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The answer to this question is plain and simple: very, if not the most important thing. You see, English is a stressed language as opposed to others that are considered syllabic languages. It means that stress is what carries most of the meaning in spoken language, rather than syllables. There is a very practical way of getting to understand this.

Grew up in an English speaking country? Or your Mum and Dad taught you to speak English? Or both? Congratulations! You have a talent that is in huge demand and that can take you just about anywhere in the world. Teaching English as a second or foreign language.

Learning a language is a complex and long process as anyone who has tried will agree. One of the most difficult and frustrating things is making the transition from the classroom to the 'real' world. In the classroom, everyone knows you are a student and mistakes are allowed, and the environment is contained and safe.

Bilingual education has become very popular lately, with perhaps the most compelling reason for bilingual education being the concept of equality of education in our country. How is it possible for someone to obtain a great education when he or she doesn't fully understand the language the lessons are being taught in? Isn't that student going to become a second-class citizen?

The Productive Skills - Speaking

Teaching is tough enough. However, if you really want to make it hard on yourself and turn off your students, try one of these.

Somewhere between scholarly studies of how people learn and the frontline experience of teaching, the issue of how TEFL/ESL learners actually acquire and keep language is confronted in activity design. Language practice activities come in many forms...

When people speak or write, they try to find the best way to describe what they are referring to. Using details to explain things makes the topic more interesting, as well as easier to picture and understand. Sometimes, it gets a little confusing trying to think of descriptive words and to remember how they work. In these moments, you may find that you need a little help.
There are websites that explain how and when to use descriptive words and give many examples of great word choices. Words used to describe other things are called adjectives and adverbs. While both add description, they work a little differently. A quality website that instructs on the proper use of descriptive words will use numerous models to show the differences in how the words are used.
Adjectives describe pronouns and nouns, such as people, places, things, and ideas. Questions that can help you remember adjectives include: which one? How many? What kind? These are questions that can be answered with: that... ; ...

Second language skills are best learned if speaking is a major component of the learning process, in fact it is essential, but learning a language in countries where that language is not universally spoken can be problematic. This is because the language instructors are not sufficiently versed in speaking that particular second language to teach it. Students, whether in a school setting or in a language training centre often learn to read and write, but they don't speak enough to be able to get a good grasp of the language to be proficient in both oral and written communication. In some settings, the teacher doesn't know the language well enough so resorts to teaching the second language while using the native language. In other cases, the new language is so badly pronounced that the student walks away speaking a 'dialect' that only folks from that particular country can understand. It would not meet international standards.
Some educationalists believe that a grammatical approach to ...

Using the Experiential Learning Cycle as a framework for training TESOL teachers can have many positive outcomes including on the confidence and competence of each individual participant. The stages of the ELC framework are explored along with its benefits.