TEFL Prague and Abroad

 Fluentize is one of my favorite resources for ESL English teachers. This resource will streamline your lesson-planning workload, saving you hundreds of hours yearly. I teamed up with them, and if you use my code, CHRIS20, you'll get 20% their entire site.  Watch the video to learn about Fluentize and why it is my #1 resource for English teachers. Fluentize is hundreds of video lesson plans on demand I'll let the video do most of the talking for me, but essentially, Fluentize is a growing library of ready-to-go lesson plans all built around real-life videos. You can either buy lessons in packs or get a year's membership that offers you unlimited access to the entire library. I have a very close personal relationship with the creator of the company. He's an awesome teacher and created the majority of the lessons himself over the years. As of July 2023, they have over 410 lesson plans on their site, with 80-100 new lessons being created every year.  A membership will save...

Taking a TEFL certification course is a great start on the road to teaching abroad. There's lots of information related to The Language House TEFL Prague online, but let's take a look at some of the changes in 2020 and what to expect in with the new year. It's easy to look at previous reviews of The Language House Prague, but what will the course be like when you attend? Let's pull back the curtain a bit and delve into some of the features that make this course stand out in 2020. Prague is such a great place to get your TEFL certification  You're going to be busy Training at The Language House Prague is quite intense. Expect to be busy most of the day learning all of the ins and outs of teaching English. Class begins each morning at 9:30. In the morning, there are two 90-min sessions covering all things related to methodology and teaching techniques. We move fast, so make sure to take notes and get the most out of these input sessions. Even the little things...

I've got a new demonstration video with a group of A1 (beginner) students. This was obviously shot in Prague where I'm located. The focus of the lesson is 'Seasons' and the various different activities you can do during different seasons. Just an FYI to readers, this was a brand new class. I had never met them before and it was their first time in the classroom together. In these situations, you are really starting from scratch with your training and techniques. You'll see this in the video that things start off a bit slow and there are some bumpy sections. I had to constantly control for L1 and use a lot of behavioural techniques to get them to do what I wanted. Check out the video below. I've included a bunch of tips regarding beginner methodology in the video. I really do love this level because it requires absolutely pure teaching techniques. Take a look! Let me know your thoughts!

What's it like to teach English in Prague? I've probably been asked this question nearly a hundred times over the last 15 years. To give you a feel of the daily day to day life, we shot a video with a couple of graduates of The Language House TEFL . Take a look below and follow both of them on a typical day in this beautiful city.  No two English teachers have the same kind of work or schedule. There's so much variety between all of our graduates and we really help our teachers find a job and schedule that works best for them. I hope you like the video!

Online teaching is becoming a great way for English teachers all over the world to supplement their income and create their own schedules for online teaching. If you are interested in making some extra money, I highly recommend checking out VIPKID. The pay is great and they offer you a lot of control over your own hours. VIPKID especially shines if you are working overseas where getting paid well in USD goes a long way. Want to get started? Check them out here and enroll. They are pretty selective with who they hire, but if you can land a job with them, you will be pretty much set regardless of where you find yourself in the world. Teach for VIPKID NOW  

Here's a fun lexis lesson for lower level students. The vocabulary around the lesson deals with hotels. At the end of the lesson, students will create their own type of hotel (in groups) and try to determine which pair/group has the best hotel in the class. Introduction: about 2 minutes Start the class by role-playing checking into a hotel. Play both the guest and the front desk. Elicit from the students what you're doing. Lead in: 5-7 min Demo out these questions and put students in pairs/groups to answer them. 1. Do you like to travel? Where are some interesting places you have been to? 2. Where do you like to stay when you travel? 3. What’s the best/worst place you have ever stayed at? Target Language: under 10 minutes Elicit, CCQ and board these words. a hotel, a bed and breakfast, a resort, a hostel, a guest, a maximum capacity, to be located, a location, a single/double/suite/dormitory, facilities, a quality, staff/the staff, various potential lexis related to...

Check out the short video by Language House graduate, Chris. Chris goes over some helpful tips on how to use Prague's public transportation.

As mentioned earlier, we are creating a bunch of short, fun videos related to life in Prague. Here's a video we just shot an edited for getting an apartment in the city. During the course at The Language House TEFL, the majority of our students stay in our school housing. By the end of the course, students interested in staying in Prague have to find their own place. Here's a video that gives some tips and trips to finding an apartment and showcases what  a typical teacher apartments looks like.

The Language House TEFL is making a series of really cool and informative videos related to living in Prague with the help of our graduates. These videos will all be about living abroad and offer useful tips about living in the city. Some of these videos will be educational, others will just be about fun/interesting things going on in the city. Check out our first video 'Hiking in Prague'.

The largest study abroad/work abroad website goabraod.com did an interview with me last week about teaching in Prague and The Language House TEFL. Check out the article here. snippet  As one of the oldest TEFL training centers in Prague, The Language House TEFL is known for its successful TEFL certification courses that are internationally accredited and externally monitored. To date, the school has graduated about two thousand students, with whom the organization has maintained close contact with. Chris Westergaard founded The Language House TEFL a few years after he began teaching English as a foreign language in Vienna and Prague, and he now serves as the company’s director. Read the whole there here  GoAbroad article with Chris Westergaard

  I'm thinking about going full out in the next few weeks/months and creating a complete series of methodology videos. I'm hoping to create a series of short 2-3 minute videos covering various aspects of ESL/TEFL methodology. I might even create a brand new site focusing primarily on video resources and instruction. I'll post more up here once we get started. Chris

Here's a lesson plan that is suitable for Intermediate and Upper Intermediate language students with past modal verbs being the focus. The lesson requires only about 15 minutes of prep to pull off and has a heavy focus on speaking. I recommend doing this lesson for groups of students who already have a decent understanding of past participles. Take a look! I also have a video demonstration of this lesson plan in action that I've posted below. Intro: 1 minute Come into class asking students how their day is going. Have a glass of water with you that you are drinking. When you they ask you about your day, spill the water all over yourself. Elicit the concept of having a bad day. Lead In: 5-7 minutes Demo out the questions and put students in groups 1. Do you often have bad days? 2. What are three things that can typically happen to make a day go wrong? 3. What are 4 bad, but funny, things that have happened to you this year? Target Language: 10 minutes  Before i...

Here's a video for a lesson I did on Past Modals for Intermediate students. I'll post the lesson in a day or two. In a nutshell, students have to create their worst week ever and use past modals to give each other advice. Check out the video!

Why would you ever study at home when you can train abroad for less price? Thinking of teaching abroad? Are you looking into TEFL certification courses? My advice for new teachers is to skip the online course and ALWAYS take your course abroad. From the money aspect, to your overall experience, a TEFL certification course abroad is the right decision. I recently published an article on Go Abroad (the largest study abroad website in the world) about why taking a course abroad is so important. Take a look at the article and check out my top 10 reasons why you should move abroad 1st and get your training 2nd. Article below! 10 reasons to take your TEFL course abroad.  Cheers, Chris Westergaaard

I was recently sent a message stating that The Language House TEFL  was awarded second place by in excellence and graduate reviews for all TEFL certification programs in 2015. This is worldwide! Go Abroad  Teacher training is a lot of work and it's nice to get the reward. What makes The Language House TEFL successful? I think it's that we offer not just great teacher training, but also a vibrant graduate/teacher community. Our staff is fantastic, being made up of 100% teachers. With a majority of TEFL course organisations,  you only have a few teacher trainers working on the course. The rest of the staff are administration. With The Language House TEFL, all of us our teachers. This creates a much more learner-centred approach to the course and the benefits clearly show. So, thanks to all of the great staff, students and graduates who help make The Language House TEFL exceptional. It's been my pleasure working with you and training you.

The Language House TEFL offers great in-house visa assistance through our cooperation with Visa Guru. Watch the video below. What does this mean and why is it important? Getting your visa to stay in the Czech Republic can be daunting and confusing. With a lot of TEFL certification courses, new teachers have to use the assistance of outside visa service providers. This means that when you are getting legal, you always have to play tag with these providers. The visa providers are offsite and you rarely ever meet them or see them. Getting the right information and your visa questions answered is tricky and often takes a lot more time. Having an actual face to face with anyone is practically out of the question. With The Language House TEFL, we have our visa assistance onsite. The company we use, Visa Guru, operates at The Language House TEFL and is comprised of Language House TEFL staff. Every day there's someone there to answer all of these confusing questions and offer you ass...

Here's a fun lesson you can do with levels as low as pre-intermediate, and up to advanced, depending on the language you want to use. Students will work in groups, create a movie and then pitch it to the class. Lexis: Language related to the film industry/describing movies. Materials:  A few pictures Flip chart paper Paper strips Potentially music to play in the background Introduction: 1-2 minutes  Enter the class acting like a director. You can tell the students to be quiet on the set and start giving them direction. Then mime out pretending to film them. Elicit the concept of a director. Lead In: 5-7 minutes  Demo these questions out and then put students into groups What kinds of movies do you like to watch? Are there any movies coming out that you are excited to see? Who are your favorite actors and directors? Are movies made better now or in the past? Target Language: 7-10 minutes Elicit and CCQ Note: There's a lot of freedom you can ha...

Due to popular demand, I'm posting the listening lesson demo that use on The Language House TEFL certification course . I created this lesson way back in 2004 and I've used it each month to demonstrate how to teach a basic listening lesson. The themes of the lesson deal with advice and doing stupid things abroad. I created the lesson to be specifically geared for people living in Prague, so it can be adapted considerably depending on your students.  Ideally, this suitable for an intermediate class, but uppers/advanced students will also have fun with it. Materials: Worksheets, speakers, the song 'If you're going to be dumb' by Roger Alan Wade, sunglasses. Introduction: 1-2 minutes  Take a black white-board marker and give yourself the best black eye you can. Come into the class wearing sunglasses. Ask students about their week. When they ask you about your week, remove the glasses (shock!) and make up a story about how you got into a fight about some...

 Our new website for The Language House TEFL Job and Guidance Package is now live. What is the Job and Guidance Package you ask?  This is a brand new package of services for experienced/qualified teachers who are interested in working in Prague or the great Czech Republic. The Prague teaching market can be really tough to crack from abroad. We've geared this whole package to help with all of the ins and outs of moving to a foreign country and finding work. Prague is a beautiful city. We will help you set up shop, find a job and cover all of the hassles of moving to a foreign city. Let us help you make the move! If you know of any ESL teacher who is interested in teaching in Prague, pass along our information. Here's a link to the new site - Job and Guidance Package 

Here's a lesson that has a heavy focus on the definite and indefinite article, as well as a strong focus on lexis dealing with businesses and landscape found in a city. At the end of the lesson, students revamp an area of their city (Zizkov in this case) to make it more appealing to up and coming residents. Students work together to create their plans and then share them with others in their class. If you're not located in Prague, pick a dingy area in your city that all your students know about. This will make the lesson more engaging for the students. Materials - A3 paper or flip chart paper                   Pictures of a decrepit neighbourhood Intro 1-2 min  Come into class ecstatic. Get your students curious and have them ask you why you're in such a good mood. Tell them that you not only moved into your dream apartment, but your dream neighbourhood. Tell them that you have some pictures with you and ask if your studen...