TEFL Prague and Abroad

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!

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.

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...

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...

It's been a couple of months since I post any new lessons on the blog. Let's make up for that. I plan on putting up 10 new lessons in the next month. That's the goal. If you have any suggestions on content, just let me know and I'll create something.

Are you already a qualified teacher with experience and want to teach in Prague? Are you worried about making the move over here without a job lined up,  an apartment, visa help, or friends? The Language House TEFL can help you. I get emails all of the time from teachers that want to teach in Prague, but find it nearly impossible to land a job from abroad. To help with this, I created The Language House TEFL Job and Guidance Package for qualified teachers that want to work in Prague, but find making the move too difficult to do.  This isn't a TEFL certification course, but a package of job assistance and other services, geared at making the transition easy. Myself and The Language House TEFL staff will help you find work, get legal, get housing and make friends in the city via our large graduate community. Prague is an amazing place to live and teach. We'll help you out and get you started.  Check out the link for more information  Language House TEFL Job and Gui...

 We had a great turnout for a photo of our graduates in Prague. Thanks for all coming out and making the day special.

Chris Westergaard: TEFL in Prague I've created an Ask Me Anything page dealing with Prague and teaching abroad on Facebook. If you are interested in teaching in Prague and don't know how to start, go ahead and check out the page. I'm trying to post a TEFL related question and answer every other day. Check out the link here  Facebook TEFL in Prague

   Video Demonstration Coming Soon!  A fun, creative and interactive ESL lesson that uses physical characteristics of animals as the language point. Students first create a new dangerous animal and then debate with other students why their animal is the deadliest. This particular lesson is great for intermediates, but the language can be adapted for lower or higher levels. Special materials needed: Audio and flip chart paper. Introduction: 1-2 minutes.  Tell your class to listen carefully and ask them what they think about when they hear this music. Play the famous theme from Jaws. From the music elicit shark and deadly/dangerous animal. Lead in: 5-7 minutes. Have these questions pre boarded.   1. What is the most dangerous animal in the world? Name three reasons why it's dangerous   2. Name 4 dangerous animals that live in your home country.   3. Have you ever seen a dangerous animal in the wild? What happened? If you haven't, what w...

Teaching Beginners is a much different animal than teaching any other level . Since the students have such a low level of language, you have to really change up the entire approach and lesson structure. Some general tips are to... 1. Hardly ever speak and only use the target language of the lesson when you do. 2. Drill, drill and then drill some more. (And then drill even more). 3. Plan out exactly what you want your students to be using and stick with that. 4. All mistakes need to be corrected. 5. Even at the lowest levels, still work on contractions and natural language. 6. Use your body and picture to teach words. Avoid any kind of verbal explanation when possible. 7. Build up your language points slowly and don't jump all over the place. 8 Assume that they know nothing and teach/introduce all language one point at a time. Introduction to the 5 points (stages) From observing and teaching hundreds, if not thousands of lessons, I've devised a pretty effective me...

  Here's a a video of me teaching a beginner class for a lesson demonstration to some of February TEFL course students. The Language House TEFL involves about 12 hours of real teaching experience to Czech students of a variety of different levels. These language students shown hardly know any English at all. It's really fun (and challenging) teaching the lowest levels.  I'll post later about the specific methodology used to make beginner classes work.

 I'm pleased to announce that I'll be working directly with cinematographer, Lindsay Jackson! We'll be making professional looking methodology videos and more demo lessons over the next year. I'm really excited to be working with her. The first video should be ready in less than a week with at least one new video every week. I can't wait to get started! Lindsay at TLH   Chris Westergaard The Language House TEFL  

  Take a look at The NEW Language House TEFL's Official Course Video. Thanks everyone for all of the help creating it. The video is 13 minutes long, but it's well worth the watch. Take the plunge and go for this experience. You won't regret it. Sign up for our course here www.thelanguagehouse.net

Chris Westergaard TEFL teaching videos. These lessons were all demonstrated on new Czech practice students of The Language House TEFL Prague course.  Two are examples of lexis lessons and one is a grammar lesson. Enjoy!

    Living in Prague for nearly a decade has given me a unique skill set that only other Prague Expats can truly achieve. The city will hone your body over the years and give you nearly superhuman attributes leaving friends and strangers back home in wonder and awe. Remember people, with greater power comes greater responsibility. If you decide to live abroad for a number of years, you too will gain these powers.  I couldn't possibly list them all, but here are the main ones. Tram Grip Strength (Raw Power): From years of riding Prague trams and giving my seat up to the elderly, my tram grip strength borders on the level of being superhuman. Nothing can break it. Whether it's holding onto a tree branch to survive a deadly tsunami or riding a bull, my tram grip strength will never fail me.  Support my efforts - Follow the blog by clicking the button on the Right or add your email here ------> Bagging Skills (Blinding Dexterity): In P...