Tips To Succeed In Teaching English As A Foreign Language (tefl)

English language teaching can be a fantastic career option provided you have the right aptitude. The demand of English as a foreign language in the non-English speaking countries has always been high. However, you need to have the required skill sets in order to be a great teacher of the English language.


Training for English Language Teaching is very important for a new teacher. Trainees can attend a regular full-time course or can opt for the part time and online courses. The latter is a better option for the working professionals who want to give a competitive edge to their CV. There are a number of sites in the web that also offer useful resources and advice for teachers in ELT courses.

There are a number of institutes that impart TEFL, TESL and TESOL training and teaching techniques to interested candidates. These certifications help a person to add weight to their résumé and enhance career prospects considerably. This type of certification is especially important for teachers with no past teaching experience.

Culture and linguistic differences are also important factors when teaching English. Teachers need to be careful when teaching English to the students whose vernacular is different. For effective English Language Teaching (ELT), teachers should mould the way of teaching to suit the needs of the learners. Those needs will differ between those learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) versus English as a Second Language (ESL).

Teachers should also encourage the students to pick up the nuances of English. When a student learning a foreign language is encouraged by his teacher, their eagerness for mastering the language grows, allowing them to better absorb the nuances of the language. In some instances the teachers who employ games in classes succeed in imparting the knowledge faster and better among the students.

When one is teaching ESL to young learners (TEYL), they need to be extra careful because of children’s naturally short attention span. The teacher should try to keep the students interested in learning by employing measures so that they do not get distracted. In addition, a teacher who teaches English needs to be motivated himself in order to keep the students interested in the lessons in class.

This approach is considered by some to be better than the routine of question and answer. There are certain games that can help the learners in picking up vocabulary and language quickly. In addition, teachers can use small awards for the best performers to motivate the students. Finally, some teachers think that dividing the students in groups and assigning activities to them is a better approach that choral or pair work. Working with a group makes learning the English Language Learning (ELL) process less stressful.

If a person is looking for a comprehensive and one stop resource for useful reference and information on ESL/EFL/TEFL, they can count on the free services of the site ESLarticle.com. It is an article database meant for the English language teaching community. In this site, students, teachers and schools can view hundreds of articles and information on numerous teaching topics and post their views.

This allows everyone to share their expertise and knowledge in this online space. While it is a site meant for public submission, only education oriented articles are invited. This is opposed to phising and spamming activities seen on other popular article sites. In addition, the site has alliance with several TEFL/ TESOL partner sites so as to provide a better wealth of knowledge to the ESL/EFL community.

By: Michael1 Hines1

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M.G.Hines is author of this article on ESL Articles. Find more information about EFL Articles here.

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