Speaking Activity

  So speaking activities will come in many different forms but we can generalize them into three basic types. Control activities tend to be used in the study phase and here, the teacher will be helping the students in terms of what they need to say and how they go about saying it. So, there's a high level of structure within a controlled activity. A guided activity has slightly less structure than this and it can be used in either the study or the activate stages themselves. The final type of activity or class of activity is called creative activity and this one would be used in the activation phase. In a creative activity, we're giving a scenario or a very small amount of structure and we're asking the students to actually create their own answers to this particular question....  [Read more]

Unlocking the Potential of ESL Learners with Advanced Lessons 1. The Importance of Advanced ESL Lessons 2. Strategies for Teaching Advanced ESL Learners 3. Engaging Activities for Advanced ESL Classes 4. Building Confidence and Fluency in Advanced ESL Students As ESL (English as a Second Language) learners progress in their language acquisition journey, advanced ESL lessons play a crucial role in further developing their language skills. These lessons are designed to challenge students, expand their vocabulary, improve their grammar, and enhance their overall fluency in English. By offering advanced ESL lessons, educators can help students reach higher proficiency levels and achieve their language learning goals. Advanced ESL lessons are essential for students who have already acquired a...  [Read more]

  Cameron from the USA moved to Mexico and started teaching English before taking her TEFL course with ITTT. In this TEFL review Cameron tells how she decided to take the course to help her improve her teaching skills as she had no prior teaching experience before moving to Mexico. Cameron took 23 days to complete the 20 modules of the course and the ability to study at her own pace was something that really suited her study style. One of the main benefits of the course for Cameron was the tutor support. During the course she was able to contact her tutor with any questions that she had and receive helpful feedback and explanations in a timely manner. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our...  [Read more]

  Chantelle is taking a 120-hour online TEFL course with tutor support and videos with ITTT. This is the first of her video diary entries outlining her experience taking the course. Chantelle took the online course because it was better for her to study online than to commit to attending an onsite course. In this video she talks about the first unit of the course. Unit 1 deals with teachers and learners discussing what makes good teachers and learners as well as the types of roles teachers perform in class, motivation levels of different types of learners and the different language levels. 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...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word categorical. This word is used as an adjective and means explicit and direct. It comes from the Greek word kat?goria meaning ?statement?. 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. From the unit, I have an overview of teaching methodology, especially ESA. I've learnt different patterns of EAS and the error correction techniques. Teachers should not correct students immediately, but should let...  [Read more]

  In this epidose, we cover the pronunciation of the word operationalize. This word is used as a verb and refers to the action of putting something nto operation. 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. This unit covered present tenses in depth. Each present tense has different forms and usages. It's explained what time frame and situations these tenses are used for. Irregular verbs that get used often are also covered and are important to know. Common...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word assertation. This word is a noun and describes the act of asserting. The word comes from the Medieval Latin word 'assert?ti?n' meaning ?to affirm or assert?. 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. When teaching writing in speaking, it's important to keep the objective for each activity in mind, in terms of whether the objective is to improve accuracy or fluency. It is important to be creative...  [Read more]

Incorporating games and interactive activities into TEFL lessons is crucial for engaging students, enhancing their language skills, and making the learning process more enjoyable. Games and interactive activities create a dynamic and stimulating learning environment, encouraging students to actively participate and practice their English language skills in a fun and interactive way. These activities help improve students' communication, vocabulary, grammar, and fluency while boosting their confidence and motivation to learn English. There are various types of games and interactive activities that can be incorporated into TEFL lessons to cater to different learning styles and language proficiency levels. Some popular options include vocabulary games like word searches, crossword puzzles,...  [Read more]

  This video is a sample EFL lesson in a real-life classroom setting abroad. After the class activity 'Find Someone Who', the students sit back down and feed their findings back to the teacher. In this phase the teacher can then correct any error or mistakes the students have made during the activity, particularly in terms of grammar. 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. In this unit we learned some more advanced concepts that may be taught to...  [Read more]

  This video is a sample EFL lesson in a real-life classroom setting abroad. In the study phase of this lesson the students learn how to build questions with modal verbs. The teacher writes example sentences on the board and the students need to make corresponding questions. It is essential during a study lesson to clearly write information on the board so that the students can absorb the new grammar point or vocabulary effectively. 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...  [Read more]

  The final stage of the lesson will be the activate and the activate phase is going to form the main speaking activity within the lesson. So, it's very very important that here, we do a good demonstration of what it is that we're expecting them to do, that we elicit the type of target language we're expecting them to produce from the activity. So, one way we could go around it is to, firstly, form pairs. Each pair is going to be given a card and onto that card they're going to write the country and a month. What the teacher can then do, just to add a little bit of spice to it, is to collect all of the cards and shuffle them around and then redistribute them to the pairs so that they get a card that doesn't have their country or their month on it. What they're then going to do is...  [Read more]

  For the lesson that even takes place, there are a number of things that you need to have considered. Obviously, you need a very clear idea of what it is you're expecting the students to have to do and they need to know why. It's very important before you ask them to do an activity that they have an understanding of the purpose of that activity. You should, secondly, have had a thought about what they already know. Linked to that is, will it be necessary to do any form of pre-teaching before I can expect them to do this activity and finally, we need to make sure that we have prepared all our materials and our instructions for this particular activity. So, we'll consider a straight arrow ESA lesson, the focus of which is to be speaking skills. So, we'll start with our engage and in...  [Read more]

  Before we move on to the planning of a lesson for speaking skills, something that we need to look at first is the idea of the accuracy versus the fluency of speaking. Accuracy relates to the correct usage of grammar and vocabulary, whereas fluency relates to our ability to continue speaking without any interruption. Now, ultimately within a whole ESA lesson or within language learning itself fluency and accuracy are equally important. Within an ESA lesson, however, depending upon which stage we're at in that lesson, then we're either focusing on accuracy or we're focusing on fluency. Remember in the ESA lesson, in the study phase, this is where we're looking at the target language where we're doing our language learning, so it's very important in this stage that we focus on the...  [Read more]

--- Teaching pronunciation in a TEFL classroom is crucial for several reasons. Firstly, clear and accurate pronunciation enhances communication skills, allowing students to be easily understood by others. This is particularly important in real-life situations where students need to interact with native speakers. Additionally, good pronunciation can boost students' confidence when speaking English, leading to increased fluency and overall proficiency in the language. Moreover, teaching pronunciation helps students develop listening skills, as they become more attuned to the sounds of the language and can better understand native speakers. There are several effective strategies that TEFL teachers can use to improve students' pronunciation. One key approach is to focus on individual sounds in...  [Read more]

Incorporating role-playing and simulations into your TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) lessons can greatly enhance the learning experience for your students. By engaging in interactive activities that simulate real-life situations, students have the opportunity to practice their language skills in a dynamic and immersive way. Role-playing and simulations provide a context for language use, making learning more meaningful and enjoyable for students. There are numerous benefits to incorporating role-playing and simulations in TEFL lessons. Firstly, these activities promote active learning, as students are required to participate and interact with their peers. This can help improve students' speaking and listening skills, as well as their confidence in using the language....  [Read more]

  While the Present Tenses are each covered individually in other ITTT videos this particular video reviews the four Present Tenses together. Looking at the tenses together helps to clarify and compare the different usages and structures. The video also highlights some of the problems that students may experience when learning and using the Present tenses. For example, in the Present Simple the use of the third person singular and the formation of the question form -- these can be problematic for students. In the Present Perfect, the Past Participle and irregular verbs can often be confusing for students. In the Present Perfect Continuous, the use of non-action verbs needs clarification. A TEFL certification entitles you to unlock the door to any one of a number of TEFL jobs...  [Read more]

Teaching grammar in context is crucial in a TEFL classroom as it helps students understand how language works in real-life situations. By presenting grammar rules within meaningful contexts, students can see the practical application of the language and are more likely to retain the information. Contextualized grammar lessons also make learning more engaging and relevant for students, as they can immediately see how the language structures are used in communication. There are several effective strategies for teaching grammar in context. One approach is to use authentic materials such as newspaper articles, songs, or dialogues from movies to introduce grammar concepts. This not only provides real-world examples of language use but also exposes students to different styles of writing and...  [Read more]

  So let's take an example of what those drills might involve. So here is an example of a repetition drill. I will model the language and then my class will repeat after me. So "This is a cup." "Spoon" ? "This is a spoon." "Knife" - "his is a knife." Thank you. The reason that it's called or also called the army method is that it was the method adopted by the United States military who had personnel stationed around the world at the end of Second World War and they realized that they needed those personnel to pick up the language very quickly and one of the positive things about this particular methodology is that you do very quickly learn vocabulary. Another positive thing about it is that you quickly learn the correct pronunciation of that vocabulary. However, there are some...  [Read more]

Incorporating games and activities into your TEFL lessons can be highly beneficial for both you as a teacher and your students. Games and activities make learning English fun and engaging, which can help motivate students to participate actively in the lesson. They provide an interactive and dynamic learning environment that can improve students' language skills, including vocabulary, grammar, speaking, listening, and even cultural understanding. Moreover, games and activities can cater to different learning styles and preferences, making the lessons more inclusive and effective for all students. There is a wide range of games and activities that you can incorporate into your TEFL lessons, depending on the language level and age group of your students. For young learners, activities like...  [Read more]

  In this lesson Iban covers the uses of ?wish?. Iban starts the lesson with an activity to warm the students up before covering the lesson point. He ends the lesson with activities to give the students practice using the language point he has taught. 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. this unit is focused on teaching special group. in teaching a multilingual class,The students have no common language other than English and that is a very big...  [Read more]

  The two most common usages for the present simple tense are habits and routines, as well as general facts and truths. Our example of routine would be 'I teach every Monday.' We've used our subject 'I', our base form 'teach' and 'every Monday' speaking about the routine that I have. We also have our general facts 'The sun rises in the east.' Here, 'the sun' would follow under the pronoun 'it' so we've had to conjugate our verb per our pattern and finish our sentence. We could also talk about general truths such as likes or dislikes. 'I like football,' or 'He likes football.' Of course, there are other usages but these are the two most common. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online...  [Read more]

When creating a TEFL (Teach English as a Foreign Language) lesson plan, it is essential to start with a clear understanding of your objectives. Begin by identifying the language skills you want your students to develop, whether it is listening, speaking, reading, or writing. Consider the language level of your students and any specific language points they need to work on. Understanding these basics will help you structure your lesson effectively. A well-structured TEFL lesson plan typically consists of several key components. Firstly, you should start with a warm-up activity to engage students and activate their prior knowledge. Following this, introduce the learning objectives for the lesson and provide a clear explanation of the target language or skill. The main body of the lesson...  [Read more]

  "Now let's take a look at the future perfect continuous tense. This tense is used to talk about how long an action had been taking place up until a certain point in the future. Our examples are for the positive sentence we have our subject "you" and three auxiliary verbs "will have been" and then our main verb in the present participle form again that's the verb plus "ing". For our negative form, again, we're simply inserting the word "not" between "will" and "have" and to ask our question, we invert "will" with the subject here we're using "you" and we come up with a question "Will you have been watching?" and the rest of our sentence. As with the other future tenses the word will can be substituted for other modal verbs. These modal verbs would indicate very levels of certainty...  [Read more]

  What are ESL games? ESL games are games that can be used in the classroom to practice certain language points and encourage active and creative communication between your students. There are many different games created specifically for use in the English language classroom that can be found online or in any number of resource books. But we are not limited only to those games designed for the class. The majority of games that we played as children or still play as adults can be adapted and used in lessons. Whether games are co-operative or competitive, they provide students with a goal and in the English classroom this goal can only be reached by using the English they have learnt. Common Misconceptions about games in the classroom. "Games are fun but are not suitable for the...  [Read more]

  In this lesson Iban teaches adverbs of frequency. Iban starts the lesson with an activity to warm the students up before covering the lesson point. He ends the lesson with activities to give the students practice using the language point he has taught. 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. This unit concentrates on productive skills, as opposed to the previous one, that was about receptive skills. I learned that writing is a lot more difficult than...  [Read more]

In a TEFL setting, teaching pronunciation is crucial as it helps students communicate effectively and be understood by others. Poor pronunciation can lead to miscommunication and lack of confidence when speaking English. By focusing on pronunciation, students can improve their overall language skills and feel more confident in their ability to communicate with native speakers. There are several effective strategies for teaching pronunciation in a TEFL classroom. One approach is to focus on individual sounds and phonemes, breaking them down and practicing them in isolation before incorporating them into words and sentences. Another strategy is to use minimal pairs to help students distinguish between similar sounds that may be challenging for them. Additionally, providing visual aids, such...  [Read more]

Using games in your TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) classroom can be an effective and engaging way to enhance language learning. Games can help students practice language skills in a fun and interactive way, promote communication and collaboration among students, and increase motivation and participation in the classroom. There are various types of games that can be used in the TEFL classroom, such as vocabulary games, grammar games, speaking games, listening games, and writing games. Here are some ideas on how to effectively incorporate games into your TEFL lessons: Vocabulary games are a great way to help students learn and practice new words and phrases. You can use games like word puzzles, word searches, flashcard games, or memory games to reinforce vocabulary. For...  [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...  [Read more]

  The teaching idea covered in this video is a fun group game that should generate a good deal of student talk time using the Present Perfect tense. The students will be in small groups and each student will have the question sheet with a number of pictures and word prompts. Students take turns forming their question with the aid of the prompts. The groups then give their answers using the Present Perfect. The prompts include: win/a competition, go/scuba-diving, meet/ a famous person The questions would be: Have you ever won a competition?, Have you ever been scuba-diving?, Have you ever met a famous person? Group members would answer, Yes I have...., No I haven't... After a given amount of time each group share their answers with the class. The teacher could then encourage the...  [Read more]

  An English teaching certification course will cover teaching methodologies, grammar and teaching ideas such as those covered here for the future simple. In the video the teaching ideas are horoscopes, fortune telling and wedding vows. For the horoscope activity students will be given zodiac signs and will create a horoscope for that sign before finding out who in the class the horoscope applies to. The fortune telling idea enables the students to role play using the future simple tense with one student being the fortune teller and the other the customer. Lastly, students create their ideal wedding vows or alternatively they can create silly vows. For many people, gaining English teaching certification is the first step on an exciting and rewarding journey as an English teacher...  [Read more]