The Conditional Forms We are going to look at structures called conditional forms. There are two clauses in these structures. These clauses are usually called the conditional clause or if-clause (the cause) and the main clause (the effect). Sometimes they are called the if-conditionals or if-structures because the sentences contain the word if. There are basically four conditionals that will be dealt with. The Zero Conditional…
The Active and Passive Voices Aside from having different tenses, verb phrases have two voices. These are the active and passive voices. When we use the active voice, the ‘doer’ of the action is the subject of the sentence. The ‘doer’ of the action is sometimes called the agent. For example: Manchester University employs people. (Present simple tense) People in India export cars. (Present simple…
The Future Forms There are a number of ways to talk about the future. We will look at four of the future forms: 1. The Future with “Going To” 2. Future Simple (Will) 3. Present Continuous with a Future meaning 4. The Future using Modal Verbs The Future with ‘Going To’ When we want to describe our plans, intentions…
Gestures & Cueing It is common sense that students in an EFL classroom may not always understand what their instructor wants them to do when given directions in English. Obviously, they are there to learn English and don’t and won’t get every nuance of your requests. Gestures and cueing are important. An effective EFL instructor…
Lesson Planning Lesson planning is simply a step-by-step guide to what an EFL teacher plans to do in the classroom on a given day. The more detailed the steps are, the better. Ideally, if you could not go to work on a given day, another teacher could read your lesson plan and know exactly how…
Clauses A clause is a group of words that contain a subject and a verb. Sometimes a clause by itself can make a short sentence. Sometimes clauses are put together to make longer sentences. We will deal with three types of sentences. Simple Sentences Look at the first example: Chris ate fish and chips. In…
Introduction to Prepositions Prepositions usually go before nouns or pronouns and link it with another word or phrase. They often show where things are in relation to each other. For example: The book is lying on the table. I looked at the painting. The money is in my pocket. The supermarket is opposite the post office. My house is by the sea. She moved through the crowd.…
Organizing your Board Work Organizing your board work for a more effective TEFL lesson is the mark of a skilled EFL teacher. KISS or “Keep it Simple for Students” is a good rule. Before teaching a lesson, walk through it and as you do, put everything on the board. Ideally, you don’t erase anything in one…
Presentation, Practice, Production (PPP) TEFL Methodology taught in most TEFL training programs is generally “PPP” or Presentation, Practice, and Production. The presentation is the part of the lesson when the target language (the language to be taught to the students) is presented to the students generally through eliciting and cueing of the students to see…
Limited Resources in the TEFL Classroom When you teach abroad, you are likely to find yourself having to do without many familiar teaching materials. Art supplies, markers, textbooks, a photocopier, games and computers could all be in short supply for you and your students. But don’t be discouraged by limited resources -this is the perfect…