TEFL Acton

  Another idea for the present continuous tense focuses on the action of miming. Because it's in the present continuous tense, it'll be critical that the student, who is doing miming, continues to do the miming as the students guess what he or she is doing. In order to do this, the teacher will ask one student to come to the front of the class and present them with a card. The card at low levels will just be one word such as 'sleeping,' 'surfing,' 'eating,' or 'playing'. As soon as the student is able to mine any one of those actions, the students continue to guess with 'You are sleeping,' 'You are eating,' 'You are surfing.' Now at higher levels what you could do is continue on from the base of the action and include something like 'You are playing football,' or 'You are playing...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences A teacher must assume many different roles as they perform the task of teaching both during the lesson and outside the lesson. By outside the lesson, I am referring to the Lesson Planning, materials to be used set up and classroom organization. During the lesson is, of course, the actual teaching of the students. As listed in Unit 2 there are 6 roles in total including Instructor, Facilitator, Mentor, Psychologist, Counsellor, and Policeman. These roles are true for all levels of teaching and are modified to suit the age and level of the students. In the case of teaching Younger Learners, it is very important to consider their age in terms of attention span, interests and sense of imagination and fun. Perhaps...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas It’s my dream to be a teacher since I was a little girl. It’s so lucky, I became an English teacher after I graduated from school. I like my job, I always prepared a lot before my class, such as materials, flashcards, teaching plan and so on. Because I hope my students will enjoy my class and gain knowledge through my class. I heard that a good teacher must be a good actor. I really impressed by this sentence, it always reminds me, no matter how tired you are and how sad you are, once you enter in the classroom, you must be full of energetic and keep a smile. Through my teaching experience, if you want to be a good teacher, I think not only just read books and ask students to do drilling work, but also...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word "libertine". This word is a noun and either refers to a freethinker in religious matters or someone who disregards morals and leads a dissolute life. The word comes from the Latin word libertus, which referred to a slave who become a free man. 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 talked about teaching special groups such as young learners, business learners, individuals,...  [Read more]

  http://www.teflonline.net In this TEFL training video we look at one of three teaching ideas for the present continuous tense. English grammar lessons like this are taught on a regular basis and ITTT's TEFL training courses can show you how to use these activities to your advantage in the classroom. . /// -~-~~-~~~-~~-~- Are you ready to Teach English Abroad? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pcXD_GNR04 -~-~~-~~~-~~-~- 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. ...  [Read more]

  Moving down our list of parts of speech, we have our verbs. The first big difference between verbs that we need to look at is whether it's an action verb or a state verb. Our action verbs, as the name suggests, mean that we typically can see these things in action. We can see people working and we certainly see people going to various places. Now, we have our state verbs. These are basically indicating a state of being. Two examples would be "seem" and "have" or "own". We have a sentence such as "He seems angry." and "I own my house." You can't actually see the action happening, even though those words are used as verbs. A very big differentiation between the two here as well is, state verbs typically don't take the progressive or continuous form. That form is the verb "+ing". As...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Reflective teaching is not a contemporary science however, to find evidence of when this science began it would be an impossible task, like accessing the Vatican library. One could presume the first person which taught another something resourceful dedicated some time to reflect on its delivery and considered observing research, and planning. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Stephen A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Generally, reflective teaching is the process of self-observation and self-evaluation i.e. looking at what you do in the classroom, thinking about why you do it, and thinking about if it works. The aim is to...  [Read more]

  And now it's time to have a look at our first grammar unit. Grammar in its widest sense is the structure of a language. We as speakers of the language can structure our language without a problem. However, as teachers of the language we need to be able to better analyze the grammar and the grammar that exists within statements that we make. These basic parts of grammar are called parts of speech. Each part of speech has a certain function within a sentence. Our example sentence here is "My older brother lives in Tokyo." Each one of these words is a certain part of speech, which we'll have a look at in just a minute but let's just think about the words within this particular sentence. We have ?my?, indicating whose brother it is, we have "older", indicating which brother it is....  [Read more]

  http://www.teflonline.net This video explores the usages of the Present Perfect Continuous -- the tense that relates past activities to the present. It implies that the activity is likely to continue in the future or that the activity was in progress for some length of time, or both. The first usage is to talk about an incomplete and ongoing activity, when we want to say how long it has continued. For example, "I have been teaching for ten years." It talks about an action that started in the past and is continuing now. The second usage is to describe recently finished activities that have present results. For example, "He is tired because he has been chopping trees." It is talking about an action that was continuing until very recently. The Present Perfect Continuous...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In all times when we need to do some activity, we need to think about what to do first, what to do second and what to do last. The same thing when we want to teach; we need to think about the order and the content of this lesson. In other words, we need to plan our lessons. A lesson plan is a detailed tool gathered in a soft or hard form to give instructions to the teacher. So, why planning lessons is important? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mouslim E. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. It first starts with a pre-planning. It revolves around many factors; teachers should take to account the level of students so that they...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas One of the things I have learned in this course is the importance of motivation. Both teachers and students have to be motivated so that the teaching and learning environment in the classroom can be a fun and enjoyable experience. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Carol T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. There are many ways a teacher can motivate the student to learn, and one of the tools is the use of playing games in the classroom. Games are effective because aside from keeping the students interested, they are a great teaching tool. For example, for a beginning student, I would have them play “I spy with my little eye...  [Read more]

  We can see that this particular usage of the unfinished past can be used for both the present perfect and the present perfect continuous. Where we've got action verbs, we usually prefer to use the present perfect continuous. However, there are state verbs which don't usually go into the continuous form, such as 'know'. We would say 'I have known her for 10 years,' not 'I have been knowing her for 10 years.' So when we have these state verbs, such as 'know', 'be', 'seem' and 'appear', we would usually put these in the present perfect but with the action verbs, such as 'play', 'cook', 'work', we will use these in the present perfect continuous. Normally, we also use the present perfect continuous fairly frequently with words, such as just or recently to express a recently completed...  [Read more]

  Now, let's move on to our adverbs. Rather than describing nouns, our adverbs describe our verbs. There are four types of adverbs when describing verbs. They are manner. These describe how things are done. Two examples are: quickly, cleverly. We have adverbs of place, describing where the action happened. Two examples are: here or there. We also have adverbs of time, describing when the action happened, two examples being now or recently. Finally, we have our adverbs of frequency telling us how often the action happens, two examples being often or never. There's also another type of adverb but here, we're going to describe adjectives or other adverbs instead of verbs themselves. These are called adverbs of degree. If we were to take the adjective "intelligent", we could easily say...  [Read more]

  In this video, we focus on the difference between the usage of "do" and "make". We use the verb 'do' when someone performs an action, activity or task. Some common expression with 'do' include : do a crossword, do the ironing, do your job, do the dishes, and do homework. We also use the verb 'do' when referring to things in general and to describe an action without saying exactly what the action is. In this case, 'do' is often used with the words 'something, nothing, anything, everything, for example ' I'm not doing anything today', or ' He does everything for his wife'.There are also a number of fixed expressions that always take the verb 'do', such as: do badly, do business, do a favor, do good, and do harm, just to name a few. On the other hand, we use the verb...  [Read more]

  The present perfect always relates the past to the present. This can be through the unfinished past, where we're expressing duration, such as 'I have played football for 10 years,' the indefinite past expressing experience in your life, such as 'I have been to Italy and Spain,' and also to show the present results of a past action 'I have broken my leg.' I broke it in the past and it remains broken in the present. Our final present tense is the present perfect continuous tense. Our example sentence here 'I have been playing football for 10 years' has the structure subject plus auxiliary verb 'have' or 'has' and then a second auxiliary verb here 'being' plus 'verb-ing'; 'I have been playing.' Very much like the present perfect tense, the present perfect continuous relates the past...  [Read more]

  The first conditional is used for likely results of possible future situations, as well as promises, threats, warnings or back-up plans. This video is specifically aimed at teaching the first conditional in an ESL setting. 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 fist aims to briefly overview the course of Teaching English to Young Learners. It starts from discussing the content of the course and explaining how the course works. We learn that...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas While teaching a new language, we, as a teacher need to concentrate on some very important skills. such as writing, reading, speaking and listening. If we miss one of these skills, it will mean that we don't provide the needed knowledge for our students., and all these are equally important. Today I am going to speak about English grammar and my main point will be the modal auxiliary verbs and how to teach them as a grammar rule. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Edgar V. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. These verbs are used to show willingness, capability, necessity or possibility. And like other verbs, the modal verbs also...  [Read more]

  This video is part of our series on the past tenses in English. In this video, we take a look at the past perfect tense. This tense is used to talk about a past action and a related past action before that. We relate two past actions to each other. 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. Again, such few questions is great and scary! I love that you all have faith that I had studied the material well enough to answer 10 short questions; however it is...  [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]

  Amber took the four-week in-class course in Buenos Aires because she was looking for a new challenge. Teaching English abroad will enable her to travel the world and gain new experiences at the same time. In this TEFL review, she says how much she enjoyed her month-long stay at the center in Buenos Aires and especially enjoyed teaching adults. She is excited to start her first teaching position. 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. The unit is...  [Read more]

  This video covers the difference between 'adapt' and 'adopt'. Due to their similar spelling, their usage is often confused. 'Adapt' describes the action of taking something and changing it for a special purpose, for example: A screenwriter successfully adapts the book to make it work as a movie. The word 'adopt', on the other hand, refers to the action of taking something and using it or making it your own, such as here: Because they couldn't have children of their own, they decided to adopt a child. 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...  [Read more]

  Pat from Malaysia is living and working as an accountant in Singapore. In her TEFL review video Pat tells us how she has been considering teaching English as a new career, which is why she decided to take the 120-hour online course with tutor support and videos from ITTT. The course gave Pat an overview of the various skills and techniques used in teaching English and also covered important aspects of English grammar. Pat would like to pursue teaching English in a language centre and hopes to build upon the knowledge and skills she has acquired with ITTT in the future. 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...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In the early lessons of the course, I was able to better understand the components of the sentence, and the knowledge about word types was expanded. It includes a definite article, adjective, noun, verb, preposition, adverb, conjunction, gerund, personal pronoun. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Phuong P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In unit 4, we have started talking about tenses in English. I looked at the four present tenses; the present simple, present continuous (sometimes called the present progressive), present perfect and present perfect continuous. Summary, the tense system is probably the area of the English...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Imagine you are a teacher of English, working in Russia. Your students are a small group of preschoolers starting their educational journey for the first time. It's September and the first day of school. All the children are dressed like little dolls. Parents quietly placed flowers on your desk in the morning, a traditional act of respect. Autumn is in the air, days are getting shorter, and the native birch trees are itching to turn golden yellow. Many Russians know this is the calling, the calling of long nights and snow-filled landscapes. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Lauren A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Your direct...  [Read more]

  This video covers the difference between 'advice' and 'advise'. As these two words have a similar pronunciation and spelling, their usage is often confused. In fact, the two words are both are from the same word stem but 'advice' is the noun and 'advise' is the verb. Therefore, their usages are not the same. 'Advice' refers to a proposal for an appropriate course of action. Please give us some advice about planning a trip to France. In this example, we use 'advice' because it is the noun. When we want to describe the action of giving advice or offering a suggestion, we use the verb, or 'advise' spelled with an 's'. A good example would be: I advised them to visit the Pyramids of Giza when they are in Egypt. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section...  [Read more]

  This video focuses on the difference between the usage of "bring" and "take". These two words often cause confusion, especailly for English learners. It is important to consider the direction in order to determine which word to use. The word "bring" describes the movement of something toward a specified location, such as in this sentence: Can you bring some snacks to the party tonight? The word "take" on the other hand generally describes the movement of something away from a location, such as here: Do you want to take any leftovers home? As you can see, it's quite easy to determine the correct word to use in a sentence when considering the direction you are referring to. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification...  [Read more]

  http://www.teflcourse.net The teaching idea for the future continuous covered in this video involves students picking a card with a picture of an activity on it and inviting their partner to join them. The other student then has to think up an excuse not to as quickly as possible in the future continuous tense. For example: Student A: Would you like to see a movie at the weekend? Student B: Sorry I can't, I'll be washing my hair. Ideas such as this are a great way for ESOL students to put the language they are learning to use in the classroom. Teaching ESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages) is a fascinating and highly rewarding career choice and one which has a growing number of opportunities at the moment. One of the best ways to become an ESOL teacher is...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Observation is an essential element in the teaching-learning process. It is a powerful tool that is underestimated by some teachers, the fact which in its turn hinders the progress of the students and slows down the teacher’s professional development. Observation can be viewed from different aspects such as peer observation, self-observation, and observation of the students at the lesson. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Alina S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. While conducting peer observation two questions may arise. What to observe and how to observe? Peer observation aims to assist your colleague in dealing with...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences When teaching in the classroom, it is very important to branch away from the traditional method of teaching, known as the “chalk and talk” method. This typically involves the teacher dictating the lesson, with students sat listening and writing down the words of the teacher. Not every student is programmed to be able to sit, listen intently to every word you say, write down everything important and absorb the information sufficiently to be able to go on and use the language in a productive way. You have to remember you have a variety of learners in any one classroom, and they all have different strengths and weaknesses, and varied ways of absorbing information. Some students might be more visual than aural...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas It is a very well known fact that English is a very melodic language, it sounds very soft and children love singing in English. When you keep a certain rhythm, rhyme, and pace, it is very likely to learn faster and better almost any topic. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Valeria T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. For a group of very young learners, it is quite a must to use songs, to put the students move and have some action in the classroom as their attention span is quite short and they need entertainment, fun, and playtime. I will take as an example of body parts. If I were to teach the body parts, I would choose the...  [Read more]