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Deciding which TEFL course suits your individual learning style, your current situation and your future plans can be difficult as there is no standard length of training or a fixed syllabus that providers have to adhere to. The best advice we can give is don't simply choose the cheapest or the first option you come across as it may not be suitable for your needs. You should spend time researching what employers expect from job applicants in the countries where you would like to work, as well as any official requirements for work permits and visas etc. Finally you should also research the course provider to ensure they have a good reputation amongst their graduates. The overall length of the course is a good place to start. There are many providers who offer short format online courses...  [Read more]

The term Active Learning means ''student interaction with content, with materials and with peers in a multi-disciplinary, multi-sensory and multi-graded approach' (Meyers, 1993 pg 39). Active learning helps the teacher handle the diversity of student levels in the classroom.In an Active Learning classroom the student is provided with the time, the materials, and the organized classroom routines and expectations they need in order to allow them interaction with their learning. It is important for educators to realize that Active Learning supports not only English-speaking students but second- language learners as well.If we think that students are learning English so that they can use it in their everyday lives to better themselves and their opportunities, we must realize that...  [Read more]

For the purpose of this article I assume that there is absolutely no difference between TEFL and TESOL, they are both a means of teaching English to people who do not have it as their first language. So why do people think to themselves sitting at home, maybe I will train to be a teacher, but not a regular teacher that we all grew up with at school. But someone who teaches the English language to non English speakers in foreign countries. Well the reasons are varied but almost everyone can identify themselves with at least one. Some realize that the jobs they work in are not quite what they thought they would do growing up. So in search of excitement and something more worthwhile they sign up to TEFL. Others like myself are really gypsies and have a great urge to...  [Read more]

  The next idea we're going to consider is the use of visual aids and visual aids can include some examples such as real, objects, which we call realia, the use of pictures and photographs and also the use of models. So let's consider some of the ideas surrounding the use of visual aids. Well, why are they useful? Well, first of all the use of a visual aid can reduce teacher talk time. It's very much more simple just to show a real object than to try to describe it so that we could just ask the students ?what is this,? and they would say ?this is a pen,? rather than trying to actually describe it. Again if we were trying to show examples of fruit and vegetables rather than to try and describe them why not use an actual model and this is going to be much more visually stimulating...  [Read more]

Cape Town, located at the southern tip of the African continent, is one of South Africa’s capitals and has won numerous accolades from international newspapers and travel magazines. Surrounded by a beautiful natural environment and with the infrastructure of a modern international city, Cape Town has plenty to offer visitors from all over the world. Cape Town is known as the “Mother City” and is the oldest city in South Africa. The area that is now Cape Town was first noted by Portuguese explorers in the fifteenth century. Visitors to the city will have the chance to explore the long history of Cape Town at the many museums throughout the city. Cape Town has plenty of attractions for travellers to explore including beautiful beaches, refreshing botanical gardens, picturesque...  [Read more]

In September of 2006, I had the opportunity to teach conversational English to graduate students at Huazhong University in China. On the last day of teaching, I asked students to write up an evaluation regarding the activities they liked best. Highlights included: the importance of establishing teacher rapport, the need to provide a wide variety of engaging activities and the value of peer interaction. Establishing rapport between the students and the teacher is a key factor in encouraging students to participate in class. The littlest things?like remembering names -- can make a big difference: ?As a student when you said my name without looking at the name list. I?m so excited and joyful. I think it?s important to a student.? Smiling is another simple thing any...  [Read more]

After spending the last year in Korea I feel sharing my experiences there will be of great assistance to any ESL teachers who are considering or have accepted a position in the country. Firstly, I would like to outline the basic conditions of employment in the country The average salary is around 2,000,000 Won per month, which is equal to around $2,200, this amount is fairly standard whether working at a government school, university or the most common place of employment the all prevalent language school or ?Hagwon? in Korean. Furthermore, your employer will provide free accommodation, round trip air fare and will make a contribution to both the government run health insurance program and pension fund. Additionally upon completion of your contract you will receive...  [Read more]

After spending the last year in Korea I feel sharing my experiences there will be of great assistance to any ESL teachers who are considering or have accepted a position in the country. Firstly, I would like to outline the basic conditions of employment in the country The average salary is around 2,000,000 Won per month, which is equal to around $2,200, this amount is fairly standard whether working at a government school, university or the most common place of employment the all prevalent language school or “Hagwon” in Korean. Furthermore, your employer will provide free accommodation, round trip air fare and will make a contribution to both the government run health insurance program and pension fund.Additionally upon completion of your contract you will receive...  [Read more]

Being interviewed for a TEFL related position is much like any other interview situation; it can be an intimidating prospect. However, if you do your homework and prepare for some general questions in advance, you can remove a great deal of worry from the whole process. Unfortunately you cannot predict exactly how any interview will unfold but most will include a similar range of questions that are aimed at assessing your suitability for joining the existing workforce. The employer will certainly want to form an impression of who you are as a person, so expect questions such as: What do you like to do in your spare time? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Where do you see yourself in five years? If the job is outside of your home country you can also expect some questions...  [Read more]

In a world full of languages how does one place the English language' Most languages have a full history going back thousands of years. Can this really be said of English' No, but we can say that the history is full, one full of war and violence as well as compromise and inclusion. We might start in the year 449 AD in the island of Britain. At this time the Anglo-Saxons invaded Britain as the Romans left to defend their homeland. The local Celtic people quickly adapted the ways of the German tribe and we saw the beginning of English, it is said that the majority of its words can be traced to this. As the next thousand years progressed we saw the invasion of the Danes, French Normans as well as the influence of the Church. This leads us up to the time when this...  [Read more]

I chose to write about difficulties for learners, and the country I chose was China. I realize that China is a huge country, so my opinions will only reflect on a small part of it, which is the Guangxi province, in southern China. Things may differ a great deal throughout the country. These are the problems I witnessed during my time here in Nanning. My sources were my friends and sister who are teaching here, and my own observations!The majority of the students here speak Mandarin, but many speak Cantonese, as well as local dialects. All of these languages do not use the Roman alphabet, so all of the students must learn an entirely new system of writing. I think this brings a whole new degree of difficulty to learning English for Chinese students, as opposed to a French,...  [Read more]

Language acquisition is the process by which language ability develops in humans. There are two types of language acquisitions- firs language acquisition and second language acquisition. While the former deals with early childhood language development, the latter has a nurture aspect to learning in adults. Humans have long debated whether language can be developed in the absence of speech and various experiments by Psammeticus, King James V and Akbar support the hypothesis that language in the absence of speech is not possible. First language acquisition or the native tongue of a person is the language a child has heard from birth. The speed with which the language is acquired is indeed remarkable. All children go through certain stages in language development even if...  [Read more]

Introdution English Pronunciation: How does it differ and why? We??re all native English speakers aren??t we, what??s all this about sounding different? Everyone knows that a guy from the states sounds different to a fellow from England. But, can we break it down? Can we state a few simple rules that are continually repeating? Rules that a country??s native always follow when pronouncing a word. The rules which determine their accent. Let??s try. Main Accents vary within countries, so as a starting point, let??s just take the standard English that is spoken. This is considered to be ??General American?? for the US and ??Received Pronunciation?? for England. Rule 1: American is rhotic (i.e. pronouncing all r??s) and English is non-rhotic (pronouncing r??s only when...  [Read more]

What is most remarkable about the assortment of discipline on the market today is the number of fundamental assumptions they seem to share. Some may advocate the use of carrots rather than sticks; some may refer to punishments as ?logical consequences?. But virtually all take for granted that the teacher must be in control of the classroom, and that what we need are strategies to get students to comply with the adults expectations. In this path-breaking book entitled Beyond Discipline? by Alfie Kohn calls these premises into question and with them the very idea of ?classroom management?. He questions the assumption that problems in the classroom are always the fault of students who don?t do what they are told, suggesting that we might instead reconsider what they have...  [Read more]

I have been teaching now for about one month, so I thought I would sit down and take advantage of this TEFL assignment to really take a good look at myself. I teach English level 3 (out of 10) integrated, integrated meaning that it involves grammar, speaking, writing and listening. In my course I have a text book which I use as my main material. The text book supplies me with a CD for listening exercises, various lesson plan ideas, quizzes and tests. The book is very useful and is called World View 2. My students are all Spanish speakers and the majority are Costa Ricans.To begin positively, I would like to analyze the things I believe I do well as a teacher. In the classroom it is my goal to always get every student involved. I constantly am calling on students and asking...  [Read more]

In the bustling metropolis of New York City, finding the perfect place to enjoy a cup of coffee is essential for many residents and visitors alike. With a vibrant coffee culture that caters to all tastes and preferences, NYC is home to a plethora of hipster-approved coffee shops that are worth checking out. From cozy neighborhood cafes to trendy espresso bars, there is no shortage of options for coffee enthusiasts looking to indulge in a caffeine fix. Whether you're a coffee connoisseur or just looking for a cool spot to hang out, these hipster-approved coffee shops in NYC are sure to impress. Each neighborhood in NYC has its own unique vibe and character, and the same can be said for its coffee shops. Whether you're strolling through the streets of Williamsburg in Brooklyn or exploring...  [Read more]

Lesson planning is one of the most important but controversial aspects of teaching. Some teachers and educationist are of the opinion that it is very important to make a detail plan of what they are teaching. They spend hours and hours making a daily or weekly plan. Others are of the opinion that it is simply a method devised by the administration to keep the teachers in lengthy but useless paperwork. I personally think that a good plan is like a good movie or a piece of music. If a good movie or music is made keeping in mind all the important aspects like rhythm , tempo, beat etc it will always hold the attention of the viewer or the listener. In the same way a good, well organized lesson plan will keep the students interested in what they are doing. An ill prepared...  [Read more]

Check out Tesolcourse.com about Cambridge TEFL Online Course and apply today to be certified to teach English abroad. You could also be interested in: This is how our TEFL graduates feel they have gained from their course, and how they plan to put into action what they learned: A.L. - Australia said: I have thoroughly enjoyed this TEFL course. As a native english speaker one assumes that teaching their own language may be much easier than it truly is. For me the revision of grammar especially practicing the tenses (past, present and future) was very useful. I think that when preparing to teach students a language you have to really remain encouraging so their experience is a positive one. You have to always be patient and anticipate problems that may arise with such...  [Read more]

The word rapport originates from the French word, rapporter, meaning to bring back and the Oxford English Dictionary definition is one of “a close and harmonious relationship in which there is common understanding”. But what is the reality of rapport and is it of any importance in the classroom? With so many teaching methods, practises, aids and testing means at a teachers disposal, do we even need to spend time considering rapport and trying to build it with students? The short answer is most definitely yes. Rapport is a key characteristic of human interaction. It is a commonality of perspective. It is about basic interaction at every level. The relationship and rapport developed between a teacher and their students is a vital...  [Read more]

During my first week at the TEFL course in Phuket, Thailand, I began to notice that the pronunciation of the Thai students was lacking a bit. I do not blame this condition on the teachers, nor on the students themselves, but the pronunciation predicament immediately stuck out to me as a problem for which I would like to find some resolution. For this reason, I decided to look further into the difficulties Thai students have when learning such a widely- used foreign language as English. What I found was that most of the pronunciation problems stem from the vast differences the two languages contain. For many teachers and students alike, the dissimilarities become so numerous that they easily begin to overwhelm everyone involved in the process of learning a new ...  [Read more]

  So let's have a look now what might take place in a typical writing lesson and, again, we're going to use the format of a straight arrow ESA lesson. Our first stage is to the go to the engage stage and, if we think back to what we said before, what we need to do is try to generate interest. So, an example here could be we show a picture first of all taken from a newspaper or magazine and then we can ask the students some questions. From looking at the picture we can ask them if they can tell us what is actually happening now as shown by the picture. Then, we can generate a bit more interest by asking them to give us ideas about what they thought was happening before this picture took place and what happened after. So, here we're just trying to build up the idea of a sequence of...  [Read more]

Discipline is a complex issue to handle in the classroom--occasions will always arise when it is necessary, and a teacher who is unfamiliar or unskilled in discipline does a disservice not only to himself, and to the students, but to the parents, the school administrators, and, in a far distant future, society in general. Discipline is not just intended to put a stop to a currently occurring behaviour, but to teach the misbehaver why it was wrong and to show him to prevent its repeat himself. Several different methods of discipline exist, from the strictest to the most lenient, and there is a delicate balance in being an authority figure who is capable of holding discipline and having the rapport with the class that is so useful for teaching: authority must be joined to ...  [Read more]

  In this TEFL/TESOL review trainees Emma and Angelo talk about their experiences with ITTT's in-class course in Phuket, Thailand. They outline the challenging but fun program of the fourth week of the course. They also talk about some of the assessment components of the course and the certificates that are awarded at the conclusion of the course. 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. I can see from this unit why students of another language can be...  [Read more]

  So how do we actually make best use of the course book? Well, just a couple of factors that you need to keep into consideration when using these types of material, use the course book to help you create a balanced lesson in terms of the range of skills that are being taught and the actual types of material within that the grammar or vocabulary. Secondly, don't use it all the time, particularly with things like activities, we can create our own materials and we can tailor those materials much more specifically to the actual class that we're teaching. As very often the actual creations in the book are very general, we can make our own materials much more specific. The third thing you need to be aware of is that you can't always rely 100% on the information that's presented in those...  [Read more]

What is most remarkable about the assortment of discipline on the market today is the number of fundamental assumptions they seem to share. Some may advocate the use of carrots rather than sticks; some may refer to punishments as “logical consequences”. But virtually all take for granted that the teacher must be in control of the classroom, and that what we need are strategies to get students to comply with the adults expectations. In this path-breaking book entitled Beyond Discipline” by Alfie Kohn calls these premises into question and with them the very idea of “classroom management”. He questions the assumption that problems in the classroom are always the fault of students who don’t do what they are told, suggesting that we might...  [Read more]

Check out Tesolcourse.com about TEFL - Cambridge TEFL Online and apply today to be certified to teach English abroad. You could also be interested in: This is how our TEFL graduates feel they have gained from their course, and how they plan to put into action what they learned: A.L - USA said: I have taught english in a foreign country before, so much of what I was learning I had personal experience of through trial and error and using school selected course books. However, the knowledge in this course is invaluable, and I can my self being a better teacher now because of it. Specifically, in the past I was prone to 'winging' a lesson and not planning it thoroughly. This worked at some times, but often I would have scheduled too few activities and wasn't prepared for...  [Read more]

  And now we'll have a look at our articles. We can divide articles into these groupings: indefinite, using a or an, definite, using the, and oftentimes referred to as the zero article, is actually the absence of an article all together. With the indefinite article, we use it in a nonspecific way. "This is a pen," it's one of many pens. When using the definite article, we use it in a specific way. "This is the pen I'm using." We also use the indefinite article when mentioning something for the first time. "I have a boy and a girl." We use the definite article when mentioning that same thing an additional time or any additional times we mention it. So "I have a boy and a girl. The boy is eight and the girl is six." With the zero article, we don't use an article at all. We use it to...  [Read more]

'Why should I take a TEFL course' I love children and I love teaching. isn't that enough' It's quite possible that I'm not the only person that ever entertained such thoughts, and even now I look back and shake my head. Yes indeed, a love for the people and teaching are absolutely necessary in order to be a truly successful teacher, but as I have realized, there is so much I would have been sadly unprepared for if I had gone into it without the TEFL training! Being a good teacher involves really knowing your material, and the students will be able to sense if teachers aren't really secure in their knowledge. It will also convey the thought that maybe the teacher doesn't care enough about what they''re doing to put serious effort into learning it first themselves. I'll just...  [Read more]

  The next item we're going to consider is the use of dictionaries and here perhaps the first thing we should do is to make a distinction between the two main types of dictionary and that distinction is between the monolingual and the bilingual dictionary. In a monolingual dictionary you have a word and its associated meaning and those two are both described for example in English so the word and the description of that word are both given in English. Whereas in a bilingual dictionary that word meaning could often be for example the word given in English and the explanation given in Thai and vice versa. So what can we use a dictionary for? Well, within the dictionary itself obviously we can get things like how words are spelled or the spelling of the word. We can also get the...  [Read more]

  In this TEFL review, Fatih in Istanbul, Turkey tells us how he took the ITTT 120-hour online TEFL course after teaching English for three years. As with many of our graduates with prior teaching experience, Fatih found that the course helped to improve his teaching skills. 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. I have found as an English speaker we take our language for granted as young ones. There is so much more to English than we could ever...  [Read more]