Pronunciation is the way in which words and phrases are spoken. Words & phrases can be said in different ways by different groups of people or individuals and under different circumstances. Several factors influence the way we pronounce words, from the way we...
Context in TEFL
Context is the positioning of a word or phrase. This can be used by the teacher to help students gain an understanding of its meaning. For example, look at this sentence. I saw a bright red fligret in the sky. This contains the unknown (and non-existent) word,...
Modals – Possibility
If you want to talk about how possible something is you can use Modal Verbs of Possibility. Let's say, for example, that you are 100% certain that you are going to win: I will win a million dollars if I put everything on red! Chances are though you will lose. Being...
Student Loans & English Teachers Abroad
Many new teachers are often recently qualified and have the burden of student loans to pay back. Normally the pay for an entry-level job teaching English is enough for you to live on reasonably well and save a little. But is it enough to pay back your loan? Loans...
Data Is or Data Are?
The Wall Street Journal published a blog post in which it decided to class data as a singular noun which, according to the rules of subject-verb agreement goes with a singular verb, much like information. For the WSJ this is good English: the data is collected...
Language Items in TEFL
TEFL teachers often talk about Language Items. But what exactly do they mean? Simply put, they are small self-contained pieces of language which you can teach or practice in a lesson. (That's the most usual definition in TEFL.) Once you have the language item, you can...
Teaching Idioms in TEFL
An Idiom is a phrase which has a very different meaning from what it appears to be. It has a figurative meaning which is very different from the literal meaning. For example, in The Godfather famously Luca Brassi sleeps with the fishes This doesn't literally mean that...
Multilingual Classes & TEFL
Generally speaking, we can divide language classrooms into two types: monolingual and multilingual. In a monolingual TEFL class all the students speak the same mother tongue and are learning English. In a multilingual TEFL class, however, the students speak a...
Monolingual Classes & TEFL
As a TEFL teacher, you will be faced with one of two types of classroom: Monolingual or Multilingual. In a monolingual classroom, all the students speak the same first language and they are all learning English. This type of classroom is typical in countries like...
Persian
Persian - article coming soon.