Different Phrases In Different Languages

  http://www.teflonline.net For this TEFL Teaching idea we ask the students to look at a scene in a hospital where there are several people doing different things. Students are given time to memorise the picture before it is turned over. The students would then be asked to say what the people were doing in the picture. For example: A nurse was giving a patient an injection. A man was pouring a glass of water. As the trainer notes in the video, this activity can be adapted to make it into a competition by having students in teams compete to remember as many actions as they can. Grammar points such as this are often seen as fairly boring to most English language students, especially those who do not choose to study English. So being able to come up with ideas that encourage...  [Read more]

  So, we'll focus first of all on a speaking skills lesson and perhaps a starting point for this would be to ask a question which is: Why do we speak to each other? The reason that it's important to ask ourselves this question is that whatever answers there are to this should be present in our lessons. So, why do we speak to each other? Well, there are a multitude of answers to that but when you boil them all down to their essence, they probably actually come down to one or two things. We communicate to each other by speaking because of either a need. We need something. We want something or a desire to achieve something. 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...  [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]

  In the English language, there are nine true modal auxiliary verbs. These include: will, would, should, shall, might, may, must, can and could. The main usages of modal auxiliary verbs include expressing abilities, advice, deduction, obligation, offer, permission and possibility. 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. Unit 11 is based on receptive skill. The two receptive skills are reading and listenin. Two of the main reasons for reading and...  [Read more]

  This teaching idea is very similar to the activity we can use for the future continuous. We pair up our students, give them diaries and have them find the day on which both of them are free to meet. This video shows you exactly how to execute this activity in the classroom. 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. Receptive skills(reading and listening) and productive skills(speaking and writing) are necessary to lean any language in the worl. This...  [Read more]

Unlock Exciting Opportunities with Online ESL Teaching Positions in Taiwan Are you looking to embark on a rewarding journey in the field of English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching? Taiwan offers a plethora of online ESL teaching positions that can provide you with a unique and enriching experience. Whether you are a seasoned professional or a newcomer to the world of ESL teaching, Taiwan presents a diverse range of opportunities to hone your skills, connect with students from different backgrounds, and immerse yourself in a vibrant cultural exchange. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore the various online ESL teaching positions available in Taiwan, the requirements and qualifications needed to secure these roles, and the benefits of choosing Taiwan as your destination for ESL...  [Read more]

In Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), grammar and syntax play a crucial role in helping learners communicate effectively. Grammar refers to the rules that govern the structure of sentences, while syntax deals with the arrangement of words to form coherent phrases and sentences. Understanding and applying these rules are essential for learners to convey their thoughts accurately and clearly in English. Without a solid foundation in grammar and syntax, students may struggle to express themselves properly and may face challenges in both written and spoken communication. When it comes to teaching English grammar effectively in a TEFL setting, there are several strategies that can be employed. Firstly, breaking down complex grammar rules into smaller, more manageable chunks can help...  [Read more]

  This video is part of our video series on "Evaluation and Testing of Students". In this video, we look at the most common academic English exams learners of English take around the world. It is important for EFL teachers to know these different types of proficiency test as they will most likely come across them during their teaching career. 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. Unit 2: Parts of speec. This section of the course offers a great...  [Read more]

  This video looks at the difficulties students have when learning modal auxiliary verbs. The number of usages and the modal auxiliary verbs that can be used for various usages often bring about problems for the students. Also, the structure of sentences with modal auxiliary verbs can be confusing. Watch this video to understand all the difficulties students face with modal auxiliary verbs. 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. In this unit there...  [Read more]

  The purpose of grammar translation then is to basically translate between L1 and L2 and vice versa. So, we could take a simple example. Let's imagine that our native language was English and our target language was French and let's assume that we want to translate a document from French into English. Let's take a simple sentence. Here's a sentence in French "Ouvre la fenêtre" and we'll add "s'il vous plaît" at the end. What we want to do is to take this L2 and translate it back into English. Now, if we have a reasonable knowledge of French then we may well know that this particular verb "ouvre" "to open" translates directly and this female form of the and finally the fenêtre "Open the window" and this polite form of "please". This is all very well if the two structures that...  [Read more]

  Once we're satisfied that all the students have been engaged and that they've been given the opportunity to say something, we can move on to our study phase. Here, it may be necessary or useful to actually pre-teach some gaps in knowledge that have been shown from the engage phase and those gaps in knowledge may include actual grammar structures or indeed useful vocabulary and it's very important that, before we move on to doing any forms of activity, we check their understanding of this material. So, we need to do some study exercises. It's also very useful if you leave this information up on the board through all that study period. Those study activities can just be the normal types of gap fills or matching activities and, as always, we need to demonstrate those activities,...  [Read more]

Although it is common for some ESL job interviews to take place over the internet or phone from within the teacher’s home country, many employers still prefer to interview in person on the school premises. Each job interview you have is likely to be a little different from the last, but there are a few simple guidelines you can follow to ensure you give yourself the very best chance of success. It is a well known idea that we form a first impression of someone within seven seconds of the first meeting. Because of this it is crucial that you are aware of some basic interview techniques to avoid blowing your chances before the interview has really begun. The first thing you should always do for every interview is turn up in plenty of time. Once the interview begins don’t forget to...  [Read more]

  "In terms of the things that are negative about it, we've already said that it doesn't develop speaking but perhaps the biggest negative point about this particular methodology is that it's very unnatural. Ok, so despite the criticisms of this particular method, and particularly the fact that is unnatural, this particular methodology was in use all the way through the 17th, 18th and 19th century and indeed it's still in use today. However, Gouin in the 1880s and Berlitz in the early 1900s decided that this particular methodology was so unnatural that they wanted to come up with something new. The method that they came up with, they called the direct method. You will also sometimes see it as the natural method. What these two people were saying is that if we wish to learn a...  [Read more]

  This presentation is going to focus on the theories, methods and techniques of teaching and we're going to start with a quote. This is an interesting quotation because it contains within it a philosophical argument and it's a philosophical argument in the way in which we learn. Basically, this one is saying that the intelligence of their own children comes about due to a natural process. So this one could be said to be due to nature. This is exactly the opposite of this one, which is saying that they're teaching the environment that we create, creates that intelligence. So this one can be said to be due to nurture and this argument 'nature versus nurture' has been going on for thousands of years. These two viewpoints are two ends of a scale, or a continuum if you like, and every...  [Read more]

  Before we move on to the planning of a lesson for speaking skills, something that we need to look at first is the idea of the accuracy versus the fluency of speaking. Accuracy relates to the correct usage of grammar and vocabulary, whereas fluency relates to our ability to continue speaking without any interruption. Now, ultimately within a whole ESA lesson or within language learning itself fluency and accuracy are equally important. Within an ESA lesson, however, depending upon which stage we're at in that lesson, then we're either focusing on accuracy or we're focusing on fluency. Remember in the ESA lesson, in the study phase, this is where we're looking at the target language where we're doing our language learning, so it's very important in this stage that we focus on the...  [Read more]

  Our next particular methodology is accredited to James Asher around 1965 and is called total physical response. Asher looked at the way in which we learn our native language and he saw that most children, before they even went to school, have picked up a very large percentage of both the grammar and the vocabulary that they would use in their native language before any type of formal schooling. So Asher started to have a look at ideas of how to use the whole of our brain in language learning in the way that we do when we're very young. It's accepted that within our brain there are two hemispheres, one is the left hemisphere the other is the right hemisphere, and one of the functions of the left hemisphere is language learning. One of the major functions of the right hemisphere is...  [Read more]

Teaching new vocabulary takes up a large proportion of an ESL teacher's time, particularly when teaching beginners and other lower-level students. Many lessons will be devoted to learning new words, so it is vital that the teacher is aware of the best methods for achieving good results. By using these tried and tested techniques the teacher can ensure that their students will have the best chance of retaining the new language and the confidence to use it both in and out of the classroom. Probably the most effective thing you can do to help your students retain new language is to teach it in context. If you write up a list of new words on the board and expect the class to pick them up immediately then you are most likely going to be disappointed. When introducing new vocabulary it...  [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]

  This unit tackled different ways on how to evaluate students' levels and progress. There are three ways to do it namely tutorials, evaluation by the students, and tests. Tests were discussed more in-d This three part unit was different in that it addressed the competing modes of communication in a classroom. Many of my experiences have been with teaching speech, while the head teacher mainly lets w Material use in the classroom is important to move students from beginners with created materials to an intermediate level with authentic materials. Comfort of created materials allows for more shy st The video unit was very interesting. The unit provided two videos of an ESL lesson with very different vibes. The first showed a seemingly unprepared instructor who mumbled through much of...  [Read more]

  Moving further down our list of parts of speech, we have our adjectives. Adjectives modify or describe nouns. Basically, they give more information about the noun. Here, we've used a noun such as chair. It could be any old chair. It's only the noun. If we want to describe the noun, we need to use an adjective before it. So, I could say "I have an old black leather chair". Here, we have to be concerned about the adjective order. In this instance, I started with age, as age typically goes before color and then I use the color to go before the material. This is a certain pattern. Depending on the adjectives you want to use, you always have to use certain patterns to which you'll need to be aware of when teaching your class. Another way to describe a noun is by showing possession. We...  [Read more]