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This is the final unit on grammar. It will discuss model auxiliary verbs, the passive voice as well as phrasal verbs and relative causes. 1. Modal Auxiliary Verbs The ‘models’ are: can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, must, have to, have got to, need to, needn’t and ought to. a. Basic rules - The model auxiliary verbs are used before other verbs to add meaning to the main verb. The models can be used to express different ideas such as obligation, possibility/probability, permission/prohibition, ability and advice. - Model verbs are also used to express different degrees of formality. - Model verbs don’t change in form according to person. - Model verbs are followed by a verb in the base form. This applies to present and future meanings. To express ideas in the past models with more than one meaning may express past ideas in different ways according to meaning. b. Usage May - Polite request - Formal permission - Less than 50% certainty Might - Much less than 50% certainty - Polite request (rare) Need to - Need or necessity - Lack of need or necessity - Optional need or necessity Must - Obligation - Prohibition (negative only) - 95% certainty or assumption Have to - Necessity or obligation - Lack of necessity or obligation (negative only) Have got to - Strong necessity Should / ought to - Advisability or moral obligation - 90% certainty Should - Unexpected past result Can - Ability/possibility - Informal permission - Informal polite request - Assumed impossibility (rare) Could - Past ability - Polite request - Suggestion - Less than 50% certainty - Improbability Be able to - Ability Would - Polite request - Preference - Repeated past action c. Teaching ideas Some teaching ideas are: roleplay, rules, signs, 2. Passive voice There are two voices used in English: the active and passive In the passive voice, the object of an active verb becomes the subject of the passive verb. In the active voice, the focus is on the agent. In the passive voice the focus is on the subject and the agent (doer of the action) is much less important or isn’t mentioned at all. Only transitive verbs (verbs followed by an object) are used in the passive. a. Form: Auxiliary verb ‘be’ + past particle For both the active and passive voice, the tense of the sentence always remains the same. In the passive voice the tense is indicated by the auxiliary verb ‘be’ and in the active voice, the tense is shown by the main verb. b. Usage - The passive is mostly used when it is not known, not important or we don’t want to say exactly who perform an action. - The passive may be used with a ‘by’ phrase when the speaker or writer wants the listener or reader to know who performs the action. c. Typical student errors/mistakes - Leaving the verb ‘to be’ out of the sentence - Using the verb ‘to be’ in the wrong tense - Overuse of ‘by’ d. Teaching ideas: - Cutting up varied active/passive sentences and getting students to match them - Students write a general knowledge quiz using passive examples. 3. Phrasal Verbs Phrasal verbs (multi-word verbs) consist of a verb plus one or two particles (the particle may be a preposition, adverb or an adverb plus a preposition). They operate as one item. As the addition of the particle frequently changes the meaning of the verb, phrasal verbs are very difficult for students to understand and are best learnt as vocabulary items. There are 3 basic phrasal verbs: - Type 1, intransitive Cannot be followed by a direct object - Type 2, transitive separable An object pronoun can only come between the verb and the particle An object noun can come either between the verb and the particle or after the particle - Type 3, transitive inseparable The object phrase or object pronoun both come after the particle This type includes phrasal verbs that have two particles: an adverb followed by a preposition. 4. Relative Clauses A clause is a group of words containing a subject and a verb. There are 3 categories of clauses: - Independent clause An independent clause is a complete sentence. It contains the main subject ad verb of a sentence - Dependent clause A depend clause is not a complete sentence. It must be connected to an independent clause - Relative clause (adjective clause) A relative clause is a depend clause that modifies a noun. It describes, identifies or gives further information about a noun It is introduced by a relative pronoun (who, whom, whose, which, that, etc.) or there may be no relative pronoun. There are two relative clauses: a. Defining relative clause The information given in a defining relative clause is essential to the meaning of the sentence. It also makes it clear which person or thing we are talking about. b. Non-defining relative clause The information given in a non-defining relative clause is not essential to the meaning to the sentence. In fact, that information can be taken out without substantially changing the meaning of the sentence. Commas are critical in non-defining relative clauses As all the other grammar units in this course, this unit proved very useful. Mostly because it will help me explain the rules more clearly to my students and to recognize the different grammar point better.