29
Dec
2009
TESOL
What is TESOL?
TESOL stands for ‘Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages’. While qualifications to teach English as a Second Language vary across countries and institutions, TESOL provides a great opportunity to teach English around the world. To teach English in Australia, a degree or diploma in education plus teaching experience, is also required to teach English to speakers of other languages.
There are different TESOL Certification courses, depending on how long you want to study for and where you want to teach. For example, the Advanced TESOL Certificate Course is designed for those who want to teach English overseas, so no degree or prior teaching experience is necessary. This course will typically include the standard 60-hour TESOL course plus 1 specialisation course (also 60 hours). Whereas the Certificate IV in TESOL includes the standard 60 hour course made up of 16 core units, plus 3 specialisation courses (each specialisation is 60 hours as well).
The TESOL Certificate
The TESOL Certificate can be used to tutor privately, start your own tuition business, or take up a teaching position at an educational institution. It will teach you how to interact with students, keep their interest, and be confident in your role as a teacher. The course will teach you about pronunciation, conversation, grammar, activity-based learning, applied linguistics, the philosophy of teaching, developing TESOL industry knowledge, lesson planning and teaching preparation, and the skills of listening, speaking, writing and reading.
Core TESOL units cover ideas and techniques such as working in socially diverse environments, TESOL methods, teaching presentation, teaching vocabulary, implementing student assessment materials, health safety and security procedures, information technology techniques in TESOL and more. Then there are specialisation units that cover teaching specific types of English from tourism, to business, hospitality, computer, medical and legal. These units also cover different student ages, from pre-school to elementary, adolescents and adults.
23
Oct
2009
Demonstrative English Pronouns
Demonstrative Pronouns
When learning English, it is important to understand how to use pronouns. Demonstrative pronouns show far away or near an object is. The variables of demonstrative pronouns are distance/time and number (whether singular or plural). By comparison, many languages have other variables as well, such as whether it is the subject or object and the gender (male/female/neuter).
In English there are four demonstrative pronouns:
- Singular: this (near) and that (far).
- Plural: these (near) and those (far).
Demonstrative pronouns should not be confused with demonstrative adjectives which also use this/that and these/those. The difference is that the demonstrative adjective modifies a noun, whereas the demonstrative pronoun replaces the noun. For instance:
- That desk looks heavy. (desk = noun)
- That looks very heavy. (no noun)
Demonstrative pronouns are usually used in English to refer to things not people. However, there are occasions when they can be used if the person is identified. For example:
- This is Sarah speaking.
- Is that Stephen?
Examples
Here are some examples of how demonstrative pronouns are used in English. As you can see, demonstrative pronouns can be used in exclamations, questions or statements. They can be used to start a sentence, in the middle of a sentence, or at the end. Demonstrative pronouns are often used to compare one thing to another, such as size or weight.
- Look at that!
- Which car should I get? This one or that one?
- These look delicious, I don’t know which to eat first.
- This has been great.
- Are those Spanish or Italian?
- These are bigger than those.
Of course in the preceding examples, because the sentences have been taken out of context, it is difficult to know what they are referring to. So it is important to make it clear what you are talking or writing about before using a demonstrative pronoun.