Novels For Students

In an ESL lesson, the materials chosen to present the new grammar and vocabulary are a very important part of the teacher’s preparation and largely determine how well the lesson will be understood and enjoyed by the students. The options of materials are many but all have their own appropriate uses. It is a good idea for ESL teachers to build up a collection of teaching materials and ideas that span from fun games to worksheets to short, easy novels. Often, a course book is the main guideline but other materials should be used to complement and diversify the lessons. Choosing the correct materials depend on many different areas such as class size, language level, personal interests of the students, student ages, etc. But the teacher should view this part of planning...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word "hobbit". This word was invented by J.R.R. Tolkien for his 1937 novel "The Hobbit". Today, the word is widely known because of the immense popularity of J.R.R. Tolkien's books and the movies made from them. 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. As the teacher we often forget how our actions are perceived by the student. Even if our lateness is beyond our control, the students may not...  [Read more]

In an ESL lesson, the materials chosen to present the new grammar and vocabulary are a very important part of the teacher?s preparation and largely determine how well the lesson will be understood and enjoyed by the students. The options of materials are many but all have their own appropriate uses. It is a good idea for ESL teachers to build up a collection of teaching materials and ideas that span from fun games to worksheets to short, easy novels. Often, a course book is the main guideline but other materials should be used to complement and diversify the lessons. Choosing the correct materials depend on many different areas such as class size, language level, personal interests of the students, student ages, etc. But the teacher should view this part of...  [Read more]

The technology Era has transformed the options for teaching in the classroom. Gone are the days when the teacher only had a blackboard and a chalk. If available or possible the possibilities of having a computer in the classroom are infinite. There are many activities and software to aid the students in their challenge of learning a new language. With just a computer, the students can practice the alphabet by looking at the keyboard, see words used when opening a program and interact with them. As Bernie Poole stated in What Every Teacher Should Know about Technology, 'Every teacher should be proficient in the use of productivity tools. Teachers have to process many different types of data. Productivity tools (word processor, spreadsheet) are available on all computers and are...  [Read more]

Learning a second language through music. K. Sarah-Jane Murray. Academic Exchange Quarterly 9.2 (Summer 2005): p161(5).               “Songs provide us with a window into a world that is not our own, a world that we glimpse and remember thanks to the power of music.” (Murray) It’s the age of technology, a generation of cell phone carrying, ipod listening, x-box playing, and internet fanatics. The necessary next step for the pedagogical world is to incorporate this technology into their teaching repertoire. Music in particular is everywhere, on the radio, television, in movies, etc. Incorporating music in the curriculum for students learning another language would be beneficial and engaging for the...  [Read more]

Over the past four decades it appears that the advanced development of computers and the ready availability of this technology have led to an interest in a lexical approach to second language learning versus the more traditional grammar based approach. The Oxford dictionary defines lexical as 'connected with the words of a language', and grammar as 'the rules in a language for changing the form of words and joining them into sentences'. Two additional terms that are relevant to understanding this new approach is concordances, 'a list produced by a computer that shows all the examples of an individual word in a book', and collocations, 'a combination of words in a language that happens very often and more frequently than would happen by chance'.One article researched suggest...  [Read more]

Over the past four decades it appears that the advanced development of computers and the ready availability of this technology have led to an interest in a lexical approach to second language learning versus the more traditional grammar based approach. The Oxford dictionary defines lexical as ?connected with the words of a language?, and grammar as ?the rules in a language for changing the form of words and joining them into sentences?. Two additional terms that are relevant to understanding this new approach is concordances, ?a list produced by a computer that shows all the examples of an individual word in a book?, and collocations, ?a combination of words in a language that happens very often and more frequently than would happen by chance?. One article researched...  [Read more]