Verb Patterns

  As mentioned earlier, our example sentence has used a regular verb 'to play'. With the regular verbs we simply add '-ed'. This spelling pattern changes for words that end with a consonant and a Y: 'cry' goes to 'cried', 'try' to 'tried'. Another spelling pattern we have to be aware of is our consonant plus vowel plus consonant. In these instances, we double the consonant used: 'shop' needs the double P; 'ship' needs the double P. With these spelling patterns, and most spelling patterns in general for the English language, there are always exceptions to the rules. So we have to be aware of those exceptions. We also have to impart those exceptions on to our students. We can do so through various exercises and various activities to end our class. To form the negative sentence here,...  [Read more]

  Here we have a set of five words, which all share one sound: the ?oh? sound, as in ?go?, ?show?, ?dough?, ?note? and ?boat?. They?re five different spelling patterns to tell our students so they can identify when to make the ?oh? sound. We can have a simple letter ?o?, ?ow?, ?ough?, ?o? with the magic ?e? which turns our vowel into what we knew as long sounds and the ?oa? as in ?boat?. Now, for a non-native learner, perhaps they can handle something like this. They remember that these spelling combinations help to produce the ?oh? sound and they can go about their business looking at the words and memorizing this knowing that these spelling patterns will produce the sound ?oh?. Now that?s okay until we get to a situation where we can also have words like ?to?, ?cow? and also...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas As a new teacher, grammar was initially very difficult for me to teach. It was difficult to demonstrate grammar patterns succinctly. Luckily, the school that I work for has provided help by having an established curriculum. The key to teaching grammar, however, has been teaching variable inputs in otherwise unchanging structures as part of student-centered games. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Stephen W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. If I were to teach the pattern, “What does Billy like?/ He likes _____”, then I would have several options. I could read the pattern and have the students listen. This would be ineffective...  [Read more]

  It also helps us form our tenses. Many of the tenses will use these auxiliary verbs; particularly we have our continuous tense and our perfect tense. There are additional tenses that use auxiliary verbs. We'll get into that when we talk about our individual tenses. Another important aspect of our verbs is that they generally tell us what tense the sentence has been formed in. Take for instance the verb "to live." We could use it as live, lives, living or lived. "I live" or "she lives in Bangkok," meaning the present. "I am living in Bangkok," still the present or "I lived in Bangkok," meaning the past. Another difference with our verbs has to do with whether or not the verb is regular or irregular. With the regular verbs, in order to conjugate the verb into the past, we simply...  [Read more]

  For statements in the negative form, what we have to do is add the auxiliary verb 'to do'. For subjects 'I', 'you', 'we' and 'they', we simply leave 'do' as 'do', use the word 'not', and keep the base form of the verb now for the negative statements. However, for 'he', 'she' and 'it', we have to conjugate our auxiliary verb into 'does'. We still use 'not' and we still keep the base form of the verb. The pattern performing questions is very very similar to the pattern performing negative statements. However, what we've done is invert our subject and our auxiliary verb so that the questions read the auxiliary verb first. Of course, again, we use 'do' for 'I', 'you', 'we' and 'they' and use 'does' for 'he', 'she' and 'it'. In both cases, we've left our verb form as the base form of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In today’s world learning English is no longer a possibility, but an essential part of being a world citizen. However, we must face the fact- for some people- to learn English grammar is not so easy and fun, they hate grammar and even think it is the most boring part of learning a new language. On the other hand, others are extremely interested in learning grammar rules and practice it as much as they can. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Glaucia S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Whoever wants to become an effective language learner cannot run from grammar lessons; it is a crucial part of the learning process besides...  [Read more]

  http://www.teflonline.net This ITTT video is the second part of a lesson looking at the structure of the Present Perfect tense. It reviews an example of the structure with a regular verb -- played. I/you/we/they have played. She/He/It has played. The video then examines some of the spelling patterns that are used with irregular verbs. For example, verbs ending with a consonant + y. cry changes to cried, try changes to tried. Another spelling pattern with irregular verbs ending with a consonant + a vowel + a consonant Shop changes to shopped, ship changes to shipped. When teaching this particular point, as with other grammar points, it is important to explain to students that there are exceptions to most rules in the English language. Where specific patterns exist we...  [Read more]

Anna Domiczek Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas In the education world, the potential and value of using stories and storytelling techniques have always been known and recognized, especially in the context of teaching younger students. Recently, more and more EFL teachers of young learners are integrating carefully selected children’s literature stories to teach English. Children’s literature is such a significant part of English language literature - using it for teaching English can be a very motivating tool for young learners. Stories chosen from children’s literature provide an excellent resource to develop a variety of language and learning activities, and the carefully selected materials can be appealing not only...  [Read more]

  http://www.teflonline.net This video is the first of two that looks at the structure of the Present Perfect tense. Positive: subject +auxiliary verb have/has + past participle I have played. / She has played. Negative: subject + auxiliary verb have/has + not + past participle I have not played. / She has not played. Question: auxiliary verb have/has + subject + past participle Have I played? / Has she played? This verb tense requires the use of the past participle. With regular verbs the past participle is the verb plus ed, for example work - worked. However there are many irregular verbs that do not follow this pattern and have to be learnt from memory. For example, eat- eaten, drink-drunk, teach-taught. Most good grammar books will provide you with lists of irregular verbs....  [Read more]

  We'll begin our examination of all the tenses by first looking at the present tense. There are four present tenses and we'll begin with the present simple tense. It's the most common tense in the English language as it talks about things in general, general facts, routines, habits. Those are usages that we'll look at in a little while but first let's focus on the form of the tense. Here, we've got our subjects 'I', 'you', 'we', 'they' and the base form of the verb followed by the rest of our sentence. Here for the 'he', 'she' and 'it' subjects, we have to conjugate our verb and in this case we've added an '-es' for 'teaches' followed by the rest of our sentence. With subjects 'I', 'you', 'we' and 'they' the pattern stays the same throughout we use the base form of the verb....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Songs are used as a pedagogical tool for many reasons, especially with young children. This approach to teaching can empower young students and it recognizes differing abilities and skills. Activities are designed to support the goals of the curriculum and will accommodate multiple learning styles. Songs are universal and used all over the world to teach cultural information and they play an important role in a young child's learning and development. The use of songs is a teaching method that helps students comprehend the information taught. Songs encourage fluency, vocabulary, structures, patterns as well as speaking skills. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Deborah M. Please note that this...  [Read more]

  http://www.teflonline.net We have seen that the key word that helps us to remember the Present Perfect tense is forms of the word 'have' plus the past participle form of the verb. This ITTT video looks at the three main usages of the Present Perfect. First usage: To talk about indefinite past actions. I have been to Italy twice. / I have eaten snake. Second usage: To talk about unfinished past actions I have lived here for three years. / She has been a teacher since 2010. Third usage: To talk about past actions with present results. I have lost my keys. / I have left my computer in the office. When teaching the Present Perfect tense or any other grammar point it is always important to look for patterns and make it as clear as possible for your students. The courses at ITTT...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The word ‘grammar’ is often feared by students and teachers alike. It has an image of being difficult to comprehend and hard to teach. However, with planning and a positive approach to the lesson, it can be a fun and interesting way to improve English skills. Also, students can often feel a true sense of accomplishment by being able to use the vocabulary and sentences structures that they have learned. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Janet K. So where do we start? How to use verbs and the study of tenses is a perfect first step. By dividing the tenses into three sections, present, past and future, and then again into the simple, continuous, perfect and perfect continuous forms, we...  [Read more]

  The idiom "elbow room" refers to having enough room to move in or having the ability to act freely, for example: The concert was so crowded that there was hardly any elbow room at all. This means, there were so many people at the concert that you could barely move. 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. Conditional and Reported Speech could be two of the most difficult parts for students, even higher level students. Enormous mistakes and errors...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences According to the Collins online dictionary, grammar is defined as “the ways that words can be put together in order to make sentences.” The Oxford learner’s dictionary defines grammar as “a person’s knowledge and use of a language”. If those two definitions were to be combined we could define grammar as the way we utilize the language knowledge we possess for the purpose of communication. In keeping with this definition then, it can be said that in order to communicate effectively, grammar is essential. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Jheanelle M. There are patterns that facilitate communication within every language. These patterns are the ways that words are put together...  [Read more]

  And now we'll have a look at the present perfect continuous tense. As its name suggests, what we're going to do is combine the present continuous usages and the present perfect usages into a tense that basically expresses the fact that we've got an action continuing up until the present point in time. For the form of this tense, again, we're going to combine into various aspects of both the perfect and the continuous tenses. If we have a look we always begin with our subjects, then we have our, two now, helping verbs. The helping verb 'to have' for the perfect tenses, as well as the helping verb 'be' for the continuous tenses. For our subjects 'I', 'you', 'we' and 'they', we leave 'have' as 'have' and for 'he', 'she' and 'it', we conjugate it to 'has'. Because it's a continuous...  [Read more]

  The next item that we're going to consider is the use of resource books. There are many different types of resource books available and within those books there tends to be a general pattern and typically the resource book pack will come in a three book series and typically that three book series will be in the form of the student book, a workbook and a teacher's resource book. So for example here are those three books for this particular series called ?Total English? and in the student book the type of information that we can gain from here is the actual background to the teaching points themselves plus some additional information in terms of short worksheets and so on and so forth and tape transcripts at the end for listening activities, which these days often come on a CD...  [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]

  Whereas stress is typically concerned with one individual word, intonation is generally concerned with the variation in volume and pitch throughout an entire sentence. Intonation carries the message of a sentence. It's particularly important when questioning or agreeing, disagreeing and confirming statements. It's also very important when expressing emotions and feelings. The normal pattern for intonation is the rise-fall. Few examples would be ?I haven't seen him for a week,? or a simple word as ?okay?. With the falling intonation, we?re indicating that we're finished speaking. Again, ?I haven't seen him for a week? and ?okay?. A few more examples would be ?I'll see you at six then,? or a question of information ?How do you spell rough?? These are straightforward statements that...  [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]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas One of the great things about teaching conditionals is that once you discover some classroom activities that work well for one, they can be adapted to suit any of the conditional patterns that you may be asked to teach. Here are 7 fun activities for teaching conditionals for the ESL classroom that you can easily adapt to help your students understand the correct structures and usages. Tell your students to stand up and form in two lines (teams) and have an item that can be thrown and caught without causing injury or damage. Set the timer on your phone to sound after about 30-45 seconds. The teacher calls out the beginning half of a conditional sentence, throws the ball to a student at the beginning of the line and...  [Read more]

  Using games in your lessons is a great way to liven up the class and get students excited and interested in using English in the classroom. Not only do they provide a welcome break from the usual activities, they also help to create a relaxed environment where even the most reluctant student can be persuaded to take part. There are many games that can be used in the TEFL classroom, from simple games that only require a pen and a whiteboard to more elaborate board games. There are some games that have been specifically designed to be used in English language classes, while other, everyday games that we usually play for fun can also be adapted to be used with your students. You can even create your own games! Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The word ‘drilling’ in education refers to a teaching technique in which the teacher creates a certain pattern or structure to be practiced repeatedly by the students, for them to ultimately develop a system where they may identify and use the pattern or structure independently. Drilling as a technique has been put to use in teaching almost all subjects, but its efficacy has been particularly acknowledged in the field of language teaching, for training students in both pronunciation as well as grammar. However, just as it has been lauded for being a foolproof system of making students ‘practice’ a language, drilling has also been criticized for being a mechanical and largely monotonous process of...  [Read more]

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Anna Domiczek Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Puppets can serve as a wonderful pedagogical tool in the ESL classroom. Young children are very familiar with them since puppets play a large role in the world of children’s imaginative play, and they have become widely accepted as a pedagogical tool because they are valuable in serving as an anchor in overcoming the language barrier. Their potential in ESL teaching could be used to enhance instruction and provide many useful benefits. Research clearly shows the benefits of using puppetry in English language teaching, and the use of puppets is an effective approach in teaching English to young learners. From the perspective of a preschool teacher, research results are very...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Whom a student is defined within about same parameters by different sources. The Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary also has two definitions of the word student. The Merriam Webster dictionary (online) has two definitions of students which are as reproduced below: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate PAUL D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. For this summative assignment, the second definition by the Merriam-Webster and Collins COBUILD Dictionary will be used. Using the second definition as just stated, a beginner student will be one who is new to the subject and is just beginning to start learning, and in this respect, learning...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Lesson planning is vital to ensure a smooth lesson. If you are new to teaching English as a foreign language, lesson planning might seem daunting at first. However, after reading through this comprehensive guide, you should already feel a lot more confident! This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Betty S. A lesson plan is like a set of notes. It tells us what we are going to teach and how we are going to teach. A lesson plan is important because of several reasons. Mainly, it is a road map to help the teacher know where s/he is going in the lesson. With a lesson plan teachers are more confident because they know what to do in every step of the lesson. It provides a systematic outline to induce...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Although the English language has been the official language in Nigeria for decades, there are a good number of challenges that learners of English language continuously encounter. These problems are not only peculiar to learners but may also be existent in so-called fluent speakers. One of the most basic problems is mother tongue interference. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Awazie T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. This is a form of language interference in which a Nigerian's first language/native language/mother-tongue (L1) hinders or influences the acquisition of a new language (possibly L2), in this case - English...  [Read more]

  So let's have a look at some of the more general issues when using the wipe board. Perhaps the most important thing to start with is that we should start with a clean board. Secondly it's always very useful to make a board plan so that you know where things are going to appear on the board by the end of your lesson. It?s very simple to do a board plan. Just take a sheet of paper, which is similar in shape to the board that you're going to use, and then onto that piece of paper decide where all the information that's going onto your board is going to be by the time that you've finished. So a very simple board plan just to show where the information is going to be. Also it's very useful if you make use of tables and columns to separate different areas of your work and in the same...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences If you ever find yourself driving in French Canada, you will be stopped by stop signs that say ‘arrêt’, which is stopped in French. Almost all drivers in North America would know that this means stop because it’s the same octagon red stop sign. In Japan it’s very different, stop signs are triangular with Japanese script on them but, beneath the Japanese, you can find English subtitles which read ‘stop’. In fact, if you travel anywhere in Japan, the majority of signs and announcements related to travel are offered in Japanese and English. English has been taught in Japanese schools since the American occupation after World War Two. However, according to an EF English Proficiency Index in 2017,...  [Read more]