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Enhancing ESL Reading Lessons: Strategies and Materials for Effective Learning - TEFL Blog
Fri, 14 Jul 2023 Federico Riva
TEFL Information Alumni Experiences
Enhancing ESL Reading Lessons: Strategies and Materials for Effective Learning
Reading comprehension is a crucial skill for ESL (English as a Second Language) students to develop. As teachers, it is essential to select appropriate resources and employ effective techniques to maximize the benefits of reading activities in the classroom. In this blog post, we will explore various types of reading materials, discuss strategies to improve reading comprehension skills, and highlight the importance of integrating discussions into the learning process.
Table of Contents
Types of Reading Materials
Authentic Materials:
Non-Authentic Materials:
Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension Skills
Skimming and Scanning:... [Read more]
How to Help ESL Students Build Strong Reading Skills - TEFL Blog
Fri, 19 Mar 2021 Elizaveta Pachina
TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas
How to Help ESL Students Build Strong Reading Skills
Reading is a skill that people should acquire from early childhood. A book is a treasure that produces inspiration, strong knowledge, morality, and pleasure. This activity stimulates people to shape their personality, nurture their character, and create a particular set of precious values and principles to guide them in life. Reading books continually determines people to discover themselves better, perceive the environment appropriately they live in, and understand the people and events around them. It makes people rich spiritually and contributes to the formation of a healthy and solid personality. Once they comprehend the circumstances of... [Read more]
How to Build Strong Reading Skills from Early Childhood - TEFL Blog
Thu, 11 Feb 2021 Elizaveta Pachina
TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas
How to Build Strong Reading Skills from Early Childhood
Reading skills are something that people should acquire from early childhood. A book is a treasure that produces inspiration, strong knowledge, morality, and pleasure. This activity stimulates people to shape their personality, nurture their character, and create a particular set of precious values and principles to guide them in life. Reading books continually determines people to discover themselves better, perceive the environment appropriately they live in, and understand the people and events around them. It makes people rich spiritually and contributes to the formation of a healthy and stable personality. Once they comprehend the... [Read more]
Inspiration to Create Teaching Materials - TEFL Blog
Tue, 27 Aug 2019 Elizaveta Pachina
Teaching Ideas
Inspiration to Create Teaching Materials
Teaching is a creative enterprise and creating your materials is very satisfying. There are many positive reasons for a teacher to create their materials. Purposely created materials are inexpensive, tailored to specific grammar and language topics, adaptable for different language levels, specific expansions on the course resources, culturally sensitive and correct. From my perspective, among the most important reasons for creating your materials are that it adds a personal touch to your class, and it enables you to have a sense of ownership in the curriculum.
Table of Contents
Topics to discuss
Online resources
Printed materials
Second-hand materials
Life-learning
Self-made materials... [Read more]
Enhancing Listening Skills: Key Considerations for Adult ESL Classes - TEFL Blog
Fri, 07 Jul 2023 Federico Riva
TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas
Enhancing Listening Skills: Key Considerations for Adult ESL Classes
Listening is possibly the least covered of the four skills needed by ESL learners in most classrooms. As it is a fundamental skill, teachers should try to create as many listening skills lessons as they do for the other three skills: reading, writing, and speaking.
Table of Contents
Challenges of Listening Compared to Reading
The Stages of Listening
The Receiving Stage: Hearing and Attending
The Understanding Stage: Decoding and Comprehension
The Evaluating Stage: Forming Opinions and Thinking Ahead
The Remembering Stage: Processing and Storing Information
The Responding Stage: Verbal or Written Answers
Are you ready to teach English... [Read more]
Reading as the Most Important Skill to Acquire - TEFL Blog
Fri, 15 May 2020 Elizaveta Pachina
Teaching Ideas
Reading as the Most Important Skill to Acquire
Reading is a skill that people should acquire from early childhood. A book is a treasure that produces inspiration, strong knowledge, morality, and pleasure. This activity stimulates people to shape their personality, to nurture their character, and to create a particular set of precious values and principles that will guide them in life. Reading books continually determines people to discover themselves better, to perceive appropriately the environment they live in, and to understand the people, events that happen around them. It makes people rich spiritually and contributes to the formation of a healthy and solid personality. Once they comprehend the circumstances of their living... [Read more]
How to Teach Receptive Skills in The Classroom - TEFL Blog
Tue, 10 Mar 2020 Elizaveta Pachina
Teaching Ideas
How to Teach Receptive Skills in The Classroom
The four basic language skills are divided into two categories; the receptive ("passive") skills — reading and listening, and the productive ("active") skills — speaking and writing. All are invaluable skills to learn when becoming proficient in a new foreign language and teachers should try to incorporate them into their lessons whenever possible. However, this summative task will be solely focused on receptive skills and how to teach them in the classroom. Students may need to read/listen for a purpose — for example, reading an extract of a book as part of their homework assignment, or they may want to read/listen for entertainment — for example, listening... [Read more]
Tefl reviews - Productive Receptive Skills/receptive Skills Patchwork ESA - ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ITTT
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]
Teaching Language Skills: Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening - TEFL Blog
Mon, 11 Sep 2023 Sara Stojanovic
TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas
Teaching Language Skills: Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening
There are 4 different types of language skills: reading, listening, speaking, and writing. When teaching, a teacher should make sure that students develop all four language skills. This can be achieved through different teaching techniques as well as through practicing them through exercises.
Table of Contents
How to teach reading?
How to teach writing?
How to teach speaking?
How to teach listening?
Conclusion
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Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials!
How to teach reading?
Reading is important for students in many different ways and it is... [Read more]
How to Teach English Grammar Communicatively - TEFL Blog
Tue, 28 Apr 2020 Elizaveta Pachina
Teaching Ideas
How to Teach English Grammar Communicatively
In today's emphasis on quality education and the development of communicative competence in English, "English grammar "seems to be a big taboo when talking about English teaching. Most English teachers feel comfortable teaching a conversation lesson or a lesson that integrates other skills such as listening, reading, or writing. They show creativity in those lessons and include various ideas to help students improve their language skills. how ever this, however, more difficult when teaching a grammar topic.
Table of Contents
Goals
Steps
The last activity in the grammar lesson is a communicative activity, this is really the culmination of the lesson.
Do you want to teach English abroad?... [Read more]
Outdoor Activities for Better Language Acquisition Process - TEFL Blog
Tue, 05 Nov 2019 Elizaveta Pachina
Teaching Ideas
Outdoor Activities for Better Language Acquisition Process
'Teacher, Can we please have a class outdoors?' this question was asked by a lot of my students, and 'No' was my typical answer. Why do students want to have an outdoor session? Is it really useful? What outdoor activities could be done to help when teaching English? These questions ran through my mind every time one of my students asked me to have a class outdoors. So, I decided to find answers to these questions.
Table of Contents
Reasons to have classes outdoors
Choice of activities
World around us
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This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ahmed A. Please note that this blog post... [Read more]
Receptive Skills as a Bridge to Deeper Language Understanding - TEFL Blog
Wed, 30 Oct 2019 Elizaveta Pachina
Teaching Ideas
Receptive Skills as a Bridge to Deeper Language Understanding
When we talk about teaching language, we always think about speaking, listening, writing and reading; but now, let's just focus on reading and listening, in other words, the receptive skills.
Table of Contents
Why do we read or listen?
Important Abilities Training
How to bypass such problems?
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This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Mirazo L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
Why do we read or listen?
The answers are: we do read or listen in teaching receptive skills because we need to know some instructions as how to... [Read more]
BLOG TEFL & TESOL courses - Work and Live Abroad! from: 140
Older Posts
The Benefits of Open-Note Tests
Mudita Yajnik
TEFL Information Teaching Ideas
What’s the best way to find out what your students know? Or, how much they’ve been paying attention, or what you need to revisit?
Theories, Methods & Techniques of Teaching - ESA Methodology
Federico Riva
TEFL Information Teaching Ideas
ESA is a three-stage methodology where each of the letters represents a particular phase of the lesson. The first one being called the Engage phase, the second the Study phase and the final one the Activate phase.
Theories, Methods & Techniques of Teaching - Suggestopedia
Federico Riva
TEFL Information Teaching Ideas
Developments in the study of Psychology starting from the 1950's led to new theories of learning. These theories were... [Read more]
The Most Effective Strategies to Teach Reading - TEFL Blog
Tue, 21 Apr 2020 Elizaveta Pachina
Teaching Ideas
The Most Effective Strategies to Teach Reading
Reading competence involves making sense of the written text and requires the complex interaction of knowledge and skills. When children learn to read, they need to learn to integrate the use of visual, phonological and semantic cues and relate to their own experience to construct meaning. An effective reading instruction thus involves a combination of phonological instruction (decoding) and whole language (reading for meaning), with the use of authentic literary experience. This paper will provide a summary of essential areas of reading instruction, coupled with various strategies that I have used in my work as an educational psychologist and teacher, helping young children to read.... [Read more]
Teaching Skills to Create The Best Classroom Atmosphere - TEFL Blog
Thu, 08 Aug 2019 Elizaveta Pachina
Teaching Ideas
Teaching Skills to Create The Best Classroom Atmosphere
Teaching skills in the classroom can be a very challenging experience, but it is essential (at least for any English teacher) to learn how to do it properly and effectively.
Table of Contents
Listen to this blog post:
Study Guide
Additional Activities
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This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Lucas B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
Listen to this blog post:
Study Guide
As it was shown in the Units 7 and 8 of this '60-hour' ITTT course, there are 4 (four) basic skills in the English language (and in any other language... [Read more]
Adapting to the Differences Between Group Teaching and One-to-One Teaching - TEFL Blog
Thu, 11 Jul 2019 Elizaveta Pachina
Teaching Ideas
Adapting to the Differences Between Group Teaching and One-to-One Teaching
Lesson planning for an individual ESL student can be successfully adapted from lesson planning for a group once the teacher recognizes the differences and similarities between teaching a group and teaching an individual in a one-to-one setting. My first teaching experience was volunteering to teach a multilingual, adult class. After the class ended, Yordanka, one of the students, approached me for private help with her English conversation skills. I kept the following concerns in mind when conducting one-to-one sessions with Yordanka. These concerns address seven issues: student needs, student talk versus teacher talk time, trust between teacher and student,... [Read more]
Top 10 ESL Activities for Older English Learners - TEFL Blog
Tue, 02 Mar 2021 Francesca Marchi
TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas
Top 10 ESL Activities for Older English Learners
From my experience, when you deal with older ESL learners, you have to take into account the fact that they do not want to look bad while practicing their English skills. Actually, activities and exercises should make them feel at ease and confident in their learning, as well as satisfied with the goals achieved so far. It goes without saying that the teaching techniques that include a direct confrontation between an adult student and the teacher or a classmate as a judge of their performance should be avoided so as not to make them feel uncomfortable. Here are a few ideas for you to try.
Table of Contents
1) Personal Questions and Answers
2)... [Read more]
TEFL: How to teach vocabulary? - ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ TEFL FAQs
TEFL: How to teach vocabulary?
When teaching vocabulary in TEFL, it is imperative to employ strategies that maximize retention and practical use. Key approaches include:
Harnessing these methods, TEFL teachers can ensure students not only learn but also effectively utilize new vocabulary both in and outside the classroom.
Table of Contents
Teach new words in context
Frequent repetition is a must
Use pictures and other visuals
Use games to practice new vocabulary
Teach new words in context
One of the most beneficial strategies for helping students remember new language is teaching it in context. Simply listing new words on the board and expecting immediate comprehension might lead to disappointment. When introducing new vocabulary, it is advisable to group related words together rather... [Read more]
TEFL: How to teach vocabulary? - ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ TEFL FAQs
TEFL: How to teach vocabulary?
Teaching new vocabulary is a substantial part of an English teacher's role, especially when working with beginners or lower-level students. A considerable amount of lesson time is dedicated to learning new words, making it critical for the teacher to employ effective methods for optimal results. By using proven techniques, teachers can help their students retain new language skills and boost their confidence in using them both inside and outside the classroom.
Teach new words in context
One of the most beneficial strategies for helping students remember new language is teaching it in context. Simply listing new words on the board and expecting immediate comprehension might lead to disappointment. When introducing new vocabulary, it is advisable to group... [Read more]
Top Tips for Decreasing Teacher Speaking Time - TEFL Blog
Wed, 26 Feb 2020 Elizaveta Pachina
Teaching Ideas
Top Tips for Decreasing Teacher Speaking Time
Imagine a classroom where the teacher is lecturing the entire class time. Student's attention span starts to flee, they begin looking for any source of entertainment. They are now distracted and unable to apply the lesson the teacher is demonstrating in the real world. Teacher lecture time should be supplemented with other methods of teaching. Students need mental breaks and activities to engage them in the lesson.
Table of Contents
Reasons to Decrease TTT
Ways to Work on the Problem
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This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Abigail A. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent... [Read more]
Implementing Music in an ESL Classroom - TEFL Blog
Fri, 24 Jan 2020 Elizaveta Pachina
Teaching Ideas
Implementing Music in an ESL Classroom
There are many reasons that using songs in the classroom is important. The first, music speeds up learning. The 1960s was the moment when scholars began to examine the possibility of increasing memory abilities with music.
Table of Contents
Research in the Field
In classroom
Other purposes to use music
Group work
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This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Huong T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
Research in the Field
A series of creative experiments performed by Dr. Georgi Lozanov and Evelyna Gateva and their findings revolutionized teaching... [Read more]
The Four Roles of a Teacher - TEFL Blog
Mon, 06 Apr 2020 Elizaveta Pachina
Alumni Experiences
The Four Roles of a Teacher
Many people think that teachers are just people with knowledge and teach; however, teachers are way more than that. There is a Chinese old saying, "Being a teacher for one day, respect them as a father for life." What this means is that teachers usually have many responsibilities, just like students' parents. Most of the time, teachers need to adapt to various roles in different situations during the class or even outside of the class. The five main roles that teachers play are instructor, controller, role model, and counselor.
Table of Contents
1. Instructor
2. Controller
3. Role Model
4. Mentor
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This post was written by our... [Read more]
How to Develop the Speaking Abilities of Kindergarten Level Students - TEFL Blog
Tue, 28 Apr 2020 Elizaveta Pachina
Teaching Ideas
How to Develop the Speaking Abilities of Kindergarten Level Students
Benjamin Franklin quoted "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn."
Table of Contents
Conversation
Support Oral Conversation
Listening activities
Interactive storytelling activities'
Vocabulary enhancement
Poems, Rhymes, and Games
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Verbal communication is one of the most essential abilities that a student can lead both for social and educational achievement. It can consider the introductory stage of learning. It is indispensable to cultivate communication skills for the development of young learners so that he/she can carry out of articulating him or herself.... [Read more]
New at ESP? Don’t get nervous! - TEFL Blog
Thu, 27 Jan 2022 Estefany Garduño
Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas
New at ESP? Don’t get nervous!
As an ESL teacher, you have probably found students looking for help to develop their English skills in a particular domain of their professional careers, or they look to increase their knowledge by focusing on language in context instead of grammar structures. Although this is a great opportunity to increase the ESL teaching experience, many of us say: "Oh, sorry, but that is not my expertise area, but I suggest asking this another teacher." This article will guide you to give the first step with private students and Online English Courses, learning advice to help any student even if you do not have experience teaching English in their professional area.
Table of Contents
What is... [Read more]
This is What I Learned from my Online TEFL Training - TEFL Blog
Wed, 01 Jul 2020 Elizaveta Pachina
Teaching Ideas
This is What I Learned from my Online TEFL Training
The most widely used language throughout the world is English. Some countries use English as an official language. English is a major subject In China. Most of the Chinese students start to learn English from primary school or middle school. In recent years, more and more students start to learn English from kindergarten. They put a lot of time and effort into learning English. The majority of Chinese students learn English for over 10 years. But there is a strange situation. They still can't speak English fluently, even though some simple English conversations. But they can get high scores in the exam. Why is it? Because Chinese students are too stupid? Or not hard-working? No!!!... [Read more]
Is the Personality of the Teacher Important to ESL Students? - TEFL Blog
Fri, 03 Jul 2020 Elizaveta Pachina
Alumni Experiences
Is the Personality of the Teacher Important to ESL Students?
When a student walks into any classroom, his outlook on the class has a lot to do with how a teacher may present themselves, and the qualities that make up that outward presentation. This concept proves itself to be true as the course goes on, and key concepts are taught. The student's perspective on the material is largely dependent on the specific qualities of the teacher that make him or her a dependable source of information. This essay will explore how patience, listening, and empathy are important qualities for English teachers to have and maintain, and how those qualities are vital in the teacher and student learning equation.
Table of Contents
Patience
Listening... [Read more]
The Effects of Teaching Vocabulary Learning Strategies on EFL Learners Vocabulary Development - TEFL Blog
Fri, 22 May 2020 Elizaveta Pachina
Teaching Ideas
The Effects of Teaching Vocabulary Learning Strategies on EFL Learners Vocabulary Development
Vocabulary has always been one language area about which students usually complain and claim that it impedes language learning. The main purpose of this study is to investigate whether using the context for guessing the meaning of new vocabulary can solve this problem. The learning of vocabulary is an important part of foreign language learning. The meaning of new words is very frequently emphasized, whether in books or verbal communication. And also, English teachers have an important role in teaching new vocabularies. In this research, we will study different kinds of teaching vocabulary by using a dictionary or guessing on the context.... [Read more]
How many roles does an ESL teacher serve in the classroom? - TEFL Blog
Thu, 09 May 2019 Elizaveta Pachina
Alumni Experiences
How many roles does an ESL teacher serve in the classroom?
Nowadays being a teacher means more than just executing lesson plans while standing up at the front of the class giving explanations; we were used to this type of teacher when the traditional schools were "teacher-centered" so the students assumed a passive and quiet way to access the knowledge. It seemed not worked out well regarding English as a second language learning, and for this reason, most schools adopted a more "student-centered" approach in the classroom.
Table of Contents
Student regulates the lesson
Something in between
Teacher stands in front of the class
Teacher organizes the students
Teacher gives Individual support
Teacher sets up an example
Teacher gives... [Read more]
Teaching Various Groups of Students: Young Learners vs. Adults - TEFL Blog
Wed, 17 Jun 2020 Elizaveta Pachina
Teaching Ideas
Teaching Various Groups of Students: Young Learners vs. Adults
Not all Teaching English as a Foreign Language is equal. Different types of groups of learners include beginner vs. intermediate/advanced learners as well as monolingual classes vs multilingual classes. Another set of distinctive groups and perhaps the most contrary groups to be aware of are groups of young vs adult learners. In the following comparison, the many ways to ensure success with both types of groups will be discussed, as well as reasons the groups can be both challenging and rewarding.
Table of Contents
Group success
Needs Analysis
Anticipated Problems
Benefits of working with both groups
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Related... [Read more]
How to Structure your Study Phase To Target Productive Skills - TEFL Blog
Wed, 09 Jun 2021 Shirin Sophy
TEFL Information Alumni Experiences
How to Structure your Study Phase To Target Productive Skills
In today's cosmopolitan world, the noticeable necessity of mastery over foreign languages apart from one's native language is motivating manifold people to consider improving this particular ability which results in an increasing demand for language learning courses and services. Among the major purposes of language learning, communication and language production are definitely much more measurable and outstanding, specifically through productive skills, including writing and speaking. In terms of pedagogy, the following is a suggested procedure that can be taken into account while teaching productive skills after the engagement phase is applied and... [Read more]