TESOL, TESL, or TEFL? What's the difference anyway?

So you want to teach English and travel the world... or simply want to teach English as a second language locally . . . but what kind of certification do you need? Perhaps like many you've been surfing the net trying to come to a clear understanding, and found that the more you search, the more confusing it all seems . . . here's a brief explanation . . .

TESOL, TESL, and TEFL are used interchangeably in today's ESL world to basically mean the same thing: teaching ESL to people whose native language is not English. The acronyms stand for:

TESOL = Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages
TESL = Teaching English as a Second Language
TEFL = Teaching English as a Foreign Language

During recent years, the term TESOL has gained more popularity in North America and many parts of Asia, particularly in Japan, Korea, and China, and it continues its growth in other parts of the world. The terms TESL and TEFL are also recognized internationally.

Stuck with teaching a multi-level ESL class?

Multi-level ESL classes can be a nightmare even for the most experienced teachers. Imagine having to teach four advanced students, three intermediate, and five beginners, all in the same class because two other teachers have suddenly fallen ill and the boss has put you in charge. How can you deal with this seemingly impossible situation? Here are 7 steps that you can follow:

1. Start your lesson with the whole group

You want to establish the "good happy family" feeling at the beginning of each lesson. Starting with the whole group prevents small group identity which causes students to limit their contact only to those at their own level.

2. Use a theme-based approach

Using a theme such as "health" or "culture" or "food" is the best way to keep class cohesiveness. You can introduce the theme for the whole class as one group and elicit relevant vocabulary and grammatical structures from students. Make sure you use lots of visuals to accommodate the lower levels.

3. Divide your students into equal-ability groups and set specific tasks for each level

Now that you've done your introduction with the whole class, it's time to divide your students according to their levels. For example, you'll have a group of four advanced students, a goup of three intermediate, and five beginners. Give each group a task that is appropriate for their level.

For instance, if you're working with the theme of "health," the advanced students can work through a medical article which describes ways to prevent catching the common cold and summarize the main points as one group. The beginners could work on vocabulary matching of the symptoms with picutres.

4. Put your students into mixed-ability groups

Now re-goup your students so that each group has beginner, intermediate, and advanced-level students. Give each of these groups a new collective project.

Each student in the group should have a task that builds on what they accomplished in their previous equal-ability groups. For example, the group project could be to prepare a role-play of a patient/doctor situation at a clinic.

The beginners could have the task of cutting out pictures showing symptoms and taping them on the board with the vocabulary written beside each picture. They may also be given the task of introducing the role-play and setting the scene with a few simple sentences.

The intermediate students could take on the role of patients and writing the script for describing their symptoms.

The advanced students could play the role of doctors who have to respond to their patients' questions as well as give advice on how to prevent future diseases.

5. Now do your wrap-up as a whole group

The wrap-up is the closure of your lesson and you want to do this as a whole group to establish that "good happy family" atmosphere that you established during your introduction.

In our example, each group can perform their role-play for the entire class and students can then vote on the best performance. This will give the experience of the whole class as one team having accomplished a great project!

6. Some points to remember

Remember that teaching a multi-level class is challenging and often a lot of work for the teacher and not always on target for the students. Keep a positive attitude, but don't feel discouraged if you can't keep everyone happy all the time.

On the positve side, teaching a multi-level class can give you valuable experience that you'll be able to use later on in your career, because after all, isn't every class really multi-level to some extent?

7. More resources:

Here are two good books you can consult if you want to know more about teaching multi-level ESL classes. You can find both books at www.amazon.com.

Teaching Multilevel Classes in ESL by Jill Sinclair Bell

Teaching Large Multilevel Classes by Natalie Hess

Terrified of your first practicum?

You're not alone! That first practicum when you have to teach the class all by yourself is a nerve-wracking time for most teacher trainees. Here are 5 tips to help you overcome your fear:

1. Prepare, prepare, prepare

Action is the cure for fear, and in this case, the necessary action before your lesson is to prepare thoroughly. Don't leave your preparation for the last minute. Start early and prepare well. The more you prepare, the more confident you will become.

2. Make sure you have student-centred activities that take the spotlight off you and place it on your students where it belongs.

Remember that the main part of your lesson should be the activities when students are working in pairs or groups or sometimes individually.

This means that you should put a lot of effort into your preparation to make sure you have engaging activities that give your students the opportunity to "learn by doing". It also means that you shouldn't worry about having to stand in front of the class and talking for an hour (which would put students to sleep anyway).

3. Remember the basic components of your lesson

Most lessons have the following structure:
1. Objective (your job)
2. Introduction (your job)
2. Instructions (your job)
3. Activities (mostly your students' job)
4. Wrap-up (everybody can be involved).

Your job is to have a clear objective (what the goal of your lesson is), do an introduction (generate interest and present the relevant vocabulary, grammatical structures, or functions), give instructions (put students in pairs or groups or individually and tell them what they should do), monitor the students during the activity, and wrap-up the lesson.

4. Visualize your lesson before you teach it

Do what great athletes do: they use the power of their imagination before a competition and "see" themselves go through each part of the race successfully and win.

Visualization works best if you mix it with positive emotions. The day before your practicum, run the movie of your lesson in your head.

You might find that you'll need to make adjustments in the way your lesson should run. Run the movie again, until you can see a successful lesson and mix it with feelings of confidence and a job well done. You will be using the magic of positive thinking and visualization!

5. Boost your energy and confidence before your lesson

In his book "The Magic of Thinking Big," David Schwartz gives us an amazing tool that we can use to boost our confidence and perform at our best.

Here is how you can apply it to your practicum: Start a few days before your lesson and make a list of all your positive qualities as a human being. Forget about the negative for now. We're focusing on the positive. For example, your list could be something like this: Kind, intelligent, good with people, good at math, etc. Write everything that you can think of on your list. Next, write down your positive statement of yourself (you can do this in your own language). Make sure you include your name.

For example, your statement could read something like this: "Joe, you are a kind person. You're smart and you're good with people. You're also good at math. You have a lot of energy. Use that energy and let it show. You have good imagination. Use that imagination in your work..."

Now what you need to do is read this statment to yourself three times a day. This is a geat habit and you can continue to do this every day to stay positive and be at your best.

I highly recommend David Schwartz's book. It's one of those books that can change your life. You can find it at www.amazon.com and here it is one more time:

The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz

So you want to build your WORD POWER?

Perhaps you've reached that stage in your studies where you feel you have a basic understanding of English grammar and it's now time to focus more strongly on building your English vocabulary. How do you get the best results? Here are a few hints:

1. Get the tools you need

You need a good dictionary. Electronic dictionaries that go from English to your own language are useful, but make sure you also start getting into the habit of using an English to English dictionary so you can start thinking in English.

Learner's dictionaries are the best because they give you simple definitions with examples and grammatical information. Oxford and Longman are a couple of good brands for dictionaries.

2. Make a personal list of words that you want to make your own

Should you add every word that you don't know to your list? No, that would be too many and too difficult. Instead, record those words that you see often but don't know the meaning of, words that somehow attract your attention, words that you want to become friends with. Here is an example of a format you can use::

competent - adjective

= having the necessary skills and ability to do something well

example: I would only go to a competent doctor.

3. Review often

Reviewing is one of the keys to memorization. The more time you spend with a word, the stronger your memory of it will be.

Some serious students use flash cards with the word and an example on one side and the definition on the back. They put all their cards in a shoe box and keep reviewing and rotating their cards from the front of the box to the back every week.

4. Use the new words you've learned as often as possible

Some people say that if you use a word three times in conversation, the word becomes yours. Is it true? Maybe. But use it twenty-one times, and definitely the word becomes yours. That's a guarantee!

5. Read, read, read

Words are best learned in context. The context is the senctence or situation around the word. Reading is one of the best ways to learn words in context. Here the key is quantity.

ESL story books designed for different levels are a great source (for a review of some of these books, check ATC's blog ). Try reading without a dictionary and guessing the meaning of the words you don't know from the overall story. This is a valuable skill!

6. Get to know "root words"

Did you know that "auto" means "self" and "bio" means "life" and "graph" means "write"? So you can guess the meaning of a complex word such as "autobiography" = a book you write about your own life. "Auto", "bio", and "graph" are root words.

Most root words have Latin or Greek origin and appear in many English words. Learning root words is a powerful way to guess the meanings and help you memorize many English words.

You can find a root word dictionary in most ESL bookstores. Below is a small root words quiz for you. The answers are written below in small letters.

Match the following root words and their meanings:

1. tele 2.port 3.vis 4.demo
a.people b.far c.see d.carry

Answers: 1b, 2d, 3c, 4a

Here are some examples of words with these root words. Can you think of more?

1. telescope 2. airport 3. visible
4. demonstration

Good luck with building your vocabulary power!