The best resources to get ready for TKT

Greetings to everyone

We have already written about Cambridge Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT) in one of our previous newsletters. It is an exam for English teachers that aims to test their knowledge in specific areas of English language teaching. It also increase teachers' confidence and enhance job prospects. It is also a good foundation for those who would like to do a CELTA course or obtain Cambridge Delta later. In our today’s newsletter, we have prepared a selection of useful resources for you to get ready for the TKT.

The best resources to get ready for TKT

TKT focuses on the core teaching knowledge needed by teachers of primary, secondary or adult learners, anywhere in the world. If you have decided to take this exam, you will need to have a clear understanding of the format, revise all topic areas from the syllabus, e.g. phonology, listening skills, motivation, lesson planning, the functions of classroom language, correction techniques, and do some sample tasks for practice. Do learn all the terms in the glossary even though you may only be preparing for one module. Here is the selection of top resources for your preparation.

www.TKTcambridge.com is the world’s first website for  English teachers and teacher trainees who intend to take the exam with free lessons for all the three core modules of Cambridge Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT). Each module includes several lessons with theory and TKT practice tasks. There are tests to check your knowledge and a TKT blog where you can find and read the articles on a variety of teaching topics. 

TKT Cambridge is a Facebook fan page of the website. It is hosted and managed by Noel Perera, an English teacher and the author of the lessons. Here you can: 

• follow the lessons of the entire three core Modules 
• test your knowledge on TKT lessons and TKT terms 
• share teaching tips, ask questions and suggest learning resources 
• interact with more than 4,000 teachers who took TKT all over the world.

One Stop English offers materials that are designed to help trainees prepare for the three modules of the exam with a brief overview, describing the aims, modules and task types. TKT materials cover the language skills aspect of the ‘Describing language and language skills’ section, the ‘Background to language learning’ section, focuses on the role of error in the language learning process, the assessment aspect of the ‘Planning and preparing a lesson or sequence of lessons’ section, the ‘Selection and use of resources’ section, the lesson aims aspect, the learner characteristics aspect, ‘Classroom management’ section, etc. You can print and complete the worksheets. It’s a good idea for trainees to look again at the worksheets a few days after you have ‘finished’, as you will probably find you have further ideas. 

TKT Tips is a series of tips by Jim Scrivener offering help for teachers who are preparing for the TKT. In each article, Jim focuses on one question from the exam and provides all the information you need to answer it. These tips are written to an intermediate language level and are aimed at TKT candidates or teacher trainers. The articles cover such topics as lesson planning, learning strategies, teaching subskills, teacher roles etc.

TKT Sample Tests will show you what a full test paper looks like and the types of questions that will appear. You can download the sample papers for Modules 1, 2, 3 and specialist modules resources: CLIL and YL. All the papers have the keys, so that you could check yourself. The real TKT has 80 multiple-choice questions. 

ELT Concourse is a free resource for English Language teachers, teachers in training, teacher trainers and learners of English. It offers a free Teaching Knowledge Test course. It has a guide that explains what is in the TKT, how it is marked and how to prepare for the examination. There is a short handbook to help you prepare for and take the TKT examination. You will find a list of terms and concepts useful for TKT.  Download it before you start and refer to it as you go along. There are links to take you to a series of crossword puzzles to test yourself on the key words you need for TKT. It offers a pre-course quiz, a short course in Language Analysis, a pre-TKT training course for those who have no experience at all, fundamentals of phonemic transcription, etc. Most important are the TKT courses for each Module, Practice Tests and revision, other indexes, guides and links that you will need during your preparation. 

Foreign Language Teaching Methods focuses on 12 different aspects of language teaching, each taught by a different expert instructor. The site contains video footage from an actual methods course held at the University of Texas at Austin. This flexible resource is designed to be used by foreign language teachers as a component of a classroom methods course or as a stand-alone course for independent learners. It focuses on teaching the four skills, vocabulary, grammar, the ways in which pragmatics can be used in the classroom, and culture. It explores the effective language teaching through understanding students and the feelings they bring with them into the classroom. It also talks about classroom management and technology, overviews and explains language assessment from the perspective of teachers and students. 

Quizlet is a useful tool for both teachers and learners. It has many sets of TKT terms. You can use the existing sets or create your own while preparing for the exam. It has flashcards, study and game modes that will turn your preparation into fun.

From Grade Education

First letters from our penfriends

Kaharlyk hub school 3
28.10.2019 our kids from classes 3-A, 3-C and 4-C, 
who are involved in the eTwinning project “My International Penfriends", shared the information about their peers from Turkey, Georgia, Romania,  Morocco and Tunisia.
They look forward to hearing more from them.

Teaching writing: content vs. accuracy

Greetings to everyone When we talk about teaching and assessing writing, the debate about accuracy and content is likely to come up. Which one is more important? What should we pay more attention to when teaching and giving feedback on students’ writing? Read our today’s newsletter and find the answer as well as some useful ideas on how to empower teaching and assessing writing. Teaching writing: content vs. accuracy Writing, unlike speaking, is not an ability we acquire naturally, even in our first language - it has to be taught. Unless our students are explicitly taught how to write in the new language, their writing skills are likely to get left behind. Writing is regulated. It has more standard forms of grammar, syntax, and vocabulary than speaking. It is generally planned and can be subject to modification through editing and revision before the audience reads it. In addition to that, if there is a response to a written message, it is generally delayed. Last but not least, writers use a lot of cohesive devices (e.g. however, in addition, in conclusion, etc.) that contribute to the overall coherence of the text.  Teachers who concentrate on accuracy help their students to produce grammatically correct written and spoken English, ideally aiming towards the accuracy of a native speaker of similar age and background. Accuracy demonstrates the ability to use the necessary vocabulary, grammar (such as verb forms, articles and prepositions) and punctuation correctly. Accuracy activities normally concentrate on the essentials of the language construction to ensure that the language item is produced 100% accurately – such as grammar exercises or product writing (with a model text). Students are given tasks like essays, letters, and notes and are expected to express a variety of language functions such as informing, narrating, describing, explaining, elaborating, exemplifying, expressing an opinion, and arguing. Their works are evaluated and scores are awarded. But what if we look for smaller gains and not treat the script as a finished product on which we can mark errors? Giving feedback on a written assignment means grading it for grammatical (primarily) and lexical accuracy. In very few instances do students get comments on the actual content of their writing or suggestions for improving the readability of the text. Too much feedback can prompt anxiety. No student likes to receive back a paper filled with red marks. What can we do? Connect the feedback to the purpose of the task. If you are used to red ink error correction, give a grade for accuracy. However, it would be a good idea to assign a grade for task achievement and content as well, e.g. clear statement of purpose, sufficient details, effective connection between ideas etc. You can try creating an “idea bank” that will comprise the ideas that you expect to find in the students’ writing for a specific task. One of the easiest ways of making the idea bank is by asking cue questions that would draw the students’ attention to specific details of the task. TASK Your class is being taken for a summer camp to a place outside of your city for a week. Write a letter of apology in about 150 words to your class teacher for not being able to go for the camp. Give appropriate reasons why you cannot join. Idea bank Content   What ideas to include in the letter? Express apology: I am sorry to inform you that…; I regret to inform you that…; I apologize that I won’t be able…; Give reasons: parents did not give permission/parents have planned a trip to…/ plan to visit grandparents cannot be cancelled/some guests are expected to come/we will have a family function Conclude: next time would like to join; talk to classmates after they get back You can read more about “Idea Bank” here. Act as collaborators in the writing process. Giving a simple grade to a written assignment means that you judge that assignment. In contrast, feedback guides further improvement of the written product; its main purpose is not merely to assign a grade. Diagnosis of what is wrong can be part of the process, but it must be accompanied by clear suggestions for improvement: "Here's what's wrong and here's how to fix it." Give feedback on the drafts students have prepared so that they feel more confident when they prepare their definite version of their piece of writing. Focus on content first, then on accuracy. This sequence will help your students view writing as genuine interpersonal communication between the author and reader(s). This is a great opportunity for peer review. Encourage students to read their peers’ compositions and ask them to give some feedback on them. You can do this by providing students with sentence starters such as: “My favorite part was _________ because __________,” or “A suggestion I can offer for improvement is ___________”. Give facilitative comments to maintain students' integrity and help keep them motivated. Sometimes, students intentionally flout linguistic norms for a creative, meaningful purpose (i.e., humor). Find out before you mark it wrong. Instead of writing “Don’t use…”, write/ask “What did you mean?” Clarification questions will help them express an idea more effectively. Finally, good feedback begins before students submit anything. Let's call it "feedforward". Students need written guidelines for the assignment grading criteria in advance. This provides a roadmap to success and helps to clarify the features of good performance. If you really want to improve your students’ writing skills, you should understand the differences between error correction and content critique, and prioritize your content comments over your error corrections. We highly recommend watching the video of the discussion on giving feedback on a written assignment. From Grade Education

Netflix. Documentary films

Вивчення англійської мови з Netflix — це дуже захоплююче та корисно.
 Ще корисніше переглядати документальні фільми. 
З ними ви вдосконалите свою граматику та вимову, розширите словник
 та підтягнете лексику з різних тем. 
Як щодо добірки 10 документальних фільмів Netflix цього суботнього вечора?
 Буде, що подивитись на вихідних :) 
Вони тут https://bit.ly/32bxZKT

Teaching TOEFL vocabulary: tips and resources

Greetings to everyone

Are you teaching TOEFL preparation and feel that your students get discouraged when they try to expand vocabulary? In today’s newsletter, you will find some useful tips and resources that will help your students improve their vocabulary and reach their academic and professional dreams using English.

Teaching TOEFL vocabulary: tips and resources

A good knowledge of general academic vocabulary is essential for all four sections of such test as TOEFL. The reading and listening sections both have specific vocabulary questions that check understanding of vocabulary in context. Rubrics for the speaking section include "effective use of vocabulary" and rubrics for the writing section include "appropriate word choice and idiomaticity" The speaking and writing sections of TOEFL also require candidates to read academic texts and paraphrase or summarize them in their own words. As well as knowledge of academic vocabulary, one will need to be able to figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words by using context and applying knowledge of word roots, suffixes, and prefixes.

HOW TO SELECT?

Firstly, TOEFL comprises vocabulary from main academic subject areas:

• arts
• life science
• social science
• physical science.

Although candidates are not expected to have specialized content knowledge, they are expected to have a good understanding of the content-specific words that are commonly used in all of these academic areas. These are not all the words they will need, but will give your students a starting point for expanding their vocabulary in each area.

The Academic Word List (AWL) is another criterion for choosing which vocabulary to teach for TOEFL. This is a list of 570 words that are most commonly used in academic contexts. The selection is based on samples of academic texts from a wide range of subject areas and includes general academic words that are commonly used in all subject areas; it does not include subject specific words.

If the student knows the General Service List, or GSL, which is considered to contain the 2,000 most important words in basic English, and then learns the AWL, his/her understanding of the vocabulary found in academic texts will increase by 10%. This is important, because research shows that “If, instead of learning the Academic Word List, the learner had moved on to the third 1,000 most frequent words, instead of an additional 10% coverage there would only have been 4.3% extra coverage.” (Nation, P. (2001). Learning Vocabulary in Another Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)

HOW TO TEACH?

A good TOEFL class starts with a basis of a general English classroom, and is then spiced with TOEFL-specific exercises and training. Practicing English in use is a key to a good TOEFL classroom, because the TOEFL is all about using the language, not knowing the rules or memorizing vocabulary.

Students should be speaking, writing, reading, and listening constantly. There is a time and a place for fill-in-the-blank exercises, but they are less helpful for a TOEFL class than they are for most other classes.

And keep focus on academic material wherever possible. The majority of the TOEFL is about university-lecture-type topics, so that is what your classroom should use, too.

There are 5 easy steps to follow:

1. Create categories	Make a list of specific categories with your students that are relevant to their lives and the TOEFL test. Categories may include (but are not limited to): Education, Career, Business, Relationships, Family, Sports, Religion, Politics, Environment, Health, Food, Culture, Travel, Leisure etc. After you have your categories, create sections under each category, e.g people, actions, places etc. Fill out the categories with the existing vocabulary. Now it is time to add new words and to learn them.
2. Select words	Choose a category. You can select new words from reading and listening practice material. Organize vocabulary into sections.
3. Define new words	Begin by telling the students to try and guess the meaning of each word. Then turn to the dictionary. Use a monolingual English (English-English) dictionary to get used to thinking in English. Only use a bilingual dictionary (to check the meaning in L1) if it is absolutely necessary. Once they have found the dictionary definition, tell the students to create their own definitions. Don’t forget to check for synonyms and antonyms.
4. Use in context	Words don’t stand alone. They are used in the context of sentences, texts, audio, videos and conversations.
5. Review	use new words in real-life contexts give you students creative writing challenges play “Jeopardy” do TOEFL practice exams (especially reading section)

*You can learn how to play “Jeopardy” here.

USEFUL RESOURCES

Words in Context The website provides a comprehensive collection of words used in published literature. Some subject areas include the life sciences, medicine, engineering, mathematics, computer science, business, and law. You can use it to create your own materials for practicing use of English. 

Professional Word Web The website is divided into different sections featuring words that occur frequently in business and financial texts, engineering reports, legal documents and social work papers. One section deals with idiomatic expressions used in newspaper articles and informal texts.  Each of the sections presents a series of passages with the target words with focus on Meaning-Form-Pronunciation and their use in different contexts. There are short exercises that will help reinforce the meaning and usage, and a recycling game to test word meanings.

Visual Thesaurus The program creates semantic maps of words and provides audio support, color-coded meanings that indicate parts of speech, and multiple definitions included for each vocabulary item. You can use it in your classroom or with individual students for both homework and class-work.

Vocabulary in EAP The website by Andy Gillet offers a selection of vocabulary to learn: from GSL to Specific Subjects and less frequent wordlists with headwords, word families, and definitions. There is a section on Vocabulary Building with common rules and examples,  and a Learning Section where you can find out more about vocabulary learning techniques. You can also find some exercises there.

English Vocabulary Exercises The Academic Word List (AWL) is divided into 10 sublists of word families. Each of these sublists contains 60 words, except for sublist 10, which contains thirty words. When studying the sublists, one should attempt to learn the various derivations (the verb, noun, adjective and adverb forms + variants) for the word families given. For the exercises given in this website, the word families for each sublist have been further divided into six groups for ease of study, with three separate gap-fill exercises for each group. Ideally, students should work through the three exercises for each group, and should complete all the exercises for the six groups of a given sublist before going on to the next sublist. Some of the exercises will include different derivations for the words given. 

From Grade Education

Halloween: ideas and resources

Greetings to everyone

Ghosts and goblins are about. Witches walk among us. Princes, princesses, fairies, and knights fill schools and classrooms. Is there any doubt that Halloween is here? If you are not quite ready to celebrate in "spooktacular" fashion, you're sure to find a fun idea in our today’s newsletter.

Halloween: ideas and resources (YL and teenagers)

Ghosts, witches, black cats, haunted houses… Despite the creepy flavour of these words, Halloween is a great holiday to celebrate in EFL classroom to learn more about the culture of English-speaking world and immerse with it. It is about not only costume parties, trick-or-treating, pranks and games. For us, teachers, it can be a teaching tool as well because it has lots of weird and wonderful vocabulary and can be used to teach social issues. It’s a great event to get your students away from textbooks and give them some spooky fun.

YOUNG LEARNERS

Young children love playing games, singing songs and doing crafts. If you want to pre-teach the vocabulary, you can adapt some of the popular games or use some action songs.

Halloween Bingo Cards are a great game for teaching listening skills. There are several different designs of Halloween bingo cards, so you'll be sure to find one you like.

Halloween Charades can become an active competition that can be played in teams.  The goal is to get the most correct guesses from their classmates’ pantomimes. Your list might include e.g. Dracula drinking blood, putting on a costume, bobbing for apples etc. You will find the full list here.

Halloween tongue twisters are loved by students of all ages. They can improve pronunciation, listening skills and reading ability. You can give your students ready-made ones or you can ask them to create their own. Keep in mind that a lot of tongue twisters are just for fun and most don’t make a lot of sense. You can use the following examples:

• Glowing ghosts gobble goodies.
• Warty witches wish for watches.
• Big bats match hats.
• Musty mummies make monster masks.

You can learn how to introduce and implement tongue twisters in you classroom here.

Halloween action songs can be used for warm-up, cool-down, following directions, dancing, fitness, and games. Being actively involved in the song will help your students to understand the meaning of the words and sentences they are singing.

https://youtu.be/BccU19oHTRE 

Some more cool songs with actions:

Halloween Stomp

Monster Shuffle

Halloween Freeze Dance

Halloween Walk Action Song

Skeleton Dance

Witches' Brew

TEENAGERS

Your students might complain when you say "Halloween" because they instantly assume it is going to be the old, boring Halloween stuff: costumes, candy, etc. We are sure you would like to come up with some ideas of an original lesson, including some games that aren't for kids (most Halloween games are targeted towards little kids) but that are suitable for teenagers.

Halloween taboo is based on the popular board game. It is perfect for reviewing and reactivating vocabulary, as well as forcing students into speaking freely without over-analyzing their output. You will need a list of vocabulary items you want to review, five to ten words per student depending on how long you want to play. Put students into groups of four or five and get them to think up team names, write them on the board. The first group elects a team member who comes to the front of the class where the box of words is. The player takes a word from the container and describes it to their teammates without actually saying the word or using their L1. If the word is successfully guessed, students put it to one side. If not, the word goes back in the hat and the player takes another. After 90 seconds sound a buzzer, count how many words were successfully guessed and mark them up on the board under the team name. Continue until every team member has taken a turn (or two) in the describing role.

Scary sounds of Halloween quiz will definitely send shivers down your students’ spines! Play the mystery sound effects in turn and have students try to guess what they are. Play each sound at least twice and give students time at the end to look up any words they need in their dictionaries. With more advanced students, you can focus more deeply on some of the collocations, e.g.  creaking, howling, screeching, etc. You can find the sounds and the answers to the quiz here.

Ghost stories are always a great idea with teens. This ESL conversation activity helps students practise English speaking skills by retelling a story. Memorization is a small part of this task, but more importantly, students need to be able to retell the key parts and fill in the details with their own words. It’s a pair work activity. Each student gets one copy of one story. Each student reads a scary story. That takes about 10 minutes. The student then retells his or her story, making sure to keep the scary parts. The purpose is not to memorize the story but instead to remember the key details – plot character, setting – and mix with his or her own words. And, scare the other person. 

You can download the stories here and here. 

You can find other ways to use ghost stories in your classroom here.

OTHER RESOURCES

Here are 10 Ideas for Teaching Halloween English that you can adapt and make your own depending on the level, age,  and needs of your English monsters.

Halloween Worksheets and Activities There are word searches, crosswords, word scrambles, reading comprehension activities, and various games on the theme of Halloween.

This collection of 10 Fun Halloween Games for English Practice will get your class in the trick and treat mood. Try them with your students as we approach the 31st.

Candy Tasting, UNICEF and More: 9 Unique ESL Activities for Halloween you can do with your class that will both build their language skills and give them a little spooky excitement too.

All the 25 games and activities for kindergarten, preschool and ESL students have been tried and tested in classrooms by The Magic Crayons, who are experienced teaching professionals.

Halloween: great teaching ideas for teens require little preparation time. At this point, your teenage students should already know some vocabulary, traditions and history related to this festivity. Here are a couple of ideas to check your students’ background knowledge and the activities to use the vocabulary.

From Grade Education