TEFL Bow

Jon ITTT Destinations If you want to be a TEFL teacher, it is important to make sure you are as well prepared as you can possibly be before entering a classroom. It is equally important to have a good understanding of the country and culture you are hoping to make your home while you are teaching. Below I look at some important aspects of etiquette in different countries in Asia. Teachers hold a position of respect in many Asian countries and are expected to behave in a way that reflects that respect. Dress for teachers tends to be formal and women should avoid wearing anything too revealing. Although many locals understand a foreign TEFL teacher’s lack of understanding about local customs, taking the time to learn and show interest can make a...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas So, you’ve just finished a delicious meal of sushi at your favorite sushi restaurant in Tokyo. The waitress comes by and leaves the check at your table, you place your money inside, hand it back, and she shortly returns with the receipt. You proceed to place a generous tip on the table to thank her for her wonderful service, and you show yourself out of the restraint, back to the busy streets of Tokyo. Can you spot something that you shouldn’t have done in this scenario? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Zachary B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Most Westerns won’t be able to, as this scenario is perfectible acceptable...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas The second of the productive skills is writing and here again we'll have a look at the background needed to create a typical lesson for writing skills. One of the things to be aware of in a writing skills lesson is that writing tends to be more formal than spoken English, so there will be some differences between the two. An example is that writing very often uses less contracted forms. On the other hand, there are also many similarities between the two skills. This means many of the considerations that we had for a speaking skills lesson will also apply here to a writing skills lesson. Within writing skills itself there are some sub skills...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas As an aspirant teaching English to Chinese children, I chose ‘Pronunciation problems of Chinese people’ as the most attractive and the most useful topic for my summative task at this moment. As resources of this joyful and useful research on the internet, I have used three videos on Youtube made by the three experienced teachers of the English language. Only one of them works with children. And only one of them (accent coach from London, Luke Nicholson) gave a lot of live examples of the flaws in pronunciation that Chinese people, in general, make when speaking English, by showing the interviews with the Chinese actor Jackie Chan who sometimes manages to confuse his experienced interviewers. This post was...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Most of the teachers in my school would say that the purpose of flashcards is to simply introduce grammar points, concepts, review vocabulary; and most likely, they would mention the joylessness of flashcards when teaching unmotivated students. In truth, flashcards are known for being one of the most boring ways to study. Nevertheless, there are reasons why teachers still choose flashcards for conducting lessons. Russian people say: “Repetition is a mother of learning.” I can not argue with the Russians. Indeed, repetition is crucial, but it often changes the mood of the classroom to "boring." Normally, it happens when the activities with flashcards are poorly organized, or when there are no other activities...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Destinations If you want to teach English as foreign language, it is important to make sure you are as well prepared as you can possibly be before entering a classroom. It is equally important to have a good understanding of the country and culture you are hoping to make your home while you are teaching. Below we look at some important aspects of etiquette in different countries in Africa. Africa is a vast continent with many different countries, cultures and religions. Common to them all is the high regard in which teachers are held. English teachers should always dress and behave professionally and take the time to understand the details of social etiquette in their new home. Showing the soles of your feet is insulting to others and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This will be a discussion aimed at presenting both the advantages and disadvantages of teaching phonetics. We will show how teaching phonetics help create approachability and reinforce language similarities. Inversely we will look at how English suffers from inconsistent phonetic rules and the conflict between words as written and words as said. We will also look at methods to mitigate these issues. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mitchell D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Teaching phonetics help create an approachability towards English. This gives new learners confidence when approaching the language fostering a greater...  [Read more]

  We are going to move on to the second of the productive skills, which is writing and, again, we'll have look at the background, too, and create a typical lesson for a writing skills session. One of the things to be aware of in a writing skills lesson is that writing tends to be more formal than spoken English. So, there will be some differences between the two, such as writing very often uses less contracted forms and so on, but having said that there are many similarities between the two particular skills. So, many of the considerations that we had for a speaking skills lesson will also apply here to a writing skills lesson. Within writing skills itself there are some sub-skills that we may want to teach and those sub-skills could include, but are not limited to, hand writing...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teaching English as a second language is a very rewarding experience. It is very rewarding as a teacher to help and watch your students succeed in their lives. The teacher does have to be understanding of several things while teaching in the classroom. One of these things is cultural sensitivity. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nicholas S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Just as the United States has its own culture and cultural values, so does every other country in the world. It is crucially important that a teacher understands the culture of the students they are teaching, even if they are teaching English to students...  [Read more]

Utah is home to red canyons, creeks, and rivers that make for the perfect outdoor wonderland. The ancient tribe of Ute-Aztecs, as well as the Navajo Native Americans, lived in the area for thousands of years and took advantage of the rich natural environment, just as the European settlers did many years later. Still today, Utah is a premier travel destination for Americans and people from across the globe. Over millions of years, the region has been shaped by water, wind, and time. If you really want to get the most out of your visit to Utah, you could visit all of the seven national monuments, five national parks, three national historic trails, two national recreation areas and one national historic site. Failing that, you can enjoy some of the finest hiking, biking, and horseback riding...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences It was the last day of Japanese class and my teacher’s last day of teaching at our school. We were all standing up getting ready to bow him one last time. It was dead quiet but I could still hear sniffles around me and felt the sadness of the moment. I never thought I would care so much about a teacher leaving. To this day, the words and wisdom my Japanese teacher taught me still ring in my head. Flash forward to a few years ago, I went to Japan for the first time, after a hiatus of not studying Japanese, but amazingly I still had all the skills my teacher had taught me in high school. How did this person have such an impact on me? The answer I have come to realize is that because he truly cared about me becoming...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Destinations One of the many benefits of teaching English abroad is that you can combine your new career with your own hobbies and passions in countries all over the world. If sampling new and exciting cuisine is your thing, then you will have plenty of great food loving destinations to choose from. Here is our pick of the best destinations where teaching jobs and great food options are both in abundance. Spain has historically had one of the biggest markets in Europe for ESL teachers and it is also home to some of the best cuisine on the continent. Spanish food is generally divided into three distinct areas: The Mediterranean region which is famed for its seafood, gazpacho soup and paella; the Inner region where you can indulge in...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Teaching Ideas Hello everybody, I'm glad to see that some people have already joined me. My name is Liza, your ITTT TEFL friend and today we are going to talk about the most interesting topic from all of them I suppose. We are going to discuss online teaching and during this session I am going to share several ideas on how to enhance your online classes in 2021. I hope you enjoy it because it's something really cool to try and before we start let me quickly check if the equipment is working, if you see me clearly and if you hear me clearly please let me know in the comment section. Okay. So it’s nice to see you guys and thanks for joining. I see several comments but I'm not sure what they are as...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Teaching Ideas Hello everybody and welcome to the ITTT weekly live stream. It's Liza here and I'm super excited that this stream happens every week and we can talk about teaching and TEFL and stuff like that. So welcome and thank you for joining me. Today, we are going to talk about online ESL game design. Last week I started showing you the game I was designing, it was Monopoly. Today I'm going to show you the outcome of the game and also tell you a little bit more about online game design. Thanks a lot for letting me know that you are watching and right now please let me know at what stage of your ESL career you are at. As for me, I'm an online ESL teacher currently. I used to teach in a real classroom several years ago, but then...  [Read more]