Tefl.NET Forums

Just trying to be a little helpful & pass a bit on for the next generation. For short-termers (1-3yrs), money largely depends on country wages & living costs (factoring in urban vs rural), and then on personal discipline & budgeting. The 1st year may also entail higher "start-up cos...

IME, these 4 books are the most commonly cited by CELTA grads: 1. Michael Swan, "Practical English Usage" (grammar reference) 2. Jeremy Harmer, "The Practise of English Language Teaching" (methodology) 3. Jeremy Harmer, "How to Teach English" (methodology) 4. Jim Scrive...

In questions, "does" can only only take a 3rd person noun (singular) + a base verb : Does + 3S + V. No other verb forms are allowed (past, etc). Test for yourself. The only base verb that isn't allowed is "be". (Does he be = incorrect) There are no exceptions to this rule. For ot...

You're welcome. I wasn't expecting any problems due to race because I started teaching 13 years ago. A lot less TEFL info on the net back then. For me, living abroad is an incomparable, educational, mind-altering experience. But not everyone experiences that. Have low expectations. The TEFL aspect w...

Becki is right, students are more forgiving if you care. They'll sense it without you saying it. We've all been students, and we've all known which teachers have cared or not. I strongly recommend learning all students' names in the first class - it always has a positive effect. Students may be equa...

I live in Taiwan, but I imagine China & SK are similar. Racial discrimination in EFL Asia is common. Non-whites (including NES Asians like me) will have a much harder time getting jobs. This isn't mainly due to employer discrimination, but customers who associate English with white. They'll comp...

Personally, I teach grammar explicitly & deductively. It saves time & allows more time for controlled/freer communicative practice. I also sometimes use students' L1. Grammar has a poor reputation because of the way it has been organized by native speaker academics & publishers, and then...

I use grammar as the primary, initial foundation to communicative competency. I only teach privately. The main problem with grammar is the way it is traditionally organized & taught: separate, isolated chunks as a supplement to content, and using terminology that may not be practical for certain...