Teacher Discussion Forums

Since I have not received any responses to my initial request for volunteers (I don't blame you, who has time for questionnaires???), I decided to post my questions here so you can answer any, all, none, or merely use these questions as a conversation starter. Although your responses, for purposes o...

I agree that it is difficult to know how to begin to answer these questions because they are so incredibly broad, but I will give it my best shot. If taken literally, a Foreign Language School would be one in a non-English speaking country as opposed to a Second Language School. My experience, excep...

WOW!!! Seems to me like that's a lot to ask. Does this mean you would have to come up with your own material without using any type of text? I've always had a text to give me the theme, grammar structure being introduced, vocabulary being introduced, and activities, but have had the freedom to suple...

<Which would you guys expect to be more common: "today has been" or "today was"?> Seems to me that this is exactly the same type dilemma posed by the initial pride in the troops dilemma (which is really no dilemma at all because it seems to me to be more a matter of "this" emphasis versus "that" emp...

I am currently trying to learn Spanish. My daughter, who is fluent in Spanish, told me that the key to learning another language is to NOT translate it into your own. In order to do this, one has to stop actively trying to attach meaning to the words. You just have to listen for word-recognition reg...

I have only taught students in the U.S., but I have found that my adult Korean students (as well as my other students from around the world), enjoy competitive games. I might do something like dividing the class into teams and practicing the vocabulary words by puting them on the board and having th...

Who chooses / should choose the programme or general 'method' that learners follows? I think the school administration should choose the general method, but that the teachers should be afforded a great deal of freedom and support within that method. For example, the administration should choose the ...

I am not in the position of hiring teachers, but, as someone with a TEFL Certificate, some experience teaching ESL who is currently working on a BA, I would say that experience is the most important of the 3 by far. For someone without experience, a TEFL certificate is the next best thing because du...

My name is Linda. I have my TEFL Certificate and have taught ESL for the past two summers. I liked it so much that I am now getting a BA in Communications to make me more marketable as an EFL teacher. I am currently enrolled in a research class where we have to interview participants on the website ...

I am not in a Master's Program and have never written a Master's Thesis, but if you will be doing your research in the states, my suggestion would be to get help from the reference librarians at both the public and university libraries. Through both your university and local public library, you will...

No. I haven't really kept up with any of my former students, but I have only taught ESL for the past 2 summers and do not usually have the same students for any extended period of time because the students and teachers are continually being shifted to different classes. I notice that your students a...

Just because your boss has issues with something you instinctively feel is the best course of action, doesn't necessarily mean that there's anything wrong with your instincts. Continuing to talk to your boss about this seems like a good thing to me. If it turns out that you have to pull back some fr...