Do You Speak Chinese In English

Wed, 27 Feb 2019 Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences How Learning Chinese Made Me A Better English Teacher In China 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. Table of Contents What do you call someone who speaks only one language? "My insights into their language and culture were incredibly helpful." "Many Chinese are anxious about speaking English with natives - more so than is to be considered normative." "The best ESL teachers are the ones with experience with the native language of their students." Listen to this blog post Now it's your turn to get TEFL certified! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Joseph S. What do you call someone...  [Read more]

Tue, 11 Jun 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Common Difficulties in Teaching English to Native Mandarin Speakers Learning a second language can be difficult, and this is especially true when the learners L1 and their target language are completely different in structure, sound, and tones. An English as a second language student who speaks French, German, or any other European language will have an easier task than one who speaks a language that is not of European origins. One such language is Mandarin Chinese. Table of Contents State of The Problem The Chinese Language Structure Tenses Sentence Structure Do you want to teach English in China? Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ashley L. Please note that this blog post might not...  [Read more]

Wed, 06 May 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences What Challenges do Chinese Learners of English Face in their Studies? Teaching English in China has become very popular for ESL teachers and many are looking for job opportunities in China. Finding a teaching job in China isn't too hard but working with Chinese students can be quite challenging. Table of Contents Grammar Challenge Pronunciation Challenge Environmental Challenge Cultural Challenge Generation Gap Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate VIKTORIIA H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Grammar Challenge Chinese grammar is very different from English and many Chinese...  [Read more]

Wed, 20 Feb 2019 Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences 4 Things To Keep in Mind When Teaching EFL in a Kindergarten As a kindergarten teacher working in China I have a lot of experience dealing with students, fellow teachers; Chinese and foreign, management and parents. Table of Contents Potential problems you might face in a Chinese kindergarten You can call on other foreign teachers for advice and support Getting to know your students will help you teach them Parents like to be involved Start your journey as an English teacher in China today! Related Articles: Listen to this blog post A few years ago I came to China to learn Chinese. To pay for my living expenses I started teaching young learners. Pretty soon I got a full-time job in a kindergarten and I fell in love with the work and I...  [Read more]

Mon, 13 May 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English Learning Problems For Chinese Native Speakers and Solutions Most teachers come to China to teach English with only a general idea about Chinese culture and language which they should have to deal with as soon as they arrive in China. The reason I chose this topic is that I am fluent in Chinese and have experienced Chinese culture in all its facets for over than seven years. But let's not beat around the bush and get down to the nitty-gritty. Table of Contents Shyness/lack of confidence: Grammar issues: Pronunciation issues: Th: /s/ instead of /th/ V: /w/ instead of /v/ (mostly with southern Chinese) Lt: /t/ instead of /lt/ Intonation: Lack of learning structure: Do you want to teach English in China? Related Articles: ...  [Read more]

Fri, 27 Dec 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Problems for Young English Learners in Public Schools in China Since the opening of China to the Western world, Chinese society and economic prowess have both continued to grow at exponential rates. This has led to its status as a rising power, culturally and economically, and an international power increasingly interconnected with many parts of the globe. As Chinese educational infrastructure tries to match pace with the rapidity of the country's progress, one educational mandate that has persisted in importance over time has been that of English learning for all young learners across the country. The government sees English proficiency as a matter of national economic competitiveness, in fact requiring that English is taught as...  [Read more]

Fri, 01 Nov 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Personal Teaching Experience in China and Russia In this topic, I will be talking about my own "Personal Teaching Experience" in two Asian countries that I've had the privilege to work in and teach such as, China and Russia. So you might want to ask yourselves, What's the difference between teaching Chinese and Russian students? Well honestly there is a huge difference so let's get started. Table of Contents Culture Assistance Personal Experience Teaching Materials Teaching Methods Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Jhonatan J. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Culture First...  [Read more]

Accreditation Course TEFL Check out tefl tesol about Accreditation Course 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: Check out ITTT's Blog Posts A. J. & J. S. - USA said: English as a global language English is used all around the world. Most commonly, it has dominated the business world. As someone with an anthropological background, this is a very difficult concept to rationalize. Currently there are approximately seven thousand spoken languages in the world. This number is constantly dwindling as the last speaker of that language dies. This is evident when looking at the Native American tribes. When...  [Read more]

Thu, 12 Sep 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas How to Deal With Problems That Learners of English Face in China Nowadays, English is becoming more and more popular and significant in China because of globalization. In big cities, parents send their kids to all kinds of organizations/schools to study English in their early three years. Some capable parents even use English as their communicative language from the first day the baby was born. No matter how early Chinese starts learning English, it's still not our mother language and the atmosphere is still in Chinese, which makes learning English not as easy as those in English countries. Table of Contents Different Dialects Aims of Learning Useful Methods 1. Environment 2. Role Model 3. Games 4. Family guidance Do you want to...  [Read more]

Thu, 28 Nov 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The Drastic Problems of Chinese Learners in English Language has always played an important role in communication between people. Today, in the globalization, the importance of mastering a foreign language has become increasingly prominent. English is the most widely used language in the world. Table of Contents English Status in China Reasons for Low Results in English Economical Challenges Differences in Two Languages Cultural Background Lack of Proper Study Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Xiao W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. English Status in China In the 21st...  [Read more]

Wed, 05 Aug 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The Differences of Acquiring Mandarin Chinese as the First Language and English as the Second This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Susan T S G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Table of Contents Background Definition of First vs Second Language My Own Experiences with Acquired vs Learning Languages Sentence Structures Verbs and Alphabets Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! Background Singapore is a multilingual and multi-ethnic society. We have four official languages Malay, English, Chinese (Mandarin), and Tamil, with Malay as our...  [Read more]

Fri, 29 May 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Common Learning Difficulties Faced in ESL Settings Learning is always hard especially learning something new such as English learning. English is a different new language compared with Chinese, so when we are learning, definitely we will meet all kinds of difficulties in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Table of Contents Most beginners think listening is the most difficult part of English learning. Speaking can be improved dramatically from zero in a short time but it's quite difficult to speak accurately. For most Chinese people, English reading is not as difficult as listening or speaking. Writing is always the hardest part of English for Chinese students. Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course today!...  [Read more]

Tue, 06 Aug 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The Difficulties and Rewards of Teaching Chinese Students For the past twenty years, I have had the pleasure of teaching English to Chinese students of all ages in both Taiwan and mainland China. The following are my observations: Table of Contents Listen to this blog post: Ancient Culture Differences in Students' Behavior Lack of Confidence Acceptance Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course today! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Eugene E. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Listen to this blog post: Ancient Culture If one were to argue that Socrates was the beginning of modern Western Civilization, one could...  [Read more]

Mon, 20 Apr 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Should Chinese ESL Students Have Explicit Phonetic Instruction? During nine years of teaching English as a Second language, I have discovered how important phonetics is in learning the correct pronunciation of the English language, and in fact, in any language. Derwing and Munro (2005) emphasize, "It is essential to have an accurate understanding of the target language phonological system to enhance the quality of pronunciation". Table of Contents We should look at some of the problems that L2 learners have when trying to produce accurate L1 language patterns. We also have to take into account the students. Chinese students are very reluctant to speak in a classroom setting. So what pronunciation mistakes are most common? Do you...  [Read more]

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences This Is Why Parents Say It's Vital to Travel To Learn A Language Travel had benefits for all of us. Particularly for our children. Our twin baby boys are mixed-race and mixed-cultured and equal importance will be placed on both sides of their heritage while maintaining a truly international worldview. We plan to raise them as true world citizens. Table of Contents Developmental Plan Cultural Exposure Holidays Final Thoughts Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mingke R. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Developmental Plan We plan to focus on a few areas to strengthen their...  [Read more]

Mon, 02 Sep 2019 Dorothy Brown Smith Destinations Alumni Experiences Ten Things I Have Learned During My First Year Teaching in China I have always wanted to travel and go abroad. I talked about it with family and friends on many occasions. When the opportunity came for me to teach in China, I immediately said, "NO!" I was thinking of traveling to places like South America, France, Italy, Greece, etc. because I had romanticized these places in my mind from what I had seen on television and read about in magazines. China was not even a thought in my mind! The opportunity kept coming to teach in China. I would see advertisements, run into people who had just came back from China. I even met someone studying Chinese to be an interpreter! I kept running into people who had some kind of...  [Read more]

Fri, 28 Feb 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The Typical Challenges for Chinese English Learners This essay answers the question for number 10 "what are the main problems for learners in the country of China?" I am a professor at Jiangnan University in Wuxi, China and share my observations. Our students are in the North American College (NAC), with partners in Canada at Lambton College and Northwood University, USA. Three areas are most interesting to their learning challenges: college preparation, listening and writing. Table of Contents Exam System Lexical Units Digital Autism Writing Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Annette P. Please note that this blog post might not...  [Read more]

Thu, 19 Sep 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Common Struggles of the Chinese Native Speakers Learning English Most researchers agree that the learner's first language influences the pronunciation of the target language and is a significant factor in accounting for foreign accents. So-called interference or interference from the first language is likely to cause errors in aspiration, stress, and intonation in the target language. Table of Contents Phonetics Unusual Sounds Language Structure Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Vesna A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Phonetics Some Chinese students tend to have...  [Read more]

Fri, 27 Dec 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Pronunciation Problems for Learners Speaking Chinese as their First Language This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Sheneil J. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Table of Contents Problems with Consonants Problems with Vowels Problems with Rhythm and Stress Problems with intonation Minimal Pairs Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: Problems with Consonants Chinese does not have either of the "th" sounds (like "that" and "this"). Most other languages do not have these sounds and they are problematic for most learners of English. The difficulty is the point of articulation- the tongue has to be between the teeth, not...  [Read more]

Wed, 29 Jan 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences How English as a Mother Tongue influences Foreign Language Acquisition When I chose this topic, I asked myself what a foreign language is. Is it just a language spoken in another country that's not similar to one's own? Or does a language spoken in another city or district in one's country qualify as a foreign language? According to Wikipedia, a foreign language is originally from another country than the speaker. Table of Contents English as a Mother Tongue French Experience Exposure to Chinese Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nafuna M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of...  [Read more]

Thu, 22 Aug 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Useful Teaching Ideas for EFL Kindergartens in China Working as an English teacher in the kindergarten is very entertaining and challenging, as the teacher will deal with the children who don't have even a basic knowledge of English, have the very short attention span and very different in terms of their behavior. Before I moved to China, I haven't prior experience in teaching the kindergarten level students, because I always thought that teaching the young learners would be annoying, hard to discipline and far too energy-consuming. So what I had learned was just through my own experience. Table of Contents My Experience Rapport Building Lesson Planning Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course today! Related Articles: ...  [Read more]

Thu, 16 May 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Common Troubles of the Chinese Students You’ll Definitely Notice English is one of the most widely spoken languages and it is taught in a lot of countries. Globalization, fast economic development makes many people study English. People learn English for different reasons: business, education, life abroad, traveling, personal interest. Chinese students are not an exception. With the growing economies of China, the need for learning English increased dramatically. What challenges do Chinese students face when learning English? What challenges does the teacher meet teaching Chinese students? What teaching approach can be found? Table of Contents 1. Motivation 2. Education 3. National character 4. Language difference 5. Grammar 6....  [Read more]

Wed, 15 Jul 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Problems for Chinese Learners of the English Language After China adopted the Open Door Policy, the English language not only gained popularity but also became indispensable in international communication and trade. It was introduced in public schools as an obligatory foreign language and English teaching centers started spreading across the country. Even though Chinese people approach learning English with a great dose of enthusiasm, it poses several challenges, both linguistic and cultural. Table of Contents The History of Chinese Pronunciation Challenges Cultural Issues Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Weronika S. Please note that...  [Read more]

Fri, 08 May 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Why the Chinese Accent is so Difficult to Minimize in English As an aspirant teaching English to Chinese children, I chose 'Pronunciation problems of Chinese people' as the most attractive and the most useful topic for my summative task at this moment. Table of Contents So let's begin from the very beginning. The Second difficulty in pronunciation is so-called dark L or L's with no vowel sound after them. How can the teacher help students to correct this? Different Approaches Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: As resources of this joyful and useful research on the internet, I have used three videos on Youtube made by the three experienced teachers of the English language. Only one of them...  [Read more]

Mon, 27 Jul 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Reasons for a Lack of Confidence in English Students from China Many Chinese students face the common problem that although they spent 10 years studying English at school, they can't pronounce an English sentence correctly, and they are not confident enough to communicate in the language. Table of Contents Challenges in Developing Productive Skills Drilling Family Background Personal Issues English Environment Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mengru W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Challenges in...  [Read more]

Mon, 27 May 2019 William Noble Destinations Teaching Ideas English Speaking and Writing Errors made by Chinese Primary Students I have been an online ESL teacher to Chinese students for over 13 years, mostly with primary students but also with secondary and adult students. I am also a father and have homeschooled my daughter over her primary years. Like many teachers, I've enjoyed teaching at this level of education as it lays the foundation in English. As it set the foundation, my teaching helped students to overcome common errors in production skills, speaking and writing. Teaching both my daughter and Chinese students at the primary level also helped me also to understand the different expectations between first language and second language students. Table of Contents Speaking...  [Read more]

Fri, 03 May 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences What Problems Do English Learners Face in China? In recent years, the most popular destination for EFL teachers all over the world has been China. China is the country welcoming many foreign teachers, native and non-native, and is probably the country with the most rapid development of the English teaching industry. Online teaching has become just as important as face to face teaching and has been a teacher for an online company for a long time, I have experienced a variety of students, levels, and groups. Therefore, in this essay, I will write about the most common problems Chinese students face and some ways of dealing with them. Table of Contents Pronunciation problems Grammar problems Problems outside/inside the classroom Are...  [Read more]

Thu, 19 Sep 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Challenges of ESL Learners in China The country of choice I would like to speak about is China. I have been teaching in China for about a year at all levels. Several problems face English learners in this country ranging from the use of prepositions, modal auxiliary and the male and feminine pronouns. Table of Contents Personal Pronouns Prepositions Modal Verbs Grammar Learning Approach Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mandella Elorm A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Personal Pronouns ESL learners especially adult learners happen to have a persistent problem with the...  [Read more]

Tue, 14 May 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences How I learned Basic Teaching Skills in China I have been working in China for more than six months now and it's been a very interesting time for me not just to learn more about the country and its people, but also to enrich my teaching skills and grow professionally as a teacher. Table of Contents Specific Approach Assistance Teaching an extremely large classroom Total physical response Do you want to teach English in China? Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Evgeniya S. Specific Approach When I arrived in China, I hardly knew anything about specific features of teaching in that country, so I thought that the knowledge I had was quite enough to handle the classes in kindergarten or primary...  [Read more]

Wed, 05 Aug 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The Global Benefits of English as a Second Language At a very early age, I was amazed by the sounds of English. I used to listen to songs in English while one of my parent's friends was cleaning his car. He used to play them out loud and I wanted to know what the lyrics said. Several years later I had the chance to go to China to be part of a cultural exchange program to learn Chinese. My accepting interview was completely in English rather than Chinese or even my native language Spanish. All paperwork was done in either Spanish or Chinese depending on where I was. Either here in Latin-American or on the other side of the world, the medium of communication was English. Table of Contents Personal Background The Importance of Learning...  [Read more]