Language Sentence

  In this video, we break down the difference between "bazaar" and "bizarre". These two words often cause confusion because of their spelling and similar pronunciation. The word ?bazaar? refers to a market, usually found in the Middle East, such as in this example: The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world. ?Bizarre?, on the other hand, is an adjective and a synonym for "strange". "Everyone stared at the student who wore the bizarre outfit to school," is a good example for the word. We hope that this explanation clears up any confusion about the two words. 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...  [Read more]

  Here are some tips on completing your parts of speech worksheet. When providing examples for each part of speech, five one-word answers will suffice for almost all of them. However, we'll need to clarify this for the gerunds. This is basically due to the fact that what you've written can either be used as the main verb in a sentence, that would be the present participle, or can be used as the gerund. For example the word "playing" wouldn't be enough, as it can be used both as the verb or the gerund. So, an example sentence such as "I like playing poker." would suffice rather than simply the word "playing". 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...  [Read more]

  And now we'll have a look at both the infinitive and the gerund. Infinitive is the word "to", followed by the base form of the verb. We"ll typically use it after a verb, specifically verbs like "want" or "hope". We can make statements like "I want to go to the beach." We also have our gerund. Our gerund is a verb followed by "-ing", but specifically used as a noun within the sentence. We have a verb plus a gerund: "I enjoy playing poker." The main verb is "enjoy" and, although "playing" looks as if it's a verb, it's actually used as the noun within the sentence. We also can use it with a preposition followed by a gerund: "How about going to the beach?" We could also put it in the front of a sentence: "Smoking is bad for you." Again, the verb plus "-ing" can act as two things...  [Read more]

  "Who" and "whom" are another set of words that often causes confusion. Howeer, there is actuall a simple trick to deciding which one to use in a sentence. "Who" is used to refer to the subject of a sentence and 'whom' is used to refer to the object. Keeping this in mind will eliminate the chance of making mistakes. We recommend the following trick. The usage of these two words is the same as he and him. "He" is the subject and "him" is the object. If you are confused about which one you should use, look at the sentences and check whether "he" or "him" should be used. If it's "he", then you should use "who". If it's "him", then "whom" should be used. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our...  [Read more]

Learning Grammar - English as a Second Language Basics Several months ago during a dinner date, my friends commented on the articulation and enunciation of my speech. They said that they were not accustomed to hearing such language outside of a classroom environment. They suggested that I use utilize this natural ability to teach young children in a formal environment. However, I was deeply entrenched in the business realm and I could not fathom the thought of switching careers at this point in my life. It took a year working abroad in South Korea to reassure myself that a real need was present for my talents. I noticed the true motivation of my South Korean friends to learn the English language. They could readily identify and pronounce certain things but they were hesitant to speak for...  [Read more]

  And now let's look at the pronouns. Simply put, pronouns take the place of a noun. We have various types of pronouns. They are personal pronouns, which can either be subject or object. We have reflexive pronouns, relative pronouns and possessive pronouns. With our personal pronouns, we have to decide whether it's the subject or the object. The subject is the doer of an action, whereas the object is the one that receives the action. Subject pronouns are: I, you, he, she, it etc. Object pronouns are: me, you, him, her, etc. In the sentence "Greg hit Pete," the subject of the sentence is "Greg", therefore I would say "He hit Pete," or I could put a pronoun in for the object of the sentence, where "Greg hit Pete", now, I go into "Greg hit him." With our reflexive pronouns, these are...  [Read more]

  As mentioned earlier, our example sentence has used a regular verb 'to play'. With the regular verbs we simply add '-ed'. This spelling pattern changes for words that end with a consonant and a Y: 'cry' goes to 'cried', 'try' to 'tried'. Another spelling pattern we have to be aware of is our consonant plus vowel plus consonant. In these instances, we double the consonant used: 'shop' needs the double P; 'ship' needs the double P. With these spelling patterns, and most spelling patterns in general for the English language, there are always exceptions to the rules. So we have to be aware of those exceptions. We also have to impart those exceptions on to our students. We can do so through various exercises and various activities to end our class. To form the negative sentence here,...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word mirage. This word refers to an optical illusion such as the appearance of water in a desert. This word comes from the French 'se mirer' meaning ‘be reflected'. 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 taught me different ways to assess a student's language level and progress. Specifically, practice test should be given in the format and structure of the external examination that the...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word "thanatology". This word refers to the description or study of death and of the psychological mechanisms for coping with the phenomena of death. The word derived from Greek mythology where Thanatos was the personification of death. 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've reviewed the modals verbs and the passive voice. so get more clearly about using them. but still the last...  [Read more]

  When learning the English language students are regularly confronted by vocabulary that is new and unfamiliar to them. In order to learn how to pronounce these words correctly the students needs to hear them modeled correctly by the teacher. 3x3 or choral drilling is a technique that is often used to aid students in learning correct pronunciation. The 3x3 technique involves the teacher clearly enunciating the new word to the class who then repeat the word back as a group. The process is then repeated twice more. After the choral drilling the teacher then indicates an individual student to repeat the word to the rest of the class. This process is again repeated twice more with different students. In addition to teaching the pronunciation of new words, 3x3 drilling can also...  [Read more]

  This presentation is going to cover the teaching of productive skills. To start with, if we think about the way in which you learnt your first language, most of us go through a particular process. Firstly, we listen to those around us, after that first silent period of listening to other people, then we start to make utterances. Having learned to speak to a certain extent at least, we then go on to learn how to read and to write and this process that we go through is actually covering the four skills that we're trying to teach our English students. So, we have listening, speaking, reading, and writing. If we group those skills into their different types, then the two skills of reading and listening are known as receptive skills, whereas the skills of speaking and writing are...  [Read more]

  ITTT’s world class onsite TEFL certification course is an excellent way to earn a quality certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. The course is classroom based and takes place over a period of four weeks during this period trainees receive instruction in English language concepts and teaching methodology. The course also contains a considerable amount of practical teaching practice, giving trainees valuable classroom time along with feedback from our experienced, dedicated trainers. Upon successful completion of the course participants receive an internationally recognized TEFL qualification. The course is available at over 30 fascinating locations around the world including China, Thailand, Italy and the United States. The course consists of more than 120...  [Read more]

  This video focuses on modal auxiliary verbs. The words "might", "could" and "must" are modal auxiliary verbs. These verbs express the speaker's feeling or attitude towards the particular verb following the modal. 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 learned about breaking down a sentence and identifying each part of it. I find this very valuable moving forward as a teacher because i will need to be explaining the structure of a...  [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]

This term refers to one of the most commonly used exercises in the English language classroom. The gap-fill worksheet normally contains a set of written sentences which are missing certain key words; the student’s task is to fill in the missing words with the right vocabulary to complete the sentence. This type of exercise can be used to practice and re-enforce the specific vocabulary or grammar points that have been taught during the lesson. Gap-fill exercises can also be used to test a student’s progress as part of regular review sessions during the curriculum.   [Read more]

  And now it's time to have a look at our first grammar unit. Grammar in its widest sense is the structure of a language. We as speakers of the language can structure our language without a problem. However, as teachers of the language we need to be able to better analyze the grammar and the grammar that exists within statements that we make. These basic parts of grammar are called parts of speech. Each part of speech has a certain function within a sentence. Our example sentence here is "My older brother lives in Tokyo." Each one of these words is a certain part of speech, which we'll have a look at in just a minute but let's just think about the words within this particular sentence. We have ?my?, indicating whose brother it is, we have "older", indicating which brother it is....  [Read more]

Teaching Vocabulary The concept of teaching vocabulary to students of a foreign language is not impossible but must be approached carefully. There are several ways to deliver the information to students so that they learn the English language ’s vocabulary. For example, Joseph Pettigrew from Boston University posted an interesting article online that gives suggestions on how to go about presenting and teaching vocabulary to students. Pettigrew suggests teaching methods that include simple, old-fashioned English language tools such as synonyms and antonyms. Synonyms may be used in matching exercises and antonyms may be used in exercises matching opposites. He also suggests using fill in the blank sentences as a form of exercise. This is perhaps an effective exercise for learning this...  [Read more]

  And now we'll have a look at the present perfect continuous tense. As its name suggests, what we're going to do is combine the present continuous usages and the present perfect usages into a tense that basically expresses the fact that we've got an action continuing up until the present point in time. For the form of this tense, again, we're going to combine into various aspects of both the perfect and the continuous tenses. If we have a look we always begin with our subjects, then we have our, two now, helping verbs. The helping verb 'to have' for the perfect tenses, as well as the helping verb 'be' for the continuous tenses. For our subjects 'I', 'you', 'we' and 'they', we leave 'have' as 'have' and for 'he', 'she' and 'it', we conjugate it to 'has'. Because it's a continuous...  [Read more]

  http://www.teflcourse.net This video from one of ITTT's teach English as a foreign language courses covers three teaching ideas for the future perfect tense. The future perfect is used to talk about things that will have been completed by a certain date in the future. The first idea involves asking students the following question "What will you have done by ...?" with an appropriate time in the future. For example: "What will you have done by the time you are 25?" "I will have become an English teacher". The second idea involves giving students monthly calendars to complete and asking them to say what they will have done by the end of the month. The last idea involves asking questions about a famous person and what they will have achieved in the future. "How many awards...  [Read more]

  Thailand is firmly established as one of Asia's must-see destinations and is a favorite stop for many on the traditional backpacker trail. For those who want to stay on for an extended visit the good news is there is a healthy demand for English language teachers in many parts of the country. Although wages may not match those found in some of the region's teaching hotspots, you can still earn enough to live a comfortable lifestyle and to enjoy all that this beautiful country has to offer. In the past it was almost the norm for teachers to work 'under the table' without a proper work permit, however, those days are largely gone and you now need to have the necessary paperwork in place if you want to earn a good salary. To be granted a work permit you need to possess a degree in...  [Read more]