Elicit Information

OTP English Lesson - Richard - If Conditional   "In this video, our OTP trainee Richard elicits the topic of his class by asking his students what they would buy if they won the lottery. He then puts the information up on the board and does a quick gap-fill exercise to further elicit the second conditional. ITTT's Observed Teaching Practice courses (OTP) are ideal for teachers wanting to improve their teaching skills remotely from anywhere in the world." 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...  [Read more]

Lesson Planning - Part 6 - Lesson Plan Example - Study Phase   The first part of my study phase is going to be the board work and I'm going to use the information that I generated in the elicitation part of my engage phase to move on to the actual board work. What I'm going to do is to show the structure of this particular tense. So, the phase study I'm expecting to take about ten minutes on this particular part and, again, the interaction will mainly be the students talking to me. So, how am I going to achieve that with this information? Well, we could ask the students to have a look at the sentences themselves and to tell us what they can see. If we look at each of the first words in here, then at this level, I should hopefully be able to elicit from my students what each of...  [Read more]

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas The Power and Practicality of Visual Aids in the Classroom Examples of visual aids include real objects (referred to as realia), pictures, photographs, menus, timetables, and models. They may be authentic materials not designed for teaching (authentic material) or created specifically for the classroom (non-authentic material). Table of Contents Why are visual aids useful? They can be used to elicit language. Visual aids can stimulate discussion. They can act as an aid to memory. The use of visual aids can reduce Teacher Talk Time (TTT). Are you ready to teach English abroad or online? Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! Why are visual aids useful?...  [Read more]

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas ESL Teacher and Their Role in a TEFL Classroom Teaching can be a gratifying career, but with it comes great responsibility. Possessing a high grasp of grammar, teaching theories, techniques, etc., will hold you in good stead. However, there are many other wide-ranging characteristics required to be a great teacher. Table of Contents Flexibility and Adaptability Planning and Managing Are you ready to teach English abroad or online? Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Elicia B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Flexibility and...  [Read more]

EFL Sample Lesson - Study Phase - Short Answers   This video is a sample EFL lesson in a real-life classroom setting abroad. After covering how to build questions with modals, the teacher elicits the form for short answers from his students. Notice how the teacher elicits information from his students rather than feeding them the new information. This way, the students think in English and also speak to the teacher in English. 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...  [Read more]

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 Federico Riva TEFL Information Teaching Ideas Course Books and Materials: Use of Visual Aids Here we're going to consider the use of visual aids in the classroom. Visual aids can include 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. Table of Contents Watch the video about this topic Why are they useful? Are you ready to teach English as a foreign language? Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! Watch the video about this topic Why are they useful? First of all the use of a visual aid can reduce teacher talk time (TTT) which is always desirable.It is much simpler to just show a...  [Read more]

Tue, 28 Jul 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Why are Games so Important for Young Learners? When I think of my earliest childhood memories, I remember that I used to love to play games in the classroom (charades, 7-up/head down-thumb up, categories, bingo, etc.). Going from a boring 'copy from the board' type of class to a competitive, fun and activity-filled class gave me the ability to open my mind, so I could find the subject being taught more interesting and made it easier for me to absorb the information. Young learners may not have an interest in studying because they don't yet have any motivation from learning, so they are only interested in games, songs, and other fun activities. When playing most of the games in the classroom, young learners are compelled to...  [Read more]

The ESA Methodology of Teaching - The Study Phase   This video is part of our ESA Methodology series. The ESA methodology consists of three stages. In this series, we look at the individual purposes of each stage and typical activities for each stage. This second video introduces the study phase of ESA. The purpose of this phase is to cover the actual teaching of the lesson and to check the understanding of that material.The second stage or phase of the lesson is known as the study phase and really the purpose of this phase is to cover the actual teaching of the lesson and to check understanding of that material. Typically in an ESA lesson, the study phase will have two parts. The first phase of the study is to cover the actual teaching component in what's known as the board work...  [Read more]

Coursebooks and Materials - Use of Visual Aids   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...  [Read more]

Productive and Receptive Skills in the ESL Classroom - Writing Skills - Study Phase   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...  [Read more]

Wed, 22 Jan 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas How to Organize Activities for Students with Shorter Attention Spans The previous teaching method in Malaysia used to be chalk and talk. Chalk and talk method are much more on teacher talking rather the students. The teacher will be the one who talks and students just to listen or receive the information from the teacher. In this case, it will become a problem for those students with shorter attention spans and the other students will lose attention easily as well. This method also cannot evaluate a student's understanding of the lessons that have been taught. The teacher should plan a lesson that includes explanations/elicits, activities to strengthen student's understanding and evaluate student's understanding. Usually, students...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! How did you feel...? Board Game This board game focuses on adjectives to describe feelings. Students practice describing how they felt the last time certain things happened to them.   How to play Give each pair of students a copy of the game board, a dice and two counters. The students take it in turns to roll the dice and move their counter along the board. When a student lands on a square, their partner asks them the 'How did you feel...?' question on the square, e.g. 'How did you feel the last time you had a difficult test?' The student then answers the question by describing how they felt the last time the thing happened to them. Their partner should then ask the student follow-up questions to continue the...  [Read more]

Mon, 24 Feb 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teacher Talking Time and How it Influences the Success of your Students I think of a teacher I had back in junior high in South Africa that made my learning experience memorable and that in turn earned me a diploma for achieving honors in my year-end examinations. He spoke little and allowed us as the students to discover and solve problems partially by ourselves. So, my aspiration is to apply the same or similar principals in teaching. Table of Contents Challenges and Downsides of TTT Feedback from Students Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Candice F. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or...  [Read more]

Thu, 30 May 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The Benefits of the ESA Methodology Over the course of this certification program, I learned an abundance of information and methodologies, but none as important as the ESA outline; the ESA methodology is, undoubtedly, the best thing I've learned from my TEFL course. The ESA procedure provides a myriad of benefits, engaging learners in a series of dynamic activities aimed to create a seamless and effective educational environment. Due to the adept and fluid nature of the ESA methodology, it is easily the most important tool taught to me throughout this program and something I foresee utilizing often in the near future. Table of Contents Engage Stage Study Stage Activate Stage Are you ready to learn new teaching methods? Take a TEFL...  [Read more]

Productive and Receptive Skills in the ESL Classroom - Speaking Skills - Study Phase   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...  [Read more]

Productive and Receptive Skills in the ESL Classroom - Receptive Skills - Patchwork ESA   So, let's have a look at a typical receptive skills lesson. The main focus of this lesson is going to be reading, although there will be some listening involved as well and it?s going to be a patchwork ESA lesson. As a patchwork lesson, it will start off with an engage and this engage what we're going to do is to play an extract about Elvis Presley and it's going to be an Elvis Presley song and we can ask the students if they know who it is and if they know anything about him can help generate the interest in this. We can also ask them what they'd like to know about it. What we can then do is just to introduce them to the text but they're going to read the detail later on but just at this stage...  [Read more]

OTP English Lesson - Richard - Study Phase - Large and Small Quantifiers II   "In this video, our OTP trainee Richard introduces the topic of quantifiers to his students in Florida. He elicits information on large and small quantifiers and writes it on the board for his students to see. ITTT's Observed Teaching Practice courses (OTP) are ideal for teachers wanting to improve their teaching skills remotely from anywhere in the world." 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...  [Read more]

OTP English Lesson - Richard - Study Phase - Large and Small Quantifiers   "In this video, our OTP trainee Richard introduces the topic of quantifiers to his students in Florida. He elicits information on large and small quantifiers and writes it on the board for his students to see. ITTT's Observed Teaching Practice courses (OTP) are ideal for teachers wanting to improve their teaching skills remotely from anywhere in the world." 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...  [Read more]

Productive and Receptive Skills in the ESL Classroom - Speaking Skills - Activate Phase   The final stage of the lesson will be the activate and the activate phase is going to form the main speaking activity within the lesson. So, it's very very important that here, we do a good demonstration of what it is that we're expecting them to do, that we elicit the type of target language we're expecting them to produce from the activity. So, one way we could go around it is to, firstly, form pairs. Each pair is going to be given a card and onto that card they're going to write the country and a month. What the teacher can then do, just to add a little bit of spice to it, is to collect all of the cards and shuffle them around and then redistribute them to the pairs so that they get a card...  [Read more]

Thu, 11 Jul 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Lesson Design: ESA in Practice For this task, I have selected the course structure. As a teacher, a lot goes into the daily operation of the classroom. They need to consider their classroom setup, their management style, and the students they will teach. However, one very important facet of teaching is lesson design and teaching students appropriate standards to help them in their English acquisition. Table of Contents Advantages of the ESA Methodology Engage Phase Activate Stage Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Heejeong K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Advantages of...  [Read more]

The ESA Methodology of Teaching - Sample ESA Lesson   Now an example of a straight arrow ESA lesson for our engage phase. What we're going to do is to show the students a video of animals and they are going to say what they like about those animals and try to create a list of some more. So, remember what we're trying to do here is to get the students talking and thinking in English. We're using a typical engage activity, which is to create a list and we try to make sure that all the students have been involved in some way in creating those lists. Moving on to the study phase, the first part is going to be the board work and the teacher is going to try to elicit from the students what each of those animals can and can't do. Typically, what the students will say is just single words,...  [Read more]

Fri, 17 Jun 2022 Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas The ESA Methodology of Teaching - Sample ESA Boomerang Lesson In this blog post, we will take a look at a typical example of a boomerang lesson. Table of Contents Watch the video about this topic We start with an engage phase. Are you ready to teach English as a foreign language? Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! Watch the video about this topic First we will recap the structure E  A1  S  A2 We start with an engage phase. Here the students are just going to have a discussion about jobs, what happens at interviews and so on and so forth. During that engage phase what we would hope to do is to elicit some useful language...  [Read more]

Tue, 31 Mar 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas How Students Benefit From an ESA Structured Lesson Out of all the methods of Teaching English as a Second/Foreign Language, the ESA-structured lessons are the most productive with a balance of teacher instruction and student practice time. This method often includes others such as audio-bilingualism (drilling techniques), PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production), and task-based learning; but offering a wide variety of techniques within one method is the beauty of the Engage-Study-Activate lesson model. This lesson model has many benefits for students of English. Table of Contents Warming Up Learning through Producing Practicing Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our...  [Read more]

Thu, 23 Apr 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Benefits for Students from Learning Through the ESA Method Out of all the methods of Teaching English as a Second/Foreign Language, the ESA-structured lessons are the most productive with a balance of teacher instruction and student practice time. This method often includes others such as audio-lingualism (drilling techniques), PPP (Presentation, Practice, Production), and task-based learning; but offering a wide variety of techniques within one method is the beauty of the Engage-Study-Activate lesson model. This lesson model has many benefits for students of English. Table of Contents Structure of the lesson Engage students Explain teaching points Help students activate Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course!...  [Read more]

Fri, 20 Dec 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The Art of Preparing Working Lesson Plans Doing up lesson plans for my up and coming TEFL classes is something that I am quite excited about. I suppose it is because I see an opportunity for creativity and that gets my juices flowing. I love the engage, study and activate model that was taught to us, both in the TEFL course itself as well as in this course on teaching business English lessons to adults. I would like to share some ideas that I have reaped from this course on how I would prepare a lesson plan for the to engage, study and activate methodology. Table of Contents Engagement Giving New Information Applying New Information on Practice Points to Remember Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related...  [Read more]

Fri, 20 Mar 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Children Learning English Early On We all remember our favorite stories and tales as children; Goodnight Moon, Where the Wild Things. Table of Contents Early Childhood Development Benefits of Stories for Brain Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: Are, Stella Luna, and others more advanced like The Hardy Boys and The Magic Tree House. Simply mentioning those titles elicits some of my earliest memories. It's rooted in the foundation of my learning. Oftentimes, stories are read or told to children from infancy throughout their most formative and impressionable years. Children, from a very early age, are exposed to wide ranges of concepts and dialogue. At such a young age, a child typically does not...  [Read more]

Thu, 16 Jun 2022 Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas The ESA Methodology of Teaching - Sample Straight Arrow ESA Lesson In this blog post, we will look at an actual example of an ESA straight arrow lesson plan. We will include examples of the activities used and their purpose. You can adapt this plan to a variety of other uses and levels. Table of Contents Watch the video about this topic Engage phase Study Phase Activate phase Are you ready to teach English as a foreign language? Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! Watch the video about this topic Straight arrow ESA Lesson PlanClass level: ElementaryNumber of students: 8 Lesson aim: After the lesson the students should be able to look at an animal and...  [Read more]

Thu, 05 Mar 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The Benefits of an ESA Lesson Structure The ESA lesson structure is a useful method for formatting lessons. It has a high level of in-built flexibility and a logical sequence beneficial for both students and teachers alike. It consists of three distinct phases - Engage, Study and Activate - each meant to serve a particular function but working together to ensure effective communication and application of new information. Table of Contents Lesson Stages Modifications Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Jason T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Lesson Stages The first stage of...  [Read more]

Thu, 26 Sep 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas How to Decrease Teacher Speaking Time Traditionally, education in the classroom has largely employed a teacher-centred approach. Focus is on the teacher who talks, rather than on the students, who exclusively listen and are discouraged from collaboration. Table of Contents Student-Centered Approach The ESA Method Peer Feedback Corrections Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Christie T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Student-Centered Approach In recent years, however, more emphasis has been given to student-centred education: instructors share classroom talk time with...  [Read more]

Thu, 16 Jan 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Creating Interest with Visual Aid in the Classroom Visual images aids can add interest and often add meaning in a way that words can't. This is especially true for ESL students who don't have sufficient words to understand detailed spoken explanations. Table of Contents Learning styles Flashcards Drawings Photos Example lesson plan Creating materials Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate JunCui Z. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Learning styles People learn in different ways. For example, some people learn well by listening, some by movement and touch and many people respond...  [Read more]