For both teachers and students a dictionary is one of the most important books (or apps) you can own. This article offers tips for choosing the best possible dictionary for help in the classroom and with preparing lessons. If you're buying a dictionary then the best...
The Essential Guide to Teaching English and Living in Thailand. Guest blogger and author Michael Plews gives us just a taste of what it is like to teach and live in Thailand. Sun-kissed beaches, amazing cuisine, a rich cultural heritage and some of the friendliest...
I go on the news sites each morning to catch up on what's happening in the world. And yesterday I tried a new site: Reuters. They have a bit of a reputation of being there with the scoops, pretty fair minded when it comes to reporting and they're well regarded in the...
According to an article in the Scientific American (link below) people are more logical and reason better in a foreign language than their native tongue. Basically they looked at questions where reasoning was required (financial decisions gambling and so on) and...
This simple flowchart graphic shows where you can work as a TEFL teacher. It's general in approach and there are many exceptions. (For more on this, see the useful links under the graphic.) Useful Links Where to Teach English as a Foreign Language - general...
We'd like to welcome guest blogger Evelyn Robinson; in this first blog for ICAL she writes about traveling the world as a TEFL teacher and the opportunities available out there! Every TEFL teacher gets frustrated when their friends and family see their job abroad as a...
Listening is one of the four major language skills. This article is about listening for pleasure. Often as teachers we'll give our class a very specific listening task which will often run like this: listen to this short dialog between a shopkeeper and a shopper;...
Its and it's are often confused, not only by learners but also native English speakers (the picture on the right comes from one of Disney's theme parks). This article explains the difference between them. Its Very simply, its (without the apostrophe) is a possessive...
The ICAL TEFL Community gives a voice to TEFL teachers and other guests wherever you are. Let's start with... ICAL TEFL Forum If you'd like to start a discussion or ask a question about TEFL then visit the ICAL TEFL Forums. Here you'll find discussions about...
It's estimated that the most common 1, 000 words in the English language are used in 89% of communication. Well, to prove it's possible to say almost anything using those words the folks at xkcd have taken a blueprint for the space rocket Apollo 5 (or Up Goer as they...
