The TEFL Horizons Podcast

"By the end of the lesson, students will be able to..." 

Does that phrase look familiar? If you're a teacher, chances are you're aware of the practice of writing aims or objectives for your lessons. Maybe you learned about this in a training course, or maybe you work at a language school where your boss looks over your plans.

For many teachers, sitting down to write out lesson aims can feel a little like a pointless chore. If you have a sense of what you want to do in the lesson, do you really need to write it all out? Is the wording REALLY that important?

In this episode, we talk all about lesson aims and why they may just matter a lot more than you realized. We'll share practical tips for making your aims count, tell you exactly how to determine the right main and sub aim for different types of lessons, and discuss why having a clear aim is the main thing that can make or break your lesson.

🔗 Looking for an easy and thorough reference of all the different lesson types and frameworks? Download your free ==> Guide to Lesson Frameworks.

For more information, you can also review here:

•  stages in general 
• reading lessons
• listening lessons
• speaking lessons
• writing lessons

 Thank you for listening!
 ➡️ If you enjoyed this episode, share it on Instagram stories and tag me at @tefl_horizons and I'll repost you 🙌 And please take a moment to leave a rating and quick review to spread the word and support the podcast

COURSES & TRAINING with TEFL HORIZONS:
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FREE RESOURCES for ESL TEACHERS:
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📘 Download your free guide - How to Teach English Online: ...

In this week's episode, we're doing an in-depth review of teaching SKILLS lessons, starting with how they differ from systems (grammar and vocabulary) lessons. 

It's tempting to think that every lesson should involve teaching students new words and grammatical structures, but it's equally important to focus on developing students' skills: reading and listening comprehension and speaking and writing fluency. Tune in to learn practical strategies for tackling all four of these skills in your classroom. 

 Thank you for listening!
 ➡️ If you enjoyed this episode, share it on Instagram stories and tag me at @tefl_horizons and I'll repost you 🙌 And please take a moment to leave a rating and quick review to spread the word and support the podcast

COURSES & TRAINING with TEFL HORIZONS:
🗝️ Join the TEFL Horizons Membership: https://teflhorizons.com/membership
🍏 Get Trained and Certified with Online English Teacher: https://teflhorizons.com/oet
⭐️ Build Your Online Teaching Business with Online TEFLpreneur: https://teflhorizons.com/teflpreneur
🖥️ All Courses: https://teflhorizons.com/courses

FREE RESOURCES for ESL TEACHERS:
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📲 Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tefl_horizons/
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📘 Download your free guide - How to Teach English Online: ...

How do you approach teaching writing? Do you give your students writing exercises in class, or do you just assign writing tasks as homework? 

In this episode, we'll discuss the benefits of working on students' writing skills in the classroom, and we'll take you through exactly how to structure an effective writing lesson. You'll learn why the writing task itself is the most important piece of the whole puzzle, as well as a practical process that help you turn your ESL students into better, more confident writers. 

 Thank you for listening!
 ➡️ If you enjoyed this episode, share it on Instagram stories and tag me at @tefl_horizons and I'll repost you 🙌 And please take a moment to leave a rating and quick review to spread the word and support the podcast

COURSES & TRAINING with TEFL HORIZONS:
🗝️ Join the TEFL Horizons Membership: https://teflhorizons.com/membership
🍏 Get Trained and Certified with Online English Teacher: https://teflhorizons.com/oet
⭐️ Build Your Online Teaching Business with Online TEFLpreneur: https://teflhorizons.com/teflpreneur
🖥️ All Courses: https://teflhorizons.com/courses

FREE RESOURCES for ESL TEACHERS:
💌 Join the free newsletter for weekly teaching tips: https://teflhorizons.com/newsletter
💻 Subscribe on YouTube for free training videos: https://www.youtube.com/@teflhorizons
📲 Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tefl_horizons/
🎧 Subscribe to this podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2288657
📘 Download your free guide - How to Teach English Online: ...

This week's episode features guest Jackie Bolen. 

Jackie taught English in South Korea at private institutes and universities for over ten years. She now lives in Vancouver, Canada where she does some teaching, writing, and various online things, including running her two websites, eslactivity.org and eslspeaking.org. She is both CELTA and DELTA certified and believes in the value of communicative, interactive language learning. Jackie is  particularly interested in using games in the ESL classroom, and she has published several games and activities books, which you can find on Amazon. In her spare time, she's usually on the hunt for the most delicious kimchi she can find, which isn't that easy in Vancouver! 

Today, Jackie joins us to discuss teaching in Korea, advice on finding a job, and to offer some great advice on how to make the ESL classroom more fun.

 Thank you for listening!
 ➡️ If you enjoyed this episode, share it on Instagram stories and tag me at @tefl_horizons and I'll repost you 🙌 And please take a moment to leave a rating and quick review to spread the word and support the podcast

COURSES & TRAINING with TEFL HORIZONS:
🗝️ Join the TEFL Horizons Membership: https://teflhorizons.com/membership
🍏 Get Trained and Certified with Online English Teacher: https://teflhorizons.com/oet
⭐️ Build Your Online Teaching Business with Online TEFLpreneur: https://teflhorizons.com/teflpreneur
🖥️ All Courses: https://teflhorizons.com/courses

FREE RESOURCES for ESL TEACHERS:
💌 Join the free newsletter for weekly teaching tips: https://teflhorizons.com/newsletter
💻 Subscribe on YouTube for free training videos: https://www.youtube.com/@teflhorizons
📲 Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tefl_horizons/
🎧 Subscribe to this podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2288657
📘 Download your free guide - How to Teach English Online: ...

We all know that helping students develop their speaking fluency is important, but are students really getting better at speaking EVERY time they're talking in a lesson? 

In this week's episode, you'll learn how to devote an entire lesson to speaking fluency, including specific stages, activities, and advice.

 Thank you for listening!
 ➡️ If you enjoyed this episode, share it on Instagram stories and tag me at @tefl_horizons and I'll repost you 🙌 And please take a moment to leave a rating and quick review to spread the word and support the podcast

COURSES & TRAINING with TEFL HORIZONS:
🗝️ Join the TEFL Horizons Membership: https://teflhorizons.com/membership
🍏 Get Trained and Certified with Online English Teacher: https://teflhorizons.com/oet
⭐️ Build Your Online Teaching Business with Online TEFLpreneur: https://teflhorizons.com/teflpreneur
🖥️ All Courses: https://teflhorizons.com/courses

FREE RESOURCES for ESL TEACHERS:
💌 Join the free newsletter for weekly teaching tips: https://teflhorizons.com/newsletter
💻 Subscribe on YouTube for free training videos: https://www.youtube.com/@teflhorizons
📲 Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tefl_horizons/
🎧 Subscribe to this podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2288657
📘 Download your free guide - How to Teach English Online: ...

This week's episode features guest Jessie Ebersole. 

Jessie is the Director of Academic Programs at Washington English Center, a non-profit English language school for adult immigrants in Washington, D.C., which relies on all volunteer teachers to teach 14 levels of classes. Jessie started out in the TESOL field as a volunteer, and later went on to complete a master’s degree in TESOL at American University. She previously taught at American University’s English Language Training Academy, and was a draft writer for parts of Intercambio’s textbook series Confidence and Connections. Jessie is the WATESOL Adult ED Special Interest Group Chair, and she always enjoys opportunities to connect with the broader TESOL community. 

In our conversation, Jessie and I discuss how starting as a volunteer teacher kicked off her career in the field of English language teaching, and we dive into the benefits of being a volunteer teacher in general.

 Thank you for listening!
 ➡️ If you enjoyed this episode, share it on Instagram stories and tag me at @tefl_horizons and I'll repost you 🙌 And please take a moment to leave a rating and quick review to spread the word and support the podcast

COURSES & TRAINING with TEFL HORIZONS:
🗝️ Join the TEFL Horizons Membership: https://teflhorizons.com/membership
🍏 Get Trained and Certified with Online English Teacher: https://teflhorizons.com/oet
⭐️ Build Your Online Teaching Business with Online TEFLpreneur: https://teflhorizons.com/teflpreneur
🖥️ All Courses: https://teflhorizons.com/courses

FREE RESOURCES for ESL TEACHERS:
💌 Join the free newsletter for weekly teaching tips: https://teflhorizons.com/newsletter
💻 Subscribe on YouTube for free training videos: https://www.youtube.com/@teflhorizons
📲 Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tefl_horizons/
🎧 Subscribe to this podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2288657
📘 Download your free guide - How to Teach English Online: ...

In this episode, we're going into even more depth on how to teach effective listening lessons. First, we talk about different ways we listen in real life and how we can apply this to our classrooms. Then we go over the different listening "sub-skills," why the distinction between them matters, and examples of how you can help students practice each one. Finally, we offer some suggestions for taking listening tasks to the next level, and answer some common questions (should you give students the transcript?) along the way.

 Thank you for listening!
 ➡️ If you enjoyed this episode, share it on Instagram stories and tag me at @tefl_horizons and I'll repost you 🙌 And please take a moment to leave a rating and quick review to spread the word and support the podcast

COURSES & TRAINING with TEFL HORIZONS:
🗝️ Join the TEFL Horizons Membership: https://teflhorizons.com/membership
🍏 Get Trained and Certified with Online English Teacher: https://teflhorizons.com/oet
⭐️ Build Your Online Teaching Business with Online TEFLpreneur: https://teflhorizons.com/teflpreneur
🖥️ All Courses: https://teflhorizons.com/courses

FREE RESOURCES for ESL TEACHERS:
💌 Join the free newsletter for weekly teaching tips: https://teflhorizons.com/newsletter
💻 Subscribe on YouTube for free training videos: https://www.youtube.com/@teflhorizons
📲 Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tefl_horizons/
🎧 Subscribe to this podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2288657
📘 Download your free guide - How to Teach English Online: ...

Welcome to Episode 21 of Expand Your Horizons! This week, our guest is Orlando Delgado. Orlando has been working as the Director of Teacher Training & Development Operations for IH Mexico for 7 years now, leading the 15 IH TT Department branches in the country, and he is also a member of the executive board of directors. He has worked as a teacher trainer for over 10 years, in Mexico, the US, the UK, Ukraine, Italy, Canada, Tunisia and Argentina, and as a freelance coursebook writer for the University of Dayton. Additionally, he is a very active CELTA, ICELT and Delta Assessor, travelling in Europe, and North, Central and South America assessing other CELTA centres. He remains actively involved in professional development and reflective practice and holds a master’s degree in Teacher Education from The University of Manchester. He is currently working on his MBA through Warwick University Business School. As Director of Operations, Orlando leads and implements projects to make teacher training at IH Mexico as effective as it can be, and he also gets to work with the sales and marketing team to develop innovative new products and courses.

In our interview today, we’ll be talking about his career path and how he got to where he is now, as well as what it’s like to be a non-native English speaker in the ELT (English language teaching) field, and what it’s like to teach or get certified to teach in Mexico.

 Thank you for listening!
 ➡️ If you enjoyed this episode, share it on Instagram stories and tag me at @tefl_horizons and I'll repost you 🙌 And please take a moment to leave a rating and quick review to spread the word and support the podcast

COURSES & TRAINING with TEFL HORIZONS:
🗝️ Join the TEFL Horizons Membership: https://teflhorizons.com/membership
🍏 Get Trained and Certified with Online English Teacher: https://teflhorizons.com/oet
⭐️ Build Your Online Teaching Business with Online TEFLpreneur: https://teflhorizons.com/teflpreneur
🖥️ All Courses: https://teflhorizons.com/courses

FREE RESOURCES for ESL TEACHERS:
💌 Join the free newsletter for weekly teaching tips: https://teflhorizons.com/newsletter
💻 Subscribe on YouTube for free training videos: https://www.youtube.com/@teflhorizons
📲 Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tefl_horizons/
🎧 Subscribe to this podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2288657
📘 Download your free guide - How to Teach English Online: ...

In this week's episode, we're continuing our series on helping students develop their receptive skills, but today we're shifting our focus to listening! We discuss why listening comprehension needs its own targeted focus and why reading out the transcript isn't as helpful as playing an audio file. Then we walk through specific, practical tips on how to make sure your listening lessons are successful, including how to manage timing, how to deal with tech malfunctions, how to coach students through particularly challenging audio texts, and how to get the most out of feedback.

 Thank you for listening!
 ➡️ If you enjoyed this episode, share it on Instagram stories and tag me at @tefl_horizons and I'll repost you 🙌 And please take a moment to leave a rating and quick review to spread the word and support the podcast

COURSES & TRAINING with TEFL HORIZONS:
🗝️ Join the TEFL Horizons Membership: https://teflhorizons.com/membership
🍏 Get Trained and Certified with Online English Teacher: https://teflhorizons.com/oet
⭐️ Build Your Online Teaching Business with Online TEFLpreneur: https://teflhorizons.com/teflpreneur
🖥️ All Courses: https://teflhorizons.com/courses

FREE RESOURCES for ESL TEACHERS:
💌 Join the free newsletter for weekly teaching tips: https://teflhorizons.com/newsletter
💻 Subscribe on YouTube for free training videos: https://www.youtube.com/@teflhorizons
📲 Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tefl_horizons/
🎧 Subscribe to this podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2288657
📘 Download your free guide - How to Teach English Online: ...

We're continuing on in our series of how to teach reading, and this week we're talking through a common issue: how do you deal with vocabulary in a reading lesson? Yes, we know the main aim of any reading lesson should be reading comprehension, but what if students start to ask questions about the vocabulary in the text? Should you offer to define unknown words for the students as you go along? How much vocab do the students really need to know in order to comprehend what they’re reading? We’ve got the answers for you in this episode.

 Thank you for listening!
 ➡️ If you enjoyed this episode, share it on Instagram stories and tag me at @tefl_horizons and I'll repost you 🙌 And please take a moment to leave a rating and quick review to spread the word and support the podcast

COURSES & TRAINING with TEFL HORIZONS:
🗝️ Join the TEFL Horizons Membership: https://teflhorizons.com/membership
🍏 Get Trained and Certified with Online English Teacher: https://teflhorizons.com/oet
⭐️ Build Your Online Teaching Business with Online TEFLpreneur: https://teflhorizons.com/teflpreneur
🖥️ All Courses: https://teflhorizons.com/courses

FREE RESOURCES for ESL TEACHERS:
💌 Join the free newsletter for weekly teaching tips: https://teflhorizons.com/newsletter
💻 Subscribe on YouTube for free training videos: https://www.youtube.com/@teflhorizons
📲 Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tefl_horizons/
🎧 Subscribe to this podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2288657
📘 Download your free guide - How to Teach English Online: ...