English Language Teaching Meaning

The term TEFL is one that is often used in a general sense, although it does have a specific meaning. Generally the meaning of TEFL is some form of ‘the Teaching of English to people whose first language is not English’ and is often used interchangeably with terms such as TESOL, TEAL, TESL and many others. It is also generally used as the name of a qualification, such as a TEFL certificate, which relates to the result of a TEFL training course. Here we will look at the meaning of TEFL in these broad terms and also give its specific meaning, along with many other common acronyms used throughout the industry. The general acronym for the field of teaching English is ELT: English Language Teaching. This term applies across the board to teaching English, be it to American high school...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Teaching skills do not only refer to lesson handouts and specific classroom ideas/techniques—although both are part of, and important to teach— but also cover qualities teachers should possess, and the various roles the instructor will (at some point) need to fill. What makes a good instructor? Motivation strategies Roles of a teacher Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Carly G. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The first unit of the course began by identifying qualities that make for a good instructor. These qualities are as follows: teachers must be kind, patient, lively and...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas There are many different types of peculiarities when concerning the English language, and this essay is aimed at the difficulties in teaching those peculiarities to learners that are not fluent in the English language. It can be difficult for native English speakers to progressively learn the subtle nuances as children graduating to young adults and navigating complexities of the language as adults; deciphering whether or not these peculiarities warrant further investigation or retention based on usage and context. These oddities of the English language can be exponentially more difficult for those attempting to learn the English language as a second language, having fully grasped the complexities of their own language only to have to navigate the...  [Read more]

Certainly! Teaching English abroad uniquely positions you for rapid foreign language acquisition. Immersion in a new culture, surrounded by native speakers daily, is one of the most effective methods to grasp a language. As an English teacher abroad, every interaction - from daily errands to classroom engagements - becomes an invaluable opportunity to hone your linguistic abilities. What are the benefits of learning a foreign language when teaching English abroad? Can I learn Chinese while teaching English abroad? Can I learn Arabic while teaching English abroad? Can I learn Spanish while teaching English abroad? Can I learn French while teaching English abroad? What other languages can I learn while teaching English abroad? Embracing a foreign language while teaching English...  [Read more]

The English language contains many set phrases whose meanings cannot be discerned by looking at the individual words that make up the phrase. These phrases are called ‘idioms’ and they are used widely by native English speakers around the world; they are also a common cause of confusion for English language learners and as such many EFL students ask their teachers to teach them English idioms. Teachers used to think that there was no point in teaching idioms to students out of fear that they would use them incorrectly; however, as they are such a widely used part of the language it is now considered a good idea to teach them. There are many books available for both teachers and learners that provide explanations of different idioms and exercises to help students practice. In these...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Learning English as a foreign language in healthcare has become increasingly common and essential due to globalization and the growing demand for healthcare professionals in diverse settings. This article emphasizes the significance of teaching Medical English and highlights the need for qualified instructors with a medical background. The Impact of Language Proficiency in Healthcare Developing Students' Language Proficiency Incorporating Authentic Materials Cultural Competence in Healthcare Advancement Opportunities for Healthcare Workers Conclusion Are you ready to teach English as a foreign language? Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! Disclaimer: The views and opinions...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Vocabulary has a direct impact on written and spoken language comprehension. All students come to school with differences in their vocabulary knowledge, and part of teaching them how to be successful in English is to teach them vocabulary. Vocabulary development plays a critical role in helping English language learners increase their ability to communicate in the receptive and expressive domains in English. This is why vocabulary must be explicitly and systematically taught. Learn how to teach vocabulary effectively with a TEFL course today! Listen to this blog post Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Gina A. Research suggests the following three big ideas about teaching and learning new words: Also read: 4 Super...  [Read more]

  In this video for a teaching English second language teaching idea the students are given a sheet of paper with a series of pictures and each picture has a prompt with complicated verb structure as well as irregular verbs. The students will have to look at the prompts and order the pictures so as to make a story in the past simple tense. For higher level students you could remove the prompts and leave it up to them to create their own story. Teaching English as a second language is an increasingly popular career move. Not only do get the opportunity to help a variety of people around the world achieve their language learning goals but you also get to experience what it is like to live in another culture, often quite different to your own, which is always a rewarding experience. To...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Drawing on my substantial personal teaching experience, I naturally gravitated toward this topic for a summative task. Throughout my six years of teaching English, I have encountered various settings, approaches, and challenges. Here, I recount my journey from a language school to one-on-one tutoring, highlighting my evolving teaching methods, materials, and strategies. From Language School to One-on-One Teaching Embracing One-on-One Tutoring Crafting Engaging Lessons Interactive Learning and Progress Evolving with Proficiency Shaping Language Skills Insights from Teaching Individual Students Tailoring Learning to Individual Needs Focusing on Adult Learners Crafting a Unique Teaching Methodology Expanding Knowledge with...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Destinations TEFL Information Teaching English abroad is an exciting adventure for many and it offers plenty of opportunities for traveling, exploring a new culture and making new friends from around the world. While you do not need to speak any language other than English to be a successful teacher, many people choose to embrace the opportunity to learn a foreign language while teaching English overseas. 1. Take Language Classes 2. Participate in Language Exchanges 3. Learn Verbs! 4. Go Exploring on Your Own 5. Don't Be Afraid to Make Mistakes Listen to this blog post Are you ready for your adventure abroad? Related Articles: Being able to speak the language of the country you are choosing to live and work in not only makes your life there a lot easier, but it will also...  [Read more]

Date posted:2020-06-13 | Writer: International Schools Partnership | Email: [email protected] International Schools Partnership are currently recruiting Graduate Learning Assistants for our schools in Costa Rica. Successful applicants will be appointed to a school on a fixed-term basis for the academic year. This is an ideal position for recently qualified EFL teachers. After successful completion of the programme, GLAs may be able to apply for and complete an iPGCE at one of our schools with a view to becoming a permanent teacher.The GLA programme has been specifically designed to provide recent graduates who are interested in a teaching career with the opportunity to work as teaching assistants in our international schools. It’s the perfect opportunity for those looking to...  [Read more]

  The structure of the question form of the Present Simple tense is the topic for this ITTT video. The positive and negative forms are discussed in other videos. Question Form: auxiliary verb 'do/does' + subject + base form of the verb Do I/you/we/they teach? Does he/she/it teach? Teaching English as a second language is an exciting and rewarding experience. The major qualifications necessary to gain a position teaching English as a second language are an internationally recognized TEFL or TESOL Certificate. ITTT has a range of courses that will provide you with the skills to begin your career teaching English as a second language. If you are interested in gaining your qualification follow the link above. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of...  [Read more]

  This training video from one of ITTT's teaching English as a foreign language courses reviews the usage of the future perfect tense. This is used to talk about actions that will be completed by a point in the future. "I will have finished my TEFL course by the end of the year" If you are interested in teaching English as a foreign language the first thing you should think about is getting qualified. Many EFL employers require their teachers to have some form of teaching qualification and a 120-hour TEFL certificate meets that requirement. Follow the link above to browse the selection of TEFL courses that ITTT has to offer. 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...  [Read more]

  Our next consideration is that of giving instructions to our students. In order for those students to effectively carry out an activity, we need to make sure we have given clear and unambiguous instructions. It's also very important to check that the students understand the activity before you start. If you've done that work correctly then the teacher shouldn't need to say anything once an activity has started because the students are very clear about what they're supposed to be doing. So some ideas when giving instructions. As we've mentioned use simple language. Secondly, rather than trying to explain an activity, then do a demonstration which is visual. Thirdly, try to use wherever possible common words that come up within every activity. These would be things like ?look?,...  [Read more]

  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 main positive features is that it gives that class a sense of belonging. Secondly the...  [Read more]

  The dynamics of classroom interaction is often dictated by the arrangement of the classroom itself and the way in which the classroom is arranged could depend upon a number of factors and they might include things such as the age of the students, so for example we're unlikely to have the same arrangement for adult learners as we would have for young learners. It could also depend upon the actual physical space available. The physical space may determine how we have to arrange our classroom to maximize the opportunity for interaction and so forth. It will also depend on what material is available and by material in this case we're talking about the actual desks and chairs and so on and so forth. Perhaps the final thing we might put here is that it could also depend upon the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Throughout this course, it was mentioned that language does not happen in isolation. It is a product of the various aspects of culture, values, and context that make up the environment in which the language is used. Language can be used in vastly diverse and varied manners, and within different contexts have unique meanings. In the same way, slang and idioms are created based on specific contexts that exist within a society or group within a culture. Cultural Awareness Creativity and Fun Motivation Aspect Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Temi O. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Proverbs,...  [Read more]

    170-hr TEFL Certificate with tutor (Specialization in Teaching Online) Our 170-hour Teaching English as a Foreign Language with Online Specialization has been designed for those who would like to gain a qualification to enter the TEFL/TESOL employment market and wish to maximize their options. Through this course we will give you the knowledge and skills needed to teach English in both classroom and online settings. The course is taken in two parts: First, our 120-hour certification is completed. This is followed by a further 50-hours of study looking at the particular skills needed to teach English online. One added benefit of the course is that on completion you will gain access to a unique graduate network, connecting you to ITTT alumni currently employed by many of the...  [Read more]

  This video from one of ITTT's teach English as a foreign language courses covers three teaching ideas for the future perfect tense. The future perfect is used to talk about things that will have been completed by a certain date in the future. The first idea involves asking students the following question "What will you have done by ...?" with an appropriate time in the future. For example: "What will you have done by the time you are 25?" "I will have become an English teacher". The second idea involves giving students monthly calendars to complete and asking them to say what they will have done by the end of the month. The last idea involves asking questions about a famous person and what they will have achieved in the future. "How many awards will she have won by 2025?" "How many...  [Read more]

More and more employers now expect their English teachers to have a minimum of a 120-hour TEFL certificate. Gaining a TEFL certificate shows your commitment to the profession and gives you an introductory preparation to the knowledge and skills needed to teach English. Types of TEFL course Course content Which course is best for you? There are three main routes to a 120-hour TEFL certification. There are two main areas covered in a TEFL course, 1) Teaching skills 2) Language awareness A good TEFL course will give you a solid grounding in the basics of the English language. You will learn how English grammar works and how you can explain it. Topics covered will typically include; Depending on which type of course you undertake, onsite, combined or online, the topics presented throughout...  [Read more]

  Our next main issue is going to be that of giving students individual attention. Here many classroom management and leaving potential discipline problems can be avoided by applying some simple rules to giving your students attention. The first one is to think about the way in which you ask questions. Don't ask questions in a predictable order. If you just go around the class asking questions from one person to the next then the person at the end of the class will know that it's going to be some time before you actually get to them. So try to mix up the way in which you're asking questions. In terms of answers to questions don't allow individual students to dominate all of the answers. One of the things that we can do to help this particular issue is to use the students names as...  [Read more]

  Our next consideration is going to be building and maintaining rapport. The importance of rapport is that within our communicative activities, we're asking the students to talk to each other. If they feel comfortable with each other and with us, then that interaction is much more likely to be useful. So how do we actually build and maintain rapport? Well, it's easiest if we consider two stages of the course itself. What we can do at the start of the course and what we can do throughout the course to help build and maintain that rapport. So at the start of the course, it's very useful if we ask the students to create a name card and to make that name card visible to everyone. Secondly we need to try to do some ice breaking activities that will allow the students to interact with...  [Read more]

  So now we'll consider the actual classroom arrangements themselves in terms of the physical desk layout. There are possibly three main types of arrangements that are used within classrooms and we're going to indicate the desks here as being boxes and the arrangements of the students within those desks will be blue crosses. So here we have the desks ranged in rows and the students sitting within those rows. The second arrangement could be the use of horseshoes or semi circles and finally the use of individual desks. So for each of these arrangements what are the potential advantages and disadvantages of arranging our seating in this way? Let's take the rows first of all. One of the potential advantages is that it does give the teacher the opportunity, if it's arranged correctly, to...  [Read more]

  One of the major ideas here when writing on the board, is that we need to be aware that whenever we're using the board to write down information, we should not be talking and whenever we are talking we should not be writing on the board. This will inevitably lead to what's known as dead time when nothing is being said as we're putting information on the board. This dead time is not a problem but we can actually minimize it by using a number of techniques. We could use pre-prepared material. So we put information onto large pieces of paper and then instead of writing on the board, we actually stick those materials onto the board as we go through the class. Another idea is to actually ask students to write on the board for you. Another thing is that we could actually put work up onto...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Over a hundred years ago, in the late 19th century, a Polish-Jewish eye doctor named Dr. Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof wanted to bridge the gaps and misunderstandings between different ethnic groups that he grew up around. Being from a Polish city that, at the time, was a polyglot, multi-ethnic mixture of Poles, Russians, Jews, Lithuanians, and Germans, he saw there was a great deal of distrust between each group, and he believed it was due to the language barriers that each imposed. To create a common ground between every group, he created an international, universal language called Esperanto (Yaffe, 2017). While it was a great idea to create a language that did not belong to any ethnic group and could be used universally, it did not take off in the 20th...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Verbs are one of the most important parts of speech in English and incredibly important for learners of English. The below infographic showcases all types of verbs in the English language.   Generally speaking, a verb is a word that shows an action, state or an event. It is an essential part of a sentence and is known as the soul of language. For example: "They study English grammar." (Action) "We celebrate independence day." (Event) "I sleep at night." (State)    Following are the different types of verbs:   When a verb's past tense (2nd form) and past participle (3rd form) is created by adding ‘d’ or ‘ed’, it is called a regular verb. Some examples of a regular verb include: Walk Walked ...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I did not realize how difficult English is until I became fluent in Spanish. I am currently studying French and I am pretty good at French. I have a basic knowledge of Esperanto. English is difficult for several reasons English is not a phonetic language There are exceptions to every rule Some examples of other exceptions to English rules Pronunciation Are you ready to teach English all over the world? Related Articles: Listen to this blog post: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Wayne K. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I will just touch on each of these since a book could be written about each of these. Also Read: Teaching Young Learners vs. Adult Learners - The...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Like we all know, the English alphabet has 26 letters. These 26 letters can make 44 different sounds or phonemes – 20 sounds come from the vowels a, e, i, o and u; and 24 sounds come from the remaining 21 consonants. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound that can change the meaning of a word. The Vowel Sounds The Consonant Sounds Syllable Stress Without Jumping to Conclusions Listen to this blog post Are you ready to take your TEFL course? Related Articles: If we consider sounds made simply by the letter 'a' for instance, in the word 'apple' – it's /ae/, in 'car' – it's /a:/, in amount – it's /a/, and so on. This, consequently, makes English a non-phonetic language, which means that the pronunciation of a word is not...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English is considered a universal language, mainly because it is widely spoken all over the world. English was originally the language of England. Its expansion became imperative due to the dominance in world trade, religion, technology, tourism, education and so on. UK expansion and incursion of the USA as the first world power saw the migration of the English language all over the world. About 70 countries adopt the English language as their official language and statistics have it that the English language is one of the easiest languages to learn when compared with other languages like Chinese, French, German or Spanish. English Prevalence English in Asia ESL Career Difficulties Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related...  [Read more]

  This presentation is going to focus on the section of classroom management. We could start with a definition of classroom management as being the skill of organizing the class individual students within that class and what takes place within the class. Perhaps one of the most important resources for achieving these things is you and in terms of you there are a number of things that you can use to help with the classroom management and they include though they're not limited to the use of your eyes the use of your voice and the use of gesture. So let's take each of these in turn and see how they can be used to help with their management of the classroom. So starting with our eyes. First of all the eyes can be used in a number of ways and they can certainly be used to hold attention....  [Read more]