What Are You Teaching Him In Spanish

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences What does it mean to volunteer? According to the Oxford Dictionary: "A volunteer is a person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task", according to me, volunteering is a life-changing experience where you are able to help others. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Zayra R. I volunteered for the first time 7 years ago and I remember to be very excited and a little nervous, not knowing what to expect. The moment I arrived at the shelter house for abandoned girls, I knew right away that I had to give my best every day. During that week, we fixed the garden, planted flowers and vegetables and I also helped building rooms and decorating them. I taught basic English to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English is my first language, however, I studied Spanish throughout high school growing up in the Midwest and eventually received a Master’s degree in Spanish Literature. I learned to speak Spanish very well after becoming a high school Spanish teacher for eight years and then a principal for elementary and secondary schools for 26 more years speaking Spanish to new immigrant students and parents the whole time. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Rex P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In reflecting on the title question I first asked myself how Spanish had influenced me over the years. The first obvious answer was that I...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences The following blog post is about an ITTT graduate who shares his story on how learning Chinese helped him to become a better English teacher in China. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Joseph S. A common saying imparted to me by one of my professors goes like this: "What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual. What do you call someone who speaks only one language? American." I have found this to be extremely true for the majority of cases, and, as a young student, it spurred me to want to learn as much of other languages as I possibly could. I grew up in a monolingual home, however, as a child, I spent much of...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences My biggest takeaway from my TEFL certification course with ITTT is the topic of learning techniques. Learning techniques vary depending on race, gender, age, cultural background , past experiences and several other variables of the students involved. I will describe my personal past experiences in regards to the subject at hand. I would like to take a moment to thank the ITTT staff for putting together this highly informative and enlightening TEFL program. It is well written, easy to understand and well organized for new and experienced ESL teachers alike. This post was written by our ITTT graduate Svetlana V. One of the first things I learned during my 60-hour TEFL course was that children are divided into two...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Being an American living in France has given me firsthand experience as to what it is like to struggle with learning a new language. I studied Spanish for six years, in Junior High and High school. Language acquisition was easier then. I can attest to the fact that younger learners learn more quickly. For me, the two major problems with learning French are the tenses and not being able to understand what people are saying. I get stuck in the present tense, often forgetting to change tenses in conversation. I also need to hone up on my listening skills. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Patricia J. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I have read everything that has fallen into my hands ever since I can remember, and that goes for both my native tongue, Spanish, and my second language, English. I remember waiting in line and reading and re-reading a thousand times a sign on a window directly in front of me! Sometimes it can be maddening being this way, but in the long run, I firmly believe that my passion for reading has finally paid off! This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Marcela C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. When I began studying English, and I was about 11, I started what it seems now like a race! A race against who? Me! Every new word, meaning,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Morocco’s official languages are classical Arabic, and Berber ( indigenous language in North Africa) Classical Arabic, and second unofficial language in Morocco is the French language taught in General educational curriculum from primary school, and Spanish taught in the north as a second unofficial language, Thus learning a third or even fourth language for a Moroccan learner is not a big challenge, however, there are some difficulties to learn a language efficiently and accurately. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate MOHAMMED t. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. English is emerging, especially in larger cities. And it is...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Welcome guys, Linda here from ITTT for another live session. I'm so happy to be here today, the weather is great today, the lighting is good. If you were watching last week it was pretty much like the end of the world weather here, but today it's great, I feel good. If you can see me and hear me please drop a hi into the comments. We are live on Facebook and also on YouTube and if you're listening to this as a podcast episode thanks for the download. We always turn our live sessions into podcast episodes and you can find them on all major podcast platforms like iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts etc. It's called the TEFL and TESOL Podcast by ITTT....  [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]