Articles for Teachers

Graded Materials - A Perspective -- Miriam Lavi

Not long ago, a (non ESL) teacher/friend noticed the term 'graded material' in an article and commented: What? Are ESL teachers expected to grade (assess) their material as well as their ...

Creative Movement for Children -- Kids on the Move!

"Scientists are confirming what teachers have long suspected: Music not only touches people's souls, it also shapes growing minds. When children sing or play music they become better readers, ...

THE EROSION PROCESS IN ESL? -- Ellis E. Seamone - Veteran ESL teacher of 13+ years

Much like any field of endeavor, ESL can eventually show signs of wear and tear on a teacher's powers of concentration, enthusiasm, and delivery. The major problem, from what I have observed, is ...

Role of grammar in ELT - Arab learners -- A. Clement

Many people say that grammar is not at all important for learning English. It may be partially true but not exactly. The Arab students struggle to cope with the language because their foundation of ...

Cooking Up SAC Materials - A Recipe -- James McNamara

Brief Intro to St. John’s Learning Centre At present over seven hundred Mathayom students (Junior High & High School )have timetabled access to the Centre once every two weeks, which means that ...

Creativity in teaching English to Arab students -- A. Clement

Teaching English in the Gulf region is challenging as well as exciting. All institutions pay a lot of attention in improving the knowledge of English. Any ESL teacher faces the tough problem of ...

Too old to compete in a waning marketplace? -- Ellis E. Seamone

SIXTY-SEVEN? That's not so old ... especially for an ESL instructor who positively adores teaching those not even half his age. In fact, speaking from a purely personal point of view, this ...

Using questionnaires in the classroom -- Brenda Townsend Hall

Using Questionnaires in Language Training The communicative and humanistic approaches to language training have shown us the importance of setting up genuine dialogue between learner and trainer and ...

Issues in Teaching Vocabulary -- Brenda Townsend Hall

Over the past decade or so, the focus in English language teaching has been on the 'lexical approach'. There were three issues that led to this concentration on the lexical element in ...

How do students want to learn? -- Brenda Townsend Hall

Current theories on effective learning stress the participation of the student in all aspects of the process; far from being passive receptacles into which information is poured and stored, students ...

Questions to Ask in a Job Interview -- Nancy M., MA. English Prof. /recommends this article

By Kevin Donlin No doubt about it -- job interviews can be intimidating. Especially when it comes time to ask your own questions of the interviewer. Do it right and you'll set yourself apart from ...

Teachers: Who Need Them? -- Andrew Finch

TEACHERS – WHO NEEDS THEM?: ROLES AND EXPECTATIONS IN THE LANGUAGE CLASSROOM Dr. Andrew E. Finch Kyungpook National University, Republic of Korea May 2002 Abstract This purpose of this paper is to ...

My I.T. (Intrinsic Treasures) that would be left behind to all my chinese students -- MA.LOURDES EUFROCINA M. PALCUTO Ph.D

My I.T. (Intrinsic Treasures) that would be left behind to all my students. A legacy of the unsung heroine: Each paragraph is my day to -day- encounter with life...... dedicated to all my students: ...

ESL Students Aren't Cute -- Chris D. Gray

The peculiarities of American baseball provide a springboard from which an ESL teacher can dive into numerous pools of useful English vocabulary. We take ranking words from the bases (first, second, ...

20 Tips To Achieve Your Career Goals -- Thomas, exp English teacher

Article: 20 Tips To Achieve Your Career Goals By Craig Nathanson Do you ever wish you had a few more options when trying to figure out how to move towards more of what you want in your work related ...

The Resume -- Scott Sommers

I've seen a lot of resumes from people looking for work in Taiwan, and there's a big problem with most of them. They're well-written, but they fail to show how excellent a teacher the ...

Getting a Job at a Taiwan University -- Scott Sommers

In Asia and Taiwan, there is a large pool of highly qualified, very experienced EFL teachers. There are also a large number of positions available, and any determined person with minimum ...

Teaching English as a Career -- Scott Sommers

Teaching English overseas is different from almost any other career that you're likely to become involved in. The complexities of life overseas make it an exciting choice, but they also create ...

Selecting Appropriate ELT Material -- Miriam Lavi

When I first started teaching ESL in the 60's, the Israli Board of Education was using short story books ('This Wide World', 'New Horizons') as high school textbooks. Since these ...

Action Research: Empowering the Teachers -- Andrew Finch

Action Research: Empowering the Teachers Dr. Andrew E. Finch Kyungpook National University Abstract Action research (AR) is a term used to describe the process of identifying a puzzle in the ...

Learning to trust: Trusting to learn -- Andrew Finch

Learning to trust - trusting to learn: Promotion of positive affect through language-learning materials. Andrew Finch, Ph.D. Kyungpook National University December 2002 Based on the author’s Ph.D. ...

Health Knowledge in the ESL Classroom -- Angela and DoS

There are many influences on a student, such as the media and peer pressure, that may be detrimental. ESLTeachers teaching about health topics should be positive role models because they are an ...

Teachers Respond to ESL/EFL Survey on Reading Comprehenson Tests and Anxiety: An Online Survey -- Nellie Deutsch

Survey Results I am finding out that it isn't enough to set up a survey. It is also necessary to have a good knowledge of descriptive statistics to be able to understand and describe the results ...

Some Aspects of Language Teaching -- The English Specialist

Beginners It is often said there are no absolute beginners if such a widespread language as English is concerned, but the knowledge of a couple of words and short expressions does not mean a level of ...

Survival Hungarian for ESL Teachers -- The English Specialist

Please wait to be redirected to http://www.eslteachersboard.com/s/ClassroomCommandsHungarian.htm

Schools in Hungary -- Vadász György

Children in Hungary start school at the age of six and everybody must go to school until the age of sixteen. The first type of school is primary school, where children may stay until they are ...

More Bird and Dog English Expressions -- Wilma and Jennygaorui

Complement to Robin Day's Bird and Dog English Expressions of May 18 (see link below), as posted in the Discussion Forum of this site on May 19 and 20 by Wilma and Jennygaorui: BIRDS: From Wilma ...

Excellent information and tips from a recruiter in Korea on how to find a good ESL job -- ESL Teachers Board

[Note: The writer of this article is a recruiter for Korea called Recruiter 45 who posted in our Discussion forum. Recruiter 45 was answering a reply of someone by the name of Hangul who was replying ...

A Systems View of the EFL Class: Mapping Complexity -- Dr. Andrew Finch

A Systems View of the EFL Class: Mapping Complexity Dr. Andrew Finch Kyungpook National University Abstract Teachers have always known that the language classroom is a system; that every factor ...

Teaching English in Peace Corps -- Dennis McMahon

Teaching English in Peace Corps "I always wanted to do that," is the response Peace Corps Volunteers most often hear when they tell someone about their Peace Corps experiences. People often say this ...

Distance Learning Literature Review -- Nellie Deutsch

Distance Learning Literature Review Nellie Deutsch This paper will summarize two articles on distance learning and give the author's views on the benefits and obstacles of implementing ...

Technology Facade Checklist and Analysis -- Nellie Deutsch

Technology Facade Checklist and Analysis April 21, 2004 Technology is having an impact on the education system, at least technically speaking. Most learning institutions have purchased a tremendous ...

DIstance Education -- TIENDREBEOGO RENEE ANASTASIE ELIANE

Distance education is teaching and learning offered to students in remote locations, including their homes. Courses may be delivered synchronously (on a set schedule similar to on-campus courses) or ...

Keep Your Overseas Apt. Cool. -- Robin Day B.Sc. M.Sc. B.Ed.

Most ESL/EFL teachers don't want to buy bulky appliances like an airconditioner on their 1-year contract. Here are some ideas I have used to cool my apartment as the hot weather approaches. 1. ...

How to learn English -- Torsten Daerr

There are so many books that offer English language courses containing grammar rule explanations, vocabulary exercises, reading comprehension texts, pair work tasks and many other useful materials. ...

Bird and Dog English Expressions -- Robin Day B.Sc. M.Sc. B.Ed.

I thought this would be a fun topic and hope people will help me grow the list. Write me or post additions in the Discussion section. BIRDS 1. Grouse, grousing. Stop your grousing (grumbling). This ...

Brain-Based Learning and Emotions -- Nellie Deutsch

Neuroscience has disclosed important information about the brain and how it learns. It has uncovered "unprecedented revolution of knowledge about the human brain, including how it processes, ...

Survival Spanish for ESL Teachers -- Maria del Carmen Alle's Perez

1. Sientate (singular) / Sientense (plural), por favor – Sit down, please 2. Ven aqui (sing.) / Vengan aqui (pl.) – Come here 3. Despacio – Slowly 4. Basta ya! (sing.) / Dejarlo ya! (pl.) - ...

Survival Indonesian for ESL Teachers -- Ryan Pickard, with notes from Iman Wicaksono

(Ryan's email: nafasterakhir@hotmail.com) Here is my list of words and cultural notes for Bahasa Indonesia: c = ch as in cheese a = a as in car, far u = oo as in book, or sometimes as in food r ...

ESL teacher in Korea pictures -- Pat

How using pencils can reduce wasted time -- Nick Upton

How using pencils can reduce wasted time Most teachers probably don’t give much thought to what their students are using to write with. Pencils and pens come in many disguises these days, and usage ...

Survival French for ESL Teachers -- ESL Teachers Board

1. Assieds-toi (singular informal) / Asseyez-vous (plural or singular formal) - Sit down 2. Viens ici (singular informal) / Venez ici (plural or singular formal) - Come here 3. Ne fais pas cela, ...

ESL learners feel anxious when doing reading comprehension tests - Part 1 -- Nellie Deutsch

ESL learners feel anxious when doing reading comprehension tests "Anxiety is a basic human emotion consisting of fear and uncertainty" (Sarason, 1988). Anxiety has its good and bad sides. On the one ...

BUYING A CAR IN JAPAN -- JAY

Buying a car in Japan is possibly more complicated than anywhere else in the world, however once you understand the process, purchasing a car can be relatively straight forward and hassle free. ...

Teaching kids in Japan is easy with the right tools. -- Craig Desorcy

Kids have the attention span of an ant! Why wouldn’t they? They have everything they could ever want given to them in a New York second. Your biggest competition in keeping their attention is their ...

Foreign language teaching utilizing images -- Vincent Vandersluis, EFL teacher, Switzerland

An EFL case study in a Swiss French Vocational Training Centre for people suffering from various physical and/or psychological impairments Vincent Vandersluis EFL teacher, Switzerland 2003 ...

More on Survival Chinese -- Chunping Alex Wu

Survival Chinese for ESL Teachers Posted By: Alex Wu, B.A. B.Ed. chunpingwu2001@yahoo.com > Date: 16 April 2004 The following Essential Classroom Commands/Words for ESL Teachers in China are modified ...

Memorial to a Murdered ESL Teacher (moved to Discussions page May 3rd) -- Robin Day

Click on the link below to be re-directed.

ESL students feel very anxious when doing reading comprehension tests - Part 2 -- Nellie Deutsch

A Journal Article Critique My action research problem statement is that many of my ESL students feel very anxious when doing reading comprehension tests. As part of my literature review, I chose to ...

EFL Teacher: Roaches and a Bad Smell in my Apt. -- Robin Tim Day

These are common problems for travelling teachers, even in new apts. The causes and solutions are really simple. The bad smell is usually sewer gas. In newly developed countries sinks often drain ...

Groovy Chow in Korea -- Robin Tim Day B.Sc., M.Sc. B.Ed.

Dear ESL Teacher in Korea Here are some strange and (sometimes) wonderful foods you might want to try. 1. Turtles, cats, bunnies, eels ...You can buy many live animals in the traditional markets. ...

Survival Japanese for ESL Teachers -- Loreto O. Bagio, BS Electronics/Comm Engineer. Addendum by Marty Mette of Marty Eikaiwa

By: Loreto O. Bagio, BS Electronics and Communications Engineer, bagoven20@yahoo.com.hk Essential Classroom Commands in Japanese: 1. Kekko (desu) - (It is) Good. 2. Dame (desu) - No (don't do ...

Survival Italian for ESL Teachers -- Laura Trevisan, English Translator

Essential Classroom Commands/Words for ESL Teachers in Italy I must first explain that in the Italian language the words change when commands are directed to one person or to more than one. 1. ...

Survival Arabic for ESL Teachers -- Loreto O. Bagio, BS Electronics and Communications Engineer/Notes added by Robin Day

There are many differences in vocabulary, dialect and accent in the Arabic speaking countries. Egyptian Arabic evolved after conquest and still retains many many words dating back to pre-Islamic ...

Survival Farsi (Persian) for ESL Teachers -- Aria

Essential Classroom Commands in Farsi: 1. Beshin - Sit down! 2. Biya - Come here. 3. Be aaraami - Slowly. 4. Nakon - Don't do that! 5. Ba ajaleh - Hurry! 6. Saket baash - Be quiet! 7. Movaazeb ...

Questions and Answers about ESL Teaching in Thailand -- Teachers Worldwide

1. Q: Who can teach in Thailand? A: Actually anyone who has a teaching degree. But let’s break it down into different educational sectors: i) International schools: Most International schools do ...

Survival Korean for ESL Teachers -- Robin Tim Day, B.Sc. M.Sc. B.Ed.

Essential Classroom Commands/Words for ESL Teachers in Korea Students are motivated by fun and it is the most important ingredient in a successful class. These expressions will help a new teacher a ...