Elicited Meaning In English

The term TESOL is one that is often used in a general sense, although it does have a specific meaning. Generally the meaning of TESOL is some form of ‘the Teaching of English to people whose first language is not English’ and is often used interchangeably with terms such as TEFL, TEAL, TESL and many others. It is also generally used as the name of a qualification, such as a TESOL certificate, which relates to the result of a TESOL training course. Here we will look at the meaning of TESOL in these broad terms and also give its specific meaning, along with many other common acronyms used throughout the industry. The general acronym for the field of teaching English is ELT: English language teaching. This term applies across the board to teaching English, be it to American high school...  [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]

  Even though many people use "may" and "might" interchangeably, they actually have slightly different meanings. The word "may", for example refers to a possibility, while "might" conveys slightly more uncertainty. In the example "There are dark clouds in the sky. It may rain later", we use "may" because the dark clouds suggest the possibility of rain. The sentence "I'm sick but I might come to the party" uses "might" because it is not certain the person will go to the party. This means, you should use 'may' when there is some kind of a sign that predicts or indicates future happenings. You should use 'might' when expressing something a little more unlikely or uncertain. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification...  [Read more]

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Common Linguistic problems Contronyms, Heteronyms, Idioms, Oh my! English is an extremely complex language. Before a student can be considered truly proficient, he/she must not only master a variety of tenses and irregular verbs, sentence structure and parts of speech, but he/she must also work to understand and master lexical and structural ambiguities. Lexical ambiguities are very common and have a variety of names and definitions depending on the level of ambiguity. Homonyms are words that have the same spelling, but two or more meanings. An example of this is: mean. Is it describing an unkind person? Is it an average? Is someone talking about the definition of a word? Another type of lexical ambiguity is the heteronym. These are words that are spelled the same, but have different...  [Read more]

{ "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ [ ] ] } Teaching English to students who have no prior knowledge of the language involves adapting your existing teaching methods to suit the situation at hand. For all beginners, several key teaching strategies are essential: By tailoring your approach to the specific needs and backgrounds of your students, you can effectively teach English to those with no prior knowledge of the language. 1. Keep it simple: you need to remember when teaching beginners that your language level has to be at the same level at least and only slightly above theirs at most; otherwise they are not going to understand you. 3. Keep them talking: as often as possible, get those language learners talking. It's...  [Read more]

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Slang and Teaching Idioms In TESOL education, idioms appear particularly daunting for students and teachers alike and for this reason they are often neglected in English courses. A brief overview of everyday slang reveals an intimidating array of idioms that could easily go unnoticed by the native speaker but prove confusing for the student of English. On Kenneth Lawrence’s website devoted solely to idioms, he has attempted, like many other books on idioms and websites that focus on them, to organize idioms into coherent categories. The categories are diverse; there are bird idioms, money idioms, and even arm, head and finger idioms. It is clear from the amount of idioms in existence and the limited activities used for teaching them that idioms are a subject for more advanced English...  [Read more]

Teaching Styles We all learn in different ways, and similarly, as teachers we tend to have different ways of teaching which come more naturally for us. As teachers, we need to be aware of what our particular style is, but we should then try to adapt the way we teach to fit the needs of our students as well. There are many different categorizations of teaching styles, but rather than discuss the ways styles are categorized, I will simply summarize the ones most commonly referred to. Probably the most traditional one is the direct instruction style. Direct instruction is very teacher-centered, and provides for little if any student-teacher interaction or group interaction. The teacher is the focus of attention and provides all the information necessary for the student to excel in...  [Read more]

  This video covers the difference between 'aisle' and 'isle'. As these two words have a similar pronunciation and spelling, their usage is often confused. The word 'aisle' is a noun and describes a passage between rows of seats in a church, in a theater, an airplane or between shelves in a supermarket. A suitable example sentece for the word 'aisle' would be: The aisle was crowded with people looking for seats. The word 'isle' is also a noun but has a very different meaning. It usually refers to a small island, such as here: The pirates were in search of the lost isle for buried treasure. As you can see, once you know the meanings of the two words, you will not confuse them as their meanings are very different. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one...  [Read more]

British english vs american English With English being recognised as the global language of choice, which one is considered the official language? So just how did American English diverge from British English in the first place? American English roots back to the early colonial days of the late 16th century, were a whole gamut of cultures converged into a single society. In some colonies English wasn’t even a spoken language and in those colonies that did speak English it was quite different from the English we know today. The Elizabethan English of the day consisted of many varieties of regional English dialects. All these different dialects, intermingled with a multitude of cultures formed one big boiling pot, of which over time, a new variant was produced – American English. And...  [Read more]

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  This video focuses on some of the problems teachers of business English might encounter. How is business Enligsh different to general English? Will you be able to teach business English? Find out 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. I found the content of this module to be very useful and informative, further solidifying the foundation of my educating knowledge. In particular, I found the \"Lesson Plan\" sheet to be very insightful...  [Read more]

  Regardless of which particular business English setting you find yourself teaching in, there is a typical process that is recommended to go through before you start your course. Watch this video for helpful tips and tricks for anyone who is teaching business English 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. The course book is necessary for the teachers to have. It helps to see how and what to teach /prepare. The language vocabulary is a guide...  [Read more]

  And so on to the final phase of the ESA lesson, which is called the activate phase. What we have done so far, if you remember, is to engage the students, to get them talking and thinking in English, where possible we've elicited the teaching point from the students and covered any gaps in knowledge to make sure that the teaching point has been fully covered and then we've checked understanding of that teaching point by asking targeted and specific questions. Usually the types of activities that we've done for the study phase will involve using a single word in order to answer those questions correctly this, however, is not how language is actually used. When we use language, we always use it in some form of context. So the purpose of the activate activity is to put that teaching...  [Read more]

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  http://www.teflcourse.net In this video the teacher trainer looks at how the future perfect is formed. This is as follows: Positive: Subject + will + have + past participle I will have qualified to teach English abroad by the end of the month. Negative: Subject + will + not + have + past participle I will not (won't) have started teaching before you arrive. Question: Will + subject + have + past participle? Will you have found somewhere to live by then? The future perfect, along with other tenses, is covered in more detail in ITTT's online TEFL courses. There are many opportunities to teach English abroad at the moment and with the rise of English as a global language these opportunities will increase. However, while it used to be the case that anyone who was a native speaker...  [Read more]

  http://www.teflcourse.net This video from one of ITTT's TESOL courses looks at how the future continuous tense is formed and used. Firstly, the structure: Positive: Subject + will + be + present participle. I will be learning to teach English. Negative: Subject + will + not + be + present participle. I will not be coming to the party. Question: Will + subject + be + present participle? Will you be staying for the weekend? Now the usages: Actions in progress at a future time. She'll be playing live at Wembley on the 16th. Predict the present. He'll be getting on the plane about now. Polite enquiries (without influence): Will you be coming to the party? For those wanting to learn how to teach English TESOL courses are great ways to learn the necessary grammar such...  [Read more]

  http://www.teflcourse.net In this video we look at a teaching idea for the 'going to' future tense. This tense is often used to make predictions based on evidence and the idea covered here focuses on this usage. As you can see in the video, this idea is suitable for low level students as it uses pictures and verb prompts. Students choose a verb and one of the pictures that best match the verb. For example the student might choose "wash" and the picture of the shampoo bottle: "He is going to wash his hair". If you are thinking about teaching English abroad the best way to improve your job opportunities is to get a teaching certificate. Not only will a certificate open up more doors to you but it will also improve your chances of getting a higher English Teacher salary. By taking...  [Read more]

  http://www.teflonline.net 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...  [Read more]