04/20/2021
hey guys it's liza here and i'm super happy to welcome you to
our weekly itttt live session uh today we are going to talk um about
some usual teaching stuff and if you are interested in anything related to tefl teaching
or um probably career building so feel free to uh comment
and i'll try to help you out and reach you back with uh my thoughts and
ideas um and maybe you'll find um my suggestions useful okay uh
i have to fix my camera just slightly i feel like it's moving moving down
somehow so um i hope that you can hear me clearly and
you can see me clearly and if you see this video if you see
this live please let me know where are you guys from so what's something is wrong with my camera
uh for some reason i don't know why but uh it's just moving it's just uh going down
for some reason um let me just check it out yeah and fix it
okay it should be better now okay guys uh so let me know where are you from
uh at what stage of your career development are you right now uh as for myself
uh i'm a tefl teacher um i used to teach in china several years
ago uh but nowadays uh i'm almost online uh so i i still try to um
work um with in a real classroom however uh i
i just move i just try to stick to this online teaching mode because it's
more interesting for me and i don't know i think um the future on
of online teaching is really huge so uh it's something really special okay so
i still have this problem with my camera i don't know why i've never had it before but uh probably something
is wrong with my um tool you know which i've been using for holding the camera
okay i hope it it it's going to stop moving down all right um
so i can see that there are some people from india thanks a lot for letting me know
i'm super glad to welcome you to this session and uh also i can see a question
from the philippines nice to nice to have you guys here and let me just quickly uh
switch the slide and yeah uh just a quick reminder so uh this live
session is provided by the uh by international tefl and tesol training
and uh our company is represented on various social networks so
uh if you want to get uh constant updates on uh tefl teaching
tefl certification please check out our social media and also uh if you see uh
this video right now you can also see um the qr code uh in the
top right corner uh if you scan it with your cell phone uh you'll be able to get a 30 discount
of any tefl uh of any itt tefl courses
so i hope uh you'll take this opportunity um so just enjoy it uh and
uh stay with me because i'm gonna change the slide once
again and we will just go further with the main topic which is um just some
questions to um an online uh non-native teacher um
and um i i just decided to um prepare several pr uh several props so
that i could share my personal experience with you but if you guys have any questions
on tefl um self development motivation uh teaching career uh
etc please feel free to use the comment section um at the end of my
presentation i'll reach you back with my um recommendations
and um yeah stuff like that okay uh all right so
just one second uh so the first point i'd like to dwell
upon is um some problems with professional development and self-development
which many uh non-native english teachers uh face sometimes and
um yeah let's see um what i'd recommend you to do uh
the the very um idea of um being a non-native teacher is that
it's extremely important to uh constantly develop and um i i know that um sometimes
uh people who reach um like the b2 level or for example the c2
level they just completely stop uh improving their english skills and it is actually
quite wrong uh i i don't think that this approach is something uh to stick to
if we are non-native english teachers or even if we are native english
teachers so improving our english is just vital
this is the main idea of just being a teacher because you have
to be professional in the subject so uh my general uh suggestion
is take some english level tests for example and
try to work on improving your english skills
it is just super important uh the next point is that
it is important to learn teaching techniques um i know that um when we start working
uh we sometimes just neglect um really important strategies
in teaching english but it's also a little bit wrong because we have to be
up to date and teaching methodologies teaching approaches constantly develop
and i can actually see the difference between teaching approaches these days and
teaching approaches for example five years ago so it used to be
um less interactive uh at that time nowadays it's all about um
it's just all about um involving students uh into the process and it's it's just
extremely important um all right uh and yeah i also want to
point out that there are many various opportunities how to uh learn uh
teaching techniques uh for example you can take a tefl course which is quite
obvious uh it's one of the uh most um it's one of the easiest
ways to work um on your teaching career and uh
it's probably the first step in your career building uh but then there are also uh some other
ways to improve um i would recommend you to check um massive online courses
for example there are sites like futurelearn and coursera and uh
those um uh and those uh platforms are extremely
useful if you want to learn from the best companies like british council for
example and i personally uh took courses uh on futurelearn
about related to uh childhood development and they are just extremely um
professional so strongly recommend it and also um
i i have just added um a link to this british council resource uh you
can't you can't see it right now but um i'm gonna share this presentation at the end of the
session and you'll be able to click on it because uh it will lead you to um
to a web page related to english teaching and there are so many uh useful
uh information uh you can try uh to implement uh in your teaching
process so it's some something vital as well
uh and uh the next point uh i would like to dwell upon is uh that
it is extremely important to get some relevant experience
uh so um i know that um when we just start the career
uh it is um not that obvious how to get this
experience if we've for example uh changed the career um i i've met so many
um english teachers uh who used to be like like managers or even doctors
so they came to the field they came they came to this sphere from a different um
from a different uh field and they uh wanted to dive into it
and provide the best services but they left
they they were lacking um some relevant experience and for this reason i think that the
best way to um get some uh is to start um teaching as soon as possible
uh for example uh i know that um in in our tefl course there are many um
students who um start from the very beginning like they start from scratch
and they take the stuffle course before they get any uh experience in teaching
and um at the end of the course they find themselves uh being um
like irrelevant to the job market so i'd recommend you to look at
volunteer teaching and maybe uh it's a great idea to take um and observe teaching practice
because there is also such an option
in itt we also have this option by the way so um just feel free to check out the
website uh and yeah um also
i know that um like professional teachers sometimes
um try to uh help out other teachers and they are just
good to um have an observed teaching practice for others so it's also an option
uh and as for myself i try to communicate with the teaching community
and for example in russia we have a really strong one and there are many teachers who are just
uh super eager to uh help you out and um yeah just give some suggestions
and recommendations so it's just really valuable um i hope
you'll look at this opportunity as well and online teaching is probably one of the
easiest ways to get this relevant experience because it's super
easy to find a student online for example if you create your
personal account on some uh platforms for online teaching uh it's it's just
a piece of cake to find um yeah to find someone uh to teach um
and then that's just a matter of um practice and uh yeah the more you work
the more you uh the more experience you get all right and uh now let's move on to
some uh career development uh things um the
previous part was related to uh self-development and professional development but if we
look at the uh career building process uh you'd probably find it
um complicated uh at the very beginning but uh the more you practice again the
better you become okay and the first point is that
it is super vital to research the job market um i know that
sometimes uh it actually happens not uh only with uh tefl teaching but with
any other field with any other um profession uh people just start
uh looking for job offers online and they uh just respond uh
to those offers with their cvs and they use extremely relevant cvs
which is um um a wrong approach actually so it's um important to
make sure um everything is up to the point um
so yeah just make sure your you research the job market and you
look at the overall demand uh teaching abroad options for example and online
teaching opportunities and you make sure that um your resume
fits into the requirements uh and when we talk about
resumes uh about cvs um make sure that uh it is pretty
short but um it um it has the most meaningful content
then uh look at the relevant relevancy uh to the position itself you look
at and uh make sure you show uh the most appropriate skills uh
to the job you are willing to get and uh sometimes it's also important
to uh add some more information which will uh stand out uh
somehow uh but it doesn't mean that you have to um create some some special
uh design for your resume or uh add a picture which stand out
so to make your resume stand out is probably to add um a cover letter for
example and to add some valuable experience which is not as typical to
the job market as it as it may be okay
um and then the last point i believe it's the last point um it's
super um important to reach companies actively uh i know that
we sometimes uh just don't want to um be active enough but
it's also a bad approach if you want to get a job of your dream
so make sure you you are proactive in doing it and you
try to uh reach companies yourself don't wait for them to respond to your
uh messages or i don't know applications uh look at uh writing
and sending a cover letter and a resume together on their various resources like
on on their uh website um on the first place um
then uh what else for example um some application forms and maybe social
networks as as well so uh if you are really interested in in the position
just try to be super proactive and try to
make sure that they notice you and another idea would be to write a
product proposal um i know there are many companies
uh which provide um online teaching services
but uh some of them are not as fascinating as others so they are uh limited
in in the product um offers for example uh their services are
probably not the best ones so uh this is where you can actually give them value
uh and if you know that um you can help them to become better
it's a great idea to propose them uh several ideas so uh just try to think of
writing a product proposal as well so it's something really useful and working
okay and now i would like to move on to the q and a
session uh so the beginning of my uh life was related to self-development and
career development and i hope those points were relevant to
you and you you can find them useful and maybe helpful um but right now
i'm gonna check the chat box and respond to your questions so if you have
any uh if you still want to know anything related to tefl teaching uh career
development please feel free to ask me right now um i will be super pleased
uh to see your responses uh and um help you out uh with whatever you
have on your mind okay so um just don't be afraid to uh talk to me
via the chat box okay and uh before uh before i move
to the comments i'm going to um share
um this link with you uh so just one second
okay so i have already mentioned that if you look at the right top corner
of this video you can see the qr code which gives you 30 discount of
any itt tefl courses but i'm also going to send a direct
link to our website so just feel free um to
check out that link as well because it is a coupon link
and uh if you click on it you will be able to get that incentive okay and now let's go
uh to the questions
okay so uh the first question was from uh ava from the philippines
and she asks uh if it's possible to become a tefl teacher abroad if she takes a tefl course
and uh my response would be quite simple so a tefl course
is important uh from different perspectives first of all it's your
self-development and professional development as a teacher and secondly um when you apply for
jobs abroad uh tefl certification might be um might be necessary
for uh legal things for example for getting your work visa
um i'm not sure which countries uh require uh this
uh tefl certificate but for example in china they um ask about it for sure
and you have to provide it as one of the documents uh when you apply for uh their work visa
okay so um yeah i believe that uh tefl certificate
um can be the first step uh on your um tefl
journey abroad okay
okay so thank you so much for commenting um sometimes uh i feel i
i get really frustrated uh about the point which uh this person mentioned in the video
but actually non-native teachers can be even more helpful
in terms of english teaching compared to native speakers because we actually have this
experience of being completely
monolingual and becoming bilingual somehow i can't say that
um well non-native speakers don't make mistakes it's not right uh
so um uh nate non-native teachers can help uh in in many various ways
for example teaching in uh teaching english to children who are at the very beginning
of their uh learning path and also a really extremely uh
an extremely important point is that some people are um
afraid to work with native speakers because not all native speakers
know the approaches how to work and correspond to some
personal um issues and for example if you are a tefl teacher
and if you are a native english teacher um it's something to learn for you now
so myself as a learner uh can i i'm super um
intimidated when someone uh says things like that so it's just
humiliating and i believe if you were
conscious it would be better if you don't comment like that don't you think so okay
okay thank you um
all right so um i can see that um someone asks about
teaching uh re resources um in this presentation
i have just shared um several links um related to teaching resources um
the first one was um to british council and i believe it's
probably one of the best resources where you can can find um i don't know
um teaching tips and learning approaches and stuff like that but also there are a
lot of websites related to online lessons designs
for example uh one that i have been using is esl brains
uh i strongly recommend that one but it's actually for uh intermediate to advanced
levels however uh you can get their online lessons and
adjust to the level um your students are and it's actually a
really great resource um i am still not really sure
um of what resources are you interesting interested in so please
um give me some more details and i'll try to recommend you um some other platforms where you can
find um online teaching resources
okay um yeah so i believe that
uh the point is that you want to design online lessons right and you want to
find materials for your lessons if so then there are special websites
like esl brains for example but there are also resources
which can be found for free um without any subscriptions or
something like that um check out uh for example
um teachers pay teachers
they actually have some lesson plans which are for free some of them can be
bought but another idea is to check out um
teachers profiles and send and go to their own websites because
they usually share useful materials on their websites as well and it's also one of the ways to find
teaching resources
uh
so yes i i would like to respond to this uh point to to this comment uh yes i'm
not um a native speaker uh i'm quite um i'm quite a bad um
person to uh speak on public uh but i guys try my best
and i hope you can understand that and um just don't be that uh judgmental
uh because we are all people here and yeah you know
okay all right so thank you so much alexia um
i'm pleased to hear that [Music] okay
okay uh hello nina nice to have you here
i i hope that um you have any questions related to tefl and uh
english teaching probably so feel free to ask um and yeah okay just
let's move on
and here is a question from alexis okay so uh does having an in-class tefl
certificate uh give you any advantages over an online one uh actually when you get your tefl
certificate uh it doesn't state that you took it online uh so i believe they are just equal
of course there is not that much of um teaching practice in the online
version however uh if you try to implement uh the knowledge from
the online tefl course straight away uh you just have equal opportunities
as uh those who uh get an in-class course uh so
actually when i um when i found my first job in china uh they they just didn't ask me about
um in-class or online certification they just accepted my tefl
certificate and that was all and i i think that there is not much uh
difference between papers themselves okay
uh all right guys so if you have any further questions on um today's
topic please feel free to ask and yeah
all right so that's awesome thank you for this question nina um so if you want uh
to find uh materials for um learning english yourself on your own
uh without any um teachers help uh then i recommend you uh to
check just various course books from this in-use
section in use line i personally prefer cambridge books
and oxford books they are quite easy to self-pace
so i can't recommend you any specific resources
because i believe that the best way to master english skills is to use them
in your daily life but if you want some more theoretical approach
then probably sticking to a course book would be great um and one of my favorite ones
is english vocabulary use and i also use english grammar and use
together with that one um what else [Music]
apart from that i watch tv shows like for example now uh
i'm watching charmed which is a really old tv show
but i like it a lot and there is much to learn from that tv show
in terms of vocabulary and some grammar structures um another way would be to
listen to podcasts and there are many um great youtube channels uh for example
crash course um if you like if you are interested in various topics like
science and i don't know history uh books whatever
uh you can uh go to that youtube channel and uh watch their videos because they
have tons of useful information uh and apart from learning
english you can learn uh something else about um this world
so um it's a great cour it's a great resource as well um what else
i i also prefer to read books um some some fiction books uh
for example uh this month uh i've been reading
um i forgot the name of the book because it's quite difficult
um it's about um 9 11 you know about that uh tragedy
uh it's a really famous book um there is also a movie uh which is quite fascinating uh
but not that um not the same as the book uh and
another book uh is um one i've been reading as a part of of a
reading marathon uh it's called i capture the castle uh i'm going to take um
a cpe test uh maybe next year and this book is actually one of their
set texts so that's why i i chose that one uh it's also interesting and it helps to
learn um english in use like how it works in real life uh
in books in in written texts uh so that's probably it um
if you don't practice english in your daily life it's pretty hard to uh master
it uh it's it's my personal opinion but um again uh if we
um circle back to the point of being a good speaker uh it's not actually just about uh being
fluent in english it's also about um conquering your inner self uh so if
you want to speak uh confidently uh it's not just about mastering your english skills uh it's
also about probably working on your uh personal issues so
this is the point why i actually do this lives
i i should say that speaking in front of the public is not my cup of tea at all
um i i feel really frustrated and ashamed of my accent for example for
example but um i think this is the way we learn
and yeah this is the only way we can um become better uh so
these are all of my suggestions related to the point of improving
english okay i hope they are uh relevant to you
and you can find them helpful somehow okay uh and yeah
the last question how singapore for teaching um i am not
i'm not an expert in this field um i know there is a section on our tefl
course um dotnet website let's just check it out if there are any
suggestions related to this particular com country just one second
[Music]
okay actually i have just checked um the job section on the tefl course.net
website and there is nothing about um there are no job offers for
singapore right now but they actually update this section so
maybe they will add any job offers but
still i'm not an expert in this country and um to learn more information
to learn more about work opportunities there um i would recommend you to
um search it on the net because if you don't do your
homework you won't be able to know about this country they probably have
their unique requirements in terms of teaching yeah in terms of
hiring english teachers for example like hong kong and it's actually
interesting if they have any uh teaching programs because for example in in hong kong they
have a special uh governmental program uh and
yeah it's something um worth uh checking okay
uh so if you want to get tefl certified uh what you have to do is first of all
um either scan uh the qr code on the top right uh corner
of this video uh this way you will be able to get a 30
discount of any tefl courses with itt team or you can
follow this link um i'm going to send it once again to the
chat box uh so we don't have any specific requirements
in terms of your um education or um english level however
it is always better to be fluent and at least intermediate if you want to
enroll into the course because uh some information is really challenging and quite deep
in terms of um in terms of theoretical issues uh
theoretical points uh so just yeah uh check out our web page and
uh see if any tefl courses are interesting and relevant to you
okay and yeah i can see the next question thank you
luisa thank you for reaching me back um thanks for
giving your friendly feedback um
well that's actually interesting to know um i'm super excited that you uh prepared
for fce uh and what about your c c one preparation what are you going to
take are you going to take um one of the cambridge certifications one of those cambridge
tests or uh you are looking at ielts
or maybe toefl let me know yeah guys so by the way uh if you want to improve
your english skills language taking a language test
which is ielts for example is also vital because this is the way you can
um you can reflect on your uh experience and understand
at what stage are you uh for example as for me uh two years ago in 2019
um i actually wanted to um apply for a university program but it
didn't work out that time uh so i i still took that ielts
test and i got uh c1 uh so i got 7.0 uh at the
ielts ielts test and um it helped me to understand that um
my english was quite good but i had to keep working on it to
become better to become a better listener a better speaker and
so on so um this is something important for english teachers as well i
believe and i strongly recommend you to look at this opportunity even if you
don't want to move abroad to live in a native speaking
speaking country or even if you don't want to study abroad
still a language test is really helpful okay
so thank you for the question amitabha i can see that you have already been
experienced in terms of professional development uh and as i see it uh you have to um
work on your uh cv so um it's quite important to design your
uh resume your cv uh in the most appropriate way um because if you um for example
find a job offer and you don't uh follow uh the requirements
in in the job offer and just um send them some irrelevant information
about yourself that won't help you to get that job um and
yeah uh to master your cv writing
i'd recommend you to watch some youtube videos that's actually how i do
uh how i work on my own but if you are interested i think that
uh for your tefl certifications maybe for the diploma course um
for the diploma course we've got that um job assistance and they probably give
you uh some recommendations how to design your um cv
so uh try to reach out to our tefl managers
and ask them if they can help you with it okay
uh hello andrew uh so um itttttt is a tefl provider
so we don't actually have uh job positions we don't have any teaching
positions in the company uh however we uh collaborate we work together with
uh recruiters and uh teaching companies and uh you can check out uh
our job section let me just quickly copy the link once again
uh so if you follow this link uh you will get uh to the job section uh of the
website uh and you can see if there are any updates around the world
if you want to work in a real classroom you'd probably need to check the
requirements in terms of the pandemic situation because for example
again in china the main requirement is that
you have to get chinese vaccine before you apply for the visa so
it might be that for some other countries it's also a requirement
so just make sure you check that out
but apart from that i'd also recommend you to check some specific job websites
or um look at the opportunity of teaching online
i think that's the easiest way to get a job okay
that's awesome um so you are an experienced teacher right
um yeah i think you have to check out the job section first and then
also just think of this online teaching opportunity i think it's just amazing
i actually did several um live streams related to online teaching
and uh in one of my previous ones i talked about online teaching platforms so uh check
that recording out and maybe you will find an interesting opportunity
for yourself okay so thanks a lot guys
um i think there were um a lot of questions and i believe the session um has
has been lasting for quite a long time already uh thanks a lot but if you have any
further questions let me just quickly change the slide so um i decided to create uh a facebook
group uh to keep in touch with you so if you want uh please feel free to join me on
facebook and let's just um communicate there
if you are interested in it if you have any specific questions i can also respond
faster there so yeah i'll just be able to give you some
guidance and yeah so just let me copy the link
as well yeah so follow the link to the group and um i'll be happy to see you
there as well uh yeah so uh on our tefl website
just let me quickly send the link as well we have the session uh we will
have this section which is contact us so you can send a message
using this form or you can use um you can actually
write back to the manager who worked with you when you um studied with itt
team okay so it's an option as well but i believe you
can use the form yeah it should be the easiest way
all right guys so if you have any further questions uh and if you want to communicate with
me keep in touch yeah uh just join my group um add me on
facebook um i will be pleased to work with you i will be pleased to
uh talk to you uh thanks a lot
okay
all right so there is some there is a difficult question really um i'm not sure i can respond to it so
fast uh so what i um offered to do is let me copy it and
um i'll think of giving my full response in my
group for example what do you think can it work for you
okay
okay guys so there are some um more specific questions i can see them
uh and what i offered to do is uh just feel free to join my tefl group
uh my english lifestyle group uh i have just shared my um i have just
shared the link to it uh and i'll try my best to respond
there uh because um i'm running out of time on for unfortunately okay
um yeah let's just answer the last one
so toefl or ielts are english level tests uh they um
help you to understand at what level you are according to the
european framework so it's not actually about teaching it's
about your uh english english skills
on the first place so um it doesn't matter which um test you
prefer either toefl or ielts uh they are both relevant because they are
just both for finding out your level [Music]
okay so thanks a lot for the session guys um i hope to respond to the
these two questions um in my uh group so i will wait for you there
just feel free to um add me feel free to join the group
and yeah let's keep in touch and i'll see you next week hopefully okay uh so um
i'll try to find out um another interesting topic for you and uh i'll
see you next week thank you guys and bye bye have a good
