Teaching English For Beginners Lesson Plans

When teaching English to absolute beginners, it is pivotal to start with foundational elements. Begin with essential vocabulary - items like family names, household objects, basic adjectives, and common places. Introduce them to subject pronouns, commonly used verbs, and foundational sentence structures. While the challenge is real, many English teachers find this level especially rewarding. Remember, every word they grasp is a significant achievement, so using engaging and interactive methods can make the learning process enjoyable and effective. How do I start teaching English to total beginners? How do I teach English pronunciation to total beginners? How do I quickly build vocabulary for complete beginner students of English? How do I teach English grammar to complete beginners? ...  [Read more]

  Hello. This presentation is going to cover this section on lesson planning and what we're going to do is to have a look as to why we go about planning a lesson, what do we actually put in it? We'll create an empty lesson plan pro-forma and then having done that what we'll do is to fill in that lesson plan for a particular teaching point. So, our starting position is going to be: "Why do we plan lessons at all?" There are a number of reasons why we need to plan a lesson. The first and foremost perhaps is that it's going to create a logical sequence for our lessons. If we didn't have a lesson plan, it is quite possible that we could go all over the place and it would become confusing for the students. By having this plan, what we've created is a structure that we can work from. So,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Doing up lesson plans for my up and coming TEFL classes is something that I am quite excited about. I suppose it is because I see an opportunity for creativity and that gets my juices flowing. I love the engage, study and activate model that was taught to us, both in the TEFL course itself as well as in this course on teaching business English lessons to adults. I would like to share some ideas that I have reaped from this course on how I would prepare a lesson plan for the to engage, study and activate methodology. Engagement Giving New Information Applying New Information on Practice Points to Remember Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Bonnie B. Please...  [Read more]

  Regardless of which type of beginners you are teaching here are our top 10 tips for the teaching of beginner classes. 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 before moving onto the next. Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Unit 6 was about the past tenses and how to use them correctly. It described the different situations of when to use each tense and how to properly structure them. Sadly, there aren't any rules for knowing the irregular verbs. You simply just have...  [Read more]

Hoàng Minh Huy TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Due to the pandemic, distance learning has replaced traditional classroom instruction worldwide. Teachers in Hong Kong are attempting to find ways to instruct their students while at home under quarantine. To help you stay inspired when instructing online, I'm going to share some enjoyable games and activities to play with kids using Zoom in this post. If you've never used Zoom, you must give it a try with your students; you'll be pleasantly surprised. Show and tell Draw and guess Board game 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! Because students are staying at home in a cozy environment rather than attending actual classes...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Knowing an additional language goes beyond the ability to speak it. It connects people, helps in understanding different cultures and has also been identified as a boost to brain function and increase intelligence. Present Situation Example Lesson Plan Lesson: Receptive Skills Engage and Study Phase: Activate Phase: Expected end result: Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course today! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Nagashree C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. In the present age of expanding businesses, capturing markets across the globe, establishing offices far and wide, more and more business are following the model of 'following...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Japanese is certainly one of the most interesting languages in the world thanks to its three types of writing (hiragana, katakana and kanji). International Links Main Challenges: Phonetic System Main Challenges: Exposure to English Main Challenges: Grammar Main Challenges: Beginners Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Desiree I. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. After the outbreak of intercontinental travel (therefore with the appearance of commercialization and missionaries around the world) many terms of different languages, including English ones, also became part of the language of Japan....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Standing in front of a class, a teacher procrastinates by asking each student random questions and scribbling on the board, but something is wrong. The students seem restless and the teacher looks uncomfortable. The teacher then springs into action by quickly shuffling through a stack of papers on their desk while the students look around blankly at one another. Their attention is dwindling. "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail." - Benjamin Franklin Misconception Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Bryce W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Be prepared, and be ready! When teaching,...  [Read more]

  Akira is from Japan and he recently took the 120-hour TEFL/TESOL course with tutor support and videos. He learned how to create a lesson plan, interactive teaching activities and useful tips and tricks how to present English lessons effectively. He enjoyed the resources to keep his students interested in his lessons and recommends the course to anyone wanting to live abroad and teach English. Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

  So, the document itself needs to contain some general information about the class, for example the name of the teacher, the date and time of the lesson, what level of class is being taught and in what room, how many students are we expecting, this is important, when we've got things like photocopying and materials to do, what is the context of the lesson, in other words, what is the lesson actually about, what vocabulary or grammar point is this lesson covering and sometimes it's also useful to write out what the focus of the lesson is. So, in effect, the context of the lesson is telling us the grammar point, for example, that might be the present continuous tense, whereas the focus is telling us how we're going to go about teaching it. Another example to illustrate this: Let's...  [Read more]

  Okay, so we're going to use this pro-forma as our lesson plan and we're going to fill one out as though we were planning for an actual lesson. So, we start off with some basic information about the class. So, the name of the teacher, date and time and the class level. In this particular case, our class is going to be an elementary class and the room will be room 3. Having looked through the registers we see that the expected number of students for this particular class is going to be 10. This will help us in creating our worksheet copies. The context of the lesson for this class is going to be present continuous tense and it may well be the first time that this particular level of class has been introduced to this tense. So, our focus is going to be fairly general and it's going to...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas A lesson plan is a series of instructions written by the teacher on how to cover his lessonIt is also a working document to refer to during the lesson ad a record of the class content useful for future lessons or for other teachers. Structure Teaching Materials More Things to Consider Anticipated Problems Interaction Are you ready to take your TEFL course? Related Articles: Listen to this blog post: An effective lesson plan should be flexible and open to change. How a lesson plan is written depends upon the teacher. It's complicated because it doesn't exist the perfect way to write a lesson plan. It can be formal following a specific pattern or written in the form of notes but simplicity is essential. This post was written by our TEFL certification...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Lesson planning has always been the backbone of my lessons. I believe that to be successful in anything you need to plan, especially with projects or goals that are complex and time-consuming. As a teacher, I want to do everything I can to give my students every advantage possible, and that requires preparation and planning. Lesson planning is an essential part of teaching in a classroom and is the key to being an effective educator. What can a lesson plan give you? 1. Achieve your goals 2. Visualize your lesson 3. Deepen students' experience Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course today! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Steven M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Teaching writing skills to elementary English learners can be an exciting and rewarding experience. With a well-structured lesson plan, you can engage students, introduce key concepts, and provide opportunities for practice. In this blog post, we'll walk you through a sample one-hour straight arrow ESA (Engage-Study-Activate) writing skills lesson plan, tailored for an elementary English class. Engage (10 minutes): Study (25 minutes): Activate (20 minutes): Summary (5 minutes): Are you ready to teach English as a foreign language? Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! To kickstart the class, begin with a lively warm-up activity that activates students' prior knowledge and generates interest...  [Read more]

  Then, we have a set of objectives and aims. Here, the learner objectives relate to what we're hoping the students are going to be able to do by the end of your lesson and quite often, that can be a useful way of writing out what the objectives are. So, we would start the sentence "By the end of the lesson, students should be able to?" and then a list of two, three or four items that we're expecting the students to be able to do by completing this lesson. The learner objectives are different to the teacher aims the teacher aims are what you are expecting from that lesson itself. Now, when you first start teaching, quite a normal aim might be to complete the lesson successfully, to get through the whole thing without having any problems. As time goes on and you become more...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Lesson planning whether it be for an English lesson or any other subject is one of the most important tasks of a teacher. Lesson planning can be time-consuming for the teacher but will cut out several complications during the lesson and after. In the end, it is worth the extra time to put together a lesson plan or plans. Benefits Flexibility Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Shinae P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Below is a few reasons why a teacher should plan his/her lessons. These reasons are not all the reasons there are as to why you should lesson plan but they are the reasons I...  [Read more]

For educators in the TEFL field, having a structured lesson plan is a key to successful teaching. While some prefer crafting their own, others benefit from readily available online resources. Leveraging free online resources not only saves time but also offers insights into diverse teaching strategies. If you are looking for free TEFL lesson plans, there are numerous online platforms worth exploring. Here is a curated list of recommended sites where you can access these invaluable resources: Where can I get free TEFL lesson plans? UsingEnglish.com TEFL.NET The British Council Lanternfish ESL ThoughtCo BusyTeacher English Is a Piece of Cake The Internet TESL Journal iSLCollective Online English Expert Off2Class This website offers over 1,000 free lesson plans for English teachers, sortable...  [Read more]

  So, now we're going to fill the actual procedure of the lesson plan out itself. We mentioned at the start, the first thing we do, is to get some general information about the class that we'll be teaching and then, in order for someone to be able to cover our lesson, we need to present enough information in our lesson plan that they can actually carry it out. What I'm going to do is for each stage of the lesson, I'll indicate what I'm going to do in the lesson and then, we'll cut away from that to have a look to see how that will actually be achieved. So, our lesson is going to be based on a 45-minute lesson and the first phase is going to be the engage phase and it's going to be a straight arrow ESA lesson. I'm going to take approximately five minutes on my engage phase and in the...  [Read more]

  The first part of my study phase is going to be the board work and I'm going to use the information that I generated in the elicitation part of my engage phase to move on to the actual board work. What I'm going to do is to show the structure of this particular tense. So, the phase study I'm expecting to take about ten minutes on this particular part and, again, the interaction will mainly be the students talking to me. So, how am I going to achieve that with this information? Well, we could ask the students to have a look at the sentences themselves and to tell us what they can see. If we look at each of the first words in here, then at this level, I should hopefully be able to elicit from my students what each of these words have in common and they may well give an answer that...  [Read more]

The rationale behind planning TEFL lessons is a crucial aspect to consider because it shapes the content of our lesson plans. We plan lessons for several reasons such as: i) To provide a structure to our lessons ii) To provide a record of what has been taught iii) To easily cross reference against any syllabus requirements of the course being taught The latter two points aid in ensuring we meet all the course requirements by providing a comprehensive record of lessons conducted. The first point, providing structure, is arguably the most crucial as it maps out the expected course of the lesson. Before delving into an actual plan, we should ponder on the kind of information we need to document in the plan. A lesson plan isn't meant to be a verbatim script but should include information...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Being an educator is one of the most gratifying and rewarding careers of all time. I have been an ESL teacher in Vietnam for the past six months. I have worked with various age groups and I prefer working with young or beginner students. I believe that it takes a special person to teach these young children. Who Can Teach Beginning Students? Start of Your Course Provide With Visual Clues Engagement Stage Study Stage Activate Stage Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ahmed T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. As a teacher of young learners, you should have an absolute passion for teaching as well...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore TEFL Information Having a form of structure has always been a vital element in order to perform any task to my best ability. Therefore, lesson planning was a subject which I knew would be a large factor in order for me to become a successful teacher. Listen to this blog post: 1. A lesson plan keeps a check on time within a class. 2. A lesson plan is a written record. 3. A lesson plan allows the teacher to be prepared. Other things to keep in mind Are you ready to teach English abroad? Related Articles: Check out what our course grads say in our many video testimonials! This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Jessica M. The two main principles of a successful class are direction and flexibility; flexibility relies strongly on the teacher's experience and...  [Read more]

  So, having elicited this particular structure, what I'm now able to do is to move on to the actual study activities. Typically, they will be in the form of worksheets to check that the students actually understand this information. So, I might prepare three activities. They may not do them all but, for example, I could prepare these three study activities. So, the first one is going to be a fairly straightforward matching activity, where perhaps they match the subject to its correct verb "to be" in that part of the sentence. The second one is going to be a gap fill. For example, I might use this verb here and ask them to complete a sentence using that verb, so that I can check that any spelling changes that take place are correct and the final one is going to be an unscramble,...  [Read more]

When teaching vocabulary in TEFL, it is imperative to employ strategies that maximize retention and practical use. Key approaches include: Harnessing these methods, TEFL teachers can ensure students not only learn but also effectively utilize new vocabulary both in and outside the classroom. Teach new words in context Frequent repetition is a must Use pictures and other visuals Use games to practice new vocabulary One of the most beneficial strategies for helping students remember new language is teaching it in context. Simply listing new words on the board and expecting immediate comprehension might lead to disappointment. When introducing new vocabulary, it is advisable to group related words together rather than disconnected ones. Vocabulary lessons can be themed around subjects such...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas Teaching the English language to total beginners is a challenge for any teacher - but it's so worth it! English teachers abroad are regularly faced with two possible situations: A) teaching English to a class with zero knowledge in English (often young learners), or B) having to integrate a new student into your class who has never studied English before and now he/she has to pick up the language quickly. Assess the Exact Level of the Student(s) What to Teach Absolute Beginners in English Personal and family information Social interaction Classroom and school Time, calendar and weather Body parts Food Home Incorporate Numbers, Colors, and Shapes Teaching the Alphabet Are you ready to teach English abroad? Related Articles Where to start? Many teachers...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Whom a student is defined within about same parameters by different sources. The Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary also has two definitions of the word student. The Basis of the Article Useful Tips Program Core Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: The Merriam Webster dictionary (online) has two definitions of students which are as reproduced below: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate PAUL D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. For this summative assignment, the second definition by the Merriam-Webster and Collins COBUILD Dictionary will be used. Using the second definition as just stated, a beginner student will be one who is new to...  [Read more]

  The first group of students we are looking at in this series are the beginners. It is important to understand that beginners can be of any age. This is why we break this category down into the following sub-categories: absolute beginners, false beginners, adult beginners, young beginners and beginners without the Roman alphabet. Find out more about this type of student group in this video. 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 before moving onto the next. Register now & get certified...  [Read more]

Here at ITTT, we do everything we can to ensure that your overseas teaching experience runs smoothly - from beginning to end. Our TEFL support service will offer you all the advice you need, on everything from applying for TEFL courses to deciding where to teach; and most importantly, this support is available to you throughout your TEFL career. ITTT's support service is your one-stop reference point when it comes to teaching English overseas. ITTT is dedicated to providing you with assistance throughout your overseas teaching career. No matter where you are in the world, our TEFL support service will provide you with valuable advice and tools - such as lesson plans - in order to assist you during your time as an EFL teacher. You can rest assured that even after you finish your TEFL...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Anna D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. General recommendations Preparation and Class Routine Here's an example of a lesson plan: Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course! Related Articles: Also Read: What is the difference between TESOL and TEFL? Also Read: What is the Central European Teaching Program CETP for teaching English in Hungary? Apply now & get certified to teach english abroad! Speak with an ITTT advisor today to put together your personal plan for teaching English abroad. Send us an email or call us toll-free at 1-800-490-0531 to speak with an ITTT advisor today.  [Read more]

Mark Crocker Teaching Ideas For many new and experienced EFL teachers, one of the most challenging aspects of their career is coming up with lesson plans that are both engaging and effective. Even if your employer provides a specific textbook to follow as a curriculum, you will often find that this can be rather dull for the students unless you spice things up by adding in some fun and original ideas from an outside source. By searching online you will find a huge amount of sites offering all manner of resources of varying quality and relevance. To save you the hassle of searching through them all, we have listed our 5 favorite websites that you can use to find quality lesson plans free of charge. Using English TEFL.net ESL Galaxy British Council Bogglesworld/Lanternfish Listen to this...  [Read more]