The TESOL Training Centre

Teachers Needed!

We are looking for a fully qualified English speaking primary school teacher or TESOL teacher to join our primary school on Koh Tao.

The applicant must have a proven background in teaching phonics and mathematics to young children and have experience in an International school setting and/or experience in teaching in a primary school.

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Business Opportunities

The TESOL Training Centre specialises in TESOL certifications, our courses cater to anyone who wishes to learn how to teach English locally or abroad.

We are also looking for established language schools or training institutions in Asia to promote and conduct our courses in their respective countries.

Interested parties please email to [email protected].

The TESOL Training Centre Specialise in TESOL certification. Our courses are catered to anyone who wishes to learn how to teach English locally or abroad.

All our TESOL courses are endorsed by Training Qualification UK which is regulated by Ofqual UK. TQUK ensures quality of our courses delivered worldwide through our classrooms and E-Learning portal.

Teaching Reading

Traditionally, the purpose of learning to read in a language has been to have access to the literature written in that language. In language instruction, reading materials have traditionally been chosen from literary texts that represent "higher" forms of culture.

This approach assumes that students learn to read a language by studying its vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure, not by actually reading it. In this approach, lower level learners read only sentences and paragraphs generated by textbook writers and instructors. The reading of authentic materials is limited to the works of great authors and reserved for upper level students who have developed the language skills needed to read them.

The communicative approach to language teaching has given instructors a different understanding of the role of reading in the language classroom and the types of texts that can be used in instruction. When the goal of instruction is communicative competence, everyday materials such as train schedules, newspaper articles, and travel and tourism Web sites become appropriate classroom materials, because reading them is one way communicative competence is developed. Instruction in reading and reading practice thus become essential parts of language teaching at every level.

Reading Purpose and Reading Comprehension

Reading is an activity with a purpose. A person may read in order to gain information or verify existing knowledge, or in order to critique a writer's ideas or writing style. A person may also read for enjoyment, or to enhance knowledge of the language being read. The purpose(s) for reading guide the reader's selection of texts.

The purpose for reading also determines the appropriate approach to reading comprehension. A person who needs to know whether she can afford to eat at a particular restaurant needs to comprehend the pricing information provided on the menu, but does not need to recognize the name of every appetizer listed. A person reading poetry for enjoyment needs to recognize the words the poet uses and the ways they are put together, but does not need to identify main idea and supporting details. However, a person using a scientific article to support an opinion needs to know the vocabulary that is used, understand the facts and cause-effect sequences that are presented, and recognize ideas that are presented as hypotheses and givens.

Reading research shows that good readers
- Read extensively
- Integrate information in the text with existing knowledge
- Have a flexible reading style, depending on what they are reading
- Are motivated
- Rely on different skills interacting: perceptual processing, phonemic
processing, recall
- Read for a purpose; reading serves a function
- Reading as a Process

Reading is an interactive process that goes on between the reader and the text, resulting in comprehension. The text presents letters, words, sentences, and paragraphs that encode meaning. The reader uses knowledge, skills, and strategies to determine what that meaning is.

Reader knowledge, skills, and strategies include
- Linguistic competence: the ability to recognize the elements of the
writing system; knowledge of vocabulary; knowledge of how words
are structured into sentences
- Discourse competence: knowledge of discourse markers and how
they connect parts of the text to one another
- Sociolinguistic competence: knowledge about different types of texts
and their usual structure and content
- Strategic competence: the ability to use top-down strategies (see
Strategies for Developing Reading Skills for descriptions), as well as
knowledge of the language (a bottom-up strategy)
- The purpose(s) for reading and the type of text determine the specific
knowledge, skills, and strategies that readers need to apply to achieve
comprehension. Reading comprehension is thus much more than
decoding. Reading comprehension results when the reader knows
which skills and strategies are appropriate for the type of text, and
understands how to apply them to accomplish the reading purpose.

Teaching Speaking - Strategies for Developing Speaking Skills

Students often think that the ability to speak a language is the product of language learning, but speaking is also a crucial part of the language learning process. Effective instructors teach students speaking strategies -- using minimal responses, recognizing scripts, and using language to talk about language -- that they can use to help themselves expand their knowledge of the language and their confidence in using it. These instructors help students learn to speak so that the students can use speaking to learn.

1. Using minimal responses

Language learners who lack confidence in their ability to participate successfully in oral interaction often listen in silence while others do the talking. One way to encourage such learners to begin to participate is to help them build up a stock of minimal responses that they can use in different types of exchanges. Such responses can be especially useful for beginners.

Minimal responses are predictable, often idiomatic phrases that conversation participants use to indicate understanding, agreement, doubt, and other responses to what another speaker is saying. Having a stock of such responses enables a learner to focus on what the other participant is saying, without having to simultaneously plan a response.

2. Recognizing scripts

Some communication situations are associated with a predictable set of spoken exchanges -- a script. Greetings, apologies, compliments, invitations, and other functions that are influenced by social and cultural norms often follow patterns or scripts. So do the transactional exchanges involved in activities such as obtaining information and making a purchase. In these scripts, the relationship between a speaker's turn and the one that follows it can often be anticipated.

Instructors can help students develop speaking ability by making them aware of the scripts for different situations so that they can predict what they will hear and what they will need to say in response. Through interactive activities, instructors can give students practice in managing and varying the language that different scripts contain.

3. Using language to talk about language

Language learners are often too embarrassed or shy to say anything when they do not understand another speaker or when they realize that a conversation partner has not understood them. Instructors can help students overcome this reticence by assuring them that misunderstanding and the need for clarification can occur in any type of interaction, whatever the participants' language skill levels. Instructors can also give students strategies and phrases to use for clarification and comprehension check.

By encouraging students to use clarification phrases in class when misunderstanding occurs, and by responding positively when they do, instructors can create an authentic practice environment within the classroom itself. As they develop control of various clarification strategies, students will gain confidence in their ability to manage the various communication situations that they may encounter outside the classroom.

Teaching Listening - Strategies for Developing Listening Skills

Language learning depends on listening. Listening provides the aural input that serves as the basis for language acquisition and enables learners to interact in spoken communication.

Effective language instructors show students how they can adjust their listening behavior to deal with a variety of situations, types of input, and listening purposes. They help students develop a set of listening strategies and match appropriate strategies to each listening situation.

Listening Strategies
Listening strategies are techniques or activities that contribute directly to the comprehension and recall of listening input. Listening strategies can be classified by how the listener processes the input.

Top-down strategies are listener based; the listener taps into background knowledge of the topic, the situation or context, the type of text, and the language. This background knowledge activates a set of expectations that help the listener to interpret what is heard and anticipate what will come next. Top-down strategies include
- listening for the main idea
- predicting
- drawing inferences
- summarizing

Bottom-up strategies are text based; the listener relies on the language in the message, that is, the combination of sounds, words, and grammar that creates meaning. Bottom-up strategies include
- listening for specific details
- recognizing cognates
- recognizing word-order patterns

Strategic listeners also use metacognitive strategies to plan, monitor, and evaluate their listening.
- They plan by deciding which listening strategies will serve best in a
particular situation.
- They monitor their comprehension and the effectiveness of the
selected strategies.
- They evaluate by determining whether they have achieved their
listening comprehension goals and whether the combination of
listening strategies selected was an effective one.

Kick-Start Your TESOL Career - Get Your Free Resources Now

How about changing your life this year by spending some time in another country, spending your weekends exploring, earning money, gaining valuable work experience AND having the time of your life?

With TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers to Other Language) this is all possible and there's no better time to get qualified for your new life overseas as language schools are starting to hire right now!

www.teachtesol.org

What is TESOL?

TESOL is the professional field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Due to the high demand for English around the world, it is one of the fastest growing professions in locally and abroad.

TESOL teachers come from all walks of life, which includes college graduates, professionals looking to change careers, stay-at-home parents who want part-time work or retirees interested in travel or volunteer work. And their motivations for going into TESOL are as widely varied as their backgrounds. TESOL teachers may be interested in traveling, earning a living, learning a language, helping people, getting away from a desk job, working with interesting folks from different cultures, or all of the above.

TESOL teaching jobs can be found all over the world, as there is no shortage of work available with employment ranging from teaching in language schools, business or universities and even online tutoring. Which means once you’ve completed your certification and decided what you’re looking for in a job, you just need to find the country and school that fits your desired lifestyle.

www.teachtesol.org