Possible Solutions

The following suggestions are proposed to make any English program that relies on ESL course books more effective. First, if an ESL course book is to be used, outside reading materials will need to be added to the curriculum. This would greatly increase and develop the student’s English language ability. In language learning, reading is considered one of the most important lessons for the learner. Researches in extensive reading have shown many beneficial effects on students. When learners read, they not only learn new words, but they can also develop their synaptic knowledge as well as general knowledge of the world. Other recent studies have also shown that students who participated in extensive reading increased gains in the areas of vocabulary knowledge as well as in reading comprehension and reading fluency .levitra One possible explanation for the increase is that students acquire new words incidentally through reading thousands and thousands of words every day. Learning vocabulary this way may be considered more effective than rote memorization because through reading interesting texts, students learn new vocabulary and review old ones. By increasing the amount of reading, especially reading for pleasure, it can increase both vocabulary knowledge and reading rate, both of which are an important part of reading comprehension.  Those who take TEFL jobs abroad must be aware of this, or their English teaching careers will languish.
Outside reading materials could also enhance ESL student motivation especially if they find the reading passages from the course book too easy or uninteresting. After all, the students who are using these ESL course books are young and they should be gaining knowledge from their readings, not just coming to class to practice English. With the use of outside reading materials, the English teacher can also design many different activities for the classroom. For example, if the class is reading a short story, the teacher can use class discussions as a form of conversation practice. Teachers can also have students do different kinds of presentations based on their readings. These activities would be more challenging for the students than the question and answer activities found in most ESL course books.
Another suggestion is to add grammar studies to the language program. A grammar textbook contains detailed explanation of grammar rules and offers more practice questions than those found in a typical course book. The ESL or EFL teacher can plan and devote part of the class time each week to teaching new grammar rules. This would not only help with student’s writing, but also in other areas as well such as speaking. The sooner we can get our students to use more correct English, the more confidence they will have. All of the activities above would make the classroom more interesting in which the students are more involved with the activities rather than just listening to the teacher and doing questions and answers from the course book.  This applies whether you are teaching ESL in Thailand, Japan, China, Argentina, or Egypt.

Conclusion

Using course books has its share of benefits and advantages such as having a well organized content with a consistency in the topics and genres for the four skill area (listening, speaking, reading, and writing). Teachers who adopt a course book may also find it easier to teach ESL since most of the preparation, including the types of activities, audios and in some cases, achievement tests, are already done by the publisher. This would be a great help to those inexperienced teachers who are just getting started with teaching. However, nothing in the world is perfect and teachers need to somehow solve the issues and problems that may come with ESL course books. These issues and problems may include finding ways to motivate students and teaching students academic skills not found in the course books. In this sense, the teacher’s job is not as easy as it seems. Many hours of planning and developing other activities are still required, but these planning and development will benefit both the student and the teacher by making the classroom activities more fun, more interesting, and result in more learning.
For more informationi on TESOL teacher training and TEFL jobs abroad please go to www.tefllife.com  

1. All students can practice speaking using little class time. This is great for ESL teacher.
2. Students develop both fluency and accuracy.  International TEFL teacher training should include this.
3. Improvement is easy to see, so students and teachers remain motivated.  Makes TEFL TESOL courses a snap.

Keys to Success:
1. Clear instructions are absolutely required for this to work. Often, Teacher’s first attempt at timed pair practice with a new class is confusing, but students eventually get it, so keep trying. By the second or third time, students understand what they must do and do it smoothly.  Teaching English as a foreign language thus becomes more a matter of follow-up than constant, desperate, improvisation.

2.  ESL Teachers must be patient in explaining the exact procedure to follow.
3. Start with simple English so students can focus on the process at first. When students understand how to do timed pair practice, you can increase the complexity of the language.

Basic Procedure:

1. Choose six (or ten or twelve) questions and divide them into two sets of equal difficulty, A and B. Print them onto two little slips of paper (three questions on one slip, three on the other) to give to students. Here’s a simple example:
A1. Do you like to play tennis?
A2. Do you have any brothers?
A3. Do you go to school by bus?
B1. Do you like swimming?
B2. Do you have any sisters?
B3. Do you come to school by bicycle?

The Teacher prints five sets, for ten students, on one A4 sheet of paper. If you print five such sheets and cut them, you will have enough questions for 50 students.

2. Give the A questions to half of the students, maybe the students in the first, third and fifth rows of your class. Tell them that these questions are “SECRET”. (If they show the questions to the other students, then those students will not have to listen later, so this is very important!)

3. Encourage students to ask the three questions “face to face” as in a real conversation, rather than reading directly off the paper. In other words, students must look at a question, remember it, then ask their partner while keeping eye contact. Their partners should answer with complete sentences.

4. Model with a good student using simple questions such as “What is your name?” and “How are you?”. The model student should answer with full sentences such as “My name is…” and “I’m pretty good today, thank you”.

5. Have students stand up. They begin when you give a signal such as “Three…two…one… GO!” and they may sit down after finishing all three (or five or seven) questions.

6. Use a timer. When one pair sits down, write their time on the blackboard. After about half the students have finished, write down that time too. When almost all, or perhaps all, students have finished, write down the slowest time on the board. (Now you can practice vocabulary such as “fastest” and “slowest” in context!)

7. Have one pair, usually the fastest, stand up and perform for the others. Use the timer to see if they can match or beat the fastest time. See if some other pairs can beat the fastest time. Be sure to check for accuracy and complete sentences.

8. Repeat with the B questions. Those students who were answering will now ask the questions and those who asked will now answer. Usually, the fastest time and the slowest time for Part B will be much better than Part A, because they have practiced.

9. Sometimes repeat the same questions, or use another set of questions with the same structure. The second time, students show dramatic improvement. (When  teaching using five questions for each part, the fastest students sometimes take more than 40 seconds, or they take 30 seconds and make many mistakes. The second time, however, the fastest pair takes under 20 seconds and the SLOWEST takes under 40!)
10. Be sure to get the questions back from the students at the end of the activity. That way you can put your hard work to use with other classes!

Conclusio  If possible, work with other teachers to think of and print out enough little “question cards”. One teacher can make a pair practice exercise one week, then let other teachers do it the following week. Share your exercises with other teachers and be sure to keep these cards for future classes. This is worth the effort, because watching students speak out quickly and accurately is very impressive! Keep trying Teacher Joe’s Timed Pair Practice until students can do it smoothly, then use it often. You’ll be amazed at students’ improvement.

You’ll learn all this, and more, during your TESOL certificate class at TEFL International, where TEFL jobs abroad leads to a cadre of dedicated and experienced ESL teachers who can always be counted on to steer the novice clear of any scam or fraud.

Information you will want to know before you make decisions on the use of names in class includes:

• If they are already likely to have “English names”
• What their attitude to “English names” might be
• How they would be expected to be addressed in the classroom in their own language, including whether it would vary from person to person (e.g. because of age or status)
• How much they will expect or be prepared to accept forms of address in an English class that are different to what would be usual in their language
• What previous teachers have done
• How their name is pronounced in their own language
• If there are any mispronunciations to be particularly careful to avoid (e.g. because it would make their name sound like a rude word in their language)
• Other cultural differences (e.g. putting surname first)

Possible advantages of giving “English names” include:

• Saving them from possible mispronunciations of their real name that might sound insulting (in their language or other languages)
• Saving them from people mixing up their family name and first name
• Making the use of first names more acceptable than it might otherwise be (due to being impolite in L1)
• Allowing them to take on a role in class and therefore drop their inhibitions and/ or some cultural baggage when speaking in English
• Giving them the chance to reinvent themselves if that is what they want to do, as some people do when they move abroad or interact with foreign people
• Making names easier for the teacher to pronounce and/ or remember
• Distinguishing between people in classes where they have the same names

English use of names

With students who introduce themselves with their real name, you still have a choice of what form to use. In English, the correct forms are generally:

• First name (= Given name/ Christian name) on its own
• Shortening of their given name (such as “Alex” for Alejandro)
• Other nicknames
• Title (Mr/ Mrs/ Ms/ Miss/ Dr/ etc) + last name (=Family name)
• Title from their own language (-san/ Monsieur/ Herr/ Signora/ etc) + last name/ family name

Things to bear in mind when choosing which ones to use include local norms and setting the right balance of politeness and friendliness in your class. Especially with in-company classes, there might also be issues with students copying the way you address the other students even when it is not really appropriate, e.g. using the first name of their boss.

Local use of names

If none of the English ways of addressing people mentioned above strike the right mix of politeness and friendliness, there might be other local options, for example:

• Title + given name
• Other respectful titles (Teacher/ Engineer/ Section manager/ etc), in English or their own language (e.g. “Sensei”), maybe with some form of their name
• Affectionate titles and tags (-ito/ -chan/ etc – a bit like “my son” or adding a –y to names in English)
• Nicknames in everyday use, e.g. the nicknames that many Thai people usually use in place of their given names

If you choose to use any of these in class, you might want to point out that this is not common in English and maybe your reasons for choosing to use it in your class.

You could also of course let them choose, perhaps teaching useful phrases such as “What would you like me to call you?” and “How should I address you?” Issues with letting them choose include:

• Some people choosing more respectful forms and this adding to differences in status that impede classroom interactions
• People just copying each other and so not ending up with something they are comfortable with
• Attempting to guess what you want them to choose rather than thinking about which they prefer
• Missing a chance to get them comfortable with being addressed in a way they are likely to be when they interact with foreign people

You’ll also need to decide how you want to be addressed. If you choose just your first name, some students might need some encouraging to actually use it, and some people believe it can lead to discipline problems with young learners. With adults, you might want to point out that calling you “Teacher” and “Sir” is not really age-appropriate.

Pronouncing names

As mentioned above, there can be some serious issues with mispronouncing ESL students’ names. Examples include:

• Sounding rude in their language
• Sounding rude in English or other languages
• Not actually recognizing that they are being addressed, e.g. because there is someone else in class whose name sounds the same when they are pronounced by an English speaker.

The simplest approach is to ask them to correct you, perhaps teaching them language they need to do so such as “You need to stress the last syllable”. I always introduce this by telling them that I will be correcting their pronunciation a lot and so this is their chance to do the same for me. I also make some kind of note of the pronunciation of the more difficult names, e.g. marking the stress or using a few phonetic symbols on the class register.  Your cultural sensitivity training with TEFL International will offer the best defense against these faux pas.  For more information go to www.tefllife.com

These problems point up the importance of obtaining your TESOL certificate from an organization that is not a scam or fraud.  TEFL International has been in the business of offering TESOL courses for a dozen years now, in places like Thailand, Indonesia, and Costa Rica, and they know how to deliver English teaching jobs in Thailand, and many other countries.  You need their expertise to avoid the pitfalls pointed out in this article.  Teach English and enjoy life, when you do it through TEFL International

English teaching in countries like Japan and Vietnam has traditionally emphasized methodology and materials. This assumes that if the language is taught in the “correct” way or in an easily assimilated form using the latest materials and techniques, learning will necessarily take place. Another approach has been to place emphasis on motivation of the students and then assume that once a strong desire to learn the target language has been instilled, the students will naturally succeed. However, many times the motivation exists and the teacher has good command of the various techniques, but the ESL students simply do not know how to go about learning the language. This is due to the fact that learning a language is often outside their experiences; first, because learning one’s native language was simply a natural part of growing up and second, because normally the study of English takes place only with the goal of passing entrance exams and hence the “paper test phenomenon” of concentrating on grammar. Therefore, English conversation teachers in Japan or the Phillipines should first focus on helping the students become better language learners. Students will have to be taught the skills necessary for successful language acquisition from the outset and these skills should constantly be cultivated and developed. Essentially, ESL students need to be taught how to learn the language.

To begin with, students of English conversation must understand the fundamental difference between learning about the language and learning to use it for verbal communication. The common analogy of learning to drive a car or play a musical instrument is useful in demonstrating this point. We can learn all about the parts of a car or instrument, how they are made and what their functions are as they relate to the whole, but it does not necessarily follow that with this knowledge we will be able to get behind the steering wheel of a car or pick up an instrument for the first time and drive or play well. The only way to become a good driver is to practice driving. The only way to be able to play an instrument well is to practice playing it. Likewise, the only way to become a good English speaker is to practice speaking English.

For more information on how you can receive a TESOL certificate and begin teaching English as a second language, please go to www.tefllife.com

Time to stop

It’s time to stop

It’s time to finish.

We’ll have to stop here.

There’s the bell.

We’ve run out of time

That’s all she wrote!

The next class is waiting (outside/ to come in)

You’ll be late for your next class (if you don’t stop now)

We’ll have to finish this tomorrow/ in the next lesson

Look at the time!

30 seconds to finish that activity. It’s nearly time to go

That’s all for today

Not time to stop.

The bell hasn’t rung yet.

There are still two minutes to go.

We still have a couple of minutes left.

The lesson doesn’t finish till five past.

Your watch(es) must be fast.

We seem to have finished early.

We have an extra five minutes.

We still have time to/for…/ We have five minutes left to/for…

Sit quietly until the bell rings.

Did someone tell you to pack your bags?

One more thing before you go

Cleaning up

Put your books and pencils away first.

Put your things in your bags

Close your books (and put them in your bags)

Pack your things away

You may pack up now

Tidy up (the classroom/ your desks) please

Put any rubbish in the wastebasket

The first team to tidy up gets an extra point/ can leave first

Homework

This is your homework for tonight

Copy tonight’s homework from the board

Who remembers what the homework is for tonight?

Finish this exercise/ Do the next exercise tonight, and we’ll check it tomorrow

Check your answers at the back of the book and ask me tomorrow if you have any questions

Learn this list of words (for homework/ by tomorrow/ tonight)

Don’t forget your homework (this time)

Take a worksheet as you leave.

Saying goodbye

Goodbye, everyone.

See you (again next Wednesday/ tomorrow/ later/ after the holiday/ after the break)

See you in room 7 after the break.

Have a good holiday.

Enjoy your vacation.

See you next week/ tomorrow/ on Wednesday/ next term/ after the holiday/ later/ this afternoon

Stand up and say goodbye to the class, please

Leaving the room

Whichever team is sitting nicely (and quietly, with your legs under the table) can go first

Form a line to wait for the bell.

Try not to make any noise as you leave/ No shouting/ No speaking in the corridor

Be quiet as you leave. Other classes are still working.

Girls/boys can leave first.

• Why it’s crucial
• Long-term and short-term memory
• Language fitness & agility
• Authenticity

• Why they won’t use English
• Peer pressure
• Lack of motivation
• Lack of support

• How we can get students talking
• Explain why it’s important
• Confidence tricks
• Attainable goals

• Conclusion

Why it’s important
Long-term and short-term memory
In theory, we grasp information in two ways: In short-term and long-term storage. We transfer information from one to the other by convincing our brains that facts in the short-term memory are valuable enough to be put in long-term storage – otherwise, the information is discarded.

• Our native language is stored in the long-term memory. New information about a second language, however, is stored in the short-term until it is transferred.

• To understand the new information quickly, we often translate into our native language. However, this makes it more difficult for the brain to accept the new information into the long-term memory. The result? We quickly forget the information about the second language.

• Students need to translate less often. If they get used to speaking English – this helps the new information to be stored more quickly and for longer.

Language fitness & agility
Language learning and maintenance works a surprising number of abilities – most importantly, the brain, and the more obvious muscles in the mouth and jaw.

• It follows logically that just as with any other muscle, the more you exercise it, the easier it is to use.

• So how often do teenagers exercise the muscles required for speaking English? If their only opportunity is English class, they need to maximise on the time to exercise as much as possible.

Authenticity
Speaking is a way of expressing ourselves in whatever language we use. The most motivating language to learn therefore enables us to talk in a way that is true to our personality. Even the best course book cannot provide this resource for every individual in every class!  TESOL teacher training, and student teaching, are just the beginning of wisdom in this area.

• Students bring their personalities to every class – if we can keep English as the language medium, their authentic language requirements will become apparent. This means accepting their personalities – in terms of topic (e.g. music, fashion, gossip), and function (e.g. exaggerating, exchanging anecdotes).

• If they don’t have the tools to express themselves in English, they’ll use the tools they do have – their native language.

Why they don’t use English
Peer pressure
We native speakers take years to master our language, so it’s no surprise a foreign language learner has to make a lot of mistakes before even managing to produce anything approaching standard English. The spontaneous nature of speaking means you’re likely to make more mistakes than you would otherwise. So generally we’re asking our ESL students to stand up and make fools of themselves at a time of their lives when they are at their most self-conscious.

Lack of motivation
If you ask a teenager why they think they should speak English in class, what’s the most likely answer? Stunned silence, a disdainful look, or a droned ‘because we have to practise’? They’re following orders – and for what? So that in two or three years they may be better able to communicate effectively with another English-speaker? Not only is the motive external, but the end goal is too distant for many teenagers. For many students, instant rewards for speaking English are much more motivating.

Lack of support
There are two kinds of support: Classroom atmosphere and linguistic support. It may not be realistic to expect teenagers to provide the generous and patient atmosphere ideal for language practice, but it is possible to encourage them to support each other, for example by working in teams.

It is easier to provide linguistic support, in terms of words and phrases that are required for classroom interaction. Classroom language (e.g. ‘Sorry I’m late’, ‘Can you repeat that, please?’ etc.) is the only English they will need to repeat throughout the whole course, and it has an authentic context – it would be a waste not to capitalize on it!

How we can get students talking
Explain why it’s important
Only the ESL teacher know how mature your class is and how well they will respond to the rationale behind your methods. However, it’s often worth giving even a less mature group a chance to understand what you’re trying to achieve. Not all students will react in the same way – the underlying theory may motivate smaller groups within the class, even though it might not appeal to the class as a whole.

Confidence tricks
This involves rewarding them for using ‘easy language’ – making them believe the goal is easy to achieve.

• Classroom language is ideal for this, as are pronunciation games.

• Drilling has a particular appeal, as the student’s voice is safe in a crowd of voices, and it is the sound of the English (not their English) that is strange or amusing.

• Along the same lines, choosing a buzzword for a class can encourage even the weakest student to try to use their English. The word could either be very useful, or sound a bit strange or be a key word in the group of vocabulary just learnt. The use of the word then has to be rewarded – and how you do that is up to you.  TEFL TESOL courses are the bedrock for these procedures.

Attainable goals
Obviously the lower the level of the group, the less English you can expect them to produce.

• For very low levels, the aim may be to spend only five or ten minutes speaking English per class. Initially this may be spent presenting and practicing classroom language, which then allows them to extend ‘English time’ for themselves.

• For higher levels, it is still worth identifying when it is more important to be using only English and when it is good to use their native language. This should be indicated by some kind of visual to remind them when to do what.

Conclusion
As with most techniques concerning teenagers, it’s important not to give up! For all concerned, the task is not easy but it isn’t impossible either. The aim is simply to try and increase the amount they speak English – this could be from 20% of the class to 40%, but it could also be from 0% of the class to 0.5%. Either way, you have had a positive effect on their oral English – so recognize it!

Feedback sheet

Something you can prepare to help you get the most out of your future studies together is a sheet of paper on which to put all the things you learn during your conversation exchange. For example, you could have one A4 sheet divided into sections for Grammar, Vocabulary and Pronunciation. Another way is to divide it into sections for Corrections, Better Ways of Saying Something, and Other Useful Language. Usually the person whose language is being spoken has this piece of paper and jots down things that they notice or think of during the conversation, to be discussed during a break in the conversation or towards the end of the period speaking that language. It is then given to the person who is studying that language to take home and use for revision.

Read up and discuss

Choose a topic on which there are lots of sources in both languages, and perhaps different opinions too. For example, if you are learning Thai and your partner is learning English, you could choose the topic of holidays. Both of you should read up on the topic as much as you can in both languages and then discuss the different views and information in the sources, why they might be different, and which views you most agree with.

Mini-presentations

This is similar to the ideas above, but without necessarily reading up first and with the onus on the person speaking. Choose one topic, e.g. “my family” or “problems in this city”, and prepare to talk about it for at least one or two minutes the next time you meet. Preparation could include brainstorming ideas, looking up useful words in a dictionary, writing notes, or even writing out the whole thing (although you shouldn’t actually read from what you have written while you are speaking). After listening to your presentation, your partner could ask you questions, correct some mistakes, tell you more complex ways of expressing yourself, or just talk about the same topic themselves.  You will find as an ESL teacher at school that this approach is one of the more successful gambits in getting students to participate.

Roleplays

I found this to be by far the most useful thing I did in conversation exchanges – pretending that I was in a real life situation like a job interview, a shop or a post office, and acting out that conversation with my partner. You will need to give them notice of which situation you want to role play, as people don’t often pay attention to what language is really used in these situations and I often had to say “Actually, the shopkeeper always says…” Try acting out the conversation first to see how well you cope. Then ask your partner to correct what you said, and to write down useful words and phrases for that situation. You can then try the role play again, but adding some trickier and more ridiculous situations like trying to buy an elephant or applying for the job of CEO of Microsoft.  TEFL TESOL courses often emphasize this strategy.

Controlled speaking practice

Another kind of more focused speaking practice that you often get in the modern language classroom but rarely get in conversation exchanges is controlled speaking practice. This means trying to use a limited range of vocabulary (e.g. mainly feelings adjectives), functional language (e.g. just requests and offers), and/ or grammar (e.g. mainly “Have you ever…?” questions) as you speak. As this is not normal in everyday conversation, you will need to put a bit of effort into making controlled practice work. The easiest way is just to ask each other questions that you would really like to hear the answer to using the language that you want to practice, e.g. “When did you last feel angry?” or “What are the most irritating things about your siblings?”

You can choose the language that you want to practice from things you are having difficulty with, or from what has been or will be in your regular classes.

Sound fascinating, doesn’t it?  Don’t get caught in a scam or fraud when you’re ready to go overseas as an ESL teacher; take the guaranteed TESOL certificate course through TEFL International.  For more information go.. Click Here

How do we use games to teach English learners in the classroom? Now that we realize the importance of games to teach English learners, the next step is to apply them within the classroom. When researching games to use as classroom activities, it is easy to see a correlation between popular children’s games and the adapted classroom version. A creative teacher will find that almost any game can be adjusted to suit the needs of a lesson. As we are dealing with the TESL TEFL TESOL setting, it is important to be sure that any games we might use are linguistically relevant, simple to explain, easy to set up, and fun to play. (Roth) Games can be used as an ice-breaker or warm-up at the beginning of class, as an introduction activity for new  a vocabulary or grammar, or as a review exercise at the end of a lesson, chapter, or before an exam. While the preparation of materials may be time-consuming,  the time and effort it might require to create the materials for each game will be well worth the while, and from then on, you’ll always have the materials available to you,

.

Examples of games to teach English learners: If you are still uncertain of what kind of game to teach English learners you may want to use or how to go about making them work for your classroom, perhaps the following examples may help.

• Tic-Tac-Toe  is altered slightly to accommodate for team play, but the traditional objective of three-in-a-row remains the same. Students must work together to correctly answer questions in order to gain a chance to place an X or O (based on their team) and each person on the team gets a chance to answer for their group. Questions can be in the form of pictures which match vocabulary, to creating a sentence using grammar points, or whatever you choose to review with the students.
• Concentration is a game to teach English learners that uses cards to match vocabulary or grammar points and is best played in circle-groups so that everyone can see the cards. The students can help you by making pairs of cards so that they get extra practice. Once you’ve shuffled each set of cards, they should be laid face-down in the middle of the circle. Each student takes a turn by flipping two cards face-up. If they match, the student wins those cards. If they do not match, the student must flip them face-down again and continue to pay attention so that they can make a match on their next turn. Students will help each other decide when a match is made, but you will want to monitor as well and perhaps have each student share their pairs at the end of the game for extra review.
• Oral Matching can be a fun way for English learners to mingle and practice conversation. Each student is given a slip of paper with either a question or an answer on it (for more variety, they can have one of each, so long as they don’t match!) and they are to read their questions and answers to their fellow students in order to decide which ones go together. For more fun, use a dialogue or story to create your question and answer slips. Once each student has found his or her matching pair(s), you can have the students put it back together in the original order and read it together.

We hope you’ve enjoyed these ESL lesson ideas.  For more information on how you can become certified to teach English overseas, please go to www.tefllife.com

TRANSPORTATION:

• Book your flight (or other transportation) well in advance. This way, you will be sure of availability and will generally find better prices.
• If you are flying, shop around for cheaper flights. Look at different airlines (including discount carriers), and try booking on different days (e.g. weekdays are often cheaper than weekends). You can also try flying into different cities in the region – sometimes certain airports have much cheaper international flights than other nearby destinations.
• To streamline the flight search process, you should take a look at online reservation systems. These allow users to search for the best prices among hundreds of possible airlines, routes, and times. Some popular services, and discount airlines are listed below:

From The US
http://www.orbitz.com
http://www.travelocity.com
http://www.expedia.com
From Europe
http://www.ebookers.com
http://www.edreams.com
http://www.easyjet.com
http://www.ryanair.com

• If possible, arrive at least a few days before the start of your TEFL International TESOL certification course. You will appreciate the extra time to adjust to your new surroundings and recover from your trip.

Make sure you are aware of all visa and work permit requirements for your intended destination.  When you have paid your reservation deposit to TEFL International, the course center staff will be glad to help you with any required letters from the school.

MEDICAL

• If you are currently taking any medications (prescription or over-the-counter, ask your doctor about their availability in your new country. If necessary, fill prescriptions before leaving.
• Note: Leave medications in their in original, clearly labeled containers in order to limit problems with immigration officials or police who may be suspicious of unmarked pharmaceuticals.
• If you wear glasses or contacts, make sure your prescription is up-to-date (and bring a copy of the prescription with you)

**Investigate your current health insurance coverage, and how it will be affected by your intended move

WHAT TO TAKE WITH YOU:

• Your official Passport, and a photocopy of your passport* (which you should store in separate locations)
• Copy of your Health Insurance Information*
• Copy of your birth certificate* (this will help you obtain a new passport if yours is lost or stolen.
• Notarized copy of your University Diploma* (this might be necessary for a school’s hiring process)

*NOTE regarding important documents – you should also leave a copy of each of the above with a trusted friend or family member, in case of an emergency.

• Bring nice, durable, somewhat conservative clothes for teaching, interviews, and daily life. Different cultures have different expectations about dress, and very flashy, risqué, or worn-out clothing may not be appropriate. In addition, fancy types of dress might bring you the unwanted attention of pick pockets (particularly expensive-looking jewelry.) And in countries with more conservative cultural attitudes (including Muslim nations), improper dress can be considered offensive.
• Bring at least some multi-seasonal clothing. Even though a region might be known for its sunshine and beaches, chances are it also sometimes experiences bad weather, which you also need to be prepared for.

You probably don’t need to bring large amounts of teaching books or supplies. Pack a few key materials, and plan to obtain anything else you need when you arrive. **You might also want to throw in some English-language books or magazines for personal reading – in some countries they will be hard to come by