Word Pairs

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! The Most Important Opposite Words in English   Studying words in pairs of opposites is a great way to build vocabulary quickly. Every teacher should have this list of the most important opposite words in English in their teaching materials.   Pairing opposite words is a great way to learn new vocabulary. It is much easier to attach meaning to a word when students are also presented with a word’s antonym. For instance, the meaning of the word “tall” is a lot easier to grasp when presented as “tall/short.” Images are also very helpful when learning opposites. Words such as “big/small,” when accompanied by visuals of big and small animals or objects, can be instantly understood. Opposites can also be...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Christmas Traditions Around the World In this activity, ESL students may work individually/ in pairs/groups. They should read the Christmas traditions cards and then match them with the correct countries.   Are you interested in teaching English as a foreign language? ​Get your TESOL certification 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! Unreal Conditionals - Speaking Cards This is a set of cards to practice unreal conditionals questions and short answers with your ESL students. They work in pairs or groups and interview each other.   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! Animals Board Game This is a fun board game about animals. Your ESL students work in pairs or groups, they throw a die and need to name different types of animals.   Are you interested in teaching English as a foreign language? Get your TEFL or TESOL Certification 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! Reported Speech - 12 Dialogs This activity will help your EFL students practice the usage of reported speech. Students work in pairs/groups take the cards and should report the dialogs in the indirect speech.   Are you interested in teaching English as a foreign language? ​Get your TEFL or TESOL 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! Days of the Week Board Game This board game will help your students revise and practice the days of the week. You can have them work in pairs/groups, throw the dice and say the name of the week.   If you have a small group of students, you can play this game with the whole class - it's also great for online lessons. If you have a bigger class, it's best to split up your students into pairs or small groups and have them play among them. Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Check out ITTT's Blog Posts  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Likes and Dislikes Cards Cut out the cards. Students work in pairs, put the cards face down and Like-Dislike cards face up on the desk. Then they take turns and say whether they like something or not and explain why.   Are you interested in teaching English as a foreign language? ​Get your TESOL 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! Weather vs. Whether - What's the Difference? Weather and whether are a pair of homophones which means they sound the same, but they have different spellings and meanings. Here we explain how to use these words correctly.   WEATHER Definition and Examples Weather can be a noun or a verb. WEATHER Examples: WHETHER Definition and Examples Whether is a conjunction, which joins two words or phrases together. WHETHER Examples: Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Check out ITTT's Blog Posts  [Read more]

Further vs Farther - English Grammar - Teaching Tips   The two words "farther" and "further" are a pair of words that is often used interchangeably to talk about distances. However, not many know that there is actually a slight difference between the two. "Farther" is used for physical distances. So we would use it in this example: "Tokyo is farther away than Beijing". When using "further" we talk about non-physical, figurative distances, for example "I'm falling further away from my goals". As you can see, the two words have slighty different usages. However, in spoken English the two words are often used interchangeably without a difference. However, if you are keen to use them properly, you should stick to the rules mentioned above. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT...  [Read more]

Thu, 09 Jul 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas What is Peer Learning and Why is it Good for ESL Classes? Understanding the main purpose of any language usage as a means of exchanging, obtaining information, rendering our emotions, feelings, desires, states, or transmitting ideas inevitably involves this process, other people. In other words, we use language to communicate with other language speakers. So why not use this peculiarity in the process of language studying? Thereby using peer learning techniques in an ESA classroom becomes an essential and inherent part of it. Table of Contents Where implementing Peer-to-Peer learning? Benefits Ideas for outside the classroom activities Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written...  [Read more]

Wed, 25 Sep 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas 5 Perfect Activities With Flashcards Flashcards on its own is an easy method to apply when teaching beginners, teenagers even adults because they can match the words to the pictures and it's an easy way to remember new vocabulary. I think this is the best way of acquiring a new word of a second language because identification and recognition is the key. Table of Contents 1. Ask, Guess and Answer Materials: 2. Display Flashcards on the Floor Materials: 3 From Here to There Materials: 4. Rhyme Concentration Materials: 5. Puzzling Words Materials: Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Sombong V. Please note that this blog post might not...  [Read more]

Wed, 26 Sep 2018 Mark Crocker Teaching Ideas Great Ideas for Teaching Listening Skills in the ESL Classroom Of the four language skills taught in an ESL classroom, listening skills are often overlooked as teachers can be unsure how to make these lessons interesting and relevant to their students. However, as listening skills are a fundamental part of the language learning process, it is vital that we give them the classroom time they deserve. The good news is that there are many ways to make listening skills lessons both fun and productive. Here are 6 ideas for livening up your lesson plans. Table of Contents Popular Culture Secret Phrase Celebrity Squares Describe the Picture Listen and Quiz Vowel Cards Listen to this blog post Are you ready to teach listening skills in the...  [Read more]

Mon, 02 Sep 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas 3 Strategies of The Classroom Management in TEFL Teaching Classroom management is an important and essential skill for teachers and students. Classroom management aids teachers in organization and time management. Teachers who manage and instruct the class using eye contact, their voice, and group the students together using pair work and group work have more effective classroom management. Table of Contents 1. Body Language 2. Speech Patterns 3. Grouping Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Costas P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. 1. Body Language Keeping eye contact with...  [Read more]

Wed, 02 Oct 2019 Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas 7 Great and Easy Ways to Introduce New Vocabulary Teaching vocabulary is an integral part of every ESL class. There are many ways teachers can introduce new vocabulary to their students that aren't dull and boring and actually peak the students' interest and get them excited to learn. Here are 7 great and easy ways to introduce new vocabulary to your ESL students. Table of Contents 1. Keep it Real 2. Teach Pairs 3. Picture This 4. The Root of the Issue 5. Tell it like it is 6. Sing it out loud 7. Get Physical Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: 1. Keep it Real Using real-life objects to introduce new vocabulary to your students will greatly help them associating a mental image to the word....  [Read more]

Tue, 04 Dec 2018 Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas 4 Super Easy Tips for Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners When students hear 'vocabulary', they may expect to hear the word 'list' next. More often than not, we associate the word 'list' with 'boring'! We think of 2 daunting columns of black letters on white paper: one with the native language and one with the target language. But it doesn't have to be that way, and for teaching young learners, it cannot be that way. Certainly, teaching vocabulary will involve lists that help learners to receive language methodically and thoroughly. But what a teacher does with the vocabulary lists can be creative and fun and, most of all, memorable! Table of Contents Using Visuals - Loads of Them! Teaching Vocabulary Using the ESA Methodology Acting...  [Read more]

Mon, 10 Aug 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas 4 Activities to Use When Teaching Online Teaching English in the classroom remains a popular educational choice for families and children in decades. However, a lot of students cannot attend in-classroom all the time for many reasons. That's why teaching online has a potential extension possibility despite their limited competitive advantages in comparison with the general education method. Hence, online teachers need to be more creative in their lessons to increase learner's interest. As a result, many interactive activities have been developed in online English courses. Table of Contents 1. Pair Work 2. Game Play 3. Singing a Song 4. Quiz Do you want to teach English abroad or online? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: Check out...  [Read more]

Thu, 04 Jul 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas 3 Tips On How to Set Up a Friendly Environment Where Students Do Not Get Along With Each Other Learning is a process that can take place even in ''non-friendly'' environments. Everything can be made out to be a competition between students and mistakes can be the shame of the ones making them. Group work and pair work can be replaced by a teacher talking time and individual work. English language lessons though as all language lessons are important for communication and this need and will for communication first take place in the safe environment of the class, so that later on, it can extend out of the classroom, in real life. Table of Contents Listen to this blog post: 1. Work on the same goals 2. Work on the class dynamics 3....  [Read more]

Classroom Management for Teaching English as a Foreign Language - Grouping Students   Our next consideration is going to be how we actually group our students. There are perhaps three types of grouping arrangements that we can consider and within those we'll have a look at the potential positive and negatives of those particular arrangements. So firstly, what arrangements can we use? We could arrange our group as a whole class so all of their activities will be done as a whole class. They could be working as individuals and the final grouping arrangement we'll consider is that of small groups or indeed the use of pair work. So for each of these types of arrangements what are the potential positive and negatives with that type of arrangement? For the whole class certainly one of the...  [Read more]

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Using Flashcards in Teaching EFL Teenagers and Adults Flashcards are a simple, versatile, yet often underexploited resource, and they are instrumental in eliciting more obscure words. They are a great way to present, practice, and recycle vocabulary and some grammar structures. Table of Contents Benefits to Use Flashcards Lesson Planning with Flashcards Ideas on Using Flashcards in the Classroom Vocabulary Group Work Recollection Grammar Boost 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 FatoÅŸ T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily...  [Read more]

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 Federico Riva Teaching Ideas Top Tips for Reducing Teacher Talking Time When I had completed approximately thirty percent of the TEFL course I decided to go to a local school here in the North East of Thailand, where I live, and my friend, who is a Canadian national, is the English teacher at that particular school. I had already arranged with him, that I would take his English lesson acting as a visiting English trainee teacher, and he would assess me. I gave a lesson to the students in the English language sentence structure. Table of Contents Understand Your Classroom System of Signs Why Encouraging to Speak? Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: On completion of the lesson I approached my friend and asked his assessment of...  [Read more]

Thu, 21 Feb 2019 Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences The Most Common Problems Students in Hong Kong Face When Learning English As English becomes the de facto global language, people all over the world are learning English for schoolwork, career advancement, or the ability to visit English-speaking countries. Even though the content they are learning is about the same, the problems they most frequently encounter are not. In this essay I will focus on the problems commonly encountered by English learners in Hong Kong. The reasons for this choice are twofold—one is that I am a Chinese American and thus familiar with Chinese culture and potential problems in English learning resulting from this culture, the other is that I want to teach English in Hong Kong in the foreseeable future and...  [Read more]

Wed, 29 Jul 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas 7 Effective Ways to Teach New Vocabulary Teaching new words should be organized as a vivid way for better understanding and a higher level of remembering. These activities are easy to implement with any group of students. They are also very adaptable to online teaching format. Table of Contents Listen to this blog post: 1. Picture it 2. Keep it Real 3. Tell it Like it is 4. Sing it Outloud 5. Introduce Couples 6. Get Physical 7. The Root of the Issue Do you want to teach English online or abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! Listen to this blog post: 1. Picture it The easiest way to introduce new vocabulary is to show students colorful pictures. You can use...  [Read more]

Fri, 25 Oct 2019 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Several Secrets of Good Student Teacher Rapport Rapport according to the Cambridge dictionary means "a good understanding of someone and an ability to communicate well with them", it can also be defined as a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other's feelings or ideas and communicate well. Table of Contents Rapport in ESL Teaching Be Interested in Students Be Open to Students' Questions Be Interested in Their Culture Play Games Praise and Encourage Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Kudzai K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of...  [Read more]

Thu, 18 Mar 2021 Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Why TEFL Teachers Have to Pay Attention to Classroom Management Classroom management is the skill of organizing and managing a class to ensure that students can learn effectively. There are many different methods teachers can use to create an environment that will help students learn, such as classroom arrangement, conducting yourself correctly, grouping students in a sensible way for each task, and also establishing a good rapport with students. The teacher must apply these techniques to create a learning environment for the classroom. Table of Contents Classroom Space Arrangement Positive Atmosphere Grouping Principles Are you ready to teach English abroad or online? Related Articles: Check out...  [Read more]

Thu, 20 Aug 2020 Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas 7 Fun Ways to Introduce New EFL Vocabulary Learning vocabulary words is a big part of any EFL classroom. Sometimes, it can be challenging for students to learn and remember new words - this is where the following activities come in handy! Here are 7 fun ways to introduce new EFL vocabulary! Table of Contents Listen to this blog post: 1. Get Physical 2. Sing it Loud 3. Keep It Real 4. The Root of the Issue 5. Introduce Couples 6. Tell it like It Is 7. Picture It Which is your favorite teaching activity? Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! Listen to this blog post: 1. Get Physical This activity works well for a lot of vocabulary words. It is based around the total physical response...  [Read more]

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas 6 Ways to Use Flashcards to Boost the Learning Speed Repetition is a very important part of learning. In my country (Serbia) we often use a Latin quote: "Repetitio mater studiorum est" or repetition is a Mother of learning. In my case, it was the truth for all the subjects, and especially for learning foreign languages. Table of Contents 1) CVC words flashcards for reading. 2) CVC words flashcards for writing. 3) For even younger learners, ages 3-5, you can use flashcards in matching games. 4) Guessing games with flashcards. 5) "Go Fish" is a great game that can be played with flashcards. 6) The most often flashcards are used for learning sight words. 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, 10 Jun 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Teaching Privately vs. Group Teaching Learning English is becoming more and more popular due to globalization. Thousands of people around the world choose to learn English for different purposes such as traveling, business, international communication. Attending group lessons at a language school or finding a private tutor is a matter of personal preference and well-being. Both group and one to one lessons have their pros and cons for students and teachers as well. So let's consider the difference between teaching these ways. Table of Contents One-to-One Group Teaching Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Olena M. Please note that this...  [Read more]

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas 7 Idiom Activities for Creative Conversation Classes Teaching English idioms is not the easiest task. The following activities will help you to engage students quickly and help them understand this difficult language topic. Table of Contents Listen to this blog post: 1. Crocodile Idioms 2. Picture Perfect 3. Back to the Source 4. A Piece of Culture 5. Original Idioms 6. Improvisation 7. Movie Review Do you want to teach English abroad or online? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: Listen to this blog post: 1. Crocodile Idioms For this activity, you need to write various idioms on an index card and shuffle them. Let your students come to the front of the classroom, choose a card and act out that idiom. The rest of the class guesses...  [Read more]

Mon, 24 May 2021 Shirin Sophy Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Five Fun and Adaptable Games for ESL Classes Today's pedagogical approaches put considerable emphasis upon the importance of providing students with the opportunity to have a joyful educational experience through adding enough and well-located variety to the lessons. One practical way to do so is designing and adding aimful games to your plan in order to inject positive energy into your lessons, improve the mood of your class and make your lessons stick in students' long-term memory. Table of Contents Pizza game Hot seat Hot potato Spelling games Whisper chain Are you ready to teach English as a foreign language? Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! Since not only young...  [Read more]