How To Teach English To Beginners

  Are you teaching English to beginners, but aren't quite sure where to start? Teaching complete beginners can be daunting, but there are a couple of tips and tricks you can follow to turn your beginners into successful English language students in no time.  [Read more]

If you have never taught English to complete novices before, the prospect of spending an entire lesson speaking with students who don't comprehend a single word you say may seem frightening. Teaching absolute beginners differs from teaching other courses, as any ESL teacher will tell you. It can be difficult, but it may also be one of the most enjoyable and gratifying language levels to teach. Every new word your students learn is important at this level, and the greatest approach to teaching it is to be as creative and funny as possible. Generally, teaching the letters and numbers should be one of your first priorities. You will lay a solid foundation for everything else your students will learn by teaching them the letters and numbers at the start of the course. Ascertain that your...  [Read more]

If you are a beginner looking to get TEFL certification, it's important to choose a reputable and accredited institution that will provide you with the knowledge and skills needed to teach English as a foreign language effectively. There are several options available for obtaining TEFL certification, including online courses, in-person courses, and hybrid programs that combine both online and in-person components. Online TEFL courses are a popular choice for beginners as they offer flexibility and convenience. Many reputable institutions offer online TEFL courses that can be completed at your own pace from anywhere in the world. Look for courses that are accredited by recognized organizations such as the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training (ACCET) or the Online...  [Read more]

Teaching English to beginners can be a rewarding experience, but it also comes with its own set of challenges. Here are some tips to help you effectively teach English to beginners: 1. **Start with the Basics**: When teaching beginners, it's crucial to start with the very basics of the English language. Focus on teaching commonly used vocabulary, simple grammar structures, and essential phrases that will help them communicate in everyday situations. 2. **Use Visual Aids**: Visual aids such as flashcards, pictures, and gestures can be extremely helpful when teaching beginners. These visual cues can aid in comprehension and make learning more engaging and interactive. 3. **Encourage Interaction**: Encourage your students to practice speaking English from day one. Provide opportunities for...  [Read more]

  Dahlia is a graduate of ITTT's 120-hour online TESOL course. In this TESOL review, she recommends the course for anyone thinking of earning a TESOL or TEFL certificate especially those with backgrounds in teaching and education. ITTT's courses assume no prior teaching knowledge so are suitable for complete beginners to English language teaching or those looking to refresh their 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. This unit was talking...  [Read more]

When it comes to choosing the best TEFL certification for beginners, there are several factors to consider in order to make an informed decision. The most important aspect to look for in a TEFL certification program is accreditation. Accreditation ensures that the program meets certain quality standards and is recognized internationally. The two most widely recognized accrediting bodies in the TEFL industry are the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training (ACCET) and the British Council. Another important consideration when choosing a TEFL certification program is the number of hours of instruction it offers. Most employers prefer candidates who have completed at least a 120-hour TEFL certification program. However, some programs offer shorter courses that may be suitable...  [Read more]

  In this TEFL review, Athena talks about her experience on ITTT?s online TEFL course. Athena completed the 20 units of the course over a period of 3 weeks. Athena chose to do the online course because she was already working as a teacher and she needed to be able to fit her studying around her job. 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. Each class will have to be organize compare to the type of students we are teaching. Their needs, from the...  [Read more]

  Tracy from the USA took the in-class TEFL course in Prague, Czech Republic. In this TEFL review video she discusses her overall experience. Tracy was very satisfied with the support she received before and during the course. Prague is just one of many training centers around the world where ITTT's TEFL/TESOL courses are offered. 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 unit nineteen I learned about the different types of classes I could be teaching...  [Read more]

  We at ITTT have changed the lives of over 100,000 people around the globe who have graduated with our internationally accredited TEFL and TESOL courses. Move abroad, travel the world and change your life forever with ITTT - where the world is your classroom. 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 think tenses receives and gives more attention than any other aspect of English grammar because the value of time in present and future are very...  [Read more]

  In this TEFL review video a group of international TEFL students share their experiences during the four week TESOL/TEFL course in Corinth, Greece. ITTT's four week in-class courses are intensive but you will still have sufficient time to explore the local area, meet lots of new people and experience the local culture. 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 covers the different types of classes you could teach as an ESL Teacher. There are...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word rhadamanthine. This word is used as an adjective and means showing inflexible judgment. 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 lesson used two video examples of classes in order to show the difference between good teaching techniques and poor teaching techniques. The lesson essentially shows what would happen if you teach a class properly, and how well the students can understand what...  [Read more]

  This video is the first of two that looks at the structure of the Present Perfect tense. Positive: subject +auxiliary verb have/has + past participle I have played. / She has played. Negative: subject + auxiliary verb have/has + not + past participle I have not played. / She has not played. Question: auxiliary verb have/has + subject + past participle Have I played? / Has she played? This verb tense requires the use of the past participle. With regular verbs the past participle is the verb plus ed, for example work - worked. However there are many irregular verbs that do not follow this pattern and have to be learnt from memory. For example, eat- eaten, drink-drunk, teach-taught. Most good grammar books will provide you with lists of irregular verbs. The tense system is just one...  [Read more]

  In this ITTT TEFL review video Paul describes his experience during his TEFL/TESOL course in Sydney. He talks about the people he met and the students he taught during the course. ITTT's TEFL/TESOL certification courses last for four weeks and are held in a variety of exciting sites like Sydney. No matter which training center you select, our courses will focus on training you to teach English with the international standard communicative approach, where English is the only language used in the classroom. This means you do not need to be able to speak the local language. 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...  [Read more]

  There are some general Do's and Don'ts that need to be considered when teaching business English. Watch this video to get more insight into teaching this special group of learners. 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. It was a very interesting but also guided unit demonstrating the activities in writing as well as speaking.The ideas produced as well as the extensive assistance showed me how well prepared the teacher should be.The games in the...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word tenet. This word refers mainly to princibles of a religion or philosophy. Some synonyms for tenet can include principle, belief or doctrine. The word comes from the Latin word tenere meaning ?he holds?. 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 really an important unit talking about different ways while teaching different teaching groups. It helps the teachers that how to adopt a teaching...  [Read more]

  Now, let's take a look at the present continuous tense. The continuous tense is used to talk about actions in progress at the time of speaking or around the time of speaking. The first thing to notice with the continuous tense is that we must use the verb plus '-ing' form, also known as the present participle. You'll see it in any continuous tense, especially with the present continuous. We have three different forms of this tense. First, we have the subject 'I' used with 'am teaching'. Then, we have 'you', 'we' and 'they are teaching'. Finally, we've got 'he', 'she' 'it is teaching'. The 'am', 'are' and 'is' are forms of the verb 'to be' and here with this tense is used as an auxiliary verb or a helping verb. In order to form negative sentences, we simply add the word 'not'...  [Read more]

  This video covers the difference between 'cite' and 'site'. These two words often cause confusion for English learners due to their similar spelling. The word 'cite' is used as a verb and means to make reference to someone or something, like citing experts in a paper. The word 'site', on the other hand, is used as a noun and describes a location or place, like the site of an earthquake or the site of a war. We are sure you won?t confuse the two words again. 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...  [Read more]

  Throughout section on the teaching of productive skills and the teaching of receptive skills our activate activities will usually involve some form of game and our final consideration here will be the use of games in the classroom. We can start with a definition of what we actually mean by a game and it basically has three components. A game is an activity that has rules it should have for its purpose in the classroom a teaching point and by nature to the fact that it's a game it should also include an element of fun. So that will be our working definition for a game that we're going to use in the classroom. There are many different types of games and they range between the competitive and those will require cooperation and there are all sorts of games that involve both of these...  [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]

  This video covers the structure of the future perfect continuous. Other videos look at the usage and possible teaching ideas. The structure is as follows: Positive -- Subject + will + have + been + present participle By the end of this week, I will have been teaching English for three years. Negative -- Subject + will + not + have + been + present participle I won't have been waiting long by the time you get here. Question -- Will + subject + have + been + present participle? How long will you have been teaching English in Korea by the time you leave? One thing that worries many people thinking about teaching English as a foreign language is the grammar side of things. Most simply won't have been taught the ins and outs of English Grammar while they were at school. ITTT's...  [Read more]

In the same way that we would expect our surgeon, dentist or airline pilot to have undertaken some training, our students of English might also expect their teachers to be trained and competent. What does it mean that our English teacher is competent? Possibly there are two major components to the answer: 1. The teacher has adequate subject knowledge. 2. The teacher has some classroom delivery skills. First you need to find a course that offers these components. While many native English speakers have learned the rules of English grammar sub-consciously as part of their language development, this does not give them the necessary subject knowledge required to teach English. So both native English speakers (NES) and non-native English speakers (NNES) should have some background knowledge of...  [Read more]

  So, let's have a look at a typical receptive skills lesson. The main focus of this lesson is going to be reading, although there will be some listening involved as well and it?s going to be a patchwork ESA lesson. As a patchwork lesson, it will start off with an engage and this engage what we're going to do is to play an extract about Elvis Presley and it's going to be an Elvis Presley song and we can ask the students if they know who it is and if they know anything about him can help generate the interest in this. We can also ask them what they'd like to know about it. What we can then do is just to introduce them to the text but they're going to read the detail later on but just at this stage we'll do a quick skimming or scanning exercise to find some information from that...  [Read more]

If you have decided to pursue a career in teaching English abroad, it is now time to figure out what the requirements are to get you started! While there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to teaching abroad, the most commonly required qualifications to become a TEFL teacher are: Although it may seem self-evident, fluency in English is a prerequisite for TEFL instructors. If you don't speak English well, we recommend looking for another job. Non-native English speakers with fluency in the language can find work in many areas, including South and Central America, Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe. In some regions of the world, though, being a native English speaker is almost a necessity. If English is not your first language, countries like China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia are probably no...  [Read more]

Teaching English abroad can be a rewarding experience, even if you have limited teaching experience. Many countries welcome native English speakers to teach their language, and there are opportunities available for both experienced teachers and newcomers to the field. Here are some key points to consider if you are thinking about teaching English abroad with limited teaching experience: First and foremost, it's essential to have a strong command of the English language. As a non-native English speaker, your fluency and proficiency in English will be crucial in effectively teaching the language to others. Additionally, having a recognized certification in TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) or TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) can greatly enhance your chances...  [Read more]

First we need to define what TEFL means before looking at the various ways in which it can be examined to provide a teaching certificate. There are various locations in which a TEFL exam can be taken and different methods of instruction, these will also be considered. The acronym TEFL stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language and it can be used in any situation where the English language is being taught to non-native English speakers. Technically speaking, TEFL refers to teaching English in countries where English is not the native language. It is a term used mainly in the UK and is used interchangeably with the equivalent USA term TESOL. As with any profession, teaching has a series of exams at different levels. Within the world of ESL the entry level examination for teachers is...  [Read more]

Many fully certified teachers choose to teach abroad rather than stay in their home country. Some newly qualified teachers may find it difficult to find suitable employment, so they travel abroad to obtain useful classroom experience, while others may simply be looking for something different. Whatever your motivation, teaching is one of the few professions that allows you to develop your skills and knowledge, gain experience, and increase your employability while traveling the world and seeking out new countries and cultures. If you believe this is the right path for you, the next step is to consider how you will differentiate your CV/resume when applying for the best opportunities in the most exciting locations. A TEFL certificate is required in many cases, even for qualified teachers....  [Read more]

Many fully certified teachers decide to head overseas to teach rather than stay in their home country. For some newly qualified teachers it can be hard to find a suitable job so they go abroad to gain valuable classroom experience, while others might simply be looking for a change of direction. Whatever your reasons, teaching is one of the few professions that allow you to develop your skills and knowledge and increase your experience and employability, while travelling the world and exploring new countries and cultures. If you think this is the right path for you, the next step is to think about how your CV/resume will stand out when applying for the best jobs in the most exciting locations. In many cases, qualified teachers do need a TEFL certificate. While searching for jobs online you...  [Read more]

Volunteer English teaching has been an important part of the TEFL world for many years, with countless schemes operating in many parts of the world. Most of these opportunities are located in developing countries where access to affordable language lessons is not widespread and where people often see improving their English as a clear path towards better jobs and a better future for them and their families. However, while these schemes provide a very valuable service, there are now increasing numbers of online volunteer based teaching platforms that are able to provide help to even more people worldwide. There are many individual reasons for wanting to offer your services as an online volunteer English teacher. For many people the reward of helping someone in need and seeing them make...  [Read more]

As the largest country in Latin America, Brazil has a wide range of opportunities for TEFL qualified teachers. The demand for teachers is high in major cities and popular tourist destinations thanks to a rapidly growing tourism industry and a booming economy. If you choose Brazil as your location for teaching English abroad you can enjoy some of the very best beaches in the world, a warm tropical climate, a vibrant nightlife, and an amazing array of natural wonders. English teachers generally choose to live and work in Brazil for the lifestyle rather than the salaries. However, while you won’t get rich teaching here you should be able to earn enough to cover all your expenses and to enjoy a comfortable life away from the classroom. The average monthly income for TEFL qualified teachers...  [Read more]

  Our final methodology is accredited to Jeremy Harmer and it's known by the letters ESA. Around 1998, Jeremy Harmer produced a book called "How to teach English" and basically what Harmer did, is a background to this book is to do what we have done today and to work through all of the different methodologies that have come about over the last 300 years. He highlighted for each of those methodologies what was good about it, what was positive and what didn't appear to work and then put all of the positive things into a melting pot and came out with this methodology, which he called ESA. It's a three-stage methodology, where each of the letters represents a particular phase of the lesson. The first one being called the engage phase, the second the study phase and the final one the...  [Read more]