English Grammar Overview - Parts of Speech - Prepositions

Moving further down our list of the parts of speech, we have our prepositions. Prepositions show a relationship between a noun or a pronoun and the rest of the sentence. We have three main categories: time, place, movement as well as a miscellaneous category that doesn't fit the other three. Here, we can have prepositions of time: before, during, in, at or on. If I said, "I work at eight o'clock," I'm sharing a relationship between the time "eight o'clock" to the rest of the sentence. We have our prepositions of place: in, at, on, under, in between. If I said, "The book is under the table," I'm showing a relationship between the table and the rest of the sentence. Then, we have our prepositions of movement. These show movement: towards, from, to or through. I could say, "He walked through the park." I'm relating the park to the rest of the sentence. Finally, we have our others: of, with, for, etc. I could say "This is a gift for Gary." Again, I'm showing a relationship between Gary and the rest of the sentence. Of course, the prepositions listed here are just a small example of all the propositions.

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.

The two lessons presented clearly demonstrate the stark differences between good language teaching and poor language teaching. These differences are not only clear in the procedures chosen to teach but rather many of the differences are concerned with how the procedures are carried out. Upon examination, the first video lesson contains many errors. At the beginning of the lesson he breaks the cardinal rule of ESL teaching: keep the language simple. By constantly using complex, technical terms the only aim that he can possibly achieve is to confuse his students. He also repeatedly emphasizes how easy the concept. This can lower student self-esteem when they can't answer. Even though he does check for understanding, he does it in an undesirable way. Asking if there are any questions and asking the students if they understand is not a valid way of checking for understanding. During the study phase, he fails to explain any of the exercises. As if it couldn't get worse, he doesn't even monitor the students' progress while they are completing said exercises. In the activate stage, he give a brief explanation of what to do but fails to give any example as to what he would like the students to produce. Moving away from the technical aspects of his teaching, his behavioral components to the art of teaching can be examined. His unpleasant demeanor and scowl set the mood for the lesson. His blatant lack of respect for the students is evident in the lack of compassion he has for students while giving feedback and while responding to questions asked by his students. When a student is brave enough to ask a question he ignores her because he can't understand the question rather than asking her to clarify or helping her express herself. When a second person asks a questions about the difference between modal verbs \"can\" and \"could\" he tells her that he'll explain it later. Twenty minutes later, he deigns to respond to her questions, interrupting the current activity, only to lie to her about the question. Ethically, his performance is startling. The second video lesson is a much more successful lesson. The change in demeanor is noticeable from the very beginning. He is smiling and projects a very positive air. He introduces himself and goes over each student's name. His use of humor makes him much more approachable and makes the lesson much more positive. He not only acts in a more appropriate manner, he also teaches using much more sound teaching practices. In the engage stage, he mimes and uses visuals to elicit vocabulary and responses from the students. He also gives clear instructions, before passing out materials, in the study stage. Before the students work on their activity for the activate stage, he gives a clear, humorous example of what he expects from them. While the second video is far superior to the first there are still a few things that could be changed to produce a better lesson. He could have anticipated the pronunciation problems with \"can't\" and planned in time to work on its pronunciation. He also should have explained that he didn't want them to use \"can not\" before passing out the activity as some students had already begun working. His use of obscure bird and monkey varieties could have been avoided. This not only would have prevented the pronunciation problems that they experienced but also would have saved more time to focus on more pertinent vocabulary.