Hardest To Spell

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word ilk. This word describes a person or a thing that is similar to a person or a thing previously referred to. Suitable synonyms for ilk are type, category, sort, and class. 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 was the hardest so far. Sometimes its to mush information before the next information comes. But this will not stop me. Its still interesting and i know i will like this job as a...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word acumen. This word refers to a person's ability to make good decisions in a particular field. Suitable synonyms for acumen are shrewdness, sharpness, or cleverness. The word is of Latin origin from acuere (to sharpen). 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 was the hardest unit, it blew my mind, the phonetics took me a long time. I feel like I need to digest it. Perhaps in some hours I will...  [Read more]

  http://www.teflcourse.net In this video the teacher trainer looks at the usage of the past perfect continuous. The past perfect continuous is used to talk about a past action that was continuing up until another point in the past. For example: Before moving to Korea, I had been teaching in Thailand for three years. ITTT's TEFL Courses provide you with the opportunity to find teaching jobs all over the world. Whether you want to work amongst the long history of Europe or spend your free time living the beach life in Southeast Asia, teach professionals business English in a thriving metropolis or teach kids out in the sticks, earning yourself a TEFL certificate with ITTT will make the right type of teaching jobs available to you. /// Are you ready to live and teach abroad? Click...  [Read more]

Fluency in language learning is the ability to use the spoken or written form of the language to communicate effectively. While fluency does require a reasonable knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, the language produced does not need to be flawless as long as you are able to be clearly understood. In contrast, accuracy refers to the production of grammatically correct spoken or written language. While it is important to learn the correct forms of the language, accuracy does not guarantee the ability to communicate fluently. Often the hardest part of a language teacher’s job is finding the right balance between fluency and accuracy related teaching in the classroom, as both are equally important. However, the student’s reason for studying the language will sometimes dictate the balance...  [Read more]

  Some and Any are two words that often cause confusion, which is why we have decided to take a closer look at the difference of the two words in this video. Firsly, some is a determiner used for positive statements while any is a determiner used in questions and negative statements. Consider the following situation: I asked the teacher if he could give me some paper. I said ‘Excuse me, have you got any paper?’ Unfortunately, he didn’t have any. The first statement is positive and therefore requires us to use some. The second sentence is a question and therefore, we need to use any. The third and final sentence is a negative statement which also requries us to use any. It's worth noting that we do sometimes use some in questions and we also use any in positive statements. For...  [Read more]

  "In terms of the things that are negative about it, we've already said that it doesn't develop speaking but perhaps the biggest negative point about this particular methodology is that it's very unnatural. Ok, so despite the criticisms of this particular method, and particularly the fact that is unnatural, this particular methodology was in use all the way through the 17th, 18th and 19th century and indeed it's still in use today. However, Gouin in the 1880s and Berlitz in the early 1900s decided that this particular methodology was so unnatural that they wanted to come up with something new. The method that they came up with, they called the direct method. You will also sometimes see it as the natural method. What these two people were saying is that if we wish to learn a...  [Read more]

  Once we're satisfied that all the students have been engaged and that they've been given the opportunity to say something, we can move on to our study phase. Here, it may be necessary or useful to actually pre-teach some gaps in knowledge that have been shown from the engage phase and those gaps in knowledge may include actual grammar structures or indeed useful vocabulary and it's very important that, before we move on to doing any forms of activity, we check their understanding of this material. So, we need to do some study exercises. It's also very useful if you leave this information up on the board through all that study period. Those study activities can just be the normal types of gap fills or matching activities and, as always, we need to demonstrate those activities,...  [Read more]

  The next example is going to be that of a boomerang lesson and remember the structure is like this. So, again, we're going to start with an engage phase and for our engage, the students are just going to have a discussion about jobs. What happens at interviews and so on and so forth. So, during that engage phase, what we'd hope to do is to elicit some useful language about jobs and interviews and the types of questions that are being asked. Then, we're going to move immediately into an activate activity and this is going to involve a role-play. So, we'll break the students into pairs. One will be an interviewer, the other will be an interviewee and they'll generate the language that that role-play will produce. What the teacher can do whilst that is taking place is to go around...  [Read more]

  In this episode, Linda takes on the pronunciation of the word "obstinate". Enjoy the episode! Linda is a German/American ITTT alumna, teaching English in South Korea. Be sure to like and share this video if you find it helpful. Are you ready to live and teach abroad? Click here and get started today: https://www.teflcourse.net/?cu=YTDESCRIPTION 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 I have learnt about words , how it sounds, and how...  [Read more]

  So now we'll consider the actual classroom arrangements themselves in terms of the physical desk layout. There are possibly three main types of arrangements that are used within classrooms and we're going to indicate the desks here as being boxes and the arrangements of the students within those desks will be blue crosses. So here we have the desks ranged in rows and the students sitting within those rows. The second arrangement could be the use of horseshoes or semi circles and finally the use of individual desks. So for each of these arrangements what are the potential advantages and disadvantages of arranging our seating in this way? Let's take the rows first of all. One of the potential advantages is that it does give the teacher the opportunity, if it's arranged correctly,...  [Read more]

Vast tracts of unspoilt wilderness make Finland a top destination for trekkers and those seeking to get back to nature. The best remedy to bones chilled by the snow and ice is a nice long spell in a sauna; however, if you are going ‘native’ then during your sauna you need to go and have a roll in the snow or take a plunge in an ice hole in a nearby lake. Finland is home to a big hunting, shooting and fishing fraternity, but if this is not to your taste then coastal areas offer some excellent sailing during the season of the midnight sun. Finland has two official languages: Finnish and Swedish, the latter being spoken by about six percent Finland’s population of five million. English is widely spoken, particularly in tourist areas and in the capital Helsinki. Prospects for teachers...  [Read more]

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  Whereas stress is typically concerned with one individual word, intonation is generally concerned with the variation in volume and pitch throughout an entire sentence. Intonation carries the message of a sentence. It's particularly important when questioning or agreeing, disagreeing and confirming statements. It's also very important when expressing emotions and feelings. The normal pattern for intonation is the rise-fall. Few examples would be ?I haven't seen him for a week,? or a simple word as ?okay?. With the falling intonation, we?re indicating that we're finished speaking. Again, ?I haven't seen him for a week? and ?okay?. A few more examples would be ?I'll see you at six then,? or a question of information ?How do you spell rough?? These are straightforward statements that...  [Read more]

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Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL) can be simply defined as any situation where a native or non-native English speaker is teaching the English language to students whose first language is anything other than English. This is a very common scenario that occurs every day in virtually every country in the world due to the fact that the English language is the number one second language of choice in many areas. There is no one type of person from one type of background who decides to teach English, just as there is no one classroom environment that awaits those who choose this particular path. For some people it means teaching a few individual students on a part-time basis as a way to add some funds on a gap year adventure, while for others it is a full-time job that provides a...  [Read more]

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  There are two issues that need to be stressed when working with the international phonemic alphabet. First is the fact that we are no longer concerned with how a word is traditionally spelled. Additionally we need to stress that we are only concerned with the sounds needed to correctly produce a word. So rather than numerous spellings, which can often be pronounced in different ways, we have one symbol representing one sound. Once we can isolate a sound, rather than juggling various spellings, we can work with our students on how to say that sound. Doing that successfully is related to manner and place of articulation, which will be covered shortly. To get a better understanding of the phonemic alphabet, let's take a look at our chart. In the bottom half of our chart we have our...  [Read more]

As the demand for English language knowledge continues to grow across the globe, the need for certified English teachers is also rapidly increasing. TESOL jobs are available in countries all over the world which means you will have an abundance of choice in terms of your teaching location. You will also find a wide variety of employers to choose from, including colleges, universities, language schools, kindergartens, public schools, private tutoring, companies and businesses, voluntary work, and other areas such as hospitals and tourism. ITTT will help and guide our graduates through the process of obtaining a suitable TESOL job for as long as you need us. When you require assistance in obtaining a new teaching challenge, we will be there to help. Our lifetime job support services include...  [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]

Peculiarities of the English Language The English language was created in England. Throughout history, this language has spread to many parts of the world. It is used as a link language for International business and diplomacy. According to Madhukar N. Gate, it has taken thousands of words from other languages such as French, Latin, German, Greek and so on. We can even find Sanskrit words in English. For example: Guru and Pundit are two Sanskrit words used in English. English grammar is quite simple, in many languages nouns have grammatical gender which makes some verbs and adjectives change. This doesn’t happen in English. The adjective “big” is used with all nouns such as man, woman, child, book etc, as well as applying to both singular and plural nouns. Counting large numbers in...  [Read more]