TEFL: Teaching English as a Foreign Language and learning English - Theme
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Education Category: Language
Ages: 4-8, 8-12, 12-16
A way for students to get to know each other in a new setting is to let them find someone who has had a specific experience. The students will ask each other predetermined questions, such as:
'Look for someone who has...'
Think about how many questions you want the students to ask each other. Think about the instructions you'll give about answering the questions, and about the questions which are culturally accepted in the country where you are teaching.
Teaching English to students who's first language is not English can be quite difficult. They may be able to answer certain questions and do well on tests about the topics that they had to learn. However, when it comes to having a regular conversation with your students or asking about something outside of their learning area, students usually have great difficulty with answering questions. In this TEDx video, Robert Guzman, a full professor at the University of Puerto Rico, explains his teaching method that he calls "teaching English without teaching English". It is a very interesting video to watch,
...Read moreTeaching English is a popular way to work abroad for a few months or even years. Although some cities are crowded with English teachers, more provincial areas still have many who are looking to improve their English.
There are always many interesting questions involved, such as one today. A woman asked if age mattered when looking for a teaching job abroad. Although you can travel (and work) at any age - and it's probably more about your mindset than anything else.. Still in some countries of for some organizations it will be a deal breaker if you are over 60...
Hopefully for those of you who are looking for opportunities to go abroad after retiring and looking for a teaching job > this interview with Donna who teaches English and travels the world at age 68 is inspiring!
Recently I read a nice blog written by "TEFL" teacher Ashley Sheets. Ashley, or Miss Sheets, shows that teaching a (foreign) language abroad also is about learning the other way around. Learning about working and living in other cultures, acquiring new competencies, getting insights in other ways of living, etc.
/// Ashley's blog ///
Miss Ashley, Miss Sheets, Ashley teacher.....I get called a lot of things. I’ve taught English as a second or foreign language in quite a few different countries over the past seven years, and my work in international schools has given me access to students from more countries than I can remember. And these students have all had different names for me. In South Korea it was Ashley teacher (usually pronounced “Ash-uh-lee teach-uh!” by the little ones in my kindergarten class). In the sweltering Marshall Islands it was Miss Ashley. My Somali students referred to me simply, respectfully, as “Miss”.
Being in a room full of rambunctious 5 year old Koreans, all speaking their mother tongue and running amuck with the level of energy that is generally afforded to those of their age, was never something I expected in life. Nor did I ever expect to spend a year of my life teaching largely uninspired but utterly delightful island kids on a tiny piece of land the size of a football field (the same kids who couldn’t stand grammar lessons, but serenaded me with ukulele singalongs and shared their ramen/kool-aid mixtures with me). It just goes to show that if anything can be said about teaching English abroad, it’s that it is never, ever, dull!
For everything that I have ever helped a students to learn, they have taught me something in return. Regardless of age - child, teenager, adult - they all have something to teach me, and I could not possibly have chosen a profession that had more life lessons in store for me. Sometimes these lessons have been wonderful, sometimes difficult, sometimes life-affirming. When I lived in other countries and taught in their schools, I was a complete and total outsider, doing my best to swim against the current and offer up my students all the English that they could absorb during the short time they had with me. But outside of those classrooms, I was utterly immersed in learning as much as I could about the language and culture that enveloped me almost completely. I was a tiny foreign fish in a very large pond, and I always felt that way.
But teaching in English speaking countries, specifically in America and in the UK, has been a different experience altogether. Helping my little fish in the big pond that I call home, where I can speak and understand the language inside and outside of school, creates a completely different atmosphere for learning, and adds a sense of urgency for these students that just want to communicate with the world they find themselves living in.
One of my very first teaching experiences is still, to my mind, one of the most rewarding I’ve had. In my hometown in Ohio, there exists a huge population of Somali refugees that have permanently emigrated to the USA. Years ago, I served as a teaching assistant in a class of only Somali woman, friends and neighbors all and ranging in age from 16 - 80, with very little English knowledge among them. These women needed the language, not just to move toward some goal of “assimilation”, or for a big test; but to find jobs and help their children in school, to fight with their aggressive landlords, and run their small businesses.
It was the purest form of language learning, and many of the women didn’t even know how to hold a pencil. My oldest student was nearly 80-although she couldn’t confirm it, as she had no way to be entirely sure of the date and year of her birth. With a wide, toothless grin she came to class every evening and, along with her classmates, helped me realize that I couldn’t really see myself doing anything else but helping people just like her learn my language, if that’s what they wanted or needed to do.
Now I teach in a school with a huge mix of students from countries around the world. Every day, we come together, and we teach each other. I refuse to think that they are the only ones learning anything, and hopefully they are learning as much from me as I do from them. So Ashley teacher it is. Or Miss Ashley. Miss Sheets works too. But what the students call me isn’t as important as what we continue to learn from each other. We’ve got a nice thing going.
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Education Category: Language
Ages:
While teaching/volunteering in Nepal, I found out it was easiest for the children, who just started school, to learn words by visualising them. For example, when learning colours, they remembered al the colours with much more ease when they had to use a coloured pencil to show the actual colour. The same goes
....... read moreEducation Category: Language
Ages:
Basic language learning activities
There are many fun and instructive activities for children that can be used to develop basic language skills and teach them to be attentive.
Small children need to move a lot and lively activities with a specific learning goal are a healthy and fun way to keep
Education Category: General, Games
Ages:
Play Shape and Seek Game
Shapes are all around us and young kids love learning about them!
Our surrounding gives us plenty of excuses to talk about shapes.
For example:
while you are sitting at the backseat of a car you can show your kid the
Education Category: General
Ages:
Create games and activities for children so that they can learn and differentiate linguistic terminology by defining taste, smell, touch, hearing.
Taste: Prepare a tray if possible with different peeled fruit, cookies and let children taste something. Does it taste sweet, salty, sour?
Smell : Let the children smell something. What do you
....... read moreEducation Category: General, Language
Ages: 8-12
Different creative activities, whereby children will learn the different body parts.
- Tables with chairs and enough space to work individually
- Set the table with one magazine per child or they can share by working together as a team of two.
- Glue and scissors in the middle to
Education Category: Sports, Games
Ages: 4-8
Ideeën voor het geven van sport en spelletjes voor kinderen.
Ideeën voor het geven van sport en spelletjes voor kinderen.
Education Category: General, Math, Language
Ages: 4-8
Ideeën voor het lesgeven op een kleuterschool. Zoals engels, reken en spelletjes.
Ideeën voor het lesgeven op een kleuterschool. Zoals engels, reken en spelletjes.
Education Category: Games
Ages:
Purpose
A toylibrary is a library where children can borrow toys for one week. When the children bring the toys back on time, complete and undamaged they can borrow something new. When the toy is missing, late or damaged the child can’t borrow anything for a specific period of time (see rules). This
....... read moreEducation Category: General
Ages:
The explanation below is specific voor the orphanage 'Sunrise' in Kathmandu, Nepal. You can adjust the information if you want to use it for other purposes.
The memory book
Every child in Sunrise is supposed to have a memory book, just for their own. At first a memory book is just an empty
....... read moreEducation Category: General
Ages: 16+
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Tijdens mijn vrijwilligerswerk heb ik ervaren dat de tour leaders die al voor Smokey Tours werken weinig af weten van de toeristische industrie en het begeleiden van groepen. Als je kijkt naar Europese en Amerikaanse opleidingen gericht op tour leading, zijn deze aspecten belangrijk om te weten voor aankomende tour leaders dus
....... read moreNo results found.
Education Category: Creative, Sports, Games Ages: Beste Worldsupporters & andere, In veel buitenlanden in Afrika of Azie is het super leuk om om typische Nederlandse/hollandse spelletjes te doen. Dit kennen ze namelijk nog niet en ze leren dit van ons zodat als wij weg zijn dit nog steeds kunne...
Education Category: Games Ages: Het waskijperspel. Iedereen krijgt 3 wasknijpers per persoon. In een bepaalde tijd probeer je zoveel wasknijpers aan iemand anders kleren te knijpen. Als je eenmaal een wasknijper aan je hebt dan mag je hem er niet afhalen. Dit doe je in een bepaalde tijdsbeste...
Education Category: Language Ages: 4-8 Zing Engelse liedjes met kinderen. Laat de kinderen staan. Soms zijn kleine kinderen nog net te jong om veel Engelse woorden en zinnen te leren, dan kun je beter met hen zingen. Hier beleven zij veel lol aan en het is goed voor hun Engelse ontwikkeling. Requisi...
Education Category: Language Ages: 4-8 Kleuren leren aan kinderen. Laat de kinderen in een kring om de lego blokken zitten en ga zelf in het midden zitten (bij de lego blokken). Wijs een kind aan en zeg de kleur in het Engels van een lego blok. Nu moet het kind deze kleur pakken. Heeft hij het goed?...
We, Lena and I, saw that some of the kids where having trouble with giving there tetion to Math, so we had made a game for them. We had a foldingpaper for every kid. And we where going to teach them how to fold a ‘Happertje’. When we finished this Lena and I where going to write in every...
Education Category: General, Language Ages: 4-8, 8-12, 12-16, 16+ Talen leren Een vreemde taal leren. Het staat bijna op iedere bucketlist die je ooit zult tegenkomen. Heel tof, maar het leren ervan vergt vaak meer tijd en moeite dan men denkt. Hieronder beschrijf ik een aantal ...
Education Category: Games Ages: 0-4, 4-8, 8-12 Scheerschuim is materiaal die gebruikt kan worden om schoolse maar ook motorische vaardigheden om een leuke manier te oefenen. Er zijn verschillende spellen die je ermee kan spelen. Kinderen vinden het vaak leuk om te doen, maar moeten soms wel eraan we...
Education Category: Language Ages: 4-8 Make drawings of the words you teach the children during English class, in this case pictures of different types of fruit. Make drawings of the words you teach the children during English class, in this case pictures of different types of fruit. The children li...
Education Category: General Ages: 4-8, 8-12, 12-16, 16+ For any newly qualified TEFL teacher who has limited experience teaching adult classes, the prospect of teaching a class of six year olds or a group of teenagers can be daunting for anyone, and understandably. Unlike in adult classes where you ...
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