Meredith Clarke

Located on the Malay Peninsula, Singapore is a thriving, modern metropolis and the world’s only island city-state. Formerly a British colony, Singapore was once known as the “Jewel of the British Empire” and even though the city has changed significantly since achieving independence, its British history can be seen all over in its place names, monuments and architecture. Singapore sees visitors from all over the world, with direct flights from hundreds of countries as well as ferries bringing passengers from the numerous ports in the region. It is also a major shopping destination for people from other Southeast Asian cities and the world famous Orchard Road is home to many shopping centers and hotels. Singapore has plenty of interesting things to see and do. A visit to Sentosa...  [Read more]

  Located at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, Singapore is the world’s only island city-state. Since independence from Britain, the country has developed at a phenomenal rate and is one of the leading economic centers in the world. However, its colonial history is evident almost everywhere you look in the architecture, place names and monuments, such as the Raffles Hotel, named after Singapore’s founder Sir Thomas Raffles. There are four official languages, English, Malay, Mandarin and Tamil but English is the language of government and the education system. Although Singapore is heavily urbanized, the “garden city” initiative of the government in the 1960s means that today there are plenty of green spaces to enjoy with almost 10% of land devoted to parks and nature reserves. ...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences In an article that explores the future of Assessment for Learning (AfL), Popham (2006) draws on the difference between the traditional approach known as assessment of learning, which focuses on determining what pupils know for the purposes for grading and reports and Assessment for learning, which focuses on helping ‘teachers use assessment, as part of teaching and learning, in ways that will raise pupils’ achievement’ (Assessment Reform Group, 1999, p. 2). This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Robert S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Black et al. (2006, p. 119) draw on this shift of focus in education from ‘Learning to Learn’ which is driven by the quality...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas A critical part of learning a language is being able to understand and use slang and idioms. However, spoken language by native speakers, or language used in authentic material, often does not follow the strict rules and formulas that are taught in textbooks. Also, by their very nature of already being published, textbooks are unable to keep up with the changes in the language as they slowly evolve to incorporate new concepts and ideas. Thus, to be able to effectively teach slang and idioms, the teacher may have to expend some additional preparatory time to select the idioms to be taught and develop appropriate course materials. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Clark C. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily...  [Read more]