The TEFL Blog

Recently, I had the chance to sit into a Spanish as a foreign language class at the university that I work at. They needed volunteers to act as beginner students who were trying to learn Spanish in their teacher training program, so I volunteered. As I know very little Spanish myself, I definitely didn't need to 'act' like a beginner student. The class I attended was taught completely in Spanish, and it seemed like everyone else could understand what the teacher was saying better than me. When asked questions or given instructions, I really had no clue how to respond. This experience to me, an English as a foreign language teacher, was extremely beneficial in so many different ways, as for the first time in a long time (since probably grade 9 when I studied French) I was put into the shoes of our students. Sitting through this one class was a great reminder of some of the challenges that language learners face on a daily basis; challenges that can be hidden from teachers.

In previous posts, I have listed some of the benefits that I think people get from teaching English abroad, but I wanted to provide you with  this video from Rich at Teach Abroad. Though it's very broad, I think his video provides a pretty good summary of what to expect from your time abroad: I'd love to hear your thoughts on this video and some other benefits you think people can get from teaching English in a foreign country https://www.facebook.com/uvictefl https://continuingstudies.uvic.ca/education-learning-and-development/topics/teaching-english-as-a-foreign-language

If you google something like "ESL lesson ideas" or "ESL Games" or really any topic related to teaching English as a foreign language, you will literally get millions of results in less than a second. To make this search a little less daunting, in this blog entry I'm going to give you some of my favorite websites for English language teachers. In the comment section or on my Google+ page  please let me know about some of your faves. Dave's ESL Cafe (  http://www.eslcafe.com ) Besides being one of best websites for finding teaching jobs around the world, this website also has a great discussion forum on all things ESL, tons of great teaching ideas and even resources for students who want to learn English. This site is very easy to use and is continuously updated. Busy Teacher ( busyteacher.org ) Need a worksheet for your class, then look no further than BusyTeacher.org. This website contains over 17000 printable worksheets, lesson plans and awesome