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For many of our students, the classroom is the focal point of their English exposure. It is the base of where, when, why and how they speak English. The physical appearance of the classroom in itself is very important. And because of its importance, I am often amazed at how many English classrooms in Japan lack stimulating visual English materials.

Teaching English grammar can be hard going - for the teacher and the students. It doesn't have to be difficult or painful, however. You can teach English grammar using fun learning games and before you know it your students will be more than willing. How does it work, you ask. Well, there has been a movement away from the traditional methods of teaching English grammar through writing, rewriting and worksheets to using a more active approach through games. Researchers have also begun to look at how and why these new methods work.

In this article, it is argued that metaphoric intelligence is an important aspect of intelligence, and that it can contribute to language learning success. It is thought to play a role in communicative competence and communication strategy usage. A number of activities are suggested which are designed to exploit and promote metaphoric intelligence in the language classroom.

When I first started teaching English abroad my students sometimes complained that my classes were boring. Most beginning teachers get those kind of complaints. It actually took me about a year and a half, even close to two years, before I got beyond that stage.

You're probably asking this question because you are already or soon plan to be an EFL teacher. This means that you probably like working with people, that you prefer variety to routine, and that you are don't mind taking calculated risks.

The principles of L2 teaching philosophy has greatly changed from the ancient principles of the Grammar-Translation approach historically used for teaching Greek and Latin. All the teaching philosophies and subsequent methodologies are reactions to this limited due to three major drawbacks

This article describes the process of using consciousness-raising activities in your classroom, and gives a rationale for their use for all levels, particular in EFL.

A year of teaching English to twelve-years-old children in Vietnam has provided some insight into some of the special areas of difficulty which derive from fundamental differences between their mother tongue, Vietnamese, and the language of the Anglo-Saxons. Language students everywhere have a problem in preventing the structure and tone of their native tongue intruding on their efforts in using the new language, and the problem is magnified when the two languages are so widely separated in every respect.
The Vietnamese language consists of short words that can have as many as eight different meanings depending on the tone of pronunciation. A word can be spelt with the same letters but differences in tone are indicated by diacritical marks placed above and below a vowel. Most words in Vietnamese have only three or four letters and almost none has more than six, so one might expect that the spelling of English words, which are often much longer and with irregular spelling, would ...

Enhancing students' reading is one of the major concerns in the field of teaching. There are different strategies that teachers can follow in order to support and encourage students to read properly as well as developing their critical thinking. Among those strategies is scaffolding. Many studies have shed the light on the use of scaffolded instruction in the classroom. The present paper seeks to survey the literature in order to reflect on the following questions: What is scaffolding? What kinds of scaffolding strategies can teachers use to encourage students to read properly? How is scaffolding proved to be an effective strategy? Several definitions of scaffolding will be given. Next, the theory behind scaffolding will be highlighted. Finally, a review of related literature, starting from 1991 to a more recent research in 2008, will be demonstrated.

As most people find TOEIC listening Part One an easy place to pick up points and it comes at the beginning of the exam and so can give you confidence for the rest of the test, it is well worth spending some time and effort thinking about how you can get the most out of it.