TEFL Sams Corner

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas A leader must read to expand his scope of knowledge, to keep abreast of what is happening in his field of expertise and around the world. Reading stimulates one's thinking and processing. Before we develop a child in his leadership ability, we must develop something more foundational – the love for reading. As an educator, I believe reading develops inquisitiveness, which in turn, develops the interest to engage, hence build confidence, even at a young age. And in the process, to nurture the child towards leadership ability. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Katherine C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. 'Opening the world of...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas A multilingual class is a class where the learners speak a variety of first languages. A monolingual class is a class where all the learners speak the same first language. I have been working in international school setting for over 13 years. The classes are multilingual classes where students come from different cultures and English is the common language for them to communicate with their teachers and classmates. By contrast, English classes in local schools and universities in China are considered to be monolingual classes since the students use their first language, Chinese, to communicate. The teacher has to remind them to not use their mother tongue constantly during class...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Destinations TEFL Information Many women around the world are eager to start a new career in teaching English as a foreign language. Whether it’s straight after graduating from college, in their mid-20s or 30s or later on in life, women from all backgrounds are intrigued by the thought of living and working in a different country abroad. However, many of them feel reluctant and ask “Is it safe for single women to teach English abroad?” The answer is: Absolutely - and here is why. You might be surprised to hear that around 60% of all English teachers abroad are women. In fact, there are usually between 500 and 5,000 foreign teachers, men and women, living in many major cities across Asia, Europe and Latin...  [Read more]

{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ [ {"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh0","name": "Why do I need to verify my TEFL certificate?","url": "https://www.tefl-certificate.net/faq/how-do-i-verify-a-tefl-certificate/#nameh0"},{"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh1","name": "How do I verify my ITTT TEFL certificate?","url": "https://www.tefl-certificate.net/faq/how-do-i-verify-a-tefl-certificate/#nameh1"},{"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh3","name": "Will I also need certificate notarization?","url": "https://www.tefl-certificate.net/faq/how-do-i-verify-a-tefl-certificate/#nameh3"} ] ] } For...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The Cambridge dictionary defines grammar as ‘(the study or use of) the rules about how words change their form and combine with other words to make sentences’, but other dictionaries also include punctuation within the definition and, although they may not be strictly correct, the two aspects are so tightly interrelated, within the context of explicit and tacit meaning, the one can’t be divorced from the other. One describes the landscape — past, present, and future — while the other provides the form: defining where entities begin and end, where the silences occur before turning the corner to meet with a new sound. The landscape has a pulse: it has rhythm. This post was written by our TEFL...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore TEFL Information Teaching English abroad is one of the most interesting career paths one might take up. You get to move to a new country and even get paid for it! However, too many people are unsure whether teaching EFL is right for them. This article highlights 6 things you will miss out on if you don’t teach English abroad. When routine becomes a ball and chain, you know it’s time for something new. Moving to a new country to teach English is the perfect opportunity to discover a whole new world. Whether it’s cherry blossom season in Japan, Chinese New Year festivities in Taiwan, Christmas markets in Germany or the Carnival in Brazil - there are new experiences ahead of you on every corner! It’s not only large cultural...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Classroom Management is a skill that a teacher must try to learn and gain. This skill is a skill of managing the class, organizing the class and the classroom, having a relaxed manner, and maintaining discipline. As a teacher, it’s not easy to have a relaxed manner and maintain discipline at the same time. To achieve this goal the teacher needs to know how to balance. How a class is managed effectively and efficiently can affect how students perform in the class. Which is another word that means the classroom management decides the environment of studying? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate WING Y. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate KINGSLEY A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Spread the flashcards out on the floor, right side up if you are learning a new skill, and upside down if you are reviewing. Seat children in a circle around the cards. The player takes a card and says, "I'd like to send this card to ____." (S)he hands the card to the chosen student. If that student responds correctly he keeps the card on the floor in front of him and chooses a card for another player. If he responds incorrectly the group can help him figure out the correct response and let him keep the card, or you can have him put it back in the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Imagine going back in time to the late nineteenth or early twentieth century in Great Britain. If the question of whether it is proper to teach slang and idioms to students were posed to a teacher in that period, I do not doubt in my mind that any proper English teacher would frown upon the notion of it. If you were to ask an English teacher today, you would receive a much different answer. The gradual globalization of the English language has been driven by various factors, one of which is business. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Allison S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. There is no doubt that English is the world’s...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences My attachment to teaching starts when I was a child and observing my mom teaching private lessons. I have grown to love teaching. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Roza A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. My first experience was while I was in my third year of university volunteering to teach my classmates the subjects they were weak at. Then I volunteered in one of the offices of American Corner in my city part of the American Console in Iraq and opened a course there teaching English as a second language. The two earlier volunteering experiences I had were great, mostly because the students were adults and highly...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Being a student at the elementary or beginner level in any language, not just English, is not only a challenging task when beginning to learn the target language but also a clean slate to progress the learning in the correct way. Having never learned English before, it can sometimes be a difficult feat of where to begin. However, this allows the teacher to start the student or students off in the correct way so that the challenges for the student will become less and less as they progress through the language difficulties. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Amanda T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Beginner students are the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas What awaits us in the future? What will society look like in the future? What will it look like in 10 years? What will it look like in 100 years? Can you imagine a world without English? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Oksana F. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. English has become a global language. This is an obvious fact. Its influence has grown exponentially in the world. Because of new technology, business, travel, and the English language the world seems to have become smaller nowadays. Therefore, we can declare English as the language of the future world. The English language is spoken by over 600 million people from all...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Gary H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Entering into an early years unit at any school is like entering another time zone. The classroom has an atmosphere unlike other classes and can best be described as an assault on the senses. The room is divided into different areas including role-play, messy play, building and construction, reading, writing and craft corners, all for the children to discover and explore. Colorful pictures and drawings of various topics, number, and letter sequences cover the walls, it is loud with sounds of continuous chatter, laughter, and shrieks of excitement as the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Classroom management is a skill that lays the foundation of children’s behavior and the learning process within the four corners of the classroom. A lack of effective classroom management can create an unsafe and unsatisfactory environment for both the teacher and her pupils. This essay looks at the effective class management strategies that one can employ to achieve the desired academic outcomes when working with Primary School children. These strategies include establishing classroom rules, procedures to be followed, classroom arrangement of furniture, and teacher-pupil relationship. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Georgina G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences What awaits us in the future? What will society look like in the future? What will it look like in 10 years? What will it look like in 100 years? Can you imagine a world without English? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Oksana F. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. This is an obvious fact. Its influence has grown exponentially in the world. Because of new technology, business, travel, and the English language the world seems to have become smaller nowadays. Therefore, we can declare English as the language of the future world. The English language is spoken by over 600 million people from all over the world. Every year, more...  [Read more]

{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ [ {"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh0","name": "What does an EFL teacher actually do?","url": "https://www.tefl-certificate.net/faq/what-does-an-efl-teacher-do/#nameh0"},{"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh1","name": "What does an EFL teacher need to be successful?","url": "https://www.tefl-certificate.net/faq/what-does-an-efl-teacher-do/#nameh1"} ] ] } Presuming that you have already done a bit of research into teaching English as a foreign language, you will probably already be aware of the basic role of an EFL teacher, i.e, to teach non-native speakers to speak, read, and write in the English...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teaching English as a foreign language presents several opportunities as well as choices for a teacher. Certainly, there are numerous teaching positions around the world in traditional, classroom settings, and most ESL teachers will spend time in those settings. For many teachers, the classroom setting is a fulfilling endeavor; however, other outlets exist for teaching English, including teaching business English. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Robert E. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. There are differences between teaching business English versus teaching English to a group of high school students or young adults, for...  [Read more]

Laura Payne Destinations Tokyo is a dream city for many people who aspire to live abroad. It is modern yet traditional, and a vibrant culture of food, fashion, and popular media among other things ensures that it has something for everyone. For all its excitement, however, Tokyo is only one part of Japan as a whole. Each area of the island nation holds a distinct culture of its own, offering a myriad of experiences for travelers. Luckily, those who teach English in Japan have easy access to the country's major airports and extensive bullet train lines, meaning they can access almost anywhere else in Japan within a few hours. While living in Tokyo make the most of your experience abroad, and try checking out some of these must-see destinations....  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore TEFL Information Many people around the world dream of moving abroad to teach English. It’s exciting, it’s life-changing and it can seem like a never-ending vacation. I have taught English abroad since 2015 in China and South Korea and together with fellow teachers with years of experience, I’ve compiled this list of 10 pieces of advice that every new EFL teacher needs to know. So many people want to live abroad and a large percentage of these choose the path of teaching English. The demand for teachers is huge around the globe and you can find positions in virtually all corners of the world. While that’s great news, there’s one thing to keep in mind, being a native or fluent English speaker does not make you a great...  [Read more]

Gaia Oliviero TEFL Information Teaching Ideas Working as an ESL teacher can be difficult if you live in a Western country and you haven't undertaken a certain path during your university studies. As far as Italy is concerned, if you want to teach in a public school, you need to hold at least a Master's Degree in pedagogical studies and/or educational sciences. No matter how good an English speaker you are, you are required to own those specific degrees. If you want to teach in a private school, you have to take into account the fact that they prefer to hire native speakers – which is totally licit, to a certain extent. In addition to that, if you have no experience whatsoever in teaching in front of a class, you are basically...  [Read more]

{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ [ {"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh0","name": "To shake things up","url": "https://www.tefl-certificate.net/faq/why-should-i-study-tefl/#nameh0"},{"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh1","name": "For the lifestyle","url": "https://www.tefl-certificate.net/faq/why-should-i-study-tefl/#nameh1"},{"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh3","name": "To make money","url": "https://www.tefl-certificate.net/faq/why-should-i-study-tefl/#nameh3"},{"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh3","name": "For the culture","url":...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Language has always played an important role in communication between people. Today, in the globalization, the importance of mastering a foreign language has become increasingly prominent. English is the most widely used language in the world. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Xiao W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In the 21st century, English is not unfamiliar to us Chinese. In our life, we can find English everywhere with little attention. Most Chinese learn dumb English. Few people can communicate with foreigners without barriers. Some Western netizens can't help wondering why English is so difficult for Chinese to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences A smaller class size becomes more popular these days, especially for language courses, since it encourages students’ participation and interaction with teachers and peers. Different from a big class of 25 or more students, a small class requires less teacher’s instructions and more students’ discussions and cooperation, so effective classroom management strategies should be adopted and applied to the class. According to unit 5 of the course, classroom management is “the skill of organizing and managing the class, having a friendly, relaxed manner and maintaining discipline” (1). Focusing on the teacher’s role, seating arrangement, discipline maintenance, and rapport building, this essay will...  [Read more]

Shirin Sophy TEFL Information Teaching Ideas How the seats are arranged in a classroom can convey numerous implicit messages about the pedagogical approaches and methods employed in a specific school and the teacher who works there. A well-designed seating arrangement not only facilitates the interaction between the teacher and the learners but it also enables the students to interact together, which is a paramount feature of a student-centered class effectively. There is a wide variety of interaction patterns that each can be appropriately applied considering the aim and objective of a lesson and the ongoing task; however, a well-adjusted seating arrangement may pave the way for the flow of the information during the lesson...  [Read more]

{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ [ {"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh0","name": "Asia","url": "https://www.tefl-certificate.net/faq/where-are-the-cheapest-places-to-teach-tefl/#nameh0"},{"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh1","name": "Thailand","url": "https://www.tefl-certificate.net/faq/where-are-the-cheapest-places-to-teach-tefl/#nameh1"},{"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh3","name": "Also consider","url": "https://www.tefl-certificate.net/faq/where-are-the-cheapest-places-to-teach-tefl/#nameh3"},{"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh3","name": "Latin...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Legendary musician Paul McCartney once said, or rather sang, “When you’ve got a job to do you’ve got to do it well. You’ve got to give the other fellow hell.” I don’t believe anybody wants to be the middle of the road teacher, who just gets through each day, though I have seen many teachers who are. Before I started, I asked myself what makes the best kind of teacher and who were the best teachers in my life? There are many styles of teacher, but the answer I came to is the inspiring style of teacher – the teachers who made me WANT to learn and to go out and read and study on my own. The way they did that was by using their skills to make learning interesting and irresistible. As a teacher you need...  [Read more]

{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ [ {"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh0","name": "Can people over 50 really teach English abroad?","url": "https://www.tefl-certificate.net/faq/can-over-50s-teach-english-abroad/#nameh0"},{"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh1","name": "South Korea","url": "https://www.tefl-certificate.net/faq/can-over-50s-teach-english-abroad/#nameh1"},{"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh3","name": "Thailand","url": "https://www.tefl-certificate.net/faq/can-over-50s-teach-english-abroad/#nameh3"},{"@context": "https://schema.org","@type": "SiteNavigationElement","@id": "#nameh3","name":...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Budget and Salary TEFL Information Teaching Ideas Hi guys, Linda here from ITTT with another live session. Super excited to be here again, thanks so much for tuning in today and if you're listening to this as a podcast episode thanks so much for the download, we really appreciated it. We turn all of our live sessions into podcast episodes and you can find them on all major podcast platforms like iTunes, Google Podcasts, and Spotify. Just search for the TEFL and TESOL Podcast by ITTT and you will find all our episodes there. Hi Tiana, thanks so much for tuning in today. How are you? I'm so excited to be here again and I think today's topic is going to be really interesting for people who want to...  [Read more]

Christian Davey Destinations TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Once you’ve decided to move abroad for work, I’m sure you’d like to know the pros and cons of the place? Sure, a quick browse online can give you some idea, but it probably won’t go into anything specific or any real depth. Well, look no further as I’m going to give you five positives and five negatives about teaching English in Taiwan. Let’s start with the positives, in no particular order. If you're wondering if Taiwan is safe to loiter or take a stroll on the streets at night, you don't need to worry. Taiwan is one of the safest places in the world, you can go to a restaurant or a coffee shop and leave your belongings, such as...  [Read more]

  There’s only a handful of cities in the world that truly deserve ‘must visit’ status and Hanoi is certainly one of them. While most people can only dream about a fleeting trip to Hanoi – if they’re lucky – ‘living like a local’ and working as EFL teacher in this magnificent city is a realistic proposition for anyone with a sense of adventure. Hanoi is Vietnam’s capital city and the seat of government. It’s noticeably smaller than Ho Chi Minh City in the south, but the pace of life is similarly frenetic. While Ho Chi Minh City is often referred to as Vietnam’s ‘engine room’, Hanoi is more of a ‘grand old lady’. It’s tough to pin down what makes Hanoi such a special place. Is it because there’s history, culture and art on display in seemingly every...  [Read more]