TEFL Brandon

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 Alumni Experiences When I started this course, I was seeking a TEFL certificate as well as some tips for being a teacher. What I learned along the way is that to be a good teacher, your focus must be on your students. Of course, a teacher needs to have a certain set of skills to be able to teach, however, those skills in themselves will never make you a good teacher. This course taught me that a teacher needs to be less focused on themselves and more focused on the needs of their students. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Brandon B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. From their very first lesson, a teacher needs to be establishing rapport with...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences My experience in teaching English to young learners is based in Japan. At the start of my time teaching, my student group consisted of two children of the same family. The siblings are a boy, age five, and a girl, age three, who participate equally in the English conversation sessions. Three main factors of this situation present difficult walls, preventing forward progress. Those three factors are distracting objects, counter-productive classroom philosophies, and personality conflicts. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Brandon F. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. First, the English conversation takes place in the children's...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The differences between many Asiatic languages' pronunciation and that of English form the basis for a multitude of miscommunications between international interlocutors. My experience living in Japan provides plentiful evidence to support this assertion. When my Japanese associates and I communicate in English, I notice three significant pronunciation struggles for my conversation partners. For the Japanese who are learning English, the clear enunciation of the /th/ sound, the fricative quality of the /v/ consonant, and the distinction of /l/ versus /r/ formation of the tongue. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Brandon F. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This essay seeks to discuss the possible disadvantages of negative reinforcement, specifically corporal punishment, as a means of discipline, when used by educators teaching young learners. Also, positive reinforcement, such as praise and feedback, as an alternative method to discipline young learners will be discussed. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Desriel G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. As mentioned, the negative reinforcement measure that will be discussed in this essay is ‘corporal punishment. The definition for ‘punishment’ when referenced herein, follows that of The Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2001,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This essay focuses on what “multiple intelligence” is, a comparison between multiple intelligences and the traditional notion of intelligence, what these multiple intelligence categories (“modalities") are, and their significance in the classroom context. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Stephanie T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. "Multiple intelligence" was a theory developed by Professor Howard Gardner in the early 1980s to describe the various innate talents that everyone possesses. Multiple intelligence theory was a reaction to the conventional teaching methods that cater predominantly to the book-smarts, those...  [Read more]