Blog

A letter to my inexperienced teacher self

Hey there, It’s been a while since we’ve had a chat. Since that day early on in the scheme of things. The young student who thought it was ok to yawn loudly, 15 minutes into a reading lesson. This is so boring. They looked at you, you looked at them and shrugged it off. But we all know it was wrong, and it hurt. It was uncomfortable. Things have changed a lot. So many different countries, so many different students, so many different exams and marks, so many different I’ll-just-come-for-… All categories, Certificate courses, Diploma courses, Careers in TESOL

Taking a career break: the easiest ways to take time out to travel, work and volunteer abroad

Have you ever considered taking a step back from your job and pursuing something *else*.....what ever that may be? The benefits of taking some time out on a regular basis are indisputable. But many people don’t take time to unwind regularly or effectively enough.  Recently the BBC wrote about the advantages of additional time away from your daily grind and as it turns out, for those who do opt for gap years, careers breaks or take time to volunteer and travel abroad, many find… All categories, Certificate courses, Diploma courses, How to..., Careers in TESOL

Christmas lesson ideas: 5 great activities for English classes

* This article was written by the entire Teacher Training team at EFA The Christmas season is nigh upon us and it’s a great time of year to focus on building classroom rapport and bring some light relief into learning.  We’ve rounded up a few of our favourite TEFL Christmas lessons and activities from our team of CertTESOL trainers for you. 1. Happy Thoughts This is a great activity to do with primary upwards to adult on the last day of the course or term and helps to build rapport by… All categories, ESL activities, Five ways to, How to..., Certificate courses, Theme based learning

We need to talk about teacher burnout

Okay, we’re now about halfway through the first term of school and most of you are probably in your teaching groove, so you might be thinking this may not apply to you. But it does. As Benjamin Franklin says, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. Burnout is a gradual thing, not happening overnight and making sure you are aware of the signs of burnout and how to prevent it will help you survive the rest of the academic year. Teaching stress and burnout is a serious issue with many… All categories, Certificate courses, Careers in TESOL, Diploma courses, ESL activities

Teaching jobs in Hong Kong: the secret life of a teacher trainer

Some of the most common questions I hear include: Hey, how did you get your job? What do you need to do to become a trainer? So do you get all summer off? Contrary to what many people assume about language teaching, most of us work within the constraints of the private sector. This has many advantages – and many facets that people new to the profession might not appreciate yet. For one, when your students are paying to be in your classes, you are typically dealing with highly motivated and… All categories, Certificate courses, Diploma courses, ESL activities, How to..., Careers in TESOL

5 Things I Wish I’d Known Before Teaching Teenagers

Just do the thing... The advice I got from a colleague early on in my teaching career.  Her advice while not exactly motivating, ended up being the best advice I was given for everything, not just teaching. At the time I was struggling to motivate a class of teenaged learners and went home each day feeling like a failure. Even back then, I knew high school students were not my preferred age group, in fact I didn’t want anything to do with them. All my experience had been with much… All categories, Certificate courses, Five ways to, ESL activities, How to...

5 things you didn't know about grammar

One of the more common beliefs that teachers and students bring to the classroom, especially in Hong Kong (which tends to favour classroom activities based on memorization and declarative, as opposed to procedural knowledge) is an obsession with grammar.  Yes but they need to know the grammar, teachers often say. Yes, the students didn’t necessarily write very much, but I taught the grammar well, they might suggest. My son really needs to work on his grammar, the father… All categories, Certificate courses, Diploma courses, How to..., Five ways to

5 Ways of Managing Problematic Behaviour

Following on from our earlier article on positive reinforcement, this week I look at how teachers can manage problematic behavior. If you’ve ever had the experience of a difficult student, you are not alone! It’s part and parcel of being a teacher. The only way you could avoid problematic behavior with students would be to only teach one student ever! When teaching young learners, and sometimes adults, you may often come across situations where the learner’s behavior becomes a problem for… All categories, Certificate courses, How to..., Five ways to, ESL activities

5 ways to manage behaviour using positive reinforcement

When I was 5, I had a piano teacher who rapped my knuckles and told me off sternly when I didn’t practice enough. When she asked me to be a part of her annual recital, I burst into tears and shook my head, overcome with fear at failing in front of an audience. When I was 12, I had a maths teacher who was ex-Army, who would scream at us if we asked our friends for help. He once was writing something on the board with chalk, when he heard someone whispering, and quick as an arrow, he turned and… All categories, Five ways to, How to..., Certificate courses, ESL activities

It all begins with context: getting your lesson off to a positive start

Set context, and carry on This ought to be the mantra for all teachers, yet it is often one of the most challenging components of any language lesson: set it well, and the meaning and range of language students can use appropriately becomes suddenly more accessible; set it poorly, and you’ll have the students (and possibly yourself too!) scratching heads with puzzled looks. But what is context? Context, in terms of language teaching, relates to the who, where, what, why of any communication… All categories, Five ways to, Certificate courses, Diploma courses, ESL activities, How to...

Does this sound right? Making the most of pronunciation

It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. Right? In which case, it often makes me wonder why teaching pronunciation doesn’t take more of the focus in English language lessons.  That’s not to say that teachers don’t do it – indeed, it’s a compulsory component of most teacher training programmes. However, these often focus largely on segmental phonology (or the individual sounds of English phonemes) rather than more complex feature of phonology like connected speech and intonation. I… All categories, ESL activities, Certificate courses, Diploma courses, How to...

How to get better at your job

By David Kim, CertTESOL Trainee, 2016 Hey, you could teach them English!? What? Really? How? As a corporate sustainability practitioner, I am responsible for managing many aspects of my company’s environmental, social, and governance performance. The social component of my work often involves company-organised events and activities for under-resourced members of the community. A number of charitable activities are organised by my company’s volunteer team for children. The team strives to… All categories