Episode Sixteen

Should Your Students Read Aloud? Tips for Teaching Reading

Show Notes

In this episode, we respond to a commonly asked question about reading lessons: should you have your students take turns reading a text out loud? Listen in as we first break down why asking students to read aloud is NOT an effective practice, then offer practical strategies for what to do instead.

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In this Episode

Why students shouldn’t be asked to read out loud

• The commonly asked question, “should students be asked to read aloud in class?” and the blunt answer: NO.

• Why reading out loud doesn’t actually keep students engaged

• Why reading out loud doesn’t actually help students develop reading comprehension

• Why reading out loud doesn’t actually help students’ pronunciation…

• …And a better resource for practicing pronunciation if that’s what you want to do

• Ensuring the focus of a reading lesson is on reading comprehension and not anything else

• Why reading out loud is not authentic, and why authentic skills practice matters in the classroom

What to do instead

• If the students aren’t reading out loud, how do you know they’re really reading?

• Set a clear task/ activity before asking students to read

• Give students a reason and motivation to read

• Students should have a question or prompt in mind as they’re reading

• Why lead-ins matter at the beginning of reading lessons

• A clear example of what “task before text” looks like

• Why students need time to read silently to themselves and complete the reading task(s) on their own

• How microstages work in reading lessons (more on microstages in this episode!)

• The magic of pair checks in reading lessons

• How to get the most out of feedback: letting students justify their answers

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Episode Fifteen

Interview With Stephanie Vogel: Building a TEFL Career

Show Notes

This week, we welcome Stephanie Vogel as our guest on the show. Steph has had a long and successful journey through the TEFL industry. After dropping out of med school, she felt inspired to try something totally different, so she went to Istanbul to get a CELTA certification. From there, she wound up in Vietnam, where she spent six years progressing from ESL teacher to assistant academic manager to CELTA and DELTA trainer. She then moved back to the US to further advance her career, eventually becoming the director of Teaching House, the largest provider of CELTA courses in the US. Join us as we talk about how she built her career in TEFL, share insights into the world of teaching and training, and probably have a little too much fun recounting hilarious teaching disasters.

“One of the special gifts of teaching is that you come away with a lot of amazing stories. The people you meet… it’s a way to create a life of stories. ”

In this Episode

• How Steph became a “late entrant” into the field of ESL

• Her CELTA experience in Istanbul and why she thought the trainers were “magic”

• Her teaching experience in Istanbul, including being chauffeured to work!

• Going off-site for business English classes

• How to avoid burnout in your first year of post-CELTA teaching

• What realistic lesson planning might look like after a training program

• Her embarrassing first ever day of teaching, in which she found herself asking all her students about their underwear

• How studying German refreshed her passion for teaching English

• Why she decided to go to Vietnam

• What her job was like there

• What her daily life was like in Vietnam

• The advantages of working in a large, well-established school

• How she progressed from teacher to academic management

• The fact that it’s not typical to be on a 9-5 schedule in the TEFL industry

• How she achieved her goal of becoming a CELTA trainer

• The DELTA course: CELTA on steroids

• The training up process to become a CELTA trainer

• The advice she’d give someone thinking about moving abroad to teach

• What she wishes she’d known before she started teaching

• What makes a teacher successful

• Why authenticity in the classroom matters

• The difference between a good lesson and a great lesson

• What kept her in Vietnam for so long

• How she transitioned back to the US and continued on her TEFL career path

• How she became the director of Teaching House, the largest CELTA provider in the US

• The pros and cons of moving into an admin role in the TEFL industry

• Making TEFL a career and not just a “gap year”

• How skills developed as an ESL teacher translate into other fields

• Her favorite travel destination(s): Hoi An, Vietnam and the Zeugma Mosaic Museum in Gaziantep, Turkey

• And of course, a shout-out to her hometown of Detroit

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Thinking about doing a CELTA certification? Check out our free email course: Ready, Set, CELTA! You’ll get a thorough overview of the course and our best trainer advice delivered right to your inbox.

What do you want to hear about? Do you have questions about teaching you’d like us to answer on the show? Or interest in teaching in a certain place? Leave us a comment and let us know!

Episode Fourteen

Interview with TEFL Horizons Co-Founder, Lauren Harrington

Show Notes

This is a special episode of Expand Your Horizons, because the interview is with one of our co-founders! Shannon interviews Lauren all about her teaching experience in Romania, how she fell in love with the TEFL field, and that one time she was invited to do a "small training" in Brazil that ended up being a massive, nationally televised presentation! Tune in for the inside scoop on Ms. Harrington herself.

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In this Episode

• How Lauren got into the TEFL field- what inspired her to start teaching

• Her spontaneous decision to move to Romania

• What teaching was like for her without a certification or any experience

• What her life in Romania was like- her work and the day-to-day

• Her tips for teaching (very) young learners

• Why she recommends getting at least preliminary training before starting to teach

• What kept her in Romania for six years

• How her career evolved- what caused her to take the next step

• How she found her first teaching job in the United States

• How she found out about the CELTA course and learned the value of good training

• What her job at EF language school in Boston was like- and how to succeed in a private language school in the US

• What inspired her to pursue a DELTA certification

• How she got through a (surprise!) massive presentation in Brazil that she’d been told would be a small private training

• How she became a CELTA trainer

• How being a trainer affects her teaching now

• What life as a CELTA trainer is like

• What she still loves about teaching

• Her advice for anyone who wants to become a CELTA trainer

• Her advice for prospective teachers

• What she’d do differently before moving abroad if she could go back in time

• How she got into materials writing

• Her favorite travel destinations

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Interested in learning more about lesson frameworks? Check out our blog post all about them, or sign up for our newsletter for teaching tips and guidance delivered straight to your inbox every Wednesday.

“I love when you see that moment of clarity on (your students’ or trainees’) faces. ”

“One of the things that I’m grateful for and one of the things I really push in training is using frameworks as approaches to teaching a lesson. I’m a really creative teacher, so I can bring a lot of different elements into the classroom. But I found earlier in my career that it could be really hard to structure all of those ideas (. . .) what was the end goal? Without a framework I found it hard to measure my students’ achievement of their goals.”

Episode Thirteen

Interview with Josh Niezgoda: Life in Andorra

Show Notes

Today’s guest on the show is Josh Niezgoda. After he got his CELTA, Josh spent a short time teaching at a local language school in Washington, DC to hone his skills before he headed overseas to teach English in Andorra. Tune in for our conversation about how he ended up in a tiny country many people have never even heard of and what it’s like to live and teach there.

In This Episode

• How Josh got started in the ESL industry

• How he ended up in Andorra (and where in the world it is!)

• Andorran culture and geography: food, music, nature, and winter tourism

• What his daily life is like

• His teaching experience: the levels, classes, and students he works with

• How teaching children is different than teaching adults

• How he transitions between age groups in terms of planning and teaching style

• The complexities of the visa system

• His advice for anyone looking to teach in Andorra

• What to expect in terms of salary and housing

• Why homesickness is normal and how to deal with it

• How he feels CELTA helped prepare him for teaching

• His favorite and least favorite things about working in the TEFL industry

• His advice on teaching teenagers

• His favorite travel destination

• Where he’s planning to go next and why
  

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If you’re thinking about getting CELTA-certified, check out our free email course: Ready, Set, CELTA! You’ll get a thorough overview of the course and our best trainer advice delivered right to your inbox.

Looking for even more teaching resources? Check out our blog for lesson planning guidance and activity ideas or brush up your grammar knowledge with our online grammar course. And subscribe to our newsletter to get our top teaching tips every Wednesday!

Episode Twelve

How to Master Classroom Management

Show Notes

In this week’s episode, we’re talking all about classroom management. First, we share what makes the biggest difference in structuring every lesson you teach: the task cycle. We discuss what it is, how to use it, and how it can revolutionize your lessons to make them more student-centered and create more opportunities for interactive learning. Then we over over additional favorite strategies for managing an adult ESL classroom naturally and masterfully.

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In this Episode

• The task cycle, or the “microstages” within each stage/ activity of your lesson. These include: giving instructions, letting students work alone, letting students check in pairs, and conducting whole class feedback

• The “burger:” a fun analogy for the task cycle

• How to make instructions clear using techniques like ICQs (instruction check questions) and demos

• Anchoring: why your placement in the classroom matters and how to make sure you’re “anchored” in the right spot

• Minimizing teacher talk: why this is essential and how you can ensure you keep your teacher talk low

• Language grade: no, we don’t mean assessment- this is how to simplify your language without sounding unnatural

• Task before text: why you don’t want to hand out papers before you finish giving instructions

• Monitoring: what you should be doing as the students are quietly working, and how the way you use this time impacts the rest of your lesson

• Interaction patterns: the whole class should never just be you interacting with the students. How to mix things up to maximize student interaction and communication

• Nominating: how to handle who’s speaking when during feedback and how to ensure all students get a chance to participate

• Avoiding echoing: the difference between echoing and “correchoing” and why you should only be doing one of them!

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Did you find this episode useful? Do you have questions about teaching you’d like us to answer on the show? Or any additional strategies you use to manage your classroom effectively? Reach out and let us know!

We’d love to hear your comments below. And if you enjoyed this episode, we’d be extremely grateful if you share it on your social media or subscribe here on iTunes and leave us a review. Your support means so much to us! For more teaching tips delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Episode Eleven

how to pass the celta course: interview with david of passthecelta.com

Show Notes

In this episode, we're talking with David, founder of passthecelta.com. After completing his own CELTA back in 2012 with the coveted PASS-A grade, David realized he wanted to help other prospective teachers succeed on the CELTA course. Since then, he has helped thousands of people pass the CELTA by providing guidance on the course and creating an incredibly comprehensive CELTA learning library full of useful resources online. In this interview, we go into more depth than ever before about how to succeed on the CELTA course. We're talking all about TEFL methodology, professional development, and of course, how to pass CELTA with flying colors. If you’ve ever thought about doing a CELTA certification, this episode is for you! We’re breaking down exactly what gives the course its legendary intensity and how you can get through the course with your sanity intact. And if you’ve got a CELTA already, this episode should bring back some memories!

In this Episode

On the CELTA course in general

• Why David decided to take the CELTA course in the first place

• What made him want to help others pass the CELTA course

• Why he considers starting on this path one of the best decisions he’s ever made

• How CELTA challenged him in ways he didn’t expect

• The real skills CELTA gave him that he feels he still uses today

• Why the “intensive” version of CELTA is called intensive for a reason!

• What prospective employers see when you have a CELTA certificate

• What his CELTA experience was really like- why he calls it “a game of two halves”

• Why his first teaching experience was “an unmitigated disaster”

• Why candidates usually feel frazzled after the first or second week of the course

• How giving professional presentations is both similar to and different from teaching a room full of students

• The type of CELTA candidate that tends to have trouble adjusting to the style of teaching on the course

• The difference between teacher-student interactions and student-students interactions

• Why sensitivity to the learners’ needs matters more than sticking to the lesson plan

• Why the “sage on the stage” lecture style of teaching doesn’t work on CELTA

• Why you don’t need to be chained to your lesson plan

• The different “grades” on the CELTA course and what implications they have

• When you should deviate from your lesson plan… and when you shouldn’t

• Why it’s essential to keep your lesson main aim in mind as you teach

• How to handle off-topic learner questions mid-lesson so you don’t derail your timing

• Why planning matters- how it separates the successful candidates from the really successful candidates

• The CELTA self-evaluation and how it impacts your course performance

• How peer observation works and how to make the most of it

• Why attitude is everything on the CELTA course- how to put yourself in the mindset of maximizing your professional development

• Why you need to leave your ego at the door

• How “the CELTA course, in essence, is essentially breaking you down and building you back up again”

• How to take on constructive feedback

• The criteria you’re graded against on the course

• What separates a PASS-B candidate from a PASS-A candidate

• How CELTA is like boot camp for teachers

On founding passthecelta.com

• What inspired David to start Pass the CELTA and how he realized he was in a unique position to help others

• What he learned from his CELTA peers who dropped out of the course

• The guidance that passthecelta.com offers prospective and current candidates

• Free resources on passthecelta.com, including a comprehensive comparison of different CELTA centers and costs

• Common reasons why people fail the CELTA

• Why he’s passionate about educating prospective candidates about their training options and the TEFL industry in general

• The CELTA Learning Library

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“There’s that famous quote, that, as a teacher, your job is to facilitate the learning experience and then get yourself out of the way.”

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Want to be the first to know about new episodes and free teacher training workshops? Get the inside scoop, lesson planning guidance, and activity ideas every week. We’ll deliver our top teaching tips straight to your inbox every Wednesday.

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“For me, I’m just teaching English. But for the learners, they’re learning English for a very specific reason and it’s very personal for each of them.”

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Advice for those who want to teach abroad

• How CELTA is a passport to the world of TEFL

• Why you need to look at teaching opportunities with common sense and a critical eye

• Why your professional development doesn’t end with CELTA

• Options for your teaching career- after you get a little experience, where do you want to go?

• Essential resources for new teachers

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Free Resource! Verb Tense Cheatsheet

David has created a quick and easy reference guide to help you identify any of the 12 grammatical tenses in English. It's a totally free offer for our Expand Your Horizons listeners.

Download it here:
https://passthecelta.com/teflhorizons/

It includes a full color version, a black and white printer-friendly version, and instructions with examples. Print it out and keep it in your course folder for a handy cheatsheet whenever you need it.

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“It boils down to this: you’re going to get out of the CELTA exactly what you put in. ”

If you want to greatly increase your chances of passing your CELTA, and avoid wasting time and money by failing, be sure to read how the CELTA Learning Library can help you best prepare.

With the CELTA Learning Library, you get instant access to over 50 helpful topics, so you will…

• Make your CELTA easier and less stressful by learning the assessment criteria, what to expect on your first day and week, how to manage your workload and time, and much more.

• Use your preparation time as effectively as possible so you're more productive and confident on the course.

• Push your grade higher. Discover how to achieve a Pass A or B grade using the advice from a Pass A graduate.

• Download and study a real, top-graded lesson plan. You'll learn which extras can save you time and reduce stress, and which common mistakes to avoid.

• Discover the skills needed to achieve top marks in your lesson plans, teaching and written assignments.

Episode Ten

Six More Grammar Lesson Tips: Advice on Planning and Resources

Show Notes

In episode eight, we brought you six actionable tips for teaching grammar lessons. Now we’re taking it all the way back to the planning stage to help you structure a successful grammar lesson from the ground up. We’ve got six more of our best, most practical tips for you- this time focused exclusively around how to plan your lesson from start to finish and how to find and use the resources you need. We’re covering everything from effective lesson structure to our favorite reference books. And we share our strategies for how to look at a course book and know exactly what to keep and what to cut.

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In this Episode

• Tip #1: Use a lesson framework. A framework is a set pattern of activities you can use to structure your lesson. It’s an essential outline that will guide your students through the lesson and ensure your main aim is achieved. Head over to the blog post on frameworks for more in-depth information.

• Tip #2: Use the course book as a jumping off point for grammar research. Did you know most course books have a “grammar bank” in the back? The grammar bank provides a clear explanation of exactly what your students need to know about the target grammar- already curated and simplified for you.

• Tip #3: Teach a lot about a little, not a little about a lot. Focus is key. Make sure you’re narrowing your focus to a digestible amount of material for your students (and for yourself!) to ensure that the students walk away really being able to use a small amount of new language, rather than still feeling confused about the ten different things you tried to teach at once.

• Tip #4: Extra time? Add more activities, not more information. Avoid the temptation to bring in new language or material near the end of your lesson. Students will benefit much more from additional opportunities to practice what they’ve just learned rather than having to completely shift their focus and try to grasp brand new information in the last fifteen minutes of class.

• Tip #5: Adapt, adapt, adapt! Take ownership of your material and be proactive in making sure it does exactly what you wan it to do. If you’re using a course book, take the exercises you want, cut the ones you don’t, and change any activity to ensure it helps streamline your lesson. Want to know what this looks like in practice? Register below for our free video training on exactly how to adapt course book material.

• Tip #6: Use the right resources. Here are a few of our favorites that we mention in this episode:

• Our online grammar course: Be Your Own Grammar Guru

• Grammar reference books, especially Teaching Tenses by Rosemary Aitken and Understanding and Using English Grammar by Betty Azar (plus more recommendations).

• Upcoming webinars on how to teach grammar

• Podcast Episode 8: Our Top Six Tips for Teaching Grammar Lessons and Podcast Episode 2: Five Misconceptions About Teaching Grammar

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Want to know exactly how these planning tips work in practice? Watch our free video workshop in which we show you how to take a page straight out of a course book and make it into a streamlined, communicative grammar lesson.

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Did you find these tips useful? Do you have questions about planning and teaching grammar? Let us know!

We’d love to hear your comments below. And if you enjoyed this episode, we’d be extremely grateful if you share it on your social media or subscribe here on iTunes and leave us a review. Your support means so much to us! For more teaching tips delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Episode Nine

Interview with Jocelyn Pollak: tefl pros and teaching in thailand

Show Notes

This week, our special guest on the podcast is Jocelyn Pollak. Jocelyn is the co-founder of TEFL Pros, which she and her business partner, Whitney, created with the mission of offering the best online teaching certification available in the industry. In this episode, we’re talking about her teaching experience in Thailand as well as what inspired her to become a TEFL entrepreneur and help other teachers achieve their goals through the certification program that she and Whitney designed. If you’ve ever been interested in teaching in Thailand or if you’re curious about the different teaching certification options out there, you’ll definitely want to tune in!

In this Episode

• Why Jocelyn left her high-paying sales job to teach abroad

• How she knew teaching English was the right choice for her

• What she loves most about teaching now

• What attracted her to Thailand and why she has stayed for seven years

• The courage it took to buy that one-way ticket

• Why the adjustment to the new culture wasn’t that difficult

• The hilarious misconception she had about dining in Thailand when she first arrived

• Why new teachers have no idea what they’re doing when they first start out - and why some of them don’t end up keeping their jobs

• What inspired her and her business partner to create TEFL Pros

• How the TEFL Pros certification course is different from other online TEFL certificates

• What the TEFL Pros graduates benefit from the most

• The process of creating and launching the program

• What she’s most proud of about TEFL Pros

• Why some students ask teachers if they’re “real” teachers

• Why she feels that education is moving online as opposed to only in-person

• The type of candidate that would be a good fit for a TEFL Pros certification

• Why the TEFL Pros certification is actually a great step before the CELTA course

• What teachers who want to teach online should know

• Why being able to speak English is not at all the same as being able to teach English

• What she wishes she’d known before she started teaching

• The challenging aspect of teaching that she particularly loves

• Her favorite destinations and travel recommendations in Thailand

• Why tourists should give Bangkok a chance - she convinces me!

“People say, ‘If you find something you would do for free, then you should keep doing it.’ And for me, I really found that teaching is [like that].”

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“We actually unlock a module of the course for free. (…) So it gives you a feel for what we’re all about. So we want to be really, really transparent and let people know what we’re all about. And we’re not shy to show people that, and to show people what we’ve built.”

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Interested in learning more about TEFL Pros? Click the button below to find out more about their certification program.

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links; if you access teflpros.com through our site and make a purchase, we may receive a commission. It won’t increase the price at all for you, but it will help us out! We only recommend products from companies that we’re proud to partner with.

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What did you think of this episode? Leave us a comment below and let us know! If you enjoyed this interview, would you do us a huge favor and share it on your favorite social media platform? It only takes a second- just click one of the “share” icons floating on your screen. And we’d love for you to subscribe here on iTunes and leave us a review. Your support means the world to us and helps keep producing valuable content.

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Looking for more teaching resources? Check out our blog for lesson planning guidance and activity ideas or brush up your grammar knowledge with our online grammar course. And subscribe to our newsletter to get the our top teaching tips delivered straight to your inbox every week!