White Elephant - English Idioms
The idiom "white elephant" refers to an expensive item that is costly to maintain, for example: Shortly after Tanya inherited her aunt's castle, it turned out to be a white elephant she could not afford. The phrase originates from a long time ago when white elephants where regarded as precious and even holy in Asia, especially in Thailand. When the king was displeased with someone, he would gift them a white elephant as the upkeeping would likely ruin them.
Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next.
In the first lessons it is vital for the teacher to build rapport with the students and set tone for rest of the cours.
There are usually two kinds of group of students in first lessons - the new group and the existing grou.
In new group the students don't usually don't know each othe.
So some work will be required to establish rapport between the class member.
While in the existing group, the students already know and are comfortable with each othe.
Normally in a first lesson the teacher will try to establishing rapport with students, finding out the students' needs and desires for English language learning and also find out the English language level of each studen.
the activities which can help establish this goal can be questionnaire/survey, \"tell us about\" activity, pass the ball game and needs analysi.
A warmer activity with the students can be game of hangman, playing Pictionary, memory game, et.
When faced with a mixed ability group, the teacher can pair strong and weaker students together, use different materials for stronger and weaker students or use same material but different tasks for stronger and weaker student.
The techniques that would normally help the teacher in dealing with a large class are using choral drilling, using pair and group work, using group leaders for activities, using worksheets, et.
Normally some of the reasons for students to use their native language in the class are when student doesn?t understand the lesson content, when the student is bored or when student is trying to help a classmat.
Some of the techniques that would help a class of students who are reluctant to participate in the class are using role-plays when you can, allowing students time to practice their language use, using pairwork, using tape recorder after the lesson, et.
Pre-teaching potentially difficult vocabulary is most useful when students have problems with listening text.
When few students finish a task more quickly than other students, the teacher can give them some extra activities/materials to keep them busy and let other students finish the first activit.
