Class Content – Introduction

Welcome to the Class Content section of the course. In this section, we’ll cover the key aspects of the English language which you’ll be teaching in your classes. We’ll also provide tips for helping students to learn these topics, and provide resources for further learning. This section will be split into the following two modules:

Parts of Speech – The types of words, punctuation, and structures used in the English language.

Tenses and Sentences – How we string these parts of speech together.

You’ll likely already be aware of some of the topics we’ll cover here – such as verbs and nouns etc. However, when it comes to teaching them to students, there’s certain techniques which are useful to learn. For other topics such as sentence structures and tenses, it may be daunting how much there is to remember.

It’s important to note here that early on in your TEFL career, you won’t be expected to have full mastery of every intricate detail about the English language. There’s countless grammar patterns, phrase structures, word roots, rule exceptions and more. Your knowledge of these will build as you gain more classroom experience, and will add to your value as a seasoned teacher.

What is vital however, is that you’re familiar with the frameworks and foundations of the language, and can use this understanding to prepare lessons for specific topics as you encounter them in your syllabus.

—Parts of Speech

Types of word – Introduction

The first part of the English language which we’ll cover are the different types of words that exist. The English language is made up of eight different types of word, each with its own name, rules of use and roles. In the following pages we’ll explore these words, and address several useful approaches for introducing them to students:

Noun | Verb | Adjective  | Pronoun | Adverb | Preposition |Conjunction | Interjection

Exercise: Above are the different types of words used in the English language. See if you can define, and write down 3 examples for each one before we start the lesson.

At the end, you can come back and check your notes to see how well you did. In the next few pages we’ll look into these in further detail.

Types of word – Nouns, verbs, adjectives

Nouns, verbs and adjectives are usually the first types of words which your students will come across when starting to learn English. Below we’ll cover what they are, and ideas on how to present them to students.

Nouns

Nouns are naming words and are used for things, places, people or ideas. They are often the very first thing taught to English learners and are the most basic type of word. There is also a category of noun known as proper nouns, which are the particular names of people or places. Here’s some examples of nouns:

Pen/pencil
Home/street
Girl/boy
Love/hate

One of the great things about nouns is that they can be easily shown to students, and often learned quickly. A great way to begin teaching nouns can be with concrete objects which can be brought into the classroom, or with images on flashcards. This way, students can easily build an association with the new word, and the object or idea which it represents.

Verbs

Verbs describe an action or state of a subject. There are several categories of verbs that exist which we’ll cover later in this course. However, for now here are some basic examples:

Eat, sleep, jump, watch.
Think, feel, daydream.

One thing to note about verbs, is that they often change to reflect time or duration – for example:eat/ate/eaten/eating. Because of this, they can be one of the more challenging parts of your students’ learning.

When teaching verbs it’s important to give clear examples to ensure your students understand the action or state that’s being described. Key ways to do this can include acting out the verb, showing video clips, or clear images. It’s also a common practice to first teach the present tense of a verb, to avoid confusing students. Then afterwards introduce the past and future variations.

To get beginners started with verbs, it can also help to pair their learning with a simple sentence structure such as ‘I like to…’ Or ‘I can…’. These sentences are immediately useful and give students a chance to practice the new verbs without having to worry about tenses.

Adjectives

Adjectives are used to describe nouns. They are useful for adding accuracy, interest, deeper information and imagination to communication. Here are some examples of different types of adjectives:

Red, blue, yellow.
Hot, cold, windy.
Pretty, ugly, expensive.

New English learners will often start by learning colors as it’s simple to create a context for this kind of lesson and it gives students a way to describe most objects and people.

Assignment/Quiz: