called “The Authority style”. The teacher considers his students as objects of influence, and not equal partners in the activity. For this reason, the teacher separates himself both from the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Learning difficulties can found in all teaching environments, be it a classroom of mixed ability students, a one-to-one tutoring session, teaching EFL or online teaching. Learning difficulties affect all age groups, both genders, and all languages and cultures, therefore a good teacher must be able to both foresee and prepare for supporting a student’s learning difficulties. This is even more important when teaching EFL students as unless these difficulties are met and coping methods are established then the student will struggle to make any progress in their learning English as a second language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Tammy T. Please note that this blog post might not...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Classroom seating arrangements are just as paramount as any other an aspect of teaching and lesson management. An effective classroom seating arrangement or lack thereof can easily be the difference between an optimally performing class and a mediocre class. As a teacher, one needs to create a synergy between the chosen classroom setup and the teacher’s style of teaching, the students’ personalities, the classroom furniture and the classroom space itself. A host of factors influence the most effective classroom seating arrangements and some of which shall be discussed in this summary. It is also important to note is that some of these influential factors are so dynamic (may even change with every new day or...  [Read more]