What Do We Celebrate On Halloween

To make your TESOL classes more hands-on, there are several strategies you can implement to engage your students actively in the learning process. By incorporating interactive activities, real-life scenarios, and practical tasks, you can create a dynamic and immersive learning environment that enhances language acquisition and retention. Here are some tips to make your TESOL classes more hands-on: First and foremost, consider the learning styles and preferences of your students. Some learners may thrive in a hands-on environment, while others may prefer more traditional methods. By catering to different learning styles, you can create a more inclusive and engaging classroom experience. One effective way to make your TESOL classes more hands-on is to incorporate interactive games and...  [Read more]

ITTT is dedicated to assisting you throughout your TESOL training and to providing you with a means of support during your ensuing teaching career. If you have any questions regarding our courses, please see our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section below. Our TESOL FAQs should be able to answer most of your questions, but if you have any other queries do not hesitate to contact us by submitting them using the form at the bottom of this page. What does TESOL mean?   The acronym TESOL stands for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. The term is commonly used when referring to certification courses that provide the skills necessary to teach the English language to non-native speakers in your own country or abroad. Read more What is the difference between TESOL...  [Read more]

A TESOL certification is the main certification required by ESL employers worldwide and the minimum level that most now expect is a 120-hour certificate. There are two main routes to obtaining such certification: in-class and online TESOL courses. As the name implies these courses are undertaken at some location in the world where English is being taught as a second language. Typically these courses require attendance of about four weeks. Due to the accommodation requirement of these courses they tend to be the more expensive of the two options. They do normally however include a teaching practice component that is a huge benefit when preparing to teach in the real world. These courses do not require attendance at any particular location and can be done at any pace from within your...  [Read more]

  So, the document itself needs to contain some general information about the class, for example the name of the teacher, the date and time of the lesson, what level of class is being taught and in what room, how many students are we expecting, this is important, when we've got things like photocopying and materials to do, what is the context of the lesson, in other words, what is the lesson actually about, what vocabulary or grammar point is this lesson covering and sometimes it's also useful to write out what the focus of the lesson is. So, in effect, the context of the lesson is telling us the grammar point, for example, that might be the present continuous tense, whereas the focus is telling us how we're going to go about teaching it. Another example to illustrate this: Let's...  [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]

Financial reward is not the main priority for everyone who chooses to teach English abroad, however, the ability to live comfortably and to enjoy all that you new home has to offer is certainly something most people consider. To ensure you are able to earn a good income and have the option of saving some of it to fund travel or to pay off student loans, there are a few things you can do before you leave home and after you arrive in your new country of residence. Probably the most important thing you can do to help your earning potential before leaving home is to complete an internationally recognized TESOL certification course. TESOL certification is rapidly becoming an essential qualification in many of the most popular teaching destinations worldwide, particularly those that offer...  [Read more]

Teaching English online generally requires all the same skills and knowledge as in-class teaching, although you will also need to be confident with the technology involved. Some online teaching platforms operate their lessons via their own software, while others operate using general communication programs such as Google Classroom or Zoom. If you choose to go down the online teaching route you will find that there are just as many different potential scenarios as there are in traditional classroom teaching. You might find yourself teaching only kindergarten children or only adults, or any other mix in between. Your lessons might be strictly one-to-one or you might have groups of various sizes. Specialized courses such as business English are also a common option. As online teaching...  [Read more]

In the world of English language teaching you will come across a number of abbreviations, some of which are very similar and easily confused. One common confusion is between the terms ESL and ELL. The simple answer is that ESL is an abbreviation for English as a Second Language, and ELL is an abbreviation for English Language Learner. The term ESL refers to the course or class, whereas ELL refers to the English student. ESL stands for "English as a Second Language." This term refers to programs designed specifically for ELL students. For example, many schools have an ESL class for ELL students. These classes frequently make use of ESL-specific programs and curricula. ESL is a broad term that refers to the tools and methods used to teach ELL students. ELL stands for "English Language...  [Read more]

  The next example of a game that we can adapt very easily for classroom use is the game of Jeopardy and in this particular game, what we can do is to have a set of levels for our questions, I'd say one through five, where one is going to be the easiest example and five is going to be the most difficult and then, in each of these sets of boxes, we can have various grammar points, such as tenses, perhaps modals, vocabulary and maybe even conditionals. So what the students can do is they can pick a particular topic first of all and within that topic, they can pick the level of the question that they want and then we can have a set of cards that have been created to fit into these slots and we can ask them that question at that level. So, a very simple adaptation of the game jeopardy...  [Read more]

  So, having elicited this particular structure, what I'm now able to do is to move on to the actual study activities. Typically, they will be in the form of worksheets to check that the students actually understand this information. So, I might prepare three activities. They may not do them all but, for example, I could prepare these three study activities. So, the first one is going to be a fairly straightforward matching activity, where perhaps they match the subject to its correct verb "to be" in that part of the sentence. The second one is going to be a gap fill. For example, I might use this verb here and ask them to complete a sentence using that verb, so that I can check that any spelling changes that take place are correct and the final one is going to be an unscramble,...  [Read more]

  In this video, we focus on the difference between the usage of "do" and "make". We use the verb 'do' when someone performs an action, activity or task. Some common expression with 'do' include : do a crossword, do the ironing, do your job, do the dishes, and do homework. We also use the verb 'do' when referring to things in general and to describe an action without saying exactly what the action is. In this case, 'do' is often used with the words 'something, nothing, anything, everything, for example ' I'm not doing anything today', or ' He does everything for his wife'.There are also a number of fixed expressions that always take the verb 'do', such as: do badly, do business, do a favor, do good, and do harm, just to name a few. On the other hand, we use the verb...  [Read more]

For many ESL teachers a standard-level course such as the 120-hour TESOL certification course from ITTT is the only official teaching qualification they ever take. This level of certification will allow you to apply for a wide range of teaching jobs in countries worldwide. Some teachers also add one or more specialized TESOL qualifications to their portfolio in order to further their own understanding and to add more options to their job search. The next step up is an advanced-level certificate such as the Diploma in TESOL that takes an in-depth look at the theory side of teaching. Finally, teachers who want to rise to the very top of the ESL industry often sign up for university-level courses such as a Degree or even a Master’s in TESOL. Depending on the country you are in, there...  [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]

The simple and straightforward answer to this question is: No, you do not need a degree to take a TESOL course or to land a teaching position abroad. While it is true that having a degree means you will have a wider choice of job options, those without one still have plenty of great options available in a wide range of countries across the world. Whatever your academic background, teaching English in your home country, overseas, or online is still a very realistic option. Whether a degree is required to teach English is usually determined by the authorities of each individual country. Some countries where ESL teaching is very popular have imposed restrictions on foreign teachers that insist they have a degree in order to qualify for an official work permit. In these situations,...  [Read more]

Due to the ever growing popularity of English language learning, the number of TESOL certification providers is also increasing. Considering the fact that there is not much in the way of regulation in the TESOL industry, prospective applicants should be cautious when choosing one. Luckily, there are certain steps you can take in order to check the validity of a program you are interested in. In a nutshell, what you should look at in the first place is the course provider’s accreditation by an independent body. If a TESOL course is accredited by a third party institution, it means their academic standards have been thoroughly checked and recognized. When considering a specific TESOL course, try to carry out some proper research of the provider’s credibility. Start with their own...  [Read more]

When it comes to choosing the best online TESOL certification course you need to consider all the main options, what you want the qualification for, and what you hope to achieve with it once certified. First we will look at all the main online course options. The different types of online courses are easily separated by the average number of hours they require to complete them. Weekend courses: These are often marketed as “taster courses” and are done mainly at weekends to give those who are already employed a chance to see what TESOL is about. Due to time constraints (they usually last about 10 hours in total) there is limited material covered in terms of teaching and learning, but they can be useful to help you decide if doing a full course would be worthwhile for you. Short...  [Read more]

  This presentation is going to have a look at the idea of receptive skills and how we can go about teaching receptive skills lessons. There are two receptive skills and they are reading and listening. If we think about first of all, why do we read or listen, then there are probably two main answers to that. Firstly, it could either be for entertainment or it could be for a specific purpose. Within the reading and listening areas there are a number of sub-skills that we can teach our students. Firstly, what we can do is to show different examples of reading. So, let's say, for example, that we have just bought ourselves a new video camera and along with that video camera came a whole book of instructions. In order to find out how to get that camera working, then we would need to...  [Read more]

  This presentation is going to focus on the ESA methodology of teaching. In our teaching methodologies section, we briefly had a look at what ESA was about, but in this presentation, we're going to look in greater detail about that particular methodology. This particular methodology is accredited to Jeremy Harmer from his "Practice of English language Teaching" book. It's a three-stage methodology and what we're going to do is to look at the purpose of each one of these stages and some typical activities that take place during those stages. So, the first stage is known as the engage and its sole purpose, as the name implies, is to get the students talking and thinking in English. There is no reason whatsoever, when these students come to your class, that they should have said a...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified in Portugal? Are you interested in teaching English in Porto, Portugal? Check out our opportunities in Porto, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English in your community or abroad! Teflonline.net offers a wide variety of Online TESOL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Here Below you can check out the feedback (for one of our units) of one of the 16.000 students that last year took an online course with ITTT! The troubleshooting was a meaningful one because we as teachers have to be aware of every problem that we could have in classes, those are common problems but sometimes we do not know what to do or we...  [Read more]

  So, for the study phase what we're going to do is to show them the idea of the cartoon strip. In the cartoon strip what there's going to be are some people with speech bubbles and this is going to represent where dialogue will appear and in the bottom, there are these rectangular boxes, where there will be descriptive things happening. So, it will explain the actual situation that these people are in. So, we get across the idea, first of all, that these are speech and these are for description and we can then show them a blank one of these cartoon strips and try to elicit from our students what could possibly the people be saying and in what actual situation are they in, in order for them to say that. Once we've gone through that, we can move on to our first study activity and in...  [Read more]