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What are the best books for teaching ESL? - ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ TEFL FAQs
The realm of ESL teaching books is expansive, with renowned publishers offering a plethora of resources. Generally, ESL teaching materials can be categorized into:
These categories encompass a range of tools, from structured lesson plans to interactive activities, essential for any ESL educator.
Book Series
Teaching Theory Books
Activity Resources
There are a number of well known book series. These are specifically written for the ESL teaching market and are generally set at the five levels most often taught. These levels are Starter or Beginner, Elementary, Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, and Upper-Intermediate.
A typical book series at each level will contain three books. These are the teacher book, student book and resources book (or similar names). The teacher book gives an outline... [Read more]
What are some useful ESL teaching resource books? - TEFL Blog
Federico Riva
TEFL Information Teaching Ideas
The market for ESL teaching books is very large and all the major publishers have some form of involvement in the production and selling of these resources. There are many different types of books and resources that are used in ESL teaching and we will consider three main categories.1) General teaching theory books2) ESL book series3) Activity resource books
General teaching theory books
ESL book series
Activity Resource books
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As an ESL teacher unless you spend your entire career teaching kindergarten, you are going to have to teach English grammar. There are many books that cover this well and you... [Read more]
Tefl reviews - Coursebooks And Materials/resource Books Part 2 - ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ITTT
Let's just consider next, when using these resource books, the student book, the workbook and the teachers resource book, what are some of the advantages and disadvantages of using those types of materials? Well, firstly, the main advantage perhaps of using these types of material is that it's quicker than actually creating your own. Secondly, the course books that you will get will be graded for a particular level. So there'll be a set of books for the starter level, a set of books for the elementary level and so on and so forth. So you know that the activities and materials in there will have been graded for level. The use of the book can also offer continuity so that the syllabuses have been covered in a particular way by the book itself and are presented in a logical order.... [Read more]
Ways to Say Interesting in English - ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ITTT
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Here are some alternative ways to say "interesting" in English.
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Interesting Outdoor Activities English Teachers Can Use - TEFL Blog
Federico Riva
Teaching Ideas
Let us imagine. How if English teachers only conduct English lessons inside the class? Will the students have fun all the time? Many English teachers reflect on that so, in reality, they try to conduct English lessons not only inside the class but also outside the class. They think that conducting English lessons outside is also needed and important. Therefore, English teachers use some outdoor activities to help when teaching English. By doing so, English teachers believe that they can help their students to increase motivation. They also believe that outdoor activities can give students fun and joy. Here are some interesting activities that English teachers can use to teach English outside the class.
Principles of Motivation
What I can do
Look around and... [Read more]
Tefl reviews - Interesting Vs Interested English Grammar Teaching Tips - ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ITTT
This video covers the difference between 'interested' and 'interesting'. As these two words have a similar pronunciation and spelling, their usage is often confused. 'Interesting' describes the people or things that cause the feeling of interest to someone, for example: Today's lesson about world history is very interesting. 'Interested', on the other hand, describes how someone feels, such as here: I am very interested in learning another language.
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... [Read more]
14 Course Books to Improve Your Business English Classes - TEFL Blog
Jon ITTT
TEFL Information
Business English falls under the umbrella of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), and is an area of English language teaching that focuses on the language students need in order to function in an international business setting. It is a popular sector for qualified TEFL teachers to work in and one that can be financially rewarding. Students taking business English classes will generally already have a reasonable level of English language ability and course books tend to be aimed at pre-intermediate level students and above but there are books aimed at lower level students.
Oxford University Press
Cambridge University Press
Pearson/Longman
Macmillan
Collins ELT
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Course Books for Business English ▷ Infographic - ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ITTT
Business English is an area of English language teaching and learning that is part of the wider category of English for Specific Purposes. Unlike general English, business English focuses on the language students need in order to function in an international business setting. Students taking business English classes will generally already have a reasonable level of English language ability and course books tend to be aimed at pre-intermediate level students and above.
There are several publishers involved in producing course books for the business English classroom. The main ones are Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. These two publishers produce business English course books across a range of levels in British, American and International English... [Read more]
General English Course Books for Young Learners ▷ Infographic - ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ITTT
General English course books for young learners differ from those for adults in a number of ways. Obviously the types of topics will be geared towards the interests of younger people but there are also differences in the way the language is presented. Grammar chants are a popular method of drilling grammar points in books for young learners and while course books for adults will generally have sections with explicit presentations of a grammar point, books for young learners do not usually cover grammar in such detail, especially those for very young learners.
There are several publishers involved in producing general English course books for young learners. The main publishers are Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. These two publishers produce course books across... [Read more]
General English Course Books for Adults ▷ Infographic - ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ITTT
There are several publishers involved in producing course books for the ESL classroom. The main publishers are Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. These two publishers produce course books across a range of ESL sectors including, young learners, adults, business English, and English for specific purposes.
General English course books for adults will include topics geared towards the interest of adults such as the world of work, entertainment, socialising etc. They will also have more detailed explanations of grammar than you would find in books aimed at young learners.
The majority of these course books can be ordered directly through the’ websites of the publishers, online from Amazon or in the EFL section at your local bookshop. Depending where you are located,... [Read more]
Course Books for English for Specific Purposes and English for Academic Purposes ▷ Infographic - ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ITTT
English for Specific Purposes is an area of English language teaching and learning that encompasses business English, English for Academic Purposes as well as courses that teach English needed for specific professions. In this infographic we look at course books aimed at teaching English to those in certain professions such as finance, law, tourism, medicine and aviation. We also look at course books available for teaching English for Academic Purposes. EAP focuses on the language and skills needed for students to study in English at university level. As with other English teaching, EAP deals with reading, writing, listening and speaking, as well as vocabulary and grammar but these are linked to the students’ specific study needs such as essay writing.
There are several... [Read more]
TEFL New Zealand - ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ Interesting Tefl Opportunity In New Zealand
Date posted:2020-06-29 | Writer: Volunteer Service Abroad (VSA) | Email: [email protected]
Established in 1967, The Marine Training Centre (MTC) in Kiribati is the most important source of private sector employment for I-Kiribati, with regular opportunites for TEFL qualified teachers. Seafaring is recognised as the best overseas employment opportunity for I-Kiribati and the wages earned by MTC trainees has provided support to the extended families and communities of the seafarers. As strong written and verbal communication skills in English are essential to gaining employment on foreign vessel, this assignment will play a key role in improving students' skills in this area. As an EFL teacher, you will work alongside the Head of Deck Department to improve the curriculum,... [Read more]
10 Idioms About Books - ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ITTT
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Here are 10 fun idioms about books to share with your ESL students.
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Speaking Activity: Conversation Cards about Books - ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ITTT
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Using speaking cards is a great way to encourage conversations among ESL learners. The cards act as guides to give the students a direction in their conversations. Below you will find conversation cards about books and reading for your ESL classroom.
Let's take a look at all of the questions and possible answers.
Possible answer: I recently finished reading the first book of the Outlander series. It's a fantastic book about an English woman from 1945 who travels back in time to Scotland in 1745. The story is very compelling and the characters' personalities are very well thought-through.
Possible answer: One of my favorite books is "The Da Vinci Code" written by Dan Brown. Even though it is a fictional story, Dan... [Read more]
5 Effective Ways to Inspire Children's Passion for Books - TEFL Blog
Federico Riva
Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas
Nowadays, we see children who readily pick up an iPad instead of a book. It seems that reading is not as popular as it used to be. It is lessening. Reading is a receptive skill, and it is a meaningful activity that should be enjoyed by all children. So how can we instill a love for reading in children? As a person who has a passion for reading, I would like to make some recommendations.
Teach the Importance of Reading
Make Books Accessible or Low-Cost
Use Positive Reinforcement
Assess Reading Activity and Performance
Make Reading Fun!
Conclusion
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this... [Read more]
What Books to Use: An Overview of The ESL Teaching Materials - ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ITTT
hey everybody it's lisa here and i'm super glad to welcome you to the weekly live stream by itt um if you don't know me yet um once again my name is lisa and i'm a non-native english teacher from russia i've been working online primarily since 2020 and today um i would like to reach out to you and tell you about um some esl course books uh to pick out for your uh teaching i'm not going to dig into details i'm just going to briefly present my approach how i choose the most appropriate materials but anyways i hope that this topic um will be interesting and helpful so uh stay tuned uh and um let me know that you hear and see me clearly because uh right now i i can see that there are seven people watching but i'm not sure if my equipment works well so uh we've got this comment section uh... [Read more]
6 Facts about Teaching English in China - TEFL Blog
Jon ITTT
Destinations
Teaching English in China is as popular as ever and is one of the best places to put your TEFL certificate to use. In 2014, 7.26 million students graduated with Bachelor's and Master's degrees and the numbers were expected to rise in 2015. There are over 30,000 organizations or companies offering private English classes, with the Chinese market having nearly doubled in size in the last five years and is now worth around $3.1 billion.
Money in China is good for English teachers
Head away from the famous cities to save money
China is increasingly diverse in its metropolitan areas
There is an excellent transport network
The country is ideally situated for exploring the wider region
Chinese food in China is even more delicious than back home
Do you want to teach... [Read more]
Leaders Are Readers: How to Develop Children’s Interest for Reading - TEFL Blog
Elizaveta Pachina
Teaching Ideas
Reading it's a skill which we learn when we are children. Some children learn to read before they start to join the elementary school, it depends on parents always. But how we can instill a love for reading in children?
Parents Role
Reading Activities For The Classroom
Benefits of Reading
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Listen to this blog post:
This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Radka S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
Parents should read a children's books since childhood like this the relationship between parents and a child become stronger, the child gets to know emotions by reading books and it becomes a favorite activity of a child... [Read more]
Tefl reviews - Coursebooks And Materials/resource Books Part 1 - ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ITTT
The next item that we're going to consider is the use of resource books. There are many different types of resource books available and within those books there tends to be a general pattern and typically the resource book pack will come in a three book series and typically that three book series will be in the form of the student book, a workbook and a teacher's resource book. So for example here are those three books for this particular series called ?Total English? and in the student book the type of information that we can gain from here is the actual background to the teaching points themselves plus some additional information in terms of short worksheets and so on and so forth and tape transcripts at the end for listening activities, which these days often come on a CD rather... [Read more]
English Students’ Favorite Flashcard Activities - TEFL Blog
Elizaveta Pachina
Teaching Ideas
People say that language is a tree and the vocabulary is the leaf of that tree. Therefore teaching vocabulary items are indeed an essential part of any English learners' growth. Especially for younger students, who are motivated to learn the basic words, they need to get by in the language. There are many different ways to teach vocabulary. Using flashcards is one of the most suitable media in teaching vocabulary. Because learners can easily memorize and understand the meaning of vocabulary through flashcards.
I am going to share with you my 5 favorite and effective activities with flashcards:
1. Spin the Bottle:
2. Rope Jump:
3. Roll the Dice:
4. Picture word match race:
5. Over-under:
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Related... [Read more]
Helpful and Fun Outdoor ESL Activities - TEFL Blog
Elizaveta Pachina
Teaching Ideas
What outdoor activities can help to teach English? I would like to say that there are plenty of outdoor activities that are effective to teach English. However, many teachers prefer indoor activities rather than outdoor, as they think that it might distract the students. Nonetheless, outdoor activities can increase their motivation for learning. Also, it helps to decrease their stress level, as they do not have to stay in the classroom as usual.
Freewriting time
Flashcard game
'Stand up if you've ever' game
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This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Sarosh Z. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.
The teacher... [Read more]
5 Simple Ideas on Teaching Grammar - TEFL Blog
Elizaveta Pachina
Teaching Ideas
I think of myself as having been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to learn other languages at a young age. I was taught French in primary school and at home, I learned or acquired Spanish. At school, I remember my language teacher being very textbook-oriented and she focused and followed the book to the "T". I picked up easily on the grammar because I had already learned Spanish at home and I was also very keen to learn foreign languages, especially French. The grammar didn't seem difficult or boring to me at all because I had already been exposed to the language at a very early age. However, many students didn't feel the same way I did and had difficulty with the subject and therefore, developed a disinterest in learning another language.... [Read more]
Readers Are Leaders: How to Instill a Love for Reading in Children? - TEFL Blog
Federico Riva
TEFL Information Alumni Experiences
Children usually prioritize their joy and prefer rewarding activities. They are more interested in reading when it is rewarding and beneficial to them. Interestingly, children learning a second language find it easier to learn reading compared to those who are learning to read for the first time. This is because young second language (L2) learners have already experienced that reading can be interesting and entertaining. By making reading in a second language interesting, students are likely to be motivated.
Text Difficulty and Vocabulary Support
Setting Achievable Reading Goals
Tailoring Reading Material to Children's Interests
Reading and Writing as Positive Activities
Empowering Children's Choice in Reading
Engaging Activities to... [Read more]
Tefl reviews - Coursebooks And Materials/making Best Use Coursebook - ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ITTT
So how do we actually make best use of the course book? Well, just a couple of factors that you need to keep into consideration when using these types of material, use the course book to help you create a balanced lesson in terms of the range of skills that are being taught and the actual types of material within that the grammar or vocabulary. Secondly, don't use it all the time, particularly with things like activities, we can create our own materials and we can tailor those materials much more specifically to the actual class that we're teaching. As very often the actual creations in the book are very general, we can make our own materials much more specific. The third thing you need to be aware of is that you can't always rely 100% on the information that's presented in those... [Read more]
How to Effectively Integrate Slang and Idioms into TEFL - TEFL Blog
Elizaveta Pachina
Teaching Ideas
Intelligence has been defined in many ways, including the capacity for logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can be described as the ability to perceive or infer information and to retain it as knowledge to be applied towards adaptive behaviors within an environment or context (Wikipedia, 2019).
Considering Language Habits
Iconic Approach to Teaching
Why Slang?
Verb First Clauses Usually Play one of Three Roles:
Teaching Slang and Idioms
Incorporating Idioms and Slang into English language Teaching
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This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate... [Read more]
How to Help Children Become a Strong Reader - TEFL Blog
Elizaveta Pachina
Teaching Ideas
As language acquisition through immersion goes, reading is positively amazing. Where movies may help with attitude and tone, reading allows us to see the words, form visual connections between them, and familiarise ourselves with spelling, punctuation, and structure. The best results, of course, are seen in readers who do it for pleasure, and for whom the point of reading is not simply to be done with it. How, then, do we get our children to read for fun when most of them seem to dread it?
Step One: Drop mandatory/standardized reading
Step Two: Make it social
Step Three: Accept differences
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This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Smaranda E. Please note that this... [Read more]
Typical Challenges Faced by Teachers in a Kindergarten Class - TEFL Blog
Elizaveta Pachina
Alumni Experiences
Teaching English in kindergarten is more than just teaching a child how to pronounce words. If you want to be a dedicated teacher, and you want to successfully teach the children, it is essential to teach them how to follow rules and instructions. The following paragraphs will try to equip you with the most important ingredients required to be a successful kindergarten teacher. With having more than 2 ½ years of experience teaching English at a kindergarten, I am certain that the most important thing a teacher has to do is to build a strong rapport with the children.
Behavior Management and Classroom Rules
Teaching Phonics to Children
Building Relationships or Rapport with the Children
Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course!... [Read more]
Tefl reviews - English Grammar Present Continuous For The Future Tesol Certification Efl - ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ITTT
To be successful teaching English overseas you will need to come up with interesting teaching ideas for your students. This video from one of ITTT's online TESOL certification courses outlines a teaching idea for the present continuous when it is used to talk about future plans. In this activity students are given a diary and have to interview each other about their future plans. For example: Student A: "What are you doing on the 6th?" Student B: "I'm having my hair done." Students keep asking and answering questions until they find a date when they are free to meet. This idea can also be adapted to use with past tenses. On ITTT's TESOL certification courses not only will you learn how the different tenses in English are formed and used but you will also learn interesting ways of... [Read more]
Regular and Irregular Verbs Spiral Reading - ✔️ ✔️ ✔️ ITTT
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This is a fun and different way to read a text with an interesting topic. Would you be able to live without money? Read and find out how this person managed.
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Great Ideas for Teaching Writing Skills in the ESL Classroom - TEFL Blog
Mark Crocker
Teaching Ideas
Image by Alice Bolden via Writix
Listen to this blog post:
Think outside the box
Encourage creativity, not perfection
Encourage students to write about what interests them
Writing doesn't have to be a solo activity
Introduce multi-skilled lessons
Writing games
Are you ready to teach writing skills in your own classroom?
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Of all the language skills that are taught in the ESL classroom, teaching writing skills is often seen as one of the least popular. Some teachers consider these lessons to be a bit boring, hard to evaluate and somewhat limited in what you can incorporate into them. However, this doesn't have to be the case as teaching writing skills to your ESL students can actually be interesting, fun and productive. Take a look at these... [Read more]