TEFL Williams

  Willy from the U.S.A. is currently living in Japan and took the 120-hour online TESOL course with tutor support and videos from ITTT. In this TESOL review video, Willy tells us that he has been living in Japan for the last 7 years and working as an assistant language teacher. He really enjoyed the course which brought him a number of new perspectives and ideas and helped him to improve his teaching skills. 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. I...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences As a bilingual country, Canada has a considerable population of French speakers. Most of them live in the province of Quebec. A large number of Quebecers have always believed (and some still believe) that learning English as a second language will impede their proficiency in their first language. They are worried that future generations will not cherish French as much as they do because of the growing influence of the English language in Quebec. In a certain way, they want to preserve their French identity and the province’s identity as intact as possible. This mentality becomes problematic in an academic environment when parents transfer their prejudices to their children. When those children come to ESL...  [Read more]

William Noble Destinations Teaching Ideas China is the largest EFL market in the world with more vacant positions than teachers to fill them with. If you want to teach English in China as well, it's a great idea to get a thorough understanding of the English speaking and writing errors made by Chinese students prior to coming to China. Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Having the confidence to use your second language knowledge is a vital aspect of language learning. In this post, a TEFL course graduate examines the importance of classroom games for increasing student confidence. Elizaveta Pachina Teaching...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English is everywhere. It is the world’s lingua franca. Out of 7.5 billion people, 1.5 billion speak English and just 360 million of them are native speakers, that is to say, that English is by far the most commonly studied language. It has become the global language for business, science, technology, aviation, advertisement, cinema, music, education, and so much more. How did it become so powerful? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Philippa K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The answer lies in history – after 1945, when the world was recovering from the biggest and most horrific conflict, the United States business...  [Read more]

William Noble Destinations Teaching Ideas China is the largest EFL market in the world with more vacant positions than teachers to fill them with. If you want to teach English in China as well, it's a great idea to get a thorough understanding of the English speaking and writing errors made by Chinese students prior to coming to China. Mark Crocker Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Having the confidence to use your second language knowledge is a vital aspect of language learning. In this post, a TEFL course graduate examines the importance of classroom games for increasing student confidence. Mark Crocker TEFL...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Destinations This ITTT TEFL article looks at the differences in cultural and behavioral attitudes in different countries in Europe. William Noble Destinations Teaching Ideas China is the largest EFL market in the world with more vacant positions than teachers to fill them with. If you want to teach English in China as well, it's a great idea to get a thorough understanding of the English speaking and writing errors made by Chinese students prior to coming to China. Mark Crocker Destinations Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Stepping into a ESL classroom as a...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences I decided to complete TEFL course nearly a month ago. Before talking about the reasons why I took this course, I would like to tell some facts about myself. My name is Julia, I was born in Kyiv, Ukraine and had been living there for all my life – now I’m 35. I had a very successful career in marketing an worked for a big international company. However, the job took up all my time, required a lot of effort and I felt very exhausted and unhappy. So I decided to quit my job and started to travel: Georgia, Italy, Spain, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore. Now I live in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Yuliia R. Learning English is extremely popular in Asian countries....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Grammar is an important aspect of a language where learners' and teachers’ opinions vary. Some students love to find out or learn the proper usage of grammar while some wanted to do grammar exercises. While some love grammar, others hate it and think that it is the most boring part of learning a new language. Whatever your stand is, you cannot escape from learning grammar; it is vital in every sentence you read or write, speak or hear. Grammar is simply the word for the rules that people follow when they use a language. We need those rules in the same way as we need the rules in any game. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate John William C. Please note that this blog post might not...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Taking a TEFL course allows future teachers to know the basics of teaching a TEFL class. A TEFL course shows the best techniques of teaching a TEFL class, and how to prepare a lesson plan. It also shows how to use a coursebook and how to interact with specific types of classes. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate William T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. For many people that want to teach English to foreign students, this will be their first time teaching. The course helps future teachers learn the basics of what is needed to teach a class properly. The course goes over the different parts of grammar, written and oral that are...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English teachers have a significant role to play in a classroom. They are involved in engaging students to maintain a focus on the language. However, the major roles of the English teacher in a classroom are classified into five premium categories. These categories involve their roles as a controller, organizer, assessor, participant, and a helper (Keller, 2016). This essay aims to highlight the role of English teachers in the classroom. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Priyanka B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. As a controller of the classroom, an English teacher is the one who instructs the students that when they need...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Online teaching is a term used to explain distance conversational courses that are offered over the internet platform. Nowadays, learning a second language as English is open to the World. So far, E-teaching is very effective because it gives teachers chances to teach from home for lower costs. Online teaching provides new opportunities for students and teachers. For example, everyone would have access to English no matter where the location is if they have the internet. Online teaching gives teachers flexibility in teaching hours. The Internet is a very competitive learning environment for young learners. It is easier to fix mistakes from home and less embarrassing. Online teaching can be very comfortable at...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Everybody knows that English is the most popular language nowadays, and it has been for centuries. Besides the popularity, it is one of the most important and crucial skills and is an international means for communication and expressing one's feelings anytime and anywhere. We can safely surmise that English as a language performs four important services: (a) International Language, (b) Window to new knowledge, (c) Common medium of Reference, and finally (d) Link Language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Richa A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. With the changing world environment and exponential growth of the use of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas There has been a wide body of research regarding the positive effects that reading has on a student’s literacy levels. Introducing more reading material, and, even cultivating a love of reading in the classroom, can thus improve a student’s fluency in a new language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Sher L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. One of the ways reading can help a student acquire a new language is by providing motivation to further strengthen the student’s grasp of the language. As a student, I learned English as my second language. A great deal of the English language material I encountered during English...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Destinations Italy is one of the most popular destinations for teaching English in Europe - and it’s not hard to see why! With so many amazing cities to choose from you will be spoiled for choice in this Mediterranean paradise. Because of strict EU laws and regulations, it can often be difficult for non-EU citizens to secure a visa and work legally in Italy. However, if you are dreaming of living and working in Italy, don’t worry! Check out our detailed guide on how to legally teaching English in Italy for people outside of the European Union. The capital of Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region, Bologna is a premier destination with a lot of exciting attractions. Not only is Bologna stunningly beautiful, it’s also home to the...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Description: Teaching English as a foreign language in a kindergarten can be a dynamically different experience than teaching students in older age groups. Teaching in a kindergarten has advantages such as motivation, smiles, and the ability to learn the material in short bursts. It also has disadvantages, such as; short attention spans, diapers, and tantrums. Teaching young children can be extremely rewarding and extremely demanding. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate William K. Teaching Children between the ages of two and five has some advantages that can be very rewarding. My first class ever was teaching children between the ages of two and a half and three and a half. I was quick to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Many language learning theories are proposed based on certain linguistic theories. In fact, knowledge in linguistics lies at the root of understanding what language learners can learn, how they learn and what they learn ultimately. Therefore, linguistics has always played an important role in the studies of language acquisition and learning. For example, as Ellis (1994:1) points out, “whereas much of the earlier second language acquisition work focused on the linguistic and, in particular, the grammatical properties of learner language and was psycholinguistic in orientation, later work has also attended to the pragmatic aspects of learner language and, increasingly, has adopted a sociolinguistic perspective....  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Like we all know, the English alphabet has 26 letters. These 26 letters can make 44 different sounds or phonemes – 20 sounds come from the vowels a, e, i, o and u; and 24 sounds come from the remaining 21 consonants. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that can change the meaning of a word. If we consider sounds made simply by the letter ‘a’ for instance, in the word ‘apple’ – it’s /ae/, in ‘car’ – it’s /a:/, in amount – it’s /a/, and so on. This, consequently, makes English a non-phonetic language, which means that the pronunciation of a word is not dependent on its spelling. Now in order to pronounce a word correctly, we need to get three factors in it right - vowel sounds,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I have taught in a Japanese high school for the past four years as an assistant language teacher, which gives me a particular insight into the problems and advantages of EFL in that area. This will naturally require some generalizations. Individuals have very different problems from one another, but broader shared issues do crop up. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate William L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. For context, I work in two Japanese high schools as an assistant language teacher in Toyama prefecture. I go to one school four days a week, which caters to students who can only study part-time. I also work at a farming...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I play video games. I’m not sure I would classify myself as a gamer, but I like to play and have as long as I can remember. I went to school before the internet was available, so I remember having to manually look up everything. I remember when computers were first introduced into classrooms, and what a difference it made. Now it seems like teaching can’t be done without the use of computers, as they have become such an integral part of the classroom. This has changed the way that ESL teaching is conducted. The question isn’t whether computers are necessary for a classroom or not. There are very few people let in the world who think that computers in the classroom are a bad idea. This isn’t about whether...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Second language acquisition depends on the interpersonal relationship) between teacher-student as well as student-student. These interpersonal relationships are based on rapport, which is defined as ”a mutual, respectful, enjoyable, and positive connection” (Frisby, 2018). There are two quotes that reflect this. First, Aristotle stated, “educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” Second, Confucius stated, “By three methods we may learn wisdom; First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is bitterest. These quotes highlight the need for rapport. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate William...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Interactive whiteboards have been around since the turn of the millennium. They have been implemented and studied in multiple ESL classrooms, primary schools, and language centers in order to find the best practices. The American Council of the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) acknowledges the importance of using technology, such as the interactive whiteboard, to support and enhance classroom-based instructions (Segni & Davidson, 2019). In order for the interactive whiteboard to be used effectively to take advantage of learning opportunities and support children’s learning, it is important to use it skillfully in education. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate William N. Please note...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas G.B. Shaw said, ‘England and America are two countries separated by a common language.’ The common language i.e. English taken by the British to America gradually evolved differently from its root language. Hence, the language spoken in Great Britain became the British English and the language spoken in the United States became American English. It wasn’t just the variation in pronunciation, the vocabulary and spellings for few words also changed. To understand the differences, we should take a look at the roadmap of British and American English. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kritika T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Self-confidence has been seen as a major contributor to a person learning a language. As a teacher and a counselor, I agree with Jack Welch’s quote: Giving people self-confidence is by far the most important thing that I can do because then they will act. Confidence exists of three realms: who I am, what I can learn, and what I can do. These are steps that can be taken to help Chinese Business English students improve confidence in these realms. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate William N. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Self-confidence is the total of attributes which enable the use of acquiring knowledge and application of...  [Read more]

William Noble Destinations Teaching Ideas I have been an online ESL teacher to Chinese students for over 13 years, mostly with primary students but also with secondary and adult students. I am also a father and have homeschooled my daughter over her primary years. Like many teachers, I’ve enjoyed teaching at this level of education as it lays the foundation in English. As it set the foundation, my teaching helped students to overcome common errors in production skills, speaking and writing. Teaching both my daughter and Chinese students at the primary level also helped me also to understand the different expectations between first language and second language students. Since English is very different from China, many Chinese...  [Read more]