Past Simple Words

  Did you know that you can complete an ITTT online course in the comfort of your own home and at your own pace? In this TEFL review video George talks about his experiences as an ITTT online student. ITTT offers a variety of TEFL/TESOL online courses. For example, for teachers who are considering working with younger students, ITTT offers the Certificate in Teaching English to Young Learners. Young learners can be one of the most rewarding of all groups to teach and ITTT's course will provide you with the tools to be an effective classroom teacher. To find out more about this course and other TEFL courses ITTT offers simply follow the links above. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online...  [Read more]

  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]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word "purport". This word is a noun and is a synonym for the words implied or conveyed. The word comes from Middle English and Anglo-French and was first used in the English language in the 15th century. An example sentence with the word purport includes: Everyone was informed of the purport of the letter. 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. If you are able to master conditionals, you will have...  [Read more]

  If you want to teach English as a foreign language, it is important to make sure you are as well prepared as you can possibly be before entering a classroom. It is equally important to have a good understanding of the country and culture you are hoping to make your home while you are teaching. Below we look at some important aspects of etiquette in different countries in Latin America. The countries of Latin America are an increasingly popular destination for newly qualified English teachers. While they are generally more relaxed when it comes to formal rules of etiquette than other regions of the world, there are, as with any country, particular social norms that any visitor should make the effort to understand. COLOMBIA Manners/Behaviour: Although Colombians are generally...  [Read more]

  Andre from Brazil is currently living in Ireland. Andre took the 120-hour online TEFL course with tutor support and videos from ITTT. In this TEFL review video Andre tells us how he was pleasantly surprised with the course. Initially skeptical, he found the course to be well designed, comprehensive and flexible. He admits that the course is challenging but is well worth the effort and he thinks it is great value for money. 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....  [Read more]

  Alina lives in Bucharest in Romania and has been teaching English there for several years. In her TEFL review video she explains how she chose to take the 120-hour Online TEFL Course with tutor support and videos from ITTT in order to receive professional training in English language teaching. After researching online, Alina decided that the online course from ITTT best suited her needs to be able to study while also working, which gave her the chance to apply what she was learning to her classes as she progressed through the course. Alina is looking forward to further study with a course in teaching English to young 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...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word sprightly. This word is used to describe a person, usually a little bit older, who is full of energy. 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 learnt about the different past tenses - past simple, past perfect, past continuous and past perfect continuous. I learnt the different forms, usages, typical errors and some Activate teaching ideas to help teach the different verb tenses...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word whodunit. This word describes a mystery or detective story that can either be a movie, a book, a play or anything to that extend. It is basically a short form of the words Who has done it?, meaning who is the criminal / murder in the story. 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 a good review of the the past tense. I especially liked the formatting of the unit as it provided the...  [Read more]

  This video covers the difference between 'historic' and 'historical'. These two words often cause confusion for English learners. The word ?historic? refers to something or someone famous and/or important in history, such as historic attractions, historic figures or historic events. The word 'historical', on the other hand, describes history itself, such as historical events or historical evidence. These are simply things that happened in the past and they weren?t necessarily important or famous. 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...  [Read more]

  It also helps us form our tenses. Many of the tenses will use these auxiliary verbs; particularly we have our continuous tense and our perfect tense. There are additional tenses that use auxiliary verbs. We'll get into that when we talk about our individual tenses. Another important aspect of our verbs is that they generally tell us what tense the sentence has been formed in. Take for instance the verb "to live." We could use it as live, lives, living or lived. "I live" or "she lives in Bangkok," meaning the present. "I am living in Bangkok," still the present or "I lived in Bangkok," meaning the past. Another difference with our verbs has to do with whether or not the verb is regular or irregular. With the regular verbs, in order to conjugate the verb into the past, we simply...  [Read more]

  Grammar lessons can be perceived as boring for some students, so it is important to have fun activities that encourage the students to use the target language creatively and foster high student talking time. Below is a list of ten activities that can be used for lessons on the past simple. Matching Pairs: The teacher creates a set of cards with present simple verbs and a set with the past simple form of the same verbs. The sets are mixed together and places face down on the desk. Students take turns to turn over two cards. If the two cards match, i.e. both forms of the same verb, the student has to make a sentence with the past simple form before they can keep the cards. If they cannot make a correct sentence, the cards are turned over and it is the next player's turn. The...  [Read more]

  In this TEFL review video, Sherleen talks about her experience taking the 120-hour ITTT online course with tutor support and videos. She describes how the course was both informative and challenging and has prepared her well for starting her career as an English teacher. 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 8 we learned about the future tenses. These happen to be much easier than the past because their are key words to each one. SOme of...  [Read more]

  Before looking at the methods or approaches themselves, there are some terms that we need to define. These are the approach, the method or the technique. Basically, these are hierarchical. The approach is an overriding set of principles that a method can actually make use of, whereas the technique are the things that we actually do in the classroom to approach that method. So, these three words are going to appear during the presentation. Again, for each of either the approaches all the methodologies we're going to ask four questions. So be it an approach or a method for each of those things: Where did it come from? What's its background? What does it involve when we're talking about actually in the classroom, in other words techniques? What is positive about it? What appears to...  [Read more]

  Our second example sentence 'I am playing football at the moment.' is the present continuous tense. This has a different structure as the subject 'I', the verb 'to be' in the present tense 'am', 'is' or 'are' plus the verb with an '?ing' on the end. So here: 'I am playing football at the moment.' Whereas the present simple tense is used to talk about habits routines and facts, the present continuous tense is used to talk about actions in progress at the time of speaking or around the time of speaking. Our third example sentence is the present perfect: 'I have played football twice this week.' Here, the structure is the subject 'I', auxiliary verb 'have' or 'has' plus the past participle. The past participle is usually formed just by adding '-ed'- on to the end of the base form of...  [Read more]

  Just to finish the sectional materials, we'll have a look the difference between what are called authentic and created materials. Authentic materials, as the name implies, are actual materials that are created for any reason outside of the classroom. So examples of authentic materials would be things like newspapers. Those are generated for the general public and they're certainly not generated for the use in the classroom. However, they can be used within the classroom other ideas would be things like songs and poems and even things such as brochures and magazines and indeed menus from restaurants. So these are materials that all can be used within the classroom but they have not been created for that purpose, whereas creative materials, as the name implies, have been produced...  [Read more]

  In this TEFL review, John from the Philippines tells us that he enjoyed taking the 120-hour online TEFL course from ITTT and found the information provided in the course units to be very helpful. During the course John learned about the ESA method of teaching English, reviewed his English language knowledge and picked up a number of tips and tricks for use in his lessons. The course also covers different levels of language learners and different types of classes such as one-on-one classes and 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...  [Read more]

  The teaching idea for the future continuous covered in this video involves students picking a card with a picture of an activity on it and inviting their partner to join them. The other student then has to think up an excuse not to as quickly as possible in the future continuous tense. For example: Student A: Would you like to see a movie at the weekend? Student B: Sorry I can't, I'll be washing my hair. Ideas such as this are a great way for ESOL students to put the language they are learning to use in the classroom. Teaching ESOL (teaching English to speakers of other languages) is a fascinating and highly rewarding career choice and one which has a growing number of opportunities at the moment. One of the best ways to become an ESOL teacher is to take an internationally...  [Read more]

The worldwide market for teaching English abroad covers dozens of countries and many types of employer. In some situations it is normal to complete the recruitment process before leaving home, including an interview conducted via Skype or phone. However, in many of the most popular destinations employers prefer to recruit their teachers via face-to-face interviews on the school premises. While each interviewer will have their own criteria for choosing the right candidate, there are a few simple steps you can follow to give yourself the best chance of securing the job. It is said that it only takes seven seconds to form a first impression, so it is vitally important that you get the basics right to avoid blowing the interview before it has even got going. Rule number one is simple:...  [Read more]

  In this online TESOL course video we will look at a useful teaching idea for the past perfect tense. Students are given statements written in the past simple and will have to complete the statement with sentences in the past perfect. Each statement would have been cut out before the class and distributed to pairs or small groups. The student will turn over their card, read out the statement then complete it with their own past perfect sentence. For example: I didn't do my homework ... because I hadn't brought my book home. Teaching ideas such as this become an important part of an English teacher's resources, enabling them to create interesting plans when required. To learn more about this tense and others consider taking one of ITTT's online TESOL courses. Follow the link above...  [Read more]

  Place of articulation deals with the placement of the vocal organs when producing a sound. Before we can cover the particulars of places of articulation, we'll need to take a look at the various vocal organs and their locations. Moving from the front to the back we'd begin with our lips. We can use both lips in order to create a sound or we can use one of our lips with one of our rows of teeth, usually the top, in order to produce another sound. We also have other sounds, which use both of the rows of teeth. Further back we have what's called the alveolar ridge. That's the bit of the mouth that may get burnt when we're eating a pizza that's a bit too hot and the cheese burns just behind there our top two teeth. That again is the hard bit just behind our top teeth, called the...  [Read more]

  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 could find work teaching...  [Read more]

  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]

  In her ninth video diary instalment, Chantelle discusses unit 9 of her online TEFL course from ITTT. This unit covers lesson planning and the importance of being well prepared for your lessons. The unit discusses whether there is a need to plan lessons, how a lesson plan should be written and what should be included in a lesson plan. It also looks at ways to plan a sequence of lessons and how important it is for teachers to reflect on past lessons to help improve future 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...  [Read more]

  In this TEFL review video, 120-hour online TEFL course graduate Corrin shows us round parts of Florence, Italy where she works as an English teacher and gives us a glimpse inside one of her classes. Corrin took the course with tutor support which she found really helpful and would recommend the course for those looking to teach English as a foreign 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 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 gave me a overall better understanding of...  [Read more]

  We have seen that the key word that helps us to remember the Present Perfect tense is forms of the word 'have' plus the past participle form of the verb. This ITTT video looks at the three main usages of the Present Perfect. First usage: To talk about indefinite past actions. I have been to Italy twice. / I have eaten snake. Second usage: To talk about unfinished past actions I have lived here for three years. / She has been a teacher since 2010. Third usage: To talk about past actions with present results. I have lost my keys. / I have left my computer in the office. When teaching the Present Perfect tense or any other grammar point it is always important to look for patterns and make it as clear as possible for your students. The courses at ITTT assume no prior knowledge...  [Read more]

  This presentation is going to focus on the section of classroom management. We could start with a definition of classroom management as being the skill of organizing the class individual students within that class and what takes place within the class. Perhaps one of the most important resources for achieving these things is you and in terms of you there are a number of things that you can use to help with the classroom management and they include though they're not limited to the use of your eyes the use of your voice and the use of gesture. So let's take each of these in turn and see how they can be used to help with their management of the classroom. So starting with our eyes. First of all the eyes can be used in a number of ways and they can certainly be used to hold...  [Read more]

  Now we'll have a look at the present perfect tense. The form for the present perfect tense is again our subject here, our auxiliary verb, or helping verb, in this case it's 'have'. For subjects 'I,' 'you,' 'we,' 'they', we leave the auxiliary verb as 'have'. For 'he,' 'she' and 'it', our auxiliary verb needs to be conjugated or changed into 'has'. Following these helping verbs, we have our main verb in the past participle form. Here we have the verb 'to play'. 'To play' is a regular verb. So for regular verbs we simply add '-ed'. The result is sentences such as 'I have played football today,' or 'He has played snooker today'. 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...  [Read more]

  In this video we look at the last of three teaching ideas for the past simple. This is a two part exercise that involves students initially guessing the answer to a given question before taking a poll on what the real answers is. This is idea is one of many that can be learned on one of ITTT's online TEFL courses. There are number of options available to study from short 60-hour introductory courses to longer 120-hour TEFL courses. It is also possible to take ITTT's TEFL courses in-class at one of many locations around the world. Please visit the link above for more information about the courses ITTT provides to help you become an English teacher. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our...  [Read more]

  Japan has been a popular destination amongst English language teachers for many years due to its widespread job opportunities, good salaries and fascinating culture. Whilst there are other countries in the region where the cost of living may be lower and the wages a little higher, nowhere provides such an incredible mix of modern development and ancient traditions as you will find in this extraordinary country. If you are looking for excitement and adventure, look no further than Japan. In order to work legally you will need to be eligible for a work visa. The good news is the criteria is not as tough as many other countries as you simply need to possess a degree in any subject. The only other qualifications you need are a fluency in the English language, a professional approach...  [Read more]

  Our next consideration is that of giving instructions to our students. In order for those students to effectively carry out an activity, we need to make sure we have given clear and unambiguous instructions. It's also very important to check that the students understand the activity before you start. If you've done that work correctly then the teacher shouldn't need to say anything once an activity has started because the students are very clear about what they're supposed to be doing. So some ideas when giving instructions. As we've mentioned use simple language. Secondly, rather than trying to explain an activity, then do a demonstration which is visual. Thirdly, try to use wherever possible common words that come up within every activity. These would be things like ?look?,...  [Read more]