TEFL Continental Divide

Ahmed Taha TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Cooperative learning is one of the successful methods of teaching that enhances critical thinking, problem-solving, and reasoning skills. Moreover, it encourages the learners to be more dependant and use their language effectively. One of the strategies that are considered one of the simplest methods to encourage students to work cooperatively and productively is the Jigsaw method. This article shows how to use the Jigsaw method and the basic structure of the Jigsaw and then the variation known as Jigsaw. Besides, the article gives some tips for troubleshooting this strategy. Elliot Aronson invented the Jigsaw method in 1971. Jigsaw is a cooperative learning approach in which each...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences Second language acquisition in native English speakers from the United States is one aspect of American culture that is not widely discussed and seemingly overlooked in terms of its importance. Many factors contribute to the United States’ largely monolingual culture despite have a “melting pot” of sorts with a population comprised of multiple ethnicities and nationalities. This culture of English speakers points to strong geographic features of its continental location and debatably its position in the world’s economic index and political landscape. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Adam L. Comparatively, Europe is comprised of multiple countries with strong national identities and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas “If you talk to a man in the language he understands, it goes to his head. If you talk to a man in his language, It goes to his heart.” This is an allusion to the effect of language to individuals especially when it has to do with eliciting emotions. One’s first language (L1) will always have a very big effect on how we react because it goes down to our innate desire to reach out. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Isiaka O. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Today, it is generally acknowledged that English has become native to so many countries even when those countries have other spoken languages. In 2015, there were 67...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Alumni Experiences “Engage-Study-Activate” also known as ESA - is an effective teaching model designed by Jeremy Harmer. This methodology means, that for the best involvement of students in a learning process, the conditions of the lesson should be flexible and divided for different activities. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Dmitrii Z. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. “Engage” phase is a sequence, where the teacher tries to give an interest in a new topic by implication of different games related to the lesson. Such a beginning gives the “warm” for the next phase of the lesson. “Study” phase is focused on the construction of the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Since the opening of China to the Western world, Chinese society and economic prowess have both continued to grow at exponential rates. This has led to its status as a rising power, culturally and economically, and an international power increasingly interconnected with many parts of the globe. As Chinese educational infrastructure tries to match pace with the rapidity of the country’s progress, one educational mandate that has persisted in importance over time has been that of English learning for all young learners across the country. The government sees English proficiency as a matter of national economic competitiveness, in fact requiring that English is taught as part of the public school curriculum as...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences As the term beginner students refers to the level of students knowledge, I have decided to focus on beginner level in different age groups. Therefore, this essay will be divided into teaching beginner young students and beginner adults. My definition of a beginner student is the following: regardless of age, this is a learner with very little or no previous knowledge of the English language. However, there are certain things we should aim to know about every age group: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Aleksandra Đ. As young students can be divided into two groups – learners ages 5-9 and learners ages 9-13, I would like to further divide this particular section, as the approach,...  [Read more]

Shirin Sophy Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Today's pedagogical approaches put considerable emphasis upon the importance of providing students with the opportunity to have a joyful educational experience through adding enough and well-located variety to the lessons. One practical way to do so is designing and adding aimful games to your plan in order to inject positive energy into your lessons, improve the mood of your class and make your lessons stick in students' long-term memory. Since not only young learners but also grownups enjoy playing fun games while taking English lessons, teachers, therefore, are always trying to come up with games that serve this purpose. So here are some ESL game ideas that you can adapt to your...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas Most TEFL certified teachers abroad will come across adult students sooner or later in their career. While you might have already prepared a folder full of fun TEFL games that work like a charm for young learners, not all of them will be useful for adult students. That does not mean, however, that adults don’t enjoy games in the classroom! Here are our 5 favorite TEFL games for adult students. This activity is a great way to get adult classes going and it’s so easy to play! Have your students think of three statements, two have to be true and one of them has to be a lie. Next, the students share their three statements with the class and the other students, or the teacher, have to guess which statement is the lie....  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Teaching Ideas One of the first things you should learn during a TEFL certification course is that delivering interesting lessons goes a long way to keeping your students happy and motivated in the classroom. And, if your students are stimulated by your lessons they are likely to progress quicker, which also makes the teachers job that much more satisfying. So what exactly makes a TEFL lesson interesting? There are many things you can do to make your lessons stand out, but one of the main ways to pique the interest of your students is to focus on things that they can actually relate to in their own lives. In this post we show you 5 great activities based on movies that you can use in the classroom, because everyone loves a good...  [Read more]

All of our TEFL courses are excellent value for money. Our course fees include tuition, course materials, certification, and moderation fees. No matter where you choose to study our TEFL course, we offer a variety of accommodation options. Airfares and food are not included in the price of our courses. All TEFL course fees are in US dollars but your payment can be made in any currency. The GBP (£) figure given is a guide only, and subject to change. Please check www.xe.com/ucc for a current exchange rate in pounds or any other currency of your choice. All of our courses run throughout the year. All of our TEFL courses come highly recommended from past trainees. Our courses provide an ideal opportunity to see the world and experience different cultures.   In-class Course Athens...  [Read more]

Shirin Sophy Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Regardless of the ESA type applied in a lesson plan(straight-arrow, boomerang, patchwork, and so forth), the activation phase, when the target language is supposed to be practiced and promoted through various techniques and activities, is usually the last stage of every lesson. A well-designed activation can be an essential characteristic of a fruitful lesson which highly affects learners' level of participation during the lesson and their sense of achievement at the end of the lesson. This phase is naturally divided into some steps to facilitate the activation process, including the controlled, semi-controlled, and free practices that are briefly discussed in this post. Controlled...  [Read more]

TEFL certification courses have traditionally been offered either as 4-week, classroom based courses or as 100% online or distance learning. We understand the benefits and drawbacks to both types of study. In order to offer greater variety and flexibility, we have combined the best of both methods into one unique course. The combined TEFL course comprises of two elements of study: the first being online and the second being in-class study at one of our training centers. The great advantage of this TEFL course is flexibility. The online component allows you the time to absorb the theories of TEFL teaching. Attendance at one of our training centres then gives you the opportunity to put this theory into practice. The combined TEFL course is ideal for those that do not cope well with, or do...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Thom P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Lesson Objectives: Students will practice recognizing homophones and practice the correct, indefinite, and zero articles. Summary of tasks/actions Warm-Up: Vocabulary Review (10 minutes) Tell students that they will play a game to review some of the words that they talked about last week. Divide the class into two teams. One person from each team stands at the back of the room, and one person from each stands by the board. Divide the board into four parts. Label each piece the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas We all know that exciting lessons make you learn things easier and faster. So how do we bring some life into the boring lesson? There are a lot of ways. Some teachers use songs and cartoons, which are great for kids. The others find class discussions and debates helpful. They are a good choice for older students. But what do all of us love? Of course, games! Both children and grown-ups enjoy playing games. They bring fun into the studying process and can be productive. Games can be used at every stage of the ESA lesson. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Oleh K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word quiescent. This word refers to a state of inactivity. Synonyms for quiescent include inactive, idle, at rest, and quiet. 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 covered what it will be like to manage a class of students as well as the methods that are appropriate to control the classroom. I learned how to encourage participation and how to build rapport with students as individuals as...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Speaking activities are essential for English learning as they give a chance to learn new linguistic points, including grammar and real-life listening skills. Unfortunately, teachers often omit communicative tasks in the classroom because they feel that it is difficult to manage them. There is also a lack of time to practice speaking; many course books provide ESL speaking activities only at the end of a unit. The educational system requires reading and writing skills to succeed in tests, so the value of communicative speaking is often underestimated. In this blog post, we offer you 5 engaging ESL speaking activities for English learners to enhance their communication skills....  [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]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences What is peer learning and is it useful in an ESL classroom? Let’s first define what is peer learning. “Peer learning essentially refers to students learning with and from each other as fellow learners without any implied authority to any individual, based on the tenet that ‘Students learn a great deal by explaining their ideas to others and by participating in activities in which they can learn from their peers’ (Boud, 2001)” (Gwee, 2003). This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Soo Parra C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. ESL classrooms are generally divided by a proficiency test to categorize the students by their...  [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 Alumni Experiences In my personal opinion, vocabulary learning is the basic and most substantial part in any language learning. It’s like the bricks for building a house. Moreover, the process of vocabulary learning is the most difficult and time-consuming. It requires not only memorizing skills but also a good understanding of the word, and constant practice. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Dan W. For most English learners in China, they often encounter the same problem when learning vocabulary, which is that they keep forgetting the meaning they've learned. One of the major reasons for this problem is that they only memorize the Chinese meaning for each word. They pay no attention to the word class and skip...  [Read more]

  http://www.teflonline.net In this video we look at a TESOL teaching idea for the past continuous tense. For this activity students are put into groups and are handed pictures of people doing different activities. The pictures are placed upside down in a pile and the students take it in turns to turn them over. When they have turned over a card they must make a past continuous sentence based on the picture they have. For example: If they turn over a picture of a woman swimming they would say: She was swimming yesterday. For more advanced students this activity can be used to compare past continuous and past simple. For example: While I was doing the washing up, I broke three plates. Becoming a TESOL teacher enables you to travel the world experiencing new cultures while...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas For nearly a year, I have taught four to six-year-olds residing in the outskirts of Beijing. My students do not sit at desks. They instead sit side-by-side on a line of chairs, all of which face an interactive whiteboard complete with pre-designed flipcharts. As my students are still learning essential words for everyday English use, drills and flashcards are crucial within our lessons. However, drilling can quickly lose a young learner's interest. To remedy the monotony, I have used the following five activities: One-Step, Monster, Bomb; Hopscotch; Fly Swat Race; Tic-Tac-Toe; and Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament. Each game proved to be an...  [Read more]

Teaching English in Turkey with A Plus Academy is a great opportunity for once in a lifetime experience on professional as well as personal level. English is being taught throughout the country but few cities remain the centers of it. Istanbul, a fascinating city built on two Continents, divided by the Bosphorus Strait. This is one of the greatest cities in the world where you can see a modern western city combined with a traditional eastern city, it's a melting pot of many civilizations and different people. Also, Istanbul is an international city which attracts business from all over the world. Naturally, that business is conducted in English, making English a desirable language to learn and native English speakers a precious commodity. Besides Istanbul, living and teaching English in...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The benefits of using flashcards in the ESL classroom are well-documented. When teachers use flashcards, they typically provide their students with three learning pathways: visual, kinesthetic, and audio (assuming that the exercise requires the students to say something related to the flashcard). This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Joseph O. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In addition to appealing to a wide range of learning styles, flashcards are very multifunctional. They can be used to teach simple things such as basic vocabulary words, advanced grammar structures like complex sentences, and many things in between. Flashcards...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas When it comes to more complex English tenses, students often get frustrated. The following ideas will help you to organize your past perfect continuous lesson in a close-to-real-life way to achieve better understanding for your students. Write several time indicators on small slips of paper (1 year, 3 months, 10 weeks, 15 minutes, etc.). The students need to draw a picture and tell what they had been doing for that length of time before any other event. For example, a student who draws 1 year could say “I had been learning English for 1 year before coming to the UK”. Make sure that every students gets at least 1 turn. Divide the students into pairs. S1 makes a statement using the past continuous. S2 changes it...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Idioms are a relatively difficult language point to teach. However, with these fun activities you will be able to make your students activate new vocabulary faster and easier. Keep a running list of idioms in your classroom. As students hear or come across an idiom in class (or at home), add it to a list on a bulletin board or poster board. Students use this list as a reference during conversation periods or when writing. Also Read: The How-To Guide For Americans To Teach English in Europe If you carry out your lesson online or there is an internet connection in your classroom, find websites that offer self-study idiom lessons and quizzes. For example, a4esl website. Encourage students to work on their own and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Games are a useful tool for teachers of EFL students because they help with motivation, engagement, and graceful failure (Plass 260-261). I will present a successful example of a teacher using games in an adult grammar class from Indonesia. Second, since I plan to teach online EFL students, I will present free digital games online teachers can use in their virtual classrooms. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Christopher C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Many professional articles have been written showing the importance of game-based learning theory for EFL students. Games have an element of ‘play’ in them, and so differ...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas One important factor to consider when teaching English abroad is how you arrange the seating in the classroom. Space in a classroom can be limited at times so it's important to maximize what you have available. There are multiple ways to arrange a classroom and knowing which ones will provide the most benefit is important. To ensure the best environment for the students and teacher it is essential to have an understanding of the options, as well as when and how to use them. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Alex C. As a rule a classroom will generally consist of at least four walls, an entrance, a surface to write on and desks for the students. Even with only...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas Schools are starting again and students and teachers flock back to the classroom. Check out these simple and powerful back-to-school ideas and your students will surely remember this first lesson of yours for a long time! Have your students write a short report (or let them do it verbally) about something newsworthy that happened in their neighborhood or town during the school break. Introduce a weekly journal to your students. The focus of this should be on fluency practice and less on correctness. Have your students write in the journal every day based on a topic that came up in class. Divide your class into groups and hand out one paragraph of a reading topic to every group. Then, have them share the information...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Flashcards are a simple, versatile, yet often underexploited resource, and they are instrumental in eliciting more obscure words. They are a great way to present, practice, and recycle vocabulary and some grammar structures. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Fatoş T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Flashcards can also be bright and colorful and make a real impact on visual learners. It is essential to appeal to visual learners, as a very high proportion of learners have this type of intelligence. When putting together flashcard sets, teachers should use...  [Read more]