Exams are big business and a great number of students work towards one of the major English exams; many more work towards local exams. This means that preparing students for exams is also big business and many teachers either take this on with classes approaching and exam or specialize entirely […]
Continue ReadingTeaching Beginners in TEFL
Let’s suppose you are in your beginner level TEFL class and – for the purposes of this explanation – it’s time to introduce them to adjectives. You could simply say: “An adjective is a word that modifies a noun or a pronoun. To modify a word is to describe the […]
Continue ReadingTeacher Talking Time in the TEFL Classroom
Teacher Talking Time (TTT) is the amount of time the teacher talks in the classroom. It pays to make this as little as possible. Look at this typical TEFL classroom dialog: Teacher: Jamal, what’s your favorite TV show? Jamal: Er… Teacher: Baywatch? American Idol? Top Gear? Jamal: Baywatch. Teacher: Great! […]
Continue ReadingTask Based Language Learning in TEFL
Task Based Language Learning (TBLL) is basically geared towards the students performing a particular task. In the ELT classroom this might: ordering a meal asking directions discussing a film preparing a job application It’s all about getting the students focused and using authentic language. The students are doing meaningful, practical […]
Continue ReadingAmerican or British
Variations in spelling exist in English words. In Great Britain and Canada, some words have spellings that differ from American spellings. Readers of books by British and Canadian publishers will note these differences. Some confusion may arise depending on the writer’s experience with these variant spellings. Many nouns that in […]
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