TEFL Good Hope

  In this TEFL review video Danny gives us a brief tour of Hong Kong where he is teaching English. Danny also outlines his three reasons for choosing to earn his TEFL certificate with ITTT. The first is the great flexibility ITTT’s courses provide, with six months to complete the course students are able to work in their own time and fit their studying around any other commitments they may have. The second is the reviews he read about the course online. The third is the affordability of ITTT’s courses allowing you to earn a teaching certificate without stretching your budget. 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...  [Read more]

  Valentina is a proud graduate of ITTT's 120-hour online TEFL course with videos and tutor support. Watch this TEFL review video to hear Valentina talk about how the course helped her to develop her teaching skills. One of the main advantages of ITTT's online TEFL courses is their flexibility, allowing you to work at your own pace in your time. This makes it easy to fit your study around your prior commitments and allowing you to gain certification without having to take time off work. 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...  [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]

  When considering Teacher Talk Time, we can perhaps look at the major advantage and disadvantage of the teacher actually talking. The major advantage is that you as the teacher are usually the only real model for the language, the source of correct English. So at some stages, your talking time is very important to the students. So when you?re modeling language, that use of Teacher Talk Time can be very advantageous. There are major disadvantages to overusing Teacher Talk Time, however, and perhaps the major one is that whenever the teacher is talking, the students are listening and if the students are listening, then they themselves cannot be talking. So, Teacher Talk Time reduces the opportunity for Student Talk Time. So, we should try to minimize the use of Teacher Talk Time...  [Read more]

  The next example is going to be that of a boomerang lesson and remember the structure is like this. So, again, we're going to start with an engage phase and for our engage, the students are just going to have a discussion about jobs. What happens at interviews and so on and so forth. So, during that engage phase, what we'd hope to do is to elicit some useful language about jobs and interviews and the types of questions that are being asked. Then, we're going to move immediately into an activate activity and this is going to involve a role-play. So, we'll break the students into pairs. One will be an interviewer, the other will be an interviewee and they'll generate the language that that role-play will produce. What the teacher can do whilst that is taking place is to go around...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In an experience of mine, I was working as a computer technician for the city, the city had decided to give me a new task of working in the libraries to teach computer classes, I felt quite nervous about this for I had never taught before or had any idea about how to go about it. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Rudy C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. When classes began I always had one majority group, and that was elderly, who in time had neglected technology and decided to finally come around it to learn how to use a computer. I was given a basic manual on how to do the courses, I, of course, followed it and did my best, saw...  [Read more]

  The purpose of grammar translation then is to basically translate between L1 and L2 and vice versa. So, we could take a simple example. Let's imagine that our native language was English and our target language was French and let's assume that we want to translate a document from French into English. Let's take a simple sentence. Here's a sentence in French "Ouvre la fenêtre" and we'll add "s'il vous plaît" at the end. What we want to do is to take this L2 and translate it back into English. Now, if we have a reasonable knowledge of French then we may well know that this particular verb "ouvre" "to open" translates directly and this female form of the and finally the fenêtre "Open the window" and this polite form of "please". This is all very well if the two structures that...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences There are many good things I have learned from the TEFL course I have been taking this past month. Things I had never considered before as a skill is to be a good teacher. I had mentioned it before in my tests that I did not realize how important it is to have those skills until I started taking the course and had read about it. So I guess I am saying that the best thing I have learned from my TEFL course is how to be a good teacher and it reminded me of my previous teachers and how well they taught me and my fellow classmates. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Hildur E. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Every unit I have...  [Read more]

  In this video, we break down the difference between "bazaar" and "bizarre". These two words often cause confusion because of their spelling and similar pronunciation. The word ?bazaar? refers to a market, usually found in the Middle East, such as in this example: The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world. ?Bizarre?, on the other hand, is an adjective and a synonym for "strange". "Everyone stared at the student who wore the bizarre outfit to school," is a good example for the word. We hope that this explanation clears up any confusion about the two words. 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...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences As you all know, these days, English plays a vital role in life for many good reasons. As English is an international language, it enables learners to get a well-paid job and gives great opportunities to travel all over the world. Moreover, they can gain a scholarship to study abroad. If you are good at English, you will be more confident. It is really important in our lives. If you are good at English, you will. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Phuc D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. An enthusiastic and experienced teacher may make big differences in both learner’s study and life. Good English teachers had better have...  [Read more]

Laura Payne Teaching Ideas Much of language learning comes through language experimentation; steering away from examples and formulas and attempting to arrange your own ideas into words. No matter what a student's goal may be in learning English, they will eventually have to do this by leaving the classroom and using English on their own. Activities like creative writing are one method to encourage the practice of experimentation and expression in ESL students. In this post, we're going to look at five different activities students can use to put their thoughts into writing. Celebrating a new year is practically a universal tradition, and all students have goals. Writing down New Year's resolutions allows students to practice various usages of...  [Read more]

Ulysses Brown Destinations China is a popular market for teaching English as a foreign language. That's why I also took the leap and moved to China to teach. Here are 5 of the main reasons why I went to teach English in China. I studied at a university with an enormous international student body. Many of these students became good friends of mine, Romanians in particular. Most of the people with whom I associated were friendly enough, and those that weren’t found their way outside of my personal circle of friends and acquaintances. So, it can, therefore, be concluded that the majority of my friends during university were from other countries, and if they weren’t from other countries, they were from other areas. There was a caveat to this,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The world is an ever-changing, molding, and evolving into something else than what it was yesterday. It is a constant flow of new ideas, ways, life, and society. It doesn’t stop and won’t stop. This can make it hard for the individual to keep up with, adapt, and change. Especially, in society today that is full of technology and constant fast expansion. Technology that was new two years ago is old today and considered slow. A person has to do everything they can to be up to speed or fear being left behind. This isn’t easy and can be hard. However, with this advance in technology, not everything is bad. It has brought about the era of social media and connectivity in the world. People from other lands and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In my classroom, I often hear many of my students saying, "I want to be good at English." At the same time, I am aware that most of them almost lose their motivation for learning English. After studying English hard to pass the entrance examination, they are free from the "obligational" study of English. Now in college, no one in the classroom speaks out that English is unnecessary. On the contrary, they answered that they need to study English because it is a global language. More importantly, the ability to command the language strongly influences the success of their job hunting. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Milos O. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the...  [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]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Teaching Ideas Hello everybody, we are just about to start our new live session. Thanks for joining me and while we are waiting for more people to join please let me know that you can hear me clearly and you can see me clearly. There is a comments box so you can use it to communicate with me. I really appreciate it if you use it because when there is interaction during the live session it's always much easier for myself to present it and I feel a little bit more comfortable because I am not just speaking to myself. Let me share the topic of today's session so that everyone can see it. Today we are going to talk about different online teaching platforms. I hope that this topic will be interesting...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The use of games in the class can activate the atmosphere of learning, reduce learning pressure, and stimulate learning interest more. Independent and selective learning is good for developing students' multiple intelligenceand promoting the formation of good feelings. There are five benefits of games in the classroom. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Michael F. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The first is reducing students' learning pressure. Students are under pressure in the learning process. Homework task, examination task and psychological pressure generated during the learning process in a class all make children more...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences When I was still studying at the secondary level and about to enter college, a lot of people asked me if I was sure about my decision to take education as my course. Here in the Philippines, teachers do not get a high salary despite doing a lot of paperwork and a very stressful job. Maybe this is the reason why they asked me about my chosen profession and even I asked myself too, but I love to help. Being a teacher is not just about teaching lessons from the book and completing what must be supposed to be accomplished in the objectives of the lesson plan. The word “teacher” is very broad and everyone should be aware of that. Like what I said, the teacher’s job is not just to teach but to mold, to mold...  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences During my Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certification, I learned several valuable lessons. While knowing the English language and how to relay that to those who are learning the language is important, the most important lesson I learned is how a teacher’s attitude directly affects student interaction and class rapport. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Annie H. Being open and warm as well as using a smile has an extremely beneficial effect on a classroom. When students view the teacher as someone who is judgment-free and wanting to help, it elicits positive interaction and performance. Although this seems to be common sense, I’ve had several teachers (including language...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Alumni Experiences In general, my experience with this online TEFL course was highly positive and worth both my time and money. Generally, I felt like the entire course was relatively straightforward in the design and layout. The individual content for each unit, how each unit is placed about each other, and the content of each test was mostly easy to understand and felt very relevant to what I imagine I might expect when teaching English abroad. Of course, as I have not taught English before, I feel the knowledge I gained from this course will prove useful for most situations I may come across. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Joseph D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas In this blog post, we will take a look at a typical example of a boomerang lesson. First we will recap the structure E  A1  S  A2 Here the students are just going to have a discussion about jobs, what happens at interviews and so on and so forth. During that engage phase what we would hope to do is to elicit some useful language about, jobs, interviews and the types of questions that are being asked in interviews. Some of this information can be put on the board. We do no teaching in this phase, we do not correct any mistakes either, just let the students talk freely. Next, we're going to move immediately into an activate...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I worked with the kids a lot, I did different activities, volunteered in scouts groups, somehow the kids' department was always on me and must say I always loved it. Working with the kids is always the most fun, as you can always learn something new, it’s never boring, they don’t stop to surprise you. Kids can be very hyper and active, but at the same time very shy. Sometimes in the class full of the kids, all of them can behave completely differently, and it can be really hard to motivate them. Kids usually don’t hesitate to express their feelings at any time, which can be a good and a bad thing, as you never know how they are going to act and how they will behave in the class. This post was written by our...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Teachers play an important role in our life to become successful in career and business. A good teacher helps us to become a good human being in society and a good citizen of the country. Teachers know that students are the future of any nation. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Sumbal S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. So, the future development of any nation is in the hands of teachers. As a teacher, one of your main roles is to motivate your learners to develop their ability and aspiration to learn. You may ready about delivering training and facilitating learning, but in reality, you do much more than that. Your role is...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Establishing rapport in the classroom is essential if you are going to have a successful class. In this paper, I will examine some of my classroom experience and compare my successful classes to my less-successful classes. In doing so, I hope to make an observation about “best practices” that I can implement in my English teaching. Along with using my own experience, I will be talking with other teachers that I know and using the provided text that I have been given for this course. The three areas I will focus on are: Beginning the course, student participation, and being positive. Beginning the Course. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Taylor C. How a teacher begins a course will...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In this course, I learned so many new and helpful things about teaching, grammar, teaching methods, students, groups, ESA methods, lesson planning, games, etc. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Teodora R. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I also learned about teaching skills and which part of them we can say that they are important. We can say that there are many positions we can call teaching, professors, tutors, and teachers. But let’s talk about actual skills. I can say that there are two types of teaching skills, but they are both equally important. What can I say about receptive skills is that they are a very important...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences We all probably know, that music has no language. It is kindly welcomed by all nations equally, as well as all races, ages and cultures. So how can music or songs help us to teach English and to do it more effectively? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Alena A. Music lets us go deeper into conscious that anything else, it is much more memorable, so the words and grammar structures may be remembered much faster. It also helps to relax and to feel happy, so using songs in the classroom is not only a good idea, but it is also an extremely necessary part of teaching and language acquisition. Also read: 4 Tips on How to Teach English Using Music Music has no language, as I have said before, but it...  [Read more]

  Anna took ITTT’s 120-hour TESOL course and our Certificate in Teaching English to Young Learners course. In this TESOL review video, Anna tells that during these courses Anna learnt a great deal about lesson planning and other aspects of teaching such as how to approach teaching students of different ages and abilities. Anna hopes to be able to put the knowledge she gained through studying with ITTT to use in a job working as an English teacher. 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...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences In this essay, I would like to discuss the reasons I think good student-teacher rapport is of utmost importance in the classroom and dealing with classroom management. I will not only discuss my experience as a language learner but also use examples from the videos which we analyzed in this course. As I have not yet stepped foot inside an EFL classroom I will not, unfortunately, be able to speak about direct EFL experience that I have. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Paul S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In my opinion, student-teacher rapport is essential for a teacher to avoid any discipline issues that may arise in...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In a large class of 40 or 50 students, it is not easy for the teacher to take responsibility for coordinating the activities, attention, and study of so many students. Students are the most rapidly developing people in their life stages. Potential for development and plasticity. How to carry out class management at primary school and improve students' overall quality is an issue every teacher must face. Therefore, it is necessary to make a series of classroom management rules. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Yingqian J. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The establishment of rules can make the classroom more orderly and teachers...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Teaching Ideas Hello everybody, it's Liza here and I'm super happy to welcome you to today's ITTT live session. I hope that you have some spare time to tune in and talk about another exciting teaching topic. If you can see and hear me clearly, please let me know via the chatbox. I'm super excited not only because of this live session but also because of the weather, it is super warm here today. My hometown is blooming, and it feels so nice. Let me know where you are tuning in from. I am actually located in the middle of Russia in the city of Yekaterinburg. Usually it's pretty cold here but May is just the best month of the year, so if you are thinking of coming here one day it's better to choose...  [Read more]