TEFL Prague and Abroad

 I just got a news flash from some graduates working in South Korea that the government has recently put in regulations requiring teachers to have a recognized TEFL certificate if they do not have background in either education or linguistics. This comes directly from EPIK recruiting in Korea, one of the largest and most respected recruiting agencies in the country. Previously, a TEFL certificate was not necessary, but did equate to earning a higher salary. Now, it is needed if you want to find legal work.  If you are thinking of teaching in Korea, you're going to need a TEFL certificate to ensure success these days at a quality school. The Language House TEFL has a great network of graduates who have taught in Korea, and we can help. Contact us if you are interested in taking a TEFL course with us or for more information on these new policies.  Cheers Chris Westergaard The Language House Prague Courses 

Here's a lesson for solid intermediates and up with a language focus on the passive voice and crime lexis. At the end of the lesson, students take the roles of police officers and have to give a press briefing to the media about a crime scene that they witnessed. Ideally, you will need an empty room to set up a crime scene for the activation and a language school that is ok with you trashing things around a bit. There are other ways to get around this, if this is not possible. * I create tailored lesson plans for anyone who wants them. If you want me to create you a lesson from scratch, contact me, and I'll do one for you. Please follow my blog on the right to show your support. Introduction: just a couple of min. Do any of the following. 1. Show a clip from a movie that shows a police officer giving a press briefing to the media 2. Come in and immediately address the class as if they are police officers 3. Have a picture of a police chalk outline and ask students wh...

Here's another quick game that I created, but I'm sure another teacher probably created before me, that I use on the TEFL course. You can use this with intermediate and advanced students in groups of threes. Set up:  Two students face each other with a meter apart between them. One student is blindfolded, and the other student strikes a convoluted pose. The more intricate and complex the pose is, the better. Now, a third student instructs the blindfolded student to copy and mirror the pose. It sounds basic, but the language can get really complex. Think 'twist your wrist so it's facing you and extend your first and second finger....Tilt your head back and shrug your shoulder close to your neck' See what I mean? You can have a lot of fun with this, and it's a quick activity to teach and jump into. To make it more engaging, make it a competition, where one person from each team strikes a pose for the other team to solve. This will make the posing students re...

Good lessons are lessons that have a brisk pace. Not only will your lessons be more engaging, but you'll obviously be able to accomplish more with the extra time. Lag in the classroom is a dreadful thing. Why settle for it? Here are some tips to improve your overall pace and flow in the classroom. 1. Cut out your Extra Language : You don't need it and it's not beneficial most of the time. You don't need to explain everything you are doing to your class. You don't even need to speak in complete sentences. Work on limiting your own TTT so that your commands/directions are clear and concise. 2. Avoid the Echo: New teachers tend to want to repeat everything their students say back to them. Why do this? Unless you are error correcting, it serves little to no purpose and just slows things down. Instead, just say "good" or "next" or even just nod and move on. It's a common thing that practically everyone does to reaffirm what their studen...

  Here's a lesson requested by Mike R. that deals with students creating and talking about a made up country using a variety of different lexis. If you want your own lesson personally made for you, just let me know, and I'm happy to do it.    Introduction: Just a few minutes   1. Have pictures or drawings of various things that are special for your home country. For example, US teachers could use the Statue of Liberty, NYC, Hollywood...etc Elicit these various things out and ask students what country you are talking about. Lead In (around 7 minutes) Demo these questions out and have students discuss them in groups 1. What are 3 things that you like about your country? 2. What are three things that you dislike about your country? 3. If you had to live in another country what country would it be and why? 4. What 2 things would you change with your country to make it better? Tip: Pull one of your students up from the class and have them draw a ro...

Language student or Private Eye?     Here’s a really fun lesson that I would often do with young adults (18-24 year olds) for longer classes (2 hours or more). The target language is physical characteristics and personality traits. This lesson can be used for  pre-intermediate and above as long as you adjust the target language accordingly to their level. This lesson involves students leaving the classroom, so make sure you are able to do this where you are working. Intro (just a few minutes)   Use one of these 1. Pretend to be a private investigator and elicit this out from students 2. Come in looking physically different (change 5 things about your appearance) and get students to notice them.  Lead in (around 7 minutes)  1. What is a physical characteristic?  2. What is a personality trait?  3.  What are some different ways that you can describe/identify a person?  4. How would you describe your...