Phonics Method

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas A key barrier to achieving fluency for ESL students is a mastery of individual phonics sounds. My experience with ESL students from Southeast Asia has led me to focus on techniques for the particularly difficult L, R, M, and P phonics sounds. In this essay, I propose methods for using the straight arrow ESA lesson plan to introduce and drill phonics sounds with young learners. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ethan W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The Engage portion of the lesson should serve as an interesting introduction to ignite student curiosity. Students are shown a series of pictures, ideally on a smartboard, if not, then with teacher-generated props and...  [Read more]

Charlotte Lam Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Phonics is a method of teaching children to read by linking sounds (phonemes) and the symbols that represent them (graphemes, or letter groups). Phonics is very commonly used in Hong Kong's kindergarten to teach children the sound of the words. It involves matching the sounds of spoken English with individual letters or groups of letters. For example, the sound k can be spelled as c, k, ck or ch. Teach children the letters' sounds. They think about what sound a word starts with, saying the sound out, and recognize how that sound is connected to the letter. It helps them to see a letter and then say the sound it represents out loud. Decoding is basically the main English curriculum for K1 children in kindergarten, around age three. It is...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Shuangan Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Ankang Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. By: Joshua Heald Learning Phonics has proven time and time again that when it comes to older students who have to remember the spelling and pronunciation of bigger words, the students that have learned phonics from early on, have an easier time. When the pronunciation (the sound) has been linked to the spelling ( the look) it helps in many different ways. When you...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Dasheng Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Weifang Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. It is not always easy for people who lives in a country with wide range of dialects to learn a second language, especially a language with totally different source and system. The English education system varies dramatically from the late 1980 till now in China, as the first batch of children who get the chance to touch modern English learning in Chinese schools, I...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Zaogoutou Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Linyi Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. This is going to be a short essay on the role of phonology in teaching English as a foreign language. What is phonology? The definition of phonology as a field of study is “The branch of linguistics that deals with systems of sounds (including or excluding phonetics), within a language or between different languages.” We, as ELF teachers, however, are more...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Drilling is a teaching method used by teachers, teaching languages or other subjects, all over the world. Generally, drilling involves the teacher saying or modeling something to the class and the students repeating it. There are many ways of using the drilling method. Some teachers may use it sparingly in class while others may use the method so often it becomes the main way their students acquire new information. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Erin D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I believe when it comes to utilizing the drilling method in the classroom an important balance must be struck. Drilling can be a very effective tool especially with younger learners,...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Daozhuang Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Dongying Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Learning difficulties can found in all teaching environments, be it a classroom of mixed ability students, a one-to-on tutouring session, teaching EFL or online teaching. Learning difficulties affect all age groups, both genders and all languages and cultures, therefore it is essential that a good teacher is able to both foresee and prepare for supporting a...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas There are four basic skills in any language: receptive skills – reading and listening, and productive skills – speaking and writing. Usually, when we learn a new language, we tend to access our learning process and result by checking how our productive skills are and forget that before we can the product, we need to receive first. Data says that the production of every 100 words in writing needs a receipt of 1000 words in reading which means to be able to produce anything, one must get as much as 10 times receipt. Similarly in listening and speaking. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Josephine L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. However, if we compare the...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Tianshi Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Weinan Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Introduction Learning English has become a necessary extra-curricular activity for many students in China. Since China has become a global giant as a result of her rapid economic development, many parents have picked up the momentum in raising their children’s proficiency in English. From learning and studying the TESOL and Young Learners’ sessions, there are...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Learning difficulties can found in all teaching environments, be it a classroom of mixed ability students, a one-to-one tutoring session, teaching EFL or online teaching. Learning difficulties affect all age groups, both genders, and all languages and cultures, therefore a good teacher must be able to both foresee and prepare for supporting a student’s learning difficulties. This is even more important when teaching EFL students as unless these difficulties are met and coping methods are established then the student will struggle to make any progress in their learning English as a second language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Tammy T. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Changling Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Hanzhong Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. In my personal opinion, vocabulary learning is the basic and most substantial part in any language learning. It’s like the bricks for building a house. Moreover, the process of vocabulary learning is the most difficult and time-consuming. It requires not only memorizing skills but also a fairly understanding of the word, and constant practice. For most Chinese...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences This piece will discuss the difficulties faced by Japanese learners of English regarding English pronunciation and suggest methods to help learners in different age groups overcome them. It posits that most difficulties stem from the differences in phonology between the English alphabet and the Japanese kana system. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Niall M. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. While the English alphabet is phonemic, with each letter representing a single sound, kana is syllabic, with most characters representing a consonant followed by a vowel. This means that Japanese speakers may add vowels onto the end of English words that end with consonants. For...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences In my personal opinion, vocabulary learning is the basic and most substantial part in any language learning. It’s like the bricks for building a house. Moreover, the process of vocabulary learning is the most difficult and time-consuming. It requires not only memorizing skills but also a good understanding of the word, and constant practice. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Dan W. For most English learners in China, they often encounter the same problem when learning vocabulary, which is that they keep forgetting the meaning they've learned. One of the major reasons for this problem is that they only memorize the Chinese meaning for each word. They pay no attention to the word class and skip the context study in which the word...  [Read more]

Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences I have been a teacher with 51 Talk for three years now and to improve my career and teaching skills I have learned some things on this TEFL course that will help me brush up my skills in teaching. Though I have been a teacher’s aid before, as well as a bright student who used to tutor others during my school years, it was now that I realized how hard teachers used to work for us to become good learners in school and understand the subjects. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Saba S. Also read My Experience Taking the 50-hour Teaching English to Young Learners TEFL Course from ITTT I used to not really like tests that much but now I realize how important they are for teachers to learn about where students are lacking and where they need...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Learning English has become a necessary extra-curricular activity for many students in China. Since China has become a global giant as a result of her rapid economic development, many parents have picked up the momentum in raising their children’s proficiency in English. From learning and studying the TESOL and Young Learners’ sessions, there are three areas of hurdles observed. They are learning environment, technical differences, and students’ mindsets. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Angela W. Although English is taught to children since pre-school years, many students do not have the exposure to this foreign language outside of the classroom. There is no encouraging learning climate for students to thrive in. Even...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas I’m a non-native English speaker who never once benefited from an effective ESL program in her entire school years. It’s rather ironic that I became an ESL teacher and taught English for six years, essentially preaching what I had never practiced myself. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Somy L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. I was born in Korea, and my family and I moved to South Africa when I was ten. Before 2000, ESL programs were not widespread knowledge and resources were on the limited side. My ESL teacher at the time would just give printouts to the students to color and trace words. The amount of progress I made in that class was essentially nonexistent....  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Gaota Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Bazhong Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Reading is an integral part of the language system and is closely linked to both spoken language and writing. If our children do not learn to read they cannot succeed in life. Students who are most likely at risk for reading failure are students with limited linguistic and cultural backgrounds and their limited exposure to English language. They often lack sufficient...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Shennong Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Baoji Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Saba Shakoor Topic: The Best Things I’ve Learned In this TEFL Course I have been a teacher with 51 Talk for 3 three years now and to improve my career and teaching skills I have learned some things in this TEFL Course that will help me brush up my skills in teaching. Though I have been a teacher’s aid before, as well as a bright student who used to tutor others...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Kou Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Xianyang Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. If you are a young learners’ English teacher students aged 6-10, what kind of course material you should choose for your class? The answer to this question can be very important to those tutors who have to choose the course material by themselves and are not provided by the school. In this article I will share my knowledge and experience about two course materials I...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Phonology is the system of sounds that exist within a particular language, while phonetics is the study of how speech sounds are produced. One difficulty for all learners of a second language is learning how to produce new sounds by moving the mouth, lips, and tongue in new ways. Several other languages also share the Roman alphabet with English but do not pronounce letters and combinations of letters the same way. These learners need to learn the English phonology so that when they read English, they will know how to pronounce the words they read correctly, and so that they speak English with a more native-sounding accent. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Rebecca W. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Qicun Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Weinan Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Pronunciation Problems in a Country of Your Choice – China Every learner of a foreign language may face pronunciation problems now and then. Languages that belong to one language group have more in common in phonics and are usually easier to learn to pronounce correctly. But such languages as English and Chinese are so different, that Chinese learners (and I bet...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Laihe Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Heze Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Over the recent years globalization and living in a global village have had a major effect on various aspects of modern people, like commerce, academic domain , and tourism .Therefore, this phenomenon has necessitated people to learn English language so as to communicate and interact  in different situations more easily and successfully. Likewise, there has been a...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Teaching Ideas The following essay is based on my personal experience of teaching one-to-one English lessons to young children (ages ranging from 5-14), through online platforms and companies. Engaging students through a virtual classroom presents challenges for teachers for several reasons. The first being that throughout the time of the lesson the child sees only the teacher and the given background. In other words, there are no sources of distraction or points of interest besides the teacher herself/himself and, as is known, it is especially important for young learners that the environment and the delivery of the lessons be as interesting and fun as possible. For online lessons, this becomes of paramount importance as the teacher is the only person the student will see...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Qiangbai Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Weinan Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. When is the best time to use songs in a classroom for young learners? I was an English teacher in Japan for over three and a half years. In that time, I gained a lot of experience teaching young learners. My students were aged from two to fourteen. As I taught these students, I learned a lot about how songs can be used effectively in the classroom. Songs can be used...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Every learner of a foreign language may face pronunciation problems now and then. Languages that belong to one language group have more in common in phonics and are usually easier to learn to pronounce correctly. But such languages as English and Chinese are so different, that Chinese learners (and I bet English speaking learners of Chinese too) often have many difficulties in pronunciation. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Evgeniya S. I have been working in China as a teacher for more than six months now. When I arrived in this country, I hardly knew several words in Mandarin. I was hoping that won’t be a problem, as I had traveled a lot before, and my English knowledge had always been enough to communicate with people I...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In my experience teaching elementary and junior high school level English in Japan, several different pronunciation problems appear frequently. The Japanese phonemic inventory is smaller than English’s phonemic inventory, and the sounds present in each language differ from each other quite dramatically. Because of this, it can be difficult for native Japanese speakers to learn and master English pronunciation, but there are a few teaching techniques that can help students overcome this difficulty. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Vladlena H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Several consonants are difficult for native Japanese speakers to produce. It is well-known...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In this paper, we will attempt to show how important reading is and how it can influence language acquisition and its development. We will mainly focus on primary school pupils as most children start to learn to read around six or seven years of age. With this aim in mind, we will first try to define what reading is and carry on by providing a description of the different types of readings. In a second phase, we will look at the reasons that encourage pupils to read and finally the type of reading material that can be presented to them This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Alexandre B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. First and foremost and to have a better understanding...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences I was an English teacher in Japan for over three and a half years. In that time, I gained a lot of experience teaching young learners. My students were aged from two to fourteen. As I taught these students, I learned a lot about how songs can be used effectively in the classroom. Songs can be used to teach sentence structure, routines, vocabulary, and help aid the understanding of instructions in the classroom. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Megan B. Before students can even grasp the language, they can understand rhythm and music. When teaching the youngest students (two years old), we used a lot of chants. Chants are not necessarily music but work much in the same way. Generally, these chants all had the same rhythm but...  [Read more]

Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified and teach in Pingliang Zhen? Are you interested in teaching English in Ankang Shi? Check out ITTT’s online and in-class courses, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English ONLINE or abroad! ITTT offers a wide variety of Online TEFL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Learning in a traditional classroom in California we were given the task of making lesson plans, and that was the instructions we had. Quickly I found myself trying to plan every moment and this wasn't working. I would run out of time every day, which means the fun or Activate activities were cut short. So I turned to a very loose plan, I would have four to five...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences Over the years, globalization and living in a global village have had a major effect on various aspects of modern people, like commerce, academic domain, and tourism. Therefore, this phenomenon has necessitated people to learn the English language so as to communicate and interact in different situations more easily and successfully. Likewise, there has been a noticeable tendency among the parents who have found it really vital to have their children learn the English language from an early age. There are some main reasons why they are so insistent on getting their kids to learn English. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Sara B. Firstly, it is very important for their children's future success academic wise; secondly, based on...  [Read more]