Well travelled TEFL teachers are sexier- it's true! Well sort of. In a recent survey by an Australian online dating survey it was found that those who traveled were sexier than those who stayed at home. Perhaps it was the idea of someone with independence and...
Guest blogger Jonathan Last presents an extract from his autobiographical book, Teaching with Chopsticks, an honest, funny, and insightful account of a year spent teaching English in South Korea. Lunchtime. I’m trying to hide my growing weariness at rice every day,...
One of our ICAL students blogs about her duties as English Teacher in a public school in Korea. Writing under the pseudonym of Elsa Kellenbence, she gives a straightforward and honest account of her on-going struggle to keep discipline in the classroom, get students...
Reading with very young learners often demands a different approach to teaching reading skills with older learners. For one thing young learners may not yet be able to read well in their own language so dealing with a different language (and possibly a different...
We'd like to welcome Larry Jarocki, MA Applied Linguistics, as a guest author of the ICAL Blog. Larry has been an ICAL tutor for over a decade. Here he talks about his recent findings on effective group work in the ESL classroom, following an eight days seminar on...
Living in a foreign country it's sometimes easy to assume you are above the law. You feel slightly outside local society and it's not hard to pretend that the local laws simply don't really apply to you. After all, you are from the USA or the UK (or wherever) and...
Generally speaking - and there are exceptions - adverbs can come in 1 of 3 positions in a sentence: 1) At the beginning: Hurriedly I got dressed. Never go there again! Always look on the bright side of life. 2) Between the subject and the verb: I hurriedly got...
The following is an example Coursebook Evaluation Form. If you are thinking of using a TEFL coursebook with your class and want to see if it might be suitable, complete this kind of form to find out. Obviously this is a general example, but with a little tweaking you...
In our article on LGBT teachers (link below) we quote Scott Thornbury who suggests that TEFL attracts a higher percentage of gay teachers. In his article Window Dressing vs Cross Dressing in EFL Sub-Culture he actually talks about the relatively high proportion of...
One of my favorite shows was The Sopranos, a tale of modern American mob life. In one episode Tony Soprano's right hand man, Christopher Moltisanti, has to sit an exam which it would be impossible for him to pass. The solution? Get a bright college kid, forge some...
Cooperative Learning is a teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different abilities, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Although cooperative learning takes place within teams of students it is...
The American Language Centers are a chain of schools in Morocco.
Another story today of someone who lost a healthy lot of money by paying an agent to find them work... and the agent did nothing. In today's Guardian news paper is the sobering story of a teacher who paid [currconvert base_curr="GBP" base_amount="320"] to an agency...
Tagalog is a language spoken in the Philippines. One variant is Filipino.
A number of students have difficulties producing the /θ/ and /ð/ sounds found in words like: think - /θɪŋk/ thought - /θɔːt/ threw - /θruː/ this - /ðɪs/ that - /ðæt/ those - /ðəʊz/ Note that the main difference between these sounds is that one is voiced and the other...
Elision happens when you miss out one or more sounds as you're speaking. Sometimes it's known as slurring or muting but the important point to remember despite what some people say, it is not a sign of "bad pronunciation" or poor education, but simply the natural way...
There is sometimes confusion over which to use of these verb forms: the Present Simple or Present Continuous vs Present Perfect. The cat is here.vs The cat has been here. Simon is writing.vsSimon has been writing. Generally speaking we would use the present simple or...
Simply put, Psycholinguistics is the study of how psychological factors and neurological factors influence the way we learn, understand, and use language. It tries to answer questions like: How do our brains process language? How do we recognize speech and how do we...
One of the official (but by no means only) languages of India
I read a very interesting article the other day on one man's theory why British people (and let's expand this to pretty well most native English speakers) don't speak foreign languages well, if at all. I read a very interesting article the other day* on one man's...
The following is a paper written by Rebecca Rose Orton on her CALL training and experience. Rebecca volunteers at the English Language Institute (ELI) at Gallaudet University, in Washington, DC. The following is a paper written by Rebecca Rose Orton on her CALL...
Korea is a unique country that has a lot of offer. But one thing the country does lack is diversity. As a result, you feel isolated, belittled and often times, hated as a foreigner. Especially a black foreigner... We'd like to welcome Tate Nanje as a guest author of...
Teach English in Spainwith the ICAL TEFL Certificate Course In the past couple of years the economy in Spain has begun to pick up after suffering badly. The demand for English teachers is increasing and more people are taking an ICAL TEFL Course and becoming qualified...
A major school chain.
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...
I was reading today that the Politecnico di Milano in Italy is changing to an English-speaking university only. Quite a remarkable move considering the level of English penetration within Italy. This is a country, after all, which is in the bottom third of English...
Dependent Clauses - article coming soon. Please see Independent Clauses in English Grammar for now.
The British government wants to introduce more formal grammar tests to schools in the UK. However this is being countered by the main teachers' unions who say it is an attack on teachers. The British government wants to introduce more formal grammar tests to schools...
ELT Publishers article coming soon
Pig - Goat is a traditional game which is easily adapted for your TEFL classroom. Sometimes it's boringly called the "last letter word game" or "word chains" but whatever the name, it's ideal as a filler activity at the end of the class. Playing the Game If the class...
