Do you want to be TEFL or TESOL-certified in Iowa? Are you interested in teaching English in Brandon, Iowa? Check out our opportunities in Brandon, Become certified to Teach English as a Foreign Language and start teaching English in your community or abroad! Teflonline.net offers a wide variety of Online TESOL Courses and a great number of opportunities for English Teachers and for Teachers of English as a Second Language. Here Below you can check out the feedback (for one of our units) of one of the 16.000 students that last year took an online course with ITTT!
Unit 13 was in my opinion, the most complex unit so far in the course! It really drives home the point that something that comes so naturally to a person (their native language) is in fact quite a complex process. This unit described what is meant by Intonation (variation in volume and pitch within a sentence) and how it is used to provide emphasis and a clearer meaning. The intonation pattern is different depending on whether or not you are saying a statement, question or expressing surprise or disagreement. The unit outlined several different methods for teaching intonation including using nonsense words, gestures, humming/singing or diagraming the sentence on the board.
The unit then went on to discuss "stress" which pertains to placing the emphasis on a particular word. A single sentence can have several different meaning depending on which specific word is stressed. Different methods for teaching stress is outlined in the unit.
The unit spent a great deal of time on the International Phonemic Alphabet (IPA), which is something that is completely new to me. I am going to need a lot of practice using this before I become proficient. On the brightside, it gives me an opportunity to empathize with my students as they are trying to learn a new language! The IPA condenses all individual sounds that appear in the English language into a specific symbol. This helps TEFOL students in pronounciation of new words, particularly when the spelling of a word does not offer any insight into how it is pronounced.
The unit concluded with a section on articulation and how sounds are physically formed by utilization of the speech organs.
