Does Everyone Celebrate Halloween

It would seem as though everyone has their own customized method of teaching; however when these philosophies are reduced some fundamental trends emerge. Since any person's perception and interpretation would individualize these fundamental methodologies (especially once put into practice) I will attempt to focus on the more concrete objective bases of these notions. The specific methodologies I will be discussing include: The Grammar Translation Approach, The Direct Method, Community Language Learning, The Audio- Lingual Method and the Functional-Notional Approach. Grammar-Translation This approach dates back to the late 19th century and was primarily geared towards teaching dead languages- Latin and Greek. The name of the approach insinuates the method, translating...  [Read more]

Everyone agrees that learning a second language is more difficult than picking up our native language. However, why this is so is still a question of great debate in the scientific community.Most children with normal intelligence and neurological development will easily pick up their native language. The ease of this process is something that still mystifies scientists. Furthermore, parents do not usually make painstaking efforts to teach their children to speak. In many ways, the process appears innate; the child either “absorbs” the language through immersion or models the language that he or she hears her parents speaking.Although we speak of language learning as innate, recent scientific studies seem to point to the fact that the brain is not hard- wired with...  [Read more]

Motivation is the psychological feature that arouses an individual to action toward a desired goal. Motivation can also be the reason for an individual's action or that which gives purpose and direction to behaviour. In other words, motivation is an incentive that generates goal-directed behaviour.Being able to achieve something that you may have thought impossible and making it a reality. If you are learning a new language because your parents want you to might be difficult for you to motivate yourself however if there is a reward at the end of it you may still try hard to succeed. Therefore motivation can come in different forms and when in a classroom students will be motivated by different things. Finding what motivates each individual can make teaching easier, rewarding,...  [Read more]

Understanding diversity in the classroom is of high importance for teachers. In society, educational institutions represent a rare opportunity for developing friendly relations among the worlds many ethnic groups. The open exchange in classrooms can contribute to a type of exchange found nowhere else in society. So teachers must not ignore multiethnic relations. The potential challenges a teacher faces for acknowledging the differences in students will be well rewarded if done with respect. Unfortunately, no matter the age or background, ethnicity perceptions are commonly found in individuals. Children are no exception. A study of Dutch and Turkish children conducted in the Netherlands showed that biases about ethnicity are widespread. Boys showed more ethnic bias...  [Read more]

Understanding diversity in the classroom is of high importance for teachers. In society, educational institutions represent a rare opportunity for developing friendly relations among the worlds many ethnic groups. The open exchange in classrooms can contribute to a type of exchange found nowhere else in society. So teachers must not ignore multiethnic relations. The potential challenges a teacher faces for acknowledging the differences in students will be well rewarded if done with respect. Unfortunately, no matter the age or background, ethnicity perceptions are commonly found in individuals. Children are no exception. A study of Dutch and Turkish children conducted in the Netherlands showed that biases about ethnicity are widespread. Boys showed more ethnic bias than girls,...  [Read more]

The term Active Learning means ''student interaction with content, with materials and with peers in a multi-disciplinary, multi-sensory and multi-graded approach' (Meyers, 1993 pg 39). Active learning helps the teacher handle the diversity of student levels in the classroom.In an Active Learning classroom the student is provided with the time, the materials, and the organized classroom routines and expectations they need in order to allow them interaction with their learning. It is important for educators to realize that Active Learning supports not only English-speaking students but second- language learners as well.If we think that students are learning English so that they can use it in their everyday lives to better themselves and their opportunities, we must realize that...  [Read more]

Seating arrangements are much more complex than students imagine. A proper and suitable seating arrangement can help a class thrive, but a poorly designed or chosen arrangement may result in classroom disorder. Seating arrangements are the key to classroom management and organization. Not only do they determine how well the teacher maintains control, but they also balance class dynamics. Teachers therefore must take several factors into consideration before settling on a seat arrangement, such as. how the teacher-student relationships will vary, how the arrangement will affect the classroom atmosphere, which arrangements allow the teacher to maintain control over the classroom, how it will affect the teacher's role, how well the students can still communicate, how it works...  [Read more]

A teacher can provide the greatest source of information for many students. In many ways, a teacher is a mentor for whom the students can turn to for encouragement, knowledge, and feedback. Thus, a teacher must be available and receptive to his/her students to provide a support system when conquering a new language. By motivating the students to try the language concepts and to participate, a teacher is building the foundation necessary for the students to gain interest in this field. Many teachers believe in situated motivation, where the teacher is responsible for the environmental and extrinsic conditions (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia website). Without encouragement and motivation, it is unlikely that the students will want to expand their knowledge and be willing to...  [Read more]

  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. After a hard test from the previous lesson, here comes the easy test for the mellow lesson. This lesson refers to receptive skills including reading and listening. The first thing a baby learn is by listening to their family and the surroundings. Listening and reading skill are both equally important so then both are needed for daily usage. We have to use our receptive skills daily or so very often such...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word "purport". This word is a noun and is a synonym for the words implied or conveyed. The word comes from Middle English and Anglo-French and was first used in the English language in the 15th century. An example sentence with the word purport includes: Everyone was informed of the purport of the letter. 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 issue of course books is almost an eternal debate...  [Read more]

Deciding to leave your old life behind and head overseas to teach English is a big move to make and one that can come with a few issues. One that many people encounter is how to stay in regular contact with friends and family. However old and independent you might be, the people you leave behind are likely to have some concerns and it certainly helps them and yourself if you are able to keep everyone informed of your experiences. While it is easy to make excuses and pass the buck, it ultimately is down to you to maintain relationships while you are teaching English abroad. The people you leave behind will have little understanding of the time difference, or your new work schedule, which means it is up to you to find the best time to make a phone or webcam call and to make the necessary...  [Read more]

  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 content of this unit was concise and I believe it is essential for everyone to understand this subject, teacher or not. It is not something we think about all the time and it will probably happen automatically once a person manages to grasp the basics. Since parts of speech was a subject I did at school in my mother language, I never had any big issues with the concepts in English, but I'm not sure how...  [Read more]

  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 5 was motivating and enjoyable to work through. I was able to imagine a future class that I am teaching, picturing my classroom, considering ways to make this space unique, interactive and genuinely promote learning. The class room should be arranged in a way that everyone feels comfortable and can see and hear the teacher. The teacher must find the balance between controlling the class without becoming...  [Read more]

Fill out the form below to contact ITTT and select the type of request, so that we can manage it as quickly as possible. If you have already purchased one of ITTT's courses and you need help or additional information, please contact us using the form below. Make sure that you specify, in the subject and in the text field, what the issue is and what kind of help you require. If you have signed up for an online course, you should also specify your user ID. We will get back to you as soon as possible; usually within 12 hours (during working days) but often within as little as 2 hours. We at ITTT know that you might have many questions before choosing a course that best suits your individual needs and circumstances. We encourage everyone to first read over our FAQ pages as many questions are...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word eloquent. This word means a person who is fluent and also persuasive in both speaking or writing. It can also refer to the action of clearly indication or expressing something. The word comes from Latin eloqui meaning to speak out. 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. I don't quite understand why we are being taught "TEFL jargon", if at the end of the day we are barred from using such thins...  [Read more]

In September of 2006, I had the opportunity to teach conversational English to graduate students at Huazhong University in China. On the last day of teaching, I asked students to write up an evaluation regarding the activities they liked best. Highlights included: the importance of establishing teacher rapport, the need to provide a wide variety of engaging activities and the value of peer interaction. Establishing rapport between the students and the teacher is a key factor in encouraging students to participate in class. The littlest things?like remembering names -- can make a big difference: ?As a student when you said my name without looking at the name list. I?m so excited and joyful. I think it?s important to a student.? Smiling is another simple thing any...  [Read more]

  In this video we explain the difference in using "bad" and "badly". The key difference is that 'bad' is used as an adjective and 'badly' as an adverb. Therfore, 'bad' describes that something is not good, while 'badly' refers to something that is done in a bad manner, harmfully or in correctly. A good example sentence for 'bad' would be "Jenny had a car accident today. This is bad". Let's look at an example for 'badly': "Austin behaved badly". I'm sure you'll never confuse the two words again. 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...  [Read more]

Check out Tesolcourse.com about Cheapest 100 Hour Online TEFL and apply today to be certified to teach English abroad. You could also be interested in: This is how our TEFL graduates feel they have gained from their course, and how they plan to put into action what they learned: S. J. - Australia said: Well I sure got a brush up my tense knowledge that?s for sure! I?ve really enjoyed this course, it?s opened my eyes up to knowledge I didn?t even know that I was using naturally. I really get a kick out of teaching people, so I really look forward to getting out there and getting a job. I?m generally pretty good at finding my feet but this course is going to help me a lot. The lesson planning section I found particularly useful and have enjoyed learning about this. ...  [Read more]

With world-class surfing and diving, a large number of cultural, historical, and archaeological attractions, and an enormous range of accommodations, Bali is one of the world’s most popular island destinations and one which consistently wins travel awards. Get TEFL Accredited in Bali, the famed Island of the Gods, with its varied landscape of hills and mountains, rugged coastlines and sandy beaches, lush rice terraces, and barren volcanic hillsides all providing a picturesque backdrop to its colorful, deeply spiritual, and unique culture stakes a serious claim to be paradise on earth. Bali is known for tourist hotspots that cater to surfer dudes, budget-backpackers as well as high end luxury travellers. But there is a side to Bali that many do not experience- and the road less travelled...  [Read more]

  Before looking at specific teaching ideas for the present simple tense, let's first look at some considerations for teaching ideas in general. We have to remember that these activities will be used in the activate stage of your lesson. Here, the focus will be on building fluency and using the language in a bit more of a free-flowing way yet still focusing on that class' language point. We also have to consider the appropriacy for a number of factors: timings. Whether the activity will be too short or too long. We want to look at ages making sure that the activity is appropriate for young learners or adult learners. We also have to take into consideration our language levels. Will the activity be appropriate for our starters or our pre-intermediates or our intermediates? Will the...  [Read more]

The idea of classroom management is something that every future teacher must plan and contemplate thoroughly before starting his/her teaching career. While each teacher will approach classroom management in their own way, there are some major areas that must be covered. First, a teacher must make the students understand the expectations and consequences concerning the class. In order to ensure that classroom learning is conducive to both the physical and emotional growth of the student, rules that explain what behavior is expected need to be reviewed. After rules and procedures are established, it is important that the teacher admires good performance and provides negative consequences for unacceptable behavior. Simple physical signs like a “thumbs up” or a...  [Read more]

The idea of classroom management is something that every future teacher must plan and contemplate thoroughly before starting his/her teaching career. While each teacher will approach classroom management in their own way, there are some major areas that must be covered. First, a teacher must make the students understand the expectations and consequences concerning the class. In order to ensure that classroom learning is conducive to both the physical and emotional growth of the student, rules that explain what behavior is expected need to be reviewed. After rules and procedures are established, it is important that the teacher admires good performance and provides negative consequences for unacceptable behavior. Simple physical signs like a ?thumbs up? or a verbal...  [Read more]

  The next idea we're going to consider is the use of visual aids and visual aids can include some examples such as real, objects, which we call realia, the use of pictures and photographs and also the use of models. So let's consider some of the ideas surrounding the use of visual aids. Well, why are they useful? Well, first of all the use of a visual aid can reduce teacher talk time. It's very much more simple just to show a real object than to try to describe it so that we could just ask the students ?what is this,? and they would say ?this is a pen,? rather than trying to actually describe it. Again if we were trying to show examples of fruit and vegetables rather than to try and describe them why not use an actual model and this is going to be much more visually stimulating...  [Read more]

For the purpose of this article I assume that there is absolutely no difference between TEFL and TESOL, they are both a means of teaching English to people who do not have it as their first language. So why do people think to themselves sitting at home, maybe I will train to be a teacher, but not a regular teacher that we all grew up with at school. But someone who teaches the English language to non English speakers in foreign countries. Well the reasons are varied but almost everyone can identify themselves with at least one. Some realize that the jobs they work in are not quite what they thought they would do growing up. So in search of excitement and something more worthwhile they sign up to TEFL. Others like myself are really gypsies and have a great urge 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]

Learning another language is a difficult process. The use of games in the classroom can make the process enjoyable and less difficult. Games motivate students to participate in classroom activities. Playing games is good practice of using the English language and should be done every so often. Students get a chance to relax from studying and figure out cooperatively how to win the game. They do not think that they are learning from the game but they are. At the same time the students are being challenged mentally. ?Games can lower anxiety, thus making the acquisition of input more likely?(Richard Amato 1988:147). Shy students who do not participate on a regular basis have the opportunity and usually capitalize on it when playing games. When learning English...  [Read more]

This particular subject appealed to me. I whole heartedly support the idea of teaching slang and idioms to students learning English. If you were to listen to any conversation taking place, you would hear slang and idioms being used very frequently throughout the conversation. You can teach a student how to speak proper English and they would, by right, be very proud of what they had accomplished. Then put those very same students in a situation such as a business meeting or conducting a conversation with a potential client and these students would be totally out of their element. For instance, if a former student were meeting a potential client from the South, as in texas perhaps, the student would of course introduce him/herself and then ask how they were. Being...  [Read more]

This particular subject appealed to me. I whole heartedly support the idea of teaching slang and idioms to students learning English. If you were to listen to any conversation taking place, you would hear slang and idioms being used very frequently throughout the conversation. You can teach a student how to speak proper English and they would, by right, be very proud of what they had accomplished. Then put those very same students in a situation such as a business meeting or conducting a conversation with a potential client and these students would be totally out of their element. For instance, if a former student were meeting a potential client from the South, as in Texas perhaps, the student would of course introduce him/herself and then ask how they were. Being from...  [Read more]

Language and culture are inextricable extensions of each other. As globalization increasingly homogenizes mainstream culture worldwide, it follows, too, that a single language would complementarily spread across the globe. That language is English, which, although it does not have the largest number of speakers (that would be Mandarin Chinese), it is the most widely spoken language throughout the world (Wallraff, 2000). While many are familiar with the fact that English is spoken around the world, not as many are aware of the intense debate revolving around what the language?s future direction should be. Some wish to spread English to every corner of the globe, believing that if everyone could communicate in the same language, then we could essentially achieve world...  [Read more]

Language and culture are inextricable extensions of each other. As globalization increasingly homogenizes mainstream culture worldwide, it follows, too, that a single language would complementarily spread across the globe. That language is English, which, although it does not have the largest number of speakers (that would be Mandarin Chinese), it is the most widely spoken language throughout the world (Wallraff, 2000).While many are familiar with the fact that English is spoken around the world, not as many are aware of the intense debate revolving around what the language's future direction should be. Some wish to spread English to every corner of the globe, believing that if everyone could communicate in the same language, then we could essentially achieve world peace and...  [Read more]