TEFL/TESOL in Uganda With 52 ethnic groups in Uganda, each with its own dialect, English has been for years the official language of instruction in all school years. In major multicultural urban centers, like Kampala, the capital of Uganda, English is the medium of...
Semantic Fields in TEFL
A semantic field (sometimes known as a lexical field) is a group of words related by meaning. In teaching a semantic field could be: animals verbs of perception foodstuffs ... In practical terms the definition is quite loose and general. Sometimes a word will belong...
Used + Infinitive
The phrase used + infinitive is often confusing for learners of English. This article explains what it is and how we use it. Here are typical uses of the phrase: I used to live in Toronto. I have an idea he used to go out with Nicole Kidman. You can see that the...
Teaching in Greece
This is a first-hand account of what it's like to teach English in Greece written by an English teacher who went out there many years ago... and never got around to leaving! What's it like? Damn fine! Teaching English in Greece is one of the better choices one can...
Teaching the /r/ and /l/ sounds
Quite a number of Asian students have problems distinguishing between the /r/ sound and the /l/ sound. Essentially this is because the difference in these sounds does not exist in their mother tongues and so they are unable to "hear" the difference. Thus some...
Word Bag – activity
Word Bag is a fun game which helps with semantic fields and vocabulary in general. It's quick to set up and ideal to keep the class occupied for 10 minutes at the end of a lesson and it is very good for all ages and levels of students. Running the Game To start,...
Lip Reading
Lip Reading is a fun activity which can be used with all ages and class levels. On the one hand it teaches the "speaker" to carefully pronounce words and on the other it helps the "listener" in predicting what is going to be said. Both these skills are useful when it...
Truth or Lie – question making activity
Truth or Lie is an activity which is used to practice the Present Perfect Simple and also giving students practicing making questions. Preparation Prepare a number of flashcards on which you have written a present perfect simple question, have you ever... Have you...
The Goodies’ Bag
This is a "show and tell" activity for the TEFL teacher who wants to encourage young learners to produce language in a natural way and create a more spontaneous response than the traditional "repeat after me" approach. How it works Take a large cloth bag (a black bin...
TESOL – Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
TESOL is an acronym standing for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Generally speaking it is the same as TESL or TEFL and it is used as an umbrella term primarily in the USA. TESOL refers to the teaching of the English language to students whose...