TEFL Walker

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences I have had the pleasure of living and teaching in Brazil over the past 2 years and in my time in this country I have learned a great amount about the difficulties that are seemingly unique to native Portuguese speakers trying to learn English as a second or even third language. There seems to be deeply ingrained assumptions within the way Portuguese speakers approach both the pronunciation of words based on their spelling, and their understanding of grammatical structures and the usage of said structures. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Brian P. The first and foremost point to address with respect to what the typical Portuguese speaker has ingrained as an instinct with respect to the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas “My sweater. I cannot find my sweater. Can you help me look for?” I scratched my head. Sweater? I kicked myself for agreeing to help Rosa in the study hall. Our teacher, Mr. Randall, had told me she was struggling with basic grammar and thought I might be able to help since I had spent a lot of time in Mexico and had a good grasp of both English and Spanish. Now not only did we have to go over the nitty-gritty of grammar, but she also had a lisp or something. Great, as if the grammar wasn’t enough. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Moriah D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I shivered and wished for a jacket or at the very...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences There is a vast array of differences between teaching one-to-one and teaching a group. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Roshini R. D. One of the biggest reasons for a student to want to have one-to-one instruction and tutoring would be the freedom of space in which to ask questions and have answers supplied, that dig deeper into a student's understanding of the English language. While this is very possible in a group setting, there is the limitation based on the variety of language levels of students in the group and the time it takes to have each one's questions answered, while keeping the actual classroom lesson within the set time frame....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I earned my teaching degree and license in the United States in 2010. How would I describe my abilities at the beginning? Terrible comes to mind. Completely incompetent might be more accurate. The extreme anxiety I experienced every morning probably didn’t help, neither did the sleepless nights or the 14-hour workdays. Let’s just say there was nowhere to go but up. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Tim M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. It’s been almost ten years since I graduated and eight years since I started my first job in North Carolina, USA and it’s been almost a year and a half since I left Antofagasta,...  [Read more]

  Moving further down our list of the parts of speech, we have our prepositions. Prepositions show a relationship between a noun or a pronoun and the rest of the sentence. We have three main categories: time, place, movement as well as a miscellaneous category that doesn't fit the other three. Here, we can have prepositions of time: before, during, in, at or on. If I said, "I work at eight o'clock," I'm sharing a relationship between the time "eight o'clock" to the rest of the sentence. We have our prepositions of place: in, at, on, under, in between. If I said, "The book is under the table," I'm showing a relationship between the table and the rest of the sentence. Then, we have our prepositions of movement. These show movement: towards, from, to or through. I could say, "He...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Although it is important to be well versed in the knowledge of the subject that is going to be taught, it is also important that a teacher has the important teaching skills to create a positive learning environment for his or her students. For a class to be able to learn effectively, the teacher must be able to have the teaching skills to inspire confidence in his or her students. By exhibiting and using proper teaching skills, a teacher will be able to apply these skills to work better with the lives and learning habits of their students in a variety of ways. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Angel R F. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas As we know, Music affects human life. Music – a subject that is quite interesting for students. Especially, when children aged 0-6 years old, there is 2-6 years old called the period of sensitive music of children. If at that time, parents give children a lot of music, they will receive very well. So, how do the songs affect children, and how are the benefits of using songs in English classes? Two of these problems will explain clearly the reason why the is song important. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Hien Phan Thi D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Music supports children in the learning process at school. For example,...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas Passive voice is something native English speakers can use without much thought but it can be difficult for language learners to master because the switch from active to passive voice is quite an involved process – as many EFL teachers find when they first attempt to present it. Here are some fun activities that you can use in the classroom to help your students practice using this tricky language pattern. Do remember when you adapt these games that not every verb or tense in the English language can be used for the passive voice! This is a tried and tested game that’s been used with the passive voice for a long time. It’s a lot of fun and easily adaptable to past and present tenses, although you may need to be...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences To start with, TEFL is an abbreviation for Teaching English as a Foreign Language to speakers of other languages. This means this was a requirement to teach at a school, and teaching itself is fun and I could learn something new which were the reasons why I chose to study the TEFL. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Joshna C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Firstly, the major requirements to teach at an international (formal) school, or in a learning center would be to have a Bachelor's degree along with the TEFL/TESOL certificate. However, some schools are slightly different from their standards and the vast majority of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences From 2018 to 2019, I taught two eighth grade English classes in the rural Thies area, experiencing some of the challenges and advantages to teaching students who were just embarking on their language study. I was paired with a long-term Senegalese teacher who walked me through the basics of teaching a foreign language: engaging the class, developing study materials, and creating activities. What stood out to me was his emphasis on showing up as a role model for the students, as well as integrating other modes of learning into the classroom, such as art, singing, and dance activities. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Elise L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences My personal teaching experience is the reason why I love teaching and hopefully after this essay, you would understand why. Let me begin by giving you a short description of myself. I was born in South Africa, I had a normal childhood and I did not enjoy my schooling career. I am currently living in Turkey teaching English to kindergartens. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Cihan C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. When I arrived in Turkey I realized that English was a need and a want by many people of all ages. Knowing this I chose to work as a welder because I did not have enough confidence to use my English as a tool to...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Teaching Ideas Grammar lessons can often be quite boring for students so it is important for us as TEFL teachers to have fun activities that encourage the students to use the target language creatively and foster high student talking time. Below is a list of 10 activities that can be used for lessons on the past simple. The teacher creates a set of cards with present simple verbs and a set with the past simple form of the same verbs. The sets are mixed together and placed face down on the desk. Students take turns to turn over two cards. If the two cards match i.e. both forms of the same verb, the student has to make a sentence with the past simple form before they can keep the cards. If they cannot make a correct sentence, the cards...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Alumni Experiences In my past, I have lived in many different countries and language environments. I have come to learn that the best way to gain an understanding of a new language is to be absorbed in it. In countries where English is widely spoken as a foreign language (Scandinavian countries for example), learning the language of the country can be much more difficult. It is uncomfortable not being able to express oneself, so English offers a cane of comfort, but also a disservice. Unless one goes through this part of the learning process where speaking is hard for you and maybe even for your listener, fluency can never be achieved. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Eija R. Please note that this blog post...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences This blog post was written by recent ITTT graduate Kaitlin F., who shares her 10 years of teaching experience with us talking about the many different jobs in the English education field she was fortunate to work in. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Katilin F. An educator by definition is a person who provides instruction and/or education. In my own personal experience, educators in my life have not always been individuals that have gained their qualifications via professional schooling, but also by training or from their own experiences. This has transcended into what I believe an educator truly is. My first experience with teaching began at the tender age of thirteen at my dance school....  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences I made a good number of blunders my first year teaching that still make me cringe. I learned though. And it's fair to say, when it comes to managing a classroom, most of what we learn as new teachers is trial by fire. It's also smart to heed the advice of those who have walked - and stumbled - before you. If you are struggling with discipline, here are five tips that you can start using right away: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Yilong L. Are you teaching in your normal voice? Every teacher can remember this from the first year in the classroom: spending those first months talking at an above-normal range until one day, you lose your voice. Raising our voice to get the students'...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The one thing l liked most about teaching was the many jackets one gets to wear. To some l was a fashion icon, to others a role model, to others someone they could easily go to and talk about their life and personal challenges. Hence, the code of conduct for teachers stretches even to their communities and homes. Their mere being impacts the lives of the country's generations and helps build a nation, academically and socially. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Trish A. In 2002, l was doing my grade 4 level, taught by a tall slim and soft-spoken woman from Bulawayo. During the second term of that year, she got married to a local pastor and she had just turned thirty years old. I remember...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In the process of building a strong foundation for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), there are many items to consider. Some of these include parts of speech, theories and methodologies, tenses, lesson planning, and testing. One of the most important parts of this process is teaching productive skills, including speaking and writing, to students of all age groups. While the lesson planning for speaking and writing will be different, they are both used for the primary purpose of communication. When people are communicating with each other, they want to be able to say something through proper communication. They also want to listen and be able to hear what is being said. Productive skills can...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I work in two schools. I am an assistant language teacher at one commercial (low-level English) high school, and an integrated (high-level English) academic junior high and high school. I have had experiences with different kinds of students, Japanese-English teachers, and classroom atmospheres. In Japan, students take an entrance exam to get into high school. If they scored low on the entrance exam, then they are placed in the lowest ranking class. Each school has a certain number of classrooms for each grade. Both of my high schools have six classes total for each grade. There are usually around forty to forty-two students in each class as well. Teaching forty plus students in a crowded classroom is...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences “Everyone who remembers his education remembers teachers, not methods, and or techniques. The teacher is the heart of the educational system” – Sidney Hook. Teaching is as ancient as time and its ways of imparting knowledge have evolved throughout the centuries. Past behind are those days when children were considered wicked and in need to be reformed (Hobbes’ view). Likewise, it stopped being a one-way relationship where teachers had a dominant position and students were just mere recipients of data. Looking back at my school days, I compare teaching now and then. And even though roles and methods have made a 180 degrees turn, it has made me wonder why I can’t remember my university Language teacher...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences When I was younger, I had a dog that played fetch, walked to the park, and learned new tricks with me. Over time, we created a bond that was irreplaceable and unconditional. One day my dog passed away and three weeks later, my family and I decided to get a new dog. This new dog was friendly at first but hardly wanted to learn anything new. However, I was quite distant from the new dog, to begin with, because I always thought about the good times I had with my previous dog. Afterward, I realized that I needed to move on and create a new bond which I then remembered how my previous dog and I became best friends and how we both learned from each other. It was a high relaxed positive energy, spending a good amount...  [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]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Child development may be defined as a gradual sequence of physical, language, thought and emotional changes that occur from birth to the beginning of adulthood. In this process, there is a progression in a child from being sorely dependent on the parent/guardian to be self-dependent. Such development is strongly influenced by the genetic factors emanating from the parents and similar events during prenatal life. According to Maria Montessori Theory, such a journey from childhood to adulthood the key principles to be borne in mind are independence, observation, following the child, correcting, need for prepared environment and an absorbent mind. In all of these, the aspect of speech and language are paramount. This...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Most teachers come to China to teach English with only a general idea about Chinese culture and language which they should have to deal with as soon as they arrive in China. The reason I chose this topic is that I am fluent in Chinese and have experienced Chinese culture in all its facets for over than seven years. But let’s not beat around the bush and get down to the nitty-gritty. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ruben M. Chinese people often seem to be shy or introverted, especially in front of foreigners or in the classroom. However, they are not always. Chinese society is built on 关系 Guanxi, which means “relationship(s)” and can be described as any kind of connection...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas When in China do as the Chinese do and so I did. There I was on one delightfully awkward dinner evening with my newly acquired boss and some prominent members of the community. All seated around a circular table, ensuring everyone could make eye contact with each other, there was no hiding here. After some very basic introductions in English, a quick Mandarin joke from my boss and a communal lifting and sinking of drinks, the food for the evening began filling the table from all directions. People began preparing themselves to dive into the unusual looking dishes and so I followed their example. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Don St. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The introverted Nathaniel struggled immensely through primary, high school, college, and music school. His first battle was learning how to read. At this point, no one knew he possessed a learning difficulty. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nathaniel F. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Although he had an impressive spoken vocabulary for a boy, when he looked at words on a page he could not match them to their sounds, therefore pronunciation was not possible. This struggle with phonetic decoding was overcome over a few years by reading books borrowed from the library, tracing the words with a finger while listening to the...  [Read more]

Dorothy Brown Smith Destinations Alumni Experiences I have always wanted to travel and go abroad. I talked about it with family and friends on many occasions. When the opportunity came for me to teach in China, I immediately said, “NO!” I was thinking of traveling to places like South America, France, Italy, Greece, etc. because I had romanticized these places in my mind from what I had seen on television and read about in magazines. China was not even a thought in my mind! The opportunity kept coming to teach in China. I would see advertisements, run into people who had just came back from China. I even met someone studying Chinese to be an interpreter! I kept running into people who had some kind of connection with...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas As teachers, we often assume that we understand what our students are going through and that we can relate to the experience of learning in school because we have been there ourselves. However, many of us who teach English as a foreign language require a different empathy element to relate to our students truly. Learning a new language is a humbling experience, and doing it as a foreigner in a foreign culture is even more humbling. The question is, how many language educators can relate to this? Personally, though I do not know how many TEFL teachers have experienced a foreign language and culture for an extended period, I have had the privilege to experience it myself for...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Hi, I am back for another live session this week. My name is Linda from ITTT. I took a break last week, I was traveling a little bit in Korea, not too far but I got to enjoy the cherry blossoms. That's why there was no live session from me last week. But I'm back this week and I'm super excited. Today we're going to have a Q&A session, so you guys can ask me questions about TEFL and TESOL, teaching abroad, teaching online, whatever you want to know about. So something a bit more casual, let's have a chat. I would like to get to know you guys better and you can get to know me, ITTT and TEFL. If you can see me and hear me please drop a hi or something into the comment box so that I know that everything is working...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I have 3 years of experience in teaching English in a few kindergartens in Beijing, China and some experience in teaching adults in a training center. When I started in kindergarten, it was very difficult because I didn’t have enough information about how to make a proper lesson plan. I didn’t have enough materials, games, songs, and it took me a lot of time to collect all the necessary information for teaching and creating my teaching plan. Without experience, it wasn’t easy for me to build a good rapport between me and my students. It took me a while to build a connection between me and the kids. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Lidiia L. Please note that this blog post might...  [Read more]

Prachi and Morgan from AlienEating Destinations Alumni Experiences Teaching. It's frustrating, exhausting, and a whole lot of kid wrangling. It's also rewarding, eye-opening and will give you more patience than you ever thought possible. I had no idea how much went into this job. One day when I'm in Forbes 30 Under 30, I'm going to personally send a tower of Ferrero Rocher to every teacher in the world. This job is a huge responsibility and it's more difficult than I ever imagined. I urge everyone to dip a toe into the teaching world at least once. I've taught English in South Korea for two years now in both the open countryside and bustling city. It may not seem like there's too much of a difference, but there are a few things...  [Read more]