Student Talking

Mon, 01 Oct 2018 Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas 7 Awesome ESL Conversation Activities to Really Get Your Students Talking We all know what it's like to teach a class with reluctant students who don't want to talk. It's like pulling teeth. However, with these 7 awesome ESL conversation activities, you can really get your students talking! Table of Contents Listen to this blog post: 1. Ice Breaker Jenga 2. Get To Know You Bingo 3. Mystery Party Guest 4. 20 Questions 5. Create a Game 6. Apples to Apples 7. Choose Your Victim Are you ready to teach English abroad? Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! Listen to this blog post: 1. Ice Breaker Jenga For this activity, you simply use a tumbling block game such as Jenga and write 1 simple ice...  [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]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! FREE Printable Winter Word Search and Word Scramble This free printable winter word search and word scramble activity is perfect to get your students talking about the winter season.   This worksheet includes 16 winter related words that your students have to find in this fun word search puzzle. Not only are word searches fun activities but they are also great for building vocabulary and improving your students' spelling skills. At the bottom of the sheet, your students will also have to unscramble five additional winter related words. Print out this worksheet onto a standard 8.5×11 inch page.   Are you interested in teaching English as a foreign language? ​Get your TEFL certificate with ITTT. Register now...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Guess My Job Riddles This is a fun activity around jobs. Students read the description and try to guess which job it is talking about.   Are you interested in teaching English as a foreign language? ​Get your TEFL certificate with ITTT. Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Check out ITTT's Blog Posts  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! ESL Articles Board Game In this fun articles board game, students review 'a', 'an' and 'the' by completing true or false statements and talking about various topics for 30 seconds.   In this free articles board game, students review a, an and the by completing true or false statements and talking about various topics for 30 seconds. Give each group of three or four a copy of the game board, a dice and counters. The players then take it in turns to roll the dice and move their counter along the board. When a player lands on a 'True or false?' square, they complete the statement with the correct article (a, an, or the) and read it to the group. If the player is able to do this correctly, they score a point. If not, they...  [Read more]

10 Activities for the Past Simple   Grammar lessons can be perceived as boring for some students, so it is important to have fun activities that encourage the students to use the target language creatively and foster high student talking time. Below is a list of ten activities that can be used for lessons on the past simple. Matching Pairs: The teacher creates a set of cards with present simple verbs and a set with the past simple form of the same verbs. The sets are mixed together and places face down on the desk. Students take turns to turn over two cards. If the two cards match, i.e. both forms of the same verb, the student has to make a sentence with the past simple form before they can keep the cards. If they cannot make a correct sentence, the cards are turned over and it is...  [Read more]

Fri, 11 Sep 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas 7 Things ESL Teachers Should Avoid Saying to Students ESL classroom is quite a sensitive place. Students can quickly get excited about what they learn if a teacher finds the right key to their motivation. However, sometimes ESL teachers may unconsciously use words that could hurt students intensely. Table of Contents Listen to this blog post: 1. You are not good at English. 2. Stop! You're doing it all wrong! 3. Good Job! You tried your best! 4. Don't give up! Keep trying and you'll understand English grammar. 5. Have you noticed your mistake? 6. It's ok if you can't do it. 7. Someone is better than you in English. Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: Check out what our course...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! How Observant are you? What can you see? Picture Description IV This is a great activity for EFL beginners to talk and practice easy grammar structures. Students have 1 minute to study the picture. Then, they take turns talking about what happens in the picture.   Are you interested in teaching English as a foreign language? ​Get your TEFL certificate with ITTT.   Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Check out ITTT's Blog Posts  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! How Observant are you? What can you see? Picture Description II This is a great activity for EFL beginners to talk and practice easy grammar structures. Students have 1 minute to study the picture. Then, they take turns talking about what happens in the picture.   Are you interested in teaching English as a foreign language? ​Get your TEFL certificate with ITTT. Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Check out ITTT's Blog Posts  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! How Observant are you? What can you see? Picture Description III This is a great activity for EFL beginners to talk and practice easy grammar structures. Students have 1 minute to study the picture. Then, they take turns talking about what happens in the picture.   Are you interested in teaching English as a foreign language? ​Get your TEFL certificate with ITTT. Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Check out ITTT's Blog Posts  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! How Observant are you? What can you see? Picture Description V This is a great activity for EFL beginners to talk and practice easy grammar structures. Students have 1 minute to study the picture. Then, they take turns talking or writing about what happens in the picture.   Are you interested in teaching English as a foreign language? ​Get your TEFL certificate with ITTT. Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Check out ITTT's Blog Posts  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! How Observant are you? What can you see? Picture Description VI This is a great activity for EFL beginners to talk and practice easy grammar structures. Students have 1 minute to study the picture. Then, they take turns talking or writing about what happens in the picture.   Are you interested in teaching English as a foreign language? ​Get your TEFL certificate with ITTT. Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Check out ITTT's Blog Posts  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! How Observant are you? What can you see? Picture Description VII This is a great activity for EFL beginners to talk and practice easy grammar structures. Students have 1 minute to study the picture. Then, they take turns talking or writing about what happens in the picture.   Are you interested in teaching English as a foreign language? ​Get your TEFL certificate with ITTT.   Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Check out ITTT's Blog Posts  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! New Year's Speaking Activity This is a great speaking task to develop fluency for talking about New Year's Eve, the past year, and the year to come. Have your students take turns to choose a card and ask the question to their partner/group.   Are you interested in teaching English as a foreign language? ​Get your TEFL certificate with ITTT. Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Check out ITTT's Blog Posts  [Read more]

Thu, 07 Jun 2018 Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas Top 5 Icebreakers for New TEFL Teachers As you have learned during your TEFL certification course, a good lesson starts with an engage, or warm-up phase. This usually consists of a fun and interesting activity to get your students going and speaking in English. For new teachers, it's often these more casual moments of a class that are a challenge because of their lack of teaching experience. However, these top 5 icebreakers for new TEFL teachers will help you to get your class energized and ready for your lesson. Table of Contents 1. Two Truths and a Lie 2. ABC Word Chain 3. Positive, Negative, Crazy 4. Would You Rather…? 5. Finish the Sentence Listen to this blog post Are you ready to teach English abroad? Related Articles 1....  [Read more]

7 ideas for business English classes   Liven up your business English classes and encourage high student talking time with these fun and creative activities. NEGOTIATIONS In pairs students role-play a negotiation. Each side will be given a sheet listing demands and concessions. Each side of the negotiation is awarded points for the type of concessions they get from the other side. For example, if one side manages to get a 25% discount, they get 10 points and the other side gets 0. TELEPHONE CALL ROLE-PLAYS Telephone role-plays can be used with a variety of different topics such as leaving and taking a message, placing an order, arranging a meeting, making a complaint etc. The main point is to give students the chance to practice communicating in English without the visual clues...  [Read more]

Thu, 06 Aug 2020 Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas 7 Go-To Activities For Your ESL Conversation Class Listen to this blog post: As an ESL teacher, getting your students talking can be one of the most difficult things to accomplish. English learners often lack the necessary confidence to speak openly and freely in English. The following activities are perfect for getting your students out of their shells! Table of Contents Listen to this blog post: Here are 7 go-to activities for your ESL conversation class. 1. Dialogue 2. Role-Play Change-Up 3. Interviews 4. Tag Team Role Play 5. Mystery Partner 6. Problem Solved 7. Creative Improvisation Are you ready to teach English as a foreign language? Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! Here are...  [Read more]

Thu, 28 May 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas 3 Ideas on How to Enhance Your Classroom Experience Classroom Management is a skill that a teacher must try to learn and gain. This skill is a skill of managing the class, organizing the class and the classroom, having a relaxed manner, and maintaining discipline. As a teacher, it's not easy to have a relaxed manner and maintain discipline at the same time. To achieve this goal the teacher needs to know how to balance. How a class is managed effectively and efficiently can affect how students perform in the class. Which is another word that means the classroom management decides the environment of studying? Table of Contents 1. Classroom arrangement 2. Establish rapport Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course today!...  [Read more]

Thu, 13 Dec 2018 Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences The Best Thing I Have Learned From My 120-hour TEFL/TESOL Course I have now taken both ITTT's 120-hour TEFL/TESOL course and the additional course for teaching young learners. Both courses have been very beneficial, and, although it is difficult to narrow the benefits down to one "best" thing, one of the most helpful things I have learned is the idea of reducing teacher talking time and increasing student talking time. I have found this concept to be particularly valuable as I prepare for a future TESOL position, and I have been very pleased to find that it has benefited me in my current teaching job in an American classroom, as well. Table of Contents Course content effective for real world Positive effect on teaching style The...  [Read more]

Fri, 04 Feb 2022 Federico Riva TEFL Information Teaching Ideas Teaching Special Groups in ESL - Top 10 Tips When Teaching Beginners Regardless of which type of beginner class you are teaching here are my top ten tips for the teaching of beginners. Table of Contents Watch the video about this topic 1: Keep it simple 2: Be visual not verbal 3: Keep them talking 4: Repeat Repeat Repeat 5: Use pairwork 6: Praise often 7: Teach to their needs 8: Be patient 9: Play games 10: Don't overcorrect 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 1: Keep it simple The first thing is to keep it simple, you have to remember when teaching beginners that your language level...  [Read more]

Agency TEFL Teacher Check out tefl tesol about Agency TEFL Teacher 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 T.V. - Canada said: Classroom Management Classroom Management is a skill that all teachers have to have. esl teachers have a more unique situation than a regular teacher though when most of your students don?t know how to speak English. There is no one way to manage a classroom but there are key elements that have to happen in every ESL classroom in order for learning to happen. Teachers have to be able to make students feel confident about themselves and their learning...  [Read more]

Wed, 04 Mar 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas How to Decrease Teacher Talking Time TTT stands for Teacher Talking Time, 'of which teachers can't have too little. Teachers will speak more in class, when present knowledge, manage the classroom, correct students' mistakes, praise students or provide feedback, and set up or demonstrate the classroom activities. Table of Contents Examples Ways to Solve the Problem Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Tang C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Examples Here are some inadequacies of too much TTT. Firstly, TTT is opposite to STT (Student Talking Time), and more TTT means less STT....  [Read more]

Classroom Management for Teaching English as a Foreign Language - Teacher Talk Time   When considering Teacher Talk Time, we can perhaps look at the major advantage and disadvantage of the teacher actually talking. The major advantage is that you as the teacher are usually the only real model for the language, the source of correct English. So at some stages, your talking time is very important to the students. So when you?re modeling language, that use of Teacher Talk Time can be very advantageous. There are major disadvantages to overusing Teacher Talk Time, however, and perhaps the major one is that whenever the teacher is talking, the students are listening and if the students are listening, then they themselves cannot be talking. So, Teacher Talk Time reduces the opportunity...  [Read more]

TEFL terms explained As with most professions the world of Teaching English as a Foreign Language has many of its own particular and sometimes peculiar terms and jargon. Getting to grips with the wide array of acronyms in the industry can sometimes feel like learning a whole new language! So if you have trouble telling the difference between your IWB (Interactive Whiteboard) and your OHP (Overhead Projector), this infographic is a great guide to what’s what in the English language teaching industry. Two of the most commonly used phrases in English teaching, and two that cause most confusion are TEFL and TESOL. TEFL stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language and TESOL means Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Another term, TESL, means Teaching English as a Second...  [Read more]

Tue, 10 Mar 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The Best Strategies for Reducing Teacher Talk Time I guess we all have been there. Sitting in a classroom where the teacher never stops talking. How did it feel? Was it interesting and motivating or was it perhaps boring and discouraging? Did you have the feeling of having learned something when the lesson was over? Whereas getting students talking in the classroom has proved quite a challenge to many teachers, having them verbalize what they are thinking about is very important. Even when the learning has been handed over to the students, it is still very tempting to spend far too much time giving directions, repeating important information and instructions, and telling students how they did rather than asking them to reflect on...  [Read more]

Mon, 10 Feb 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas How to Learn Classroom Management Skills and Implement Them at Work Classroom management deals with role flexibility, organizing and maintaining discipline. The student's confidence and learning effectiveness will depend on the teacher's classroom management skills. The teacher must know when it is time to be firm or when to leave students alone. The level of firmness depends on the age of the students. Overall, it is best to keep a controlled environment at the beginning then tail it off with a relaxed environment especially with kids or younger learners. Table of Contents Eye Contact Grouping Seating Arrangement Discipline Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL...  [Read more]

Fri, 13 Sep 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Decreasing Teacher Talking Time and Its Effect in the Classroom One of the most difficult aspects of English teaching is not grammar or even structure; it's the externalization of ideas through the act of speaking with the teacher or students. The thought seems trivial but when put in an environment where the language taught overrides their own most students have a hard time organizing their ideas and thoughts to form coherent sentences that expresses what is on their minds. Table of Contents Challenges Ways to work on it Repetition Activities Other ideas How to deal with reluctant students Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Alvin M....  [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]

Tue, 12 Mar 2019 Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences 6 Ways to Improve Your Classroom Management Skills To ensure an effective, beneficial, and enjoyable experience of learning, it is important to consider a range of factors within a classroom which have the potential to benefit or hinder a lesson. Such factors include the teacher's use of eye contact, the grouping of students, the layout of the classroom, and the amount of time the teacher and students talk, as well as building rapport with students and maintaining discipline within the classroom. Ultimately these factors are important for a teacher to understand as they have the propensity to determine learning outcomes. Table of Contents Eye contact, gestures and voice Student groupings Classroom layout Teacher and student talking time...  [Read more]

Fri, 06 Dec 2019 Federico Riva Teaching Ideas Creating a Comfortable Learning Environment: Classroom Management Strategies The teacher's role is to catch the interest of the students and to give them confidence. Getting the students involved in the lesson will also help to prevent most of the disciplinary problems. Table of Contents 1. Get to know your students 2. Non-verbal communication 3. Using equipment 4. Proper directions 5. Teacher talking time Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Marie Alice C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. 1. Get to know your students The first thing is for the teacher to try to know his students....  [Read more]