Ultimate English Teacher’s Resource List

Activities, Communities, Tips and Advice for English Teachers

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Table of Contents

Ultimate English Teacher’s Resource List............................................................................................ 1

Activities, Communities, Tips and Advice for English Teachers ...................................................... 1
Disclaimer and Copyrights................................................................................................................... 2
Teaching Methodology – Teaching Tips .............................................................................................. 4
Activities and Resources...................................................................................................................... 6
Communities – Forums - Networking ................................................................................................. 7
Career .................................................................................................................................................. 8
Finding Jobs ..................................................................................................................................... 8
Teaching Articles ................................................................................................................................. 9
Article 1: Using Balloons in the EFL Classroom ............................................................................... 9
Article 2: Start Teaching Lexically in 2013 ..................................................................................... 11
Article 3: Quick Reading Comprehension Strategies..................................................................... 15
Article 4: Speaking Well - Four Steps To Improve Your ESL EFL Students Speaking Ability .......... 17
Article 5: Teaching English Abroad: Five Things to Do Before Embarking on Such Adventure .... 19
Article 6: How To Teach Collocations: Top 10 Ways ..................................................................... 21
Thanks for Reading! .......................................................................................................................... 24
Teaching Methodology – Teaching Tips

English Language Teaching Headquarters: Yes, I know it is our website and I know it is quite new
but we are very committed to become one of the most influential English teaching blogs on the
net. We want to specialize in providing very useful resources (like this report), tips, activities,
worksheets and information to teachers of English to speakers of other languages.

We would gladly accept contributions from our visitors and fellow teachers. If you think you can
contribute an article, activity, video post or original worksheet you can contact us at
contributions@elthq.com. We will give you proper credits and links back to your blog, website,
Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus or any other social profile.

http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/: written by Leo Sullivan (teacher, teacher trainer and material

developer in Israel), Leoxicon features the author’s views and opinions on many aspects of English
teaching. I highly recommend this blog as a source of information on methodology, especially on
the Lexical Approach.

Start here: http://leoxicon.blogspot.com/2013/01/start-teaching-lexically.html Follow the links in

that blog posts and browse around for more.

Also read his article on teaching grammar lexically

http://www.willis-elt.co.uk/taskbased.html: If you are interested in knowing more about the Task

Based Learning theory (and you should be) this is the right place to start and to devour. Jane and
Dave Williams are real experts in the field. They have written numerous articles, books, materials
and activities based on TBL, so if there is a place to get information on the theory it is in their
website.

http://eltnotebook.blogspot.com/: An ELT Notebook Sue Swift’s blog on everything ELT related. I

could spend a whole report just describing her website so I will just say that she is a teacher,
teacher trainer and material writer and that you should start navigating the wealth of information
in her blog from the complete list of content page.

Language teaching methodologies: This is a very complete list of the most known methodologies
for teaching languages. There are links besides each methodology so you can go deeper and learn
more about each one: http://esl.fis.edu/teachers/support/method.htm

Oxford University Press English Teaching Blog: This is one of the best ELT blogs out there. Read
their “About” page to learn more about what it can offer to you. Then go to their “Category” page
and navigate from there to the articles you may be interested in.
British Council Teaching English: Official ELT site from The British Council and the BBC. You are
going to find teaching resources, articles, activities, ideas and much more. In my opinion this site is
a must for English teachers, but don’t take my word for it, go and discover yourself:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/
 Activities and Resources
Teachers Pay Teachers: This is the first marketplace for teaching materials that I have known. You
can browse their categories and purchase different lessons and activities from fellow teachers
around the world. For English teachers the main categories to watch are the English Language Arts
and the ESL-EFL-ELD categories.

Our store link: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/English-Language-Teaching

We will be adding more activities, lessons and worksheets on a consistent basis.

ESL Flashcards: As you can guess by its name, it is a place to download flashcards for classroom
use. They have a huge collection available for free.

ESL Reading Activities: Plenty of reading material for teaching English, both free and paid.

Total ESL Resources: Plenty of teaching resources listed in different categories. Just browse around
and find what you need.

Busy Teacher: Probably the biggest collection of free materials. Many of them are not the best
quality material but if you do your diligent research you can find very valuable activities and
worksheets.

ESL HQ: This is mainly a forum but you can find a lot of flashcards and worksheets for classroom
use.

News In Levels: In this websites you are going to find news from around the world customized for
teaching and learning. Each news item comes in different levels of difficulty so you can use them
according to your students’ knowledge of English. Here is an explanation of how to use the
website:

http://www.newsinlevels.com/for-teachers2/
 Communities – Forums - Networking
English Club: This website has been online for many years and it is the main community of English
learners and teachers. When you join you can create your profile just like in a social network and
interact with people interested in many aspects of the English language. There is a section
specially designed for teachers: http://www.englishclub.com/teach-english.htm

ELT Chat: ELT Chat is an iniative by English teachers to interact, network and discuss many aspects
of English teaching using Twitter as the space where everything takes place. You can join the
discussion by using the hashtag #ELTChat. Some rules apply. To see the details go to
http://eltchat.org

EngChat: Just like ELT Chat, EngChat is an iniative by English teachers to interact on Twitter.
According to their About page “#engchat is a network of English teachers connecting with one and
another via Twitter to share ideas, resources and inspiration. This conversation happens every
Monday at 7 PM EST. To join, search for the hashtag, #engchat in twitter or use a tool such
as TweetChat to help you follow the discussion. Each week, a guest moderator shares a new idea,
perspective or vision of what it means to be an English teacher.” More information at
http://engchat.org

ESL HQ: We have already included this website in the resources section but this website is mainly a
forum where English teachers gather to discuss teaching and share activities and worksheets.
Create your profile and start interacting: http://www.eslhq.com/forums/
 Career
Ultimate Teaching Position: If you want to teach English online or abroad you are going to love
this material. It is full of practical advice and guidance on the many aspects that come into play for
abroad and online teachers.

What certifications do you need to teach abroad? What are the technical requirements to teach
online? Where can you get teaching material and resources? What should you pack before you
travel? Everything is covered here and much, much more. Visit this link: Ultimate Teaching
Position:

Online TEFL Certification: This is the place to get a teaching certification for teaching abroad. This
institution has high standards for their online courses. Definitely, one of the highest ranked TEFL
certifications on the web. Visit their website in this link.

In Classroom TEFL Certification: This course takes place both online and in classroom, so we can
call it a combined certification course. Check it out in this link.

ESL In USA: A directory of TESOL/TEFL programs around the United States.

Finding Jobs

In these websites you can find all the information on getting teaching jobs abroad (locations,
salaries, how to get a job, requirements and many other things):

Teach English Jobs: This website is packed with information on teaching jobs abroad, mainly in
Asia. Besides, they offer TEFL certifications both online and combined (in classroom and online). It
is one of the top ranked institutions for TEFL certifications: Follow this link to their website.

http://www.eslcafe.com/jobs/

http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/intl/index.pl

http://www.eslhq.com/forums/jobs/
 Teaching Articles

In this section I want to present some articles that I have personally found useful. They have been
written by teachers from different parts of the world and with years of teaching experience. I will
update this section soon when I get permission from authors and teachers to share their articles.
You know, the Copyright stuff.

Article 1: Using Balloons in the EFL Classroom

By: Sue Swift

One of the facilities on the hit counter that I use to keep track of the number of visitors to the ELT
Notebook is the possibility to see what people have typed into the various search engines to bring
them to this site. One search yesterday was for Using balloons in ESL.

The searcher ended up on this site because in the post Warm-Up Your Classroom! I’d mentioned
the idea of using balloons to create a more fun environment in the classroom. But it got me
thinking – how else could balloons be used?

Here are a few ideas I’ve come up with. If you’ve got any more, leave a comment.

 Use them to present emotions: Draw different faces on each balloon to introduce She’s
happy, he’s angry etc.

 Dialogue presentation : There are occasions when you haven’t got, or don’t want to use, a
recording of a dialogue you want to use, but students can sometimes get lost and lose
track of who’s speaking if the teacher just reads it out. Use a different colour balloon with
a face drawn on it for each character. Introduce the characters before you start, and then
hold up the relevant balloon as each character speaks.

 For practising numbers and colours with children : Take a large number of different
coloured balloons into the classroom and put them in the middle of the room. Divide the
class into three teams. They have three minutes to make as many balloons stick on the
wall as they can, by rubbing them on their hair or clothes to create static electricity. At the
end of the three minutes get them to count their balloons – the team with the most wins.
And then take it on to other questions – How many red balloons are there? How many
yellow balloons are there? How many balloons are there all together?

 A general knowledge quiz for teens or adults (1), possibly as receptive practice forsubject-
object oriented questions : Write a series of general knowledge questions on slips of
paper, fold them up and tuck one inside each balloon before you blow it up. Put all the
balloons at the front of the room, and divide the class into teams of three or four. One
person from each team runs to the front grabs a balloon and takes it back to the team
who then have to burst it in any way they like. The team then tries to answer the question,
 writing down either the answer or We give up on the back of the slip of paper. Another
member of the team then takes the slip of paper to the teacher, and goes to get another
balloon. When all the balloons have been used up, the teacher reads out the questions
which each team got, the other teams suggest what their answers would have been, and
then the teacher reads out the original team’s answer. If it’s correct, they get a point. The
team which answered the most questions correctly wins. (2)

 A present perfect/simple past practice game: Before the game starts everyone thinks of a
few questions they want to ask the group, starting Has anyone ever …… (for example,Has
anyone ever climbed a mountain? Has anyone ever seen a UFO? Has anyone ever ridden
an elephant ?) The students stand in a circle and the first person hits a balloon into the air
and asks their question. Anyone who wants to answer steps forward into the circle and
catches the balloon as it comes down. While they answer, explaining when, where etc
they did whatever it was, they must keep the balloon bouncing gently in the air. When
they finish they ask their own question, an if someone steps forward to answer, sit down.
If no-one wants to answer, they must ask another question. The game ends when
everyone has asked and answered a question and is sitting down.

 To practise a particular lexical field – for example, fruit and vegetables, animals, clothes
etc. The students are in pairs, and each pair has an inflated balloon and a marker. They
write one word connected with the field on the balloon, and then at a signal from the
teacher, everyone sends their balloons into the air and catches a new one as they come
down. They write a new word and the balloons go up again. Each time they get a new
balloon they must, of course, write a word which is different from those already written
there. The game goes on till there are nine or ten words written on the balloon, at which
point the teacher gives each pair a second, plain balloon. They then have to draw on the
new balloon all the items that were written on the old one, and the picture balloons are
then sent into the air and redistributed. At that point there are two possibilities: each pair
looks at the pictures and writes a list of all the objects it shows. The first pair to take a
correct list to the teacher wins. And/Or : the pairs then have to go and find the balloon
with words written on it which matches the balloon they now have with pictures. (3)

OK, balloons aren’t strictly necessary for all of these games – you could do them just using pen and
paper. But if you want to get your students moving around a bit, to add a kinesthetic element to
the lesson, then balloons can be a useful aid.

Notes

1. Games involving bursting balloons are not recommended for children’s classes.

2. An article describing another game along similar lines can be found on One Stop English

3. Another balloon game practising lexical fields can be found on Genki English

Article Source: An ELT Notebook by Sue Swift. Follow Sue on Twitter

 Article 2: Start Teaching Lexically in 2013

By: Leo Selivan

Many readers of this blog have read my rants about badly designed coursebook or digital activities
and heard me moan about preoccupation with single words in ELT. This has probably left you
wondering what kind of approach to teaching I actually believe in. This post describes the main
principles of lexical teaching.

The term "teaching lexically" was coined, I believe, by Hugh Dellar andAndrew Walkley,
coursebook writers (Innovations, Outcomes) and teacher trainers (University of Westminster), who
have proudly taken over from retired Michael Lewis as torch bearers of the Lexical approach.

Before I go on, some caveats. This post is aimed more at people who are interested in the basics of
the lexical teaching, so some of the suggestions may seem obvious to teachers familiar with the
approach. Second, like with any post of this kind (Main principles of...), this is my take on lexical
teaching and other proponents of the "lexical movement" may see things differently. Finally, as
you're about to discover, teaching lexically doesn’t require a major upheaval in your teaching but
rather minor "tweaks" to what you probably already do.

Principle 1:

Ban single words

Words are never – well, almost never – used alone. I can think of only a handful of words that can
be used on their own:

Hurry!

Silence…

Tragic.

But most of the time words are used in company of other words. So why record them alone? Why
teach accident only to find that a minute later your students say *He made an accident, when you
can teach have an accident? Or why write on the board deprived and its definition or L1
translation, when you can immediately provide the nouns it often goes with:

deprived area / childhood / background

Make a habit of writing new words on the board with other words that surround them and
encourage your students to do the same in their notebooks. Ideally, write whole phrases or
sentences to illustrate how a word is used:

Have you done your homework?

They are investigating the murder of...

That's it. I'm drawing the line.

If time doesn't permit, write at least two words together.

do homework

investigate the murder (of)

intense workout

heavy rain

Remember: collocations - and not individual words - are minimum units of meaning.

Useful links

TeachingEnglish has a number of articles on teaching and recording

collocations. OneStopEnglish offers expert advice on teaching vocabulary, including
collocations.

Principle 2:

Explain less – explore more

Let's face it. We, teachers, love explaining. After all, if we don't, it seems like we aren't fulfilling
our role and students' expectations. But many things in English (or any other language for that
matter) simply cannot be explained. There is no reason why we say heavy rain and not *hard
rain, why buildingscan be described as both tall and high, but people can only be tall and how ome
if we can look, stare and gaze at people, we can look at but not *gaze at a problem. Why not? If I
am looking at it for a long time!

By constantly explaining and giving students - often dodgy - "rules", we actually do them a
disservice. Instead of handing students the answers on a plate, invite them on a journey of
discovery. And remind them that language is an organism not a mechanism; and many things in
language cannot be explained because... that's the way it is!

Useful link

Humanising Language Teaching has a section entitled Corpora Ideas with a range of articles
touching upon raising students' awareness of chunks, developing their tolerance of
ambiguity and exploring lexis in class.

Principle 3:

English word ≠ L1 word

Shifting the emphasis from words to collocations and multi-word phrases not only implies
recording new language in chunks. You should try to reduce students' reliance on word for word
translation. For example, I refuse to answer the following questions:

What does (English word) mean?

or

How do you say ___(L1 word) in English?

Because it, of course, depends on what this word means in a given context and
what the student wants to say.

If you use translation in class, get students to translate whole phrases or collocations. For
example, earlier this month (see my previous post: News Quiz 2012 - vocabulary review), I drew
my students' attention how soft is not the same "soft" in L1 depending on the nouns it goes with:

voice
soft skin
drink

And do mild cheese, mild injuries and mild sentence correspond to the same "mild" in your
students' L1? I bet you'll find that, with the exception of scientific terms (e.g. appendicitis), there is
NO word for word correspondence between semantic fields of L1 and L2 words.

Following on from Principle 2, if you set off on a journey of discovery, you should foster a culture
of exploration in the classroom. Encourage students to ask questions about how words are used.
Get them to look at the examples (and not only definitions!) in an online dictionary or show them
concordances with the target word. Arouse their curiosity about language. You'll know that you've
succeeded when students start asking you not only "What does the word mild mean?" but

What else can "mild" be used with?

or

Can we say "a mild punishment"?

Useful link

Hugh Dellar and Andrew Walkley often post questions that emerge from classroom
discussions about language on their Facebook page

Principle 4:

Pay attention to what students (think they) know

This is important for two reasons. If students know take and place, does it mean they known take
place? Or if they are familiar with both play and host, does it mean they will understand the
meaning of play host (to)? What about make do (as in it'll make do for now)? The meaning of many
collocations cannot be determined from individual words they are comprised of (these are
referred to as non-compositional or idiomatic). Secondly, there are many collocations, whose
meaning is semantically transparent (i.e. compositional collocations) which is precisely the reason
why students fail to "notice" them and later have difficulty incorporating into their own lexicon.

Also, interestingly, most expressions in English (whether compositional or not) consist of the most
common words such as: get, do, come, well, fall etc.

I'm running late

it has nothing to do with...

I'm coming down with something

get a grip

lose your cool

make ends meet

do well in...

have a word with...

don't get me wrong

Advanced level students are often drawn to sophisticated words such as "dejectedly" and
"amenable". But revisiting the words they already know and exploring new meanings associated
with them (by virtue of new collocations) they can get more mileage.

Useful link

Luiz Otavio Barros in his post Teaching vocabulary: five tips you can't ignore talks about how
to draw students' attention to new combinations of already known words. The other tips are
worth noting too.

Source: Leoxicon by Leo Selivan. Follow Leo on Twitter

 Article 3: Quick Reading Comprehension Strategies

Teachers are often faced with students who struggle when it comes to reading comprehension
and fluency. There are a myriad of books on the subject of bringing your students to a higher level
of comprehension and fluency, but most classroom teachers do not have a lot of time to read
outside of grading papers, parent conferences, professional development requirements,
administrative duties, extra-curricular duties, oh and teaching students for hours every day. The
following is a list of strategies that teachers can stick on their desk for quick reference on ideas for
reading strategies.

• Have students read with a pencil in hand. They should annotate the text as they read.

• Have students use sticky notes to mark pages, concepts, or words they are unsure about and
need to come back to or reference in a dictionary.

• Have students read with a dictionary on their desks or a dictionary app on their technology
device for quick definitions of unknown words.

• Have students read twice. First do a "cold" read where students read straight through. Then
instruct them to do a close read using highlighters or pencils to annotate and make notes.

• To increase fluency, have students read aloud the same short passages four to five times to each
other.

• Have students take Cornell notes or modified Cornell notes as they read non-fiction pieces. They
should notate important vocabulary, dates, or concepts.

• When reading fiction pieces, have students create action timelines or plot diagrams.

• When reading biographical pieces, have students create timelines.

• Use reading journals to assess comprehension by having students answer key questions from the
reading including:

 Who were the characters that you read about today? List a characteristic for each one.

 What was taking place? Define the actions.

 When was this happening? Describe the time as part of the setting.
  Where was it happening? Describe the setting.

 Why were these events taking place? Analyze motivation of characters and action.

 How did you feel about the characters and events?

 What do you think will happen next?

 Have students write summary cards consisting of 5-7 sentences that summarize what
happened in the reading whether it was in-class reading or independent reading.

Teachers are faced with a daunting task when teaching reading comprehension. Using a few quick
steps to help students focus and help with self assessment can make a big difference. Often, it is
helpful in the beginning to have students pair and share as they work on these different activities.
This way they can see how others formulate their assessments of what has been read and
compare and contrast their own. This can be done in a structured setting in the classroom with
general guidelines to keep students on task and respectful. If a teacher allows students to pair and
share for just five minutes a day when these activities are completed, it allows collaboration and
reflection for each student.

About The Author

Kim McMinn

Visit us at: http://www.creeksideacademypublishing.com

Via ESL Articles

 Article 4: Speaking Well - Four Steps To Improve Your ESL EFL Students
Speaking Ability

By Chris Cotter

Mastery of English as a second or foreign language (ESL or EFL) comes down to how well a student
speaks. He may write well, for example, get high marks on tests, or even have an accent nearly
identical to a native speaker; but if he can't express ideas, opinions, or instructions clearly in a
conversation, few would call him proficient. Language is for communication after all, and that
primarily means speaking.

As teachers, we continually assess the strengths and weaknesses of our classes. We then take this
information and develop effective lessons, always working towards greater communicative ability
which maintains a balance between fluency (getting the words out) and accuracy (using grammar
and vocabulary correctly). What follows are four steps which serve as a model in planning lessons
that give students ample practice time with the language. These steps also work towards free use
of the language. Before the four steps, conversational ability should be defined, though.

Conversation involves the following: using the language, listening to the language, processing the
information, and then responding to it. The purpose of the conversation affects the process, as
does the place and the people involved. Compare English spoken to open a business meeting with
English used to order at a restaurant. This language then differs from what may be needed during
the business meeting, or to complain about the quality of the food.

From these examples, we can infer that a good speaker uses grammar and vocabulary effectively
and accurately. We should also consider the context of the grammar and vocabulary, and how it
can add nuance. For example, when, why, and to whom would a speaker describe business
meetings in the following manner?:

Example A: "Even though our weekly meeting with those R&D people can be boring, I know how
important it is. Let's face it: it's a necessary evil."

Example B: "Ugh! Our weekly meeting with those R&D people drives me up the wall!"

Someone who speaks well would similarly understand when to use different grammar points.
Native speakers "just know" the language, even if we can't always give the whys and what fors of
grammar or vocabulary. Lessons which involve speaking activities should always strive to build and
reinforce these skills. In time, decisions in language usage like the above become more regular, or
even subconscious.

Preparation: Allow the students to prepare for the tasks ahead with an effective warm-up. This
gives everyone in the class ample opportunity to get their English wheels turning. Adequate time
translates into fewer mistakes while you're presenting and drilling the target language, so
comprehension and use of the new language increases.

Present: Next present the topic for discussion, target grammar, or any vocabulary selected for the
lesson. The warm up can serve as a springboard into the topic. For example, write on the board
any synonyms of today's key words used by the students, and then introduce the target vocab. Or
if you focus on grammar, write several sentences from the warm up that will highlight the target
structure. In both cases, information from the warm up gets recycled, thus providing a more
efficient use of class time. The grammar or vocabulary becomes more memorable, too, because of
the link to the initial conversations.

Practice: After the presentation, ESL / EFL students need to practice the new material. It's unfair to
expect them to make use of the new language without adequate practice. Drills work to achieve
automatically, even at higher ability levels. Tightly controlled drills with new grammar points or
vocabulary lay the foundation and provide examples. Activities should then move into freer and
freer use of the language, which will allow each student to integrate the lesson material with pre-
existing language.

Free Use: You should always work towards real use of the language. Whereas the first part of the
lesson focuses on accurate production of the language, it's done to then allow better practice of
fluency (getting the words out). Activities at the end of the lesson allow students to select
vocabulary and grammar structures, and to tie the day's material with previously studied
language. These activities also let upper-level learners apply strategies, use gestures and body
language, and adjust their language for the intended audience or listener.

For a student to be considered proficient in English, he ultimately needs to speak it well. Language
is part of communication, after all. Teachers should work towards incorporating the above steps to
allow you to teach English speaking that gets students to talk more.

For more ideas and information about how to teach English speaking, please visit
www.betterlanguageteaching.com.

Article Source: Speaking Well - Four Steps To Improve Your ESL EFL Students Speaking Ability
 Article 5: Teaching English Abroad: Five Things to Do Before Embarking
on Such Adventure

From: elthq.com

Many people dream of picking up and leave their current location to travel across the world and
teach English abroad.

But before you even think of doing that consider the many factors that will dictate how successful
your experience will be. Please, don’t just expect to be a great teacher just because your native
language is English. Being an English teacher requires much more than mastering the language.
There are some practical as well as pedagogical considerations to take into account.

Here is a breakdown of the five most important things to keep in mind before teaching English
abroad:

1. You need a professional degree

Don’t make the mistake of trying to get a lucrative job before finishing your college degree. While
it may feel exciting to leave everything behind and build a life abroad, you will open yourself up to
innumerable challenges if you don’t have a degree. Often, schools will tell you can teach there but
they won’t tell you that you won’t be able to get a valid working visa.

What to do instead: Pursue your college before even going abroad. This way, you’ll be sure to
avoid one of the biggest mistakes possible. If you’re eager to start teaching, look to your school’s
International student programs for opportunities to tutor another student in English speaking
skills.

2. Get a TEFL Certification

The best place to start from going to imagining yourself abroad to getting yourself there is to take
the next step and pursue a Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) certification today. Some
of the benefits of getting a TEFL certification are meeting experienced TEFL teachers, learning
valuable teaching Skills and making job hunting way easier.

There are many institutions that offer these kind of certifications. One of the top choices among
teachers can be found in this link.

3. Knowledge of English grammar is necessary

Don’t assume that you won’t need grammar at all just because you are a native English speaker.
Your students will make questions related to grammar, and you’ll need to answer them.

Also, don’t base your search for a TEFL certification on avoiding grammar learning. Any TEFL class
that avoids instruction on things like verb tenses and moods as well as things like gerunds will be
robbing you of your ability to serve your future students more.

What do instead: Face your fear of grammar and find a class that focuses intensely on teaching
grammar. Learn to identify the most common grammar mistakes and how to fix them. Your
students will appreciate the discipline it took to learn this information and will reward you in great
progress. This will help you distinguish yourself from other teachers which could potentially bring
a higher level of pay after a while.

4. You need to know how to teach speaking and listening

Again, just like with grammar, you can’t assume that you can teach others how to speak English
because you know how to speak it.

Focus your search for a TEFL Certification on one that covers the teaching of all language skills
such as writing, reading, speaking, and listening. To secure the best jobs abroad, you want to focus
more on speaking and listening. The reason for this is that most students have been learning how
to write and read English since they were very young. While they know some grammar and
vocabulary, they often struggle with the confidence to speak.

Ask the people providing the TEFL classes you’re interested in if they give a special emphasis on
speaking and listening skills development so that you can meet the needs of your future
employers and students.

5. You need relevant teaching experience

After you finish your TEFL certification, you may be in a rush to pack everything up and go abroad
but this would be a serious mistake. Without teaching experience in your home country, you will
be battling the challenges of handling a new job that you’re unfamiliar with along with things like
culture shock and homesickness. Often, teachers will return home immediately when they find
they can’t balance all these new things.

Instead, you should find opportunities to teach English in your current location. Colleges, libraries,
and churches often have outreach programs to people in the community who need help with
English. Usually, they’re looking for volunteers to lead those classes. This would be good on your
resume and to prepare you for being abroad.

There may be more things to consider before embarking in a teaching abroad experience but
these five have been the most common ones according to many teachers living the experience,
covering from your knowledge of grammar to getting a TEFL Certification.

Make sure to prepare and get your papers in order before going to teach English in another
country. That will make your experience a very valuable one that you will heart for the rest of your
life.

Article source: elthq.com. Follow us on Twitter.

 Article 6: How To Teach Collocations: Top 10 Ways

By: ALEX BARBOZA

The concepts of lexical structure and collocation are as necessary for language students to learn
as they are confusing for them to grasp.

It’s difficult enough to try to make sense of all of the formal rules related to learning a new
language without having to add to the mix the overwhelming challenge of memorizing the
exceptions and subtleties associated with ensuring that they are communicating ‘naturally’. This is
where the Lexical Approach comes in handy.

The Lexical Approach comes from the idea that language is more than simply getting grammar and
sentence structure right. Rather, the focus is on the lexical structures that are common in the
language being studied. Students can more easily combine words to form more ‘native’ or
‘natural’ sounding sentences if they are made aware of a language lexical structures.

Incorporating collocations into any language lesson plan is a tried-and-true way of getting students
to begin speaking, writing and reading their new language in a way more consistent with the
native speakers. The question, however, is “how does one approach such a challenging concept?”
The answer is to keep it interesting. Read on for ten fun ways to incorporate collocations into a
Lexical Approach format.

1. Explain Collocation and Its Importance

Since there are no hard and fast rules to collocation, it is important that students understand the
concept behind it. Explain to them that the main idea by collocation is that some words ‘attract’
each other and form combinations that sound natural, while some word combinations, though
correct from a semantic and structural point of view, are not used because they just don’t sound
natural in conversation.

It sounds obvious, but if they can grasp the concept of collocation, it will get them on the right
track sooner.

2. Rote Memory

Once the students have a grasp of the concept of collocation, it’s time to get to work. Trying to
understand the reasons why some common phrases are structured the way they are can be
confusing, especially for someone who is already struggling to learn the proper way to read, speak
and write in another language. A simple way to combat this is to simply provide the students with
a daily list of, say, ten commonly used phrases that contain collocations. Just as when memorizing
the spelling of individual words, the rote memorization of phrases can remove confusion entirely
since the focus is placed squarely on memorization of the phrases themselves rather than the
reasoning behind them. Obviously the students will need to understand the meanings of the
phrases, collocations and even lexical chunks, that they are memorizing, but the ‘why’ of it adds
unnecessary confusion, particularly for beginning learners.

3. Do and Make

The importance of teaching English language learners the difference between ‘do’ and ‘make’
cannot be overstated. These two little verbs are notoriously confusing to people whose native
language is not English. In order to ensure that the students become natural and competent in
their English language abilities, it is imperative to take some time to focus exclusively on the
difference between these two. There is a whole post on the topic in this link

4. Add-Ons

A good way to weave the use of collocations into any language teaching plan is to add words to
new words in order to create add on lists. When, for example, the students are being introduced
to the word ‘reckless’, provide a list of words that, when combined with the new word, form a
collocation. In the example of ‘reckless’, add words such as ‘driving’ and ‘endangerment’.

5. Find a Connection

It is important for students to conceptualize when learning and a good way to help them do that is
to teach collocations in batches that have a common thread running between them. If, for
instance, the students are learning “Business English” in order to gain employment in the world of
finance, they should be given a group of collocations to learn that are relevant to that industry (ex:
key in your PIN). When they are able to compartmentalize the collocations into industry or
scenario-specific groups they will soon discover patterns that will better help them connect the
dots, so to speak.

6. Find the Match

The premise of this game is simple, it takes about 15 minutes total to play, and the set up time is
virtually nil. Using note cards, write a single word on each one, making sure that its collocation
‘partner’ word is on another card. For example, “sweet” might be written on one card and “voice”
on another card. Then, give each student one card and ask them to complete the collocation by
reviewing each other’s cards and partnering up with the correct classmate. This game works
especially well when teaching the difference between “do” and “make”.

7. Missing Word

In this game, which can be set up as either a team game or an individual exercise, the student is
given a list of phrases that contain collocations. The trick to it is that, in each phrase the same
word is missing (ex: “An _____ a day”, “_____ of my eye”). In this example, the word ‘apple’ is
missing. The first person (or team) who correctly completes the list wins.

8. The List

The only thing that is provided to the student, or team, in this game is a single word, such as
“eye”. The object is to use that single word to come up with as many collocations as possible
within a set timeframe. The person (or team) who comes up with the most correct collocations
using the assigned word wins the round.

The use of a dictionary is recommended for this activity.

9. Guess the Collocation

In this game, one person from each team is selected to draw a collocation from a box or hat, and
then attempt to explain the collocation to his or her teammate(s) without using any of the words
contained in the phrase. For example, if the collocation is “make dinner”, the student might say
“prepare the evening meal”. The team that correctly guesses the most collocations in the shortest
period of time will win.

10. Common Denominator

Rather than working with phrases, this game focuses on two word collocations. Give the students
a list of single words, and end each row of words with a blank space. Instruct the students to read
each row of words and assess what single word can be used to form collocations. For example,
one row of words could consist of “fair, child’s, horse”. The missing word in that scenario would be
“play”. The team, or person, who completes the list first would win.

Teaching language learners the ins and outs of collocations and lexical chunks can be challenging
for both the instructor and the student, but it is a critical component of learning how to
communicate in a natural sounding way. This can be especially relevant to master required
nuances that will help them succeed in every aspect of their lives, from school to relationships,
and even in landing and keeping a job.

Students will stay focused longer, and possibly grasp the concept sooner, if a little fun is infused
into the lesson plan.

How do you teach collocations to your students? Any other ideas to share? Please, do so in the
comment section below.

Article source: elthq.com. Follow us on Twitter

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