Teaching Etc

  Here's an idea for teaching the present perfect continuous tense. However in this activity what the students will be doing, is comparing and contrasting this tense with the present perfect tense. This is something that a teacher will want to do after they've explored both tenses and because both tenses are quite confusing, we'll ask the students to compare and contrast the two, making sure that they can tell the difference. In this activity, the teacher will have cut out each individual card. The teacher will distribute the cards to the students and after a minute has gone by, the teacher will then ask the students to fold their cards over and get into a pair. One student in the pair will then present a certain result and ask the student to form the question. Here, with 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 Alumni Experiences Teaching is a very crucial ingredient in education for without the term “Teaching” education would likely not have come to limelight. Teaching is, therefore, the act of transferring or imparting knowledge from a teacher to a learner, with carefully planned out modes of instruction to change a certain pattern or routine. Non-native speakers of other countries such as Russia, China, Iraq Etc may find it a little difficult to understand or learn the English language on their own. It is therefore through a TEFL teacher that their desires are fulfilled. In a nutshell, therefore, a teacher can be seen as one who educates or informs another person with the motive of changing something or giving the learner...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences From my teaching experience of teaching English to foreigners of other languages, I had never realized how important it was to learn different teaching methods and skills. I did not major in teaching nor anything related. I majored in Business Administration and simply was allowed to teach ESL in another country where I was not raised, and I did it. Nowadays I compare these skills taught and how different I was teaching back then, that I am so willing to start teaching again, but with these newly acquired skills, I learned. I can remember several experiences in my teaching days that I committed many mistakes that this lesson taught me how to avoid, i.e. how not to talk excessively in class, make a good lesson...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This unit focuses on the different uses of teaching equipment and what to take into consideration while choosing the adequate teaching equipment. Of the many named in the lesson, I have selected 3 to discuss in further detail. The whiteboard, the DVD player, and online resources. There are advantages and disadvantages to each of these, and for a teacher to have an efficient lesson, it is important to manage these resources. By managing these aids, we can fully use them to improve our classes. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Matthew S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. As an ESL teacher, the whiteboard is unequivocally necessary...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences Why complete a TEFL course? All the mainstream ads answer this question with, “Travel the World”, “Work and Live Abroad” “Discover different Cultures”, "Meet new People" and "Learn the local Language", all are great reasons. I had to ask myself this a few times. I have lived in many non-English speaking countries over the years and over these years have assisted many locals with their English homework or extra studies. I am a native English speaker, I know how to speak English; I have done it all my life so why would I need to take a TEFL course? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate John M. In the end it was pretty simple. For a native English speaker to teach English in all its correct...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Everyone and everything that exists in this world have what it is called or known by, and that automatically is the name of that person or that thing. We can then define a noun as a name given to persons, places, animals, objects, substances, qualities, actions, and measures. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate NICODEMUS U. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. This is a name given to each member of a group of persons or things that share some common characteristics. Examples: car, television, girl, boy, house, man, book, cup, student, home, watch, leg, hand, clothes, cap, goat, pen, chair, bulb, pencil, door, window, fan, marker,...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Like we all know, the English alphabet has 26 letters. These 26 letters can make 44 different sounds or phonemes – 20 sounds come from the vowels a, e, i, o and u; and 24 sounds come from the remaining 21 consonants. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that can change the meaning of a word. If we consider sounds made simply by the letter ‘a’ for instance, in the word ‘apple’ – it’s /ae/, in ‘car’ – it’s /a:/, in amount – it’s /a/, and so on. This, consequently, makes English a non-phonetic language, which means that the pronunciation of a word is not dependent on its spelling. Now in order to pronounce a word correctly, we need to get three factors in it right - vowel sounds,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I am not a native English speaker yet I have learned English since childhood as I was born and raised in India, where English is the second language. In India, most of the early schools, high schools, colleges, universities use English as the medium of instruction. So I was fortunate (i have only realized its good fortune to have learned and spoken English for so many years now) to have acquired proficiency in written and spoken English mostly inspired by British English as India was ruled for many many years by the British. Our love for English is old and solid - demonstrated by the fact that India now has the largest English speaking population in the world. Wow!! purely because we are a vast population and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Kindergarten students are those who are typically around the age of five. From birth till five, they would have developed their sensory and speaking abilities in their mother tongue with decent fluency. Children at this age have a strong potential to gain a lot of information. They would know about 1000-2000 words by this time. At this age, they are formally introduced to reading and writing skills, group work, independent thinking, and sharing practice. Teaching children at this age can be quite challenging and fun. Vocabulary is one of the strongest predictors when it comes to speaking capacity. So, by carefully incorporating study into play we can enrich their speaking abilities. This post was written by our...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English is the language of the modern world. All people around the world know the importance of the English language in our life, because we need it in our work and sometimes when we meet other people from other cultures, maybe they are not from Britain or America but we almost think they are talking English. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Doaa E. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. That doesn't mean our language isn't important. Sure all people love their language, but the first language now used as a global language in the world is English agree or disagree. As global communication expands throughout the world, so does the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English is the language of the modern world. All people around the world know the English language in our life, because we need it in our work and sometimes when we meet other people from other cultures, maybe they are not from Britain or America but we almost think they are talking English. That doesn't mean our language isn't important. Sure all people love their language, but the first language now used as a global language in the world is English agree or disagree. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Doaa E. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. As global communication expands throughout the world, so does the need for a global...  [Read more]

  In this episode, Linda takes on the pronunciation of the word "bicoastal". 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. Unit 3 covers Course Development. The unit covers level testing and needs analysis as a starting point to creating a syllabus for a course. It is useful to be aware of the constraints in syllabus design: school/employer, resources, cultural issues, students, etc. Various assessments of students' progress and abilities...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Grammar plays a very important role in learning and teaching a foreign language. What is grammar? Crystal describes grammar as “the business of taking a language to pieces, to see how it works” (as cited in Bentsen, 2017). This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Meral B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. According to Swan ‘‘grammar is essentially a limited set of devices for expressing a few kinds of necessary meaning that cannot be conveyed by referential vocabulary alone’’ (as cited in Hu, 2012). Ur believes that ‘‘grammar may be roughly defined as the way a language manipulates and combines words (or bits of words)...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teachers are experts, tutors, mentors, superiors, masters, organizers, models, etc. that “rule”, lead or guide students in their learning. They bear the important responsibility of leading the learning of their students towards success (meeting goals). They have a position that requires constant attention and responsibility, usually towards a group and they always need to adapt themselves to the classes and cultural differences. In the many roles and responsibilities that teachers may face, how can they not be nervous about the multiple approaches they could take and the multitude of problems that could appear in their future classes? Especially new teachers, how can they increase their confidence in the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Teaching English as a Foreign Language in a Kindergarten could be interesting, challenging and rewarding at the same time. The outcome of the experience mostly depends on the following but not limited to the school environment, norms and cultures of the country, attitude of the teacher, rules and regulations of the school to mention but a few. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Olamiposi Blessing I. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Many kindergarten teachers have made the miracle of learning languages possible with their effort, extra hours, and care because It is truly very difficult to gain and hold a child’s attention...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Education is defined as the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction in a formal setting (Cambridge Online Dictionary, 2019). However, the question is in what means is education provided? In unit 17 of the ITTT 120-hour TEFL course, a variety of equipment and aid were discussed. While the different teaching equipment can provide for an effective, successful lesson for the students, outdoor activities are equally important and can provide a range of benefits to English learning students. This essay aims to, using examples, investigate and discuss the importance of incorporating outdoor activities when teaching English as a foreign language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kayla...  [Read more]

  Yatunde is working as an English teacher and just recently completed our 120-hour online TEFL certification course. She saw immediate improvements in her teaching skills and is now able to effectively teach her adult classes around the globe. 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 it useful thinking about all of the different visual aids, technology and teaching aids that are available. I think that using aids helps to keep students engaged...  [Read more]

  Franziska is living and working in Madrid, Spain. She has recently earned her TEFL certification by completing a 120-hour online course with ITTT. In this TEFL review video Franziska tells us about her experience on the course. 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 went over the possible different ways to use the necessary vocabulary learning methods (i.e. appropriacy, similarities to students' own language, meanings, etc...) and to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Games are seen as time wasted. According to my, it is a pointless prejudice. Because some people suppose playing games in the classroom can only be as computer games; on the contrary, fun in the school is more instructive for students' self-improvement. Meanwhile, the research has shown that the classroom games affect students positively, such as having more motivation, having a controlled competitive environment, strategy simulator, peer positive, less stress, enhanced memory, class cooperation, and new knowledge. We will see how games are essential in our education. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mihriban O....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I think vocabulary is something that should be taught at the very beginning of the course. When you're starting with a brand new language, the hardest part of learning a foreign language from scratch is vocabulary building. This is because when one starts a new language, they typically don't know where to start. For example, should they learn how to say "Hi, how are you?" first, or should they learn some of the more substantial, yet basic vocabulary terms, such as "I give" "I eat" etc? At what point should you introduce grammar? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Brandon S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I have studied 3...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas When I think of materials in terms of English Second Language (ESL) teaching, I think of a broad range of items, from worksheets to pictures, flashcards to figurines, exercises, tests, and so on. To put 'materials' more in perspective, these are materials needed to deliver an ESL course. I have created course material and training material since 1995, firstly for training artisans in development projects in South Africa, and later from 2001 to 2006 in Wales, training Voluntary Sector groups. For one employer, I created a 'Behavioural Based Safety' course for North Sea Safety Standby Vessels (Offshore operations), which included four...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas There are many things I have learned over my thirty-plus years teaching students full time in classrooms, ranging from primary grades 2-5 and in junior high and high school. However, one of the most crucial things a teacher needs in the face of young and older learners is confidence! If the students suspect that the teacher has no idea what they are doing, it can be detrimental to the lesson and the teacher's ability to control the classroom situation. Having a confident teacher brings positivity to the classroom and comfort among the students that they are going to learn something valuable. Throughout my career, I wore many hats to grow...  [Read more]

Shirin Sophy TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas The following features that are briefly discussed in this article can directly affect the quality of the lesson and facilitate generating a more desired outcome. Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Does a year abroad teaching English hurt your career prospects back home? Quite the contrary! In this live session, we discover exactly how teaching English abroad enhances your career prospects - back home and around the world! Federico Riva TEFL Information Teaching Ideas Do you...  [Read more]

Anna Domiczek Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Songs and music are such an important part of an ESL preschool curriculum. Not only are they fun, but they are also very powerful tools to help young students learn English in a fun and entertaining way. Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Does a year abroad teaching English hurt your career prospects back home? Quite the contrary! In this live session, we discover exactly how teaching English abroad enhances your career prospects - back home and around the world! Shirin Sophy Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas ...  [Read more]

  In this TEFL review, Boh discusses his experience on the 120-hour online TEFL course without tutor support from ITTT. He found that the course exceeded his expectations with plenty of information covering both grammatical features of the English language and strategies for dealing with different students. 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. A very important grammar unit! Whenever we get to teach higher levels those concepts are always there and...  [Read more]

  Tim is from Hong Kong and he completed his 120-hour online TEFL course with ITTT. He enjoyed working independently on the course and enjoyed its flexibility. Now that he is qualified he is able to teach in schools in Hong Kong and had a great time working on the course. 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 tackles how teachers should approach teaching vocabulary, grammatical structures, and language functions in the classroom. The unit...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word rejuvenate. This word is used as a verb and refers to making a person look or feel younger, as well as fresher, and more lively. Some synonyms for rejuvenate include revive, revitalize and regenerate. The word is a combination from re- ‘again’ and the Latin word juvenis meaning ‘young’. 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. Teaching equipment can be used to make my class...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word esoteric. This word is used as an adjective and refers to something that is either intended for or can only be understood by a certain group of people with a special interest or knowledge. Synonyms for esoteric include abstract, abstruse and obscure. The word originates from the Greek word es?terikos. 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 is about parts of speech. Some examples of...  [Read more]

  In Chantelle’s thirteenth video diary entry she talks about unit 13 of her 120-hour online TEFL course. Unit 13 covers pronunciation and phonology. As Chantelle notes there is a lot of information presented in this unit including phonology, stress, articulation and the phonemic alphabet. The unit also looks at how to teach individual sounds and when we should teach pronunciation to our students. 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...  [Read more]