Redprint Resources

Brian Stocker asked:


One of our customers recently wrote to me with some feedback on our bingo games. I thought her comments were so typical and highlighted some misunderstandings and problems with ESL bingo.

Her comments were –

It took a long time for my students to learn how the game is played but once they did they had a lot of fun.

This is a very typical comment and illustrates a ms-conception. If native speakers were to play the same bingo game, it would be simple because we understand the vocabulary and the rules. And if we had questions about the rules, we could easily consult the rules and clarify our concerns.

However, for a native speaker, the situation is very different. They don’t understand the vocabulary, not the rules, where are in a foreign language. So, it is going to take some time to set up, and probably the first game will be difficult, but after that, our experience is students can’t get enough!

Here are some pointers and suggestions for playing bingo:

* Prepare before you start. Before class, review the vocabulary and make a note of any difficult words. Before actually playing the game, introduce the words. This can be made into a game as well. Instead of simply telling students the definitions, say something like, “If you are going to win, you will need to know these words. Here are some clues for winning.” or “I’m going to tell you 3 clues, are you listening?”

* The first game MAY be difficult, but preparation will help. With proper preparation, you will see a huge change on the second or third game. They are so eager to win they will learn the rest of the vocabulary themselves.

* Students love to help each other, and love to be the one that ‘knows.’ Use this to your advantage by allowing students to work together for the first game. Depending on the group, you may want to allow some helping and working together on the second game as well. After that, students should have a grasp of the game and some of the vocabulary to play without sharing or helping.

We have found Bingo to be an excellent supplemental activity for ESL students. If played at the end of the class, students leave their English class feeling positive and look forward to coming back.



Learn ESL Online

Michael G. Hines asked:


When a ESL/EFL/TEFL school searches for a new teacher for an open ESL/TEFL/TEFL teaching position, they already have an image of the teacher they want. Every school has certain qualities they feel a teacher must have to be successful. Those qualities can be many things depending on the needs and location of the school. While the qualities that each school considers important may vary, there are usually shared qualities that all schools would consider important to the job.

The experience or background of a teacher is the most important quality a school looks for so your resume should highlight the qualities they are looking for. If they are looking for an ESL/EFL/TEFL teacher for kindergarten students, it may be best to highlight lessons that contain activities that you have initiated and prepared at your previous schools. In addition, if you are looking at a position for a content subject such as science or math, highlight your knowledge and education (i.e. degree) in that area. This is especially important if you are a new teacher with little or no experience. Regardless, you should also have all academic qualifications available for the school to preview before you go for an interview. Most schools want to review the qualifications prior to hiring or considering applicants for a teaching position and will sometimes pass on teachers who don’t submit these items for review when applying. Each ESL/EFL/TEFL school is unique so the best thing would be to have a cover letter that speaks to that school and the teaching job they are looking to fill. Don’t just have a blanket letter and resume that you mass mail to any potential school looking for a teacher in the hopes of gaining employment. It may be beneficial to have a list of professional highlights that you can copy and paste into a cover letter based on the requirements of the position.

Another important consideration for schools is the personal qualities of a teacher. Most schools are looking for a long term commitment from a teacher so they want to make sure that teacher will fit within their school. The obvious qualities that come to mind are personable, positive and flexible/patient because these qualities will carry over into the classroom and interaction with your future students. In addition, the school will look at a teacher’s qualities with regards to their professionalism because there is much that is required outside of the classroom such as preparing lessons, creating worksheets and tests and the always popular grading of assignments. In other words, they will want a teacher that is organized and committed. If they feel that the teacher can’t be depended on, they may not consider them a viable candidate. One of the things that may highlight a teacher’s lack of commitment is a resume that shows numerous ESL/EFL/TEFL teaching positions over a short period of time. Remember that you will not be judged strictly by your qualifications but on the sum of who you are as an individual.

The factors that go into a school’s decision to accept a teacher are varied and many so it is impossible to cover them all. Regardless, cover the basics looked for in any teacher for any teaching job and then identify the unique characteristics or qualifications of a particular position. Remember that looking for a teaching job, like many other employment searches, is about selling yourself and the best way to do this is by identifying what the employer (i.e the school) wants.

 The following is an abbreviated list of characteristics posted by a teacher in response to a UNICEF request to “What makes a Good Teacher?”:

Positive - The teacher thinks positively and enthusiastically about people and what they are capable of becoming.  Sees the good in any situation and can move forward to make the most of difficult situations when confronted with obstacles. Encourages others to also be positive.

Dependable - The teacher is honest and authentic in working with others. Consistently lives up to commitments to students and others. Works with them in an open, honest, and forthright manner.

Organized - The teacher makes efficient use of time and moves in a planned and systematic direction. Knows where he or she is heading and is able to help students in their own organization and planning. Can think in terms of how organization can be beneficial to those served.

Committed - The teacher demonstrates commitment to students and the profession and is self-confident, poised and personally in control of situations. Has a healthy self-image. Encourages students to look at themselves in a positive manner, careful to honor the self-respect of the students, while encouraging them to develop a positive self-concept.

 Motivational - The teacher is enthusiastic with standards and expectations for students and self. Understands the intrinsic motivations of individuals, and knows what it is that motivates students. Takes action in constructive ways.

Compassionate - The teacher is caring, empathetic and able to respond to people at a feeling level. Open with personal thoughts and feelings, encouraging others to do likewise. Knows and understands the feelings of students.

Flexible - The teacher is willing to alter plans and directions in a manner which assists people in moving toward their goals. Seeks to reason out situations with students and staff in a manner that allows all people to move forward in a positive direction.

Knowledgeable - The teacher is in a constant quest for knowledge. Keeps up in his or her specialty areas, and has the insight to integrate new knowledge. Takes knowledge and translates it to students in a way which is comprehensible to them, yet retains its originality.

 Creative - The teacher is versatile, innovative, and open to new ideas. Strives to incorporate techniques and activities that enable students to have unique and meaningful new growth experiences.

Patient - The teacher is deliberate in coming to conclusions. Strives to look at all aspects of the situation and remains highly fair and objective under most difficult circumstances. Believes that problems can be resolved if enough input and attention is given by people who are affected.

You can also practice answers to typical teacher interview questions like the ones on the following sites:

Virginia Polytechnic Institute

 Resumes for Teachers

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Learn ESL Online

Brian Stocker asked:


Teaching ESL to children is challenging but also very rewarding. Before I walk into a class of 10-year olds, I take a deep breath. Children have no attention span AT ALL, and so I tell myself to slow right down before I start. Teaching children requires patience and a sense of fun and playfulness. Even though it seems obvious, a common mistake is to think that children are simply ’short adults!’ This is sure to get you off on the wrong foot!

Here are some tips for teaching ESL to children:



Involve Children in an hands-on Activities. Children’s minds are incredibly open and they learn by absorbing ideas and concepts directly. Children need to be actively involved. Get students up and out of their chairs and moving around. Sing songs, and play games.



Avoid talking for long periods of time. I find that the energy level of the classroom drops lower and lower. Explain an activity quickly and then go to it. Keep the energy moving! If your planned activity is a flop, move on. Keep a few extra activities handy for this purpose. Children need lots of stimulation all the time.



Children learn by interacting with each other and with the teacher. Try to talk to each child individually each class. Whenever possible, have children working in groups and in pairs.



Review, Review, Review. New information is absorbed and has meaning when it is related to information students have already learned. Quickly review new concepts at the beginning of each class.



Encourage students to correct themselves and other students. Self correction or self-regulation is an important part of learning. Students should be encouraged to ask, “How am I doing?” and “Am I doing this right?” in an open and non-judgmental environment. Children raised in authoritative cultures may need additional re-inforcement.



Use what is learned in different contexts. The more contexts used the better, and the more concrete and ‘real life’ the contexts the better. Make it real for students by talking about them and their lives.



Praise, Praise, Praise. Encourage and build students up in a natural way. Learning occurs when students are motivated and feel good about themselves.



Looking back on my years of teaching, the children’s classes took a bit of getting used to, but were the most memorable and fun!



Online ESL Learning

Stephen Stocker asked:


There are times of the day when special activities such as ESL classroom games are very appropriate. Although the daily school timetable varies from country to country, it is usual for children aged five to nine to have a playtime break during the morning. They stop for lunch around noon and return to class for a time during the afternoon. Regardless of the schedule, many will likely be able to stay on task until the first break but there will be some who sit and dream and others who disturb their friends. The class time directly after the morning break is good learning time. It’s a good time for the teacher to introduce the more difficult parts of the program. The last half hour before lunch, however, is a tired, very low energy time, a time when ESL classroom games can help. The afternoon follows a similar pattern to the two morning periods.

We can assume that in most countries the school day has about three low energy times that everyone feels: children feel it, and teachers feel it. It doesn’t matter if you are teaching the same children in an ESL class all day or if you are seeing them for a short period of time in an English Foreign Language class in their home country. These low energy times are the most challenging for teachers. ESL classroom games can help teachers and students learn through these times.

For children who are beginning to speak English, here is an ESL classroom game that you can prepare. Find pictures of things you have been talking about in the program you are using or in a magazine. Cut them out and you are ready to play!

ESL Classroom Game 1

Give each student a small piece of paper. Hold up one picture and ask one child to name it. (You might want to review the names of all the pictures you are going to hold up before you start.) If the child is right, let them have the picture on their desk for the duration of the game and stamp their small piece of paper with a picture or draw a star on it. If the student is wrong then put the picture behind the others in the pile. Continue with the other pictures. Pay particular attention to the children who are insecure. Ask them about pictures that you think they will know. As they gain confidence they’ll be more successful. Sometime the fear of making a mistake overwhelms them. Another approach is to have the children answer in pairs. A good follow-up activity for this ESL classroom game is to give each child one of the pictures and have them draw it on their small piece of paper and print its name under it.

ESL Classroom Game 2

Give one or two pictures plus a small piece of paper to each student. They should all be given the same number of pictures. They are to listen while you say a sentence about one of the pictures. The student who has the right picture holds it up and gets a stamp or star on their paper of book. This can be followed by having them draw the picture on their small piece of paper and print a sentence or word about it.



Learn ESL Online

Stephen Stocker asked:


Hearing about the homes where other children live are perhaps the first thing a child will notice. They will ask questions about what they see, and through the problems encountered in a good story gain a broader understanding or the world beyond their own doors. A good selection of ESL stories will present a view of many different kinds of homes in a variety of places.

The games that foreign children play are of great interest, especially if some games are included as a part of the ESL kid’s activities. By participating in games the children not only learn English, but they learn to cooperate in a way that may be different from the games of their own culture.

ESL Stories that have an exciting plot will spark the children’s imagination. They identify with the hero or heroine and live their adventures with them. Young children don’t separate reality and fantasy, for them it is all very real. This provides an opportunity for educators to develop the student’s thinking skills. Questions such as, “What do you think they will do?” can lead to brainstorming for ideas. The class can have fun thinking up solutions to the problems of the storybook characters. They’ll gain confidence with this if they are shown that their solution are just as good as the ones in the ESL stories.

New creative storybook endings can also be developed in several ways, depending on the age and English language abilities of the children.

- For younger children their story ending might be expressed through the teacher or the children drawing on the board. These can also be done by the children on paper. Each child or pair of children can illustrate the story ending with their own ideas. In this way they are internalizing the meaning of the language.

- Oral language is another approach. Through input from the children the teacher can build their story ending step by step and retell it for them. It’s fun to retell it for several sentences and then stop and have them add the next part. The story will keep changing with each retelling but that only increases the amount of language being presented. The key here is to stop the activity as soon as the children’s interest starts to fade. The activity may last only three minutes or it may last ten or fifteen minutes, every group is different.

- Storybooks are a perfect medium for motivating written language. They provide the stimulus and the basic ideas for the children to start from. Questions such as: “What would you do” or “Do you think he/she will escape?” or “What should they do?” are ready made creative writing activities that ESL storybooks can provide.

The common thread throughout all of these suggestions is that the class is a cohesive whole. The students are working together in large groups, small groups or individually, but always surrounded by the stimulation of ideas from their classmates. In this way storybooks present the lives of English speaking children in an exciting way. They will motivate ESL children to participate more, become more involved and they will learn English in an imaginative environment.



ESL Shop

Josef Essberger asked:


Your resume (CV in British English) has one mission and one mission only: to get you a job interview. Your resume is usually the first impression an employer has of you. And as ‘you never get a second chance to make a first impression’, you’d better get it right first time.

Tip 1: Use design that demands attention

Employers don’t have time to read through each of your job descriptions to know if you have the skills they need. The design of your resume must do it for them. Your resume should be concise, well-organised and relevant. It should emphasise the most important and relevant points about your experience, skills and education.

Tip 2: Use ‘power words’

To control the image that an employer has of you, use power words that match the position you want. Certain words are used frequently by recruiters in their job descriptions. You should study recruiters’ advertisements and job descriptions and use these words in your resume and covering letter.

The most powerful words are verbs. And the most powerful verbs are action verbs (describing dynamic activity, as opposed to state).

If, for example, you are applying for a management post, you should use as many management skills power words as possible - and use them in the active form, not passive.

Here are some teaching skills power words:

* advise

* clarify

* coach

* elicit

* enable

* encourage

* explain

* facilitate

* guide

* inform

* instruct

* persuade

* stimulate

* train

Tip 3: A number is worth 1,000 words

People react to numbers! Numbers are alive and powerful. They create vivid images in our minds. General statements are easy to ignore. Be specific and use numbers when describing your duties and achievements.

Don’t talk about ‘managing a major turnover’. Talk about ‘managing a $27,000,000 turnover’. Don’t talk about ‘extensive teaching experience’. Talk about ‘7,000 teaching hours’. Better still, talk about ‘7,300 teaching hours’ - the more precise a figure, the more real it becomes.

Tip 4: Put important information first

List important information at the beginning of your job descriptions. Put statements in your resume in order of importance, impressiveness and relevance to the job you want. A powerful statement with numbers and power words influences every statement that follows.

Tip 5: Sell benefits, not skills

Holiday companies don’t sell holidays. They sell relaxation, adventure, sun, sea and sand (the benefits of a holiday). You should not sell your skills (many other people have the same skills). You should sell the benefits of your skills. When you write your skills and past duties, be careful to explain their benefits to the employer.

Tip 6: Solve your employer’s (hidden) needs

Employers want people who can solve problems, not create them! Your resume and cover letter should show how you can solve the employer’s problems and needs. And in addition to the skills or needs shown in a job advertisement, an employer may have other needs. You should identify these additional needs and show how you can satisfy them too. But concentrate first on the needs listed in the job advertisement. Your additional solutions should come later, after you already have the employer’s attention.

Tip 7: Target the job

You will have more success if you adjust your resume and cover letter for the specific skills an employer is seeking. This means that you would write one resume for one particular job and a different, modified, resume for another job. You ‘re-package’ yourself. In that way, an employer will see immediately that you correspond to the job description. It is not dishonest to ‘re-package’ yourself. You are simply presenting yourself and your skills in the best light for a particular employer. This will help you to get more interviews and allow you to apply for a wider range of jobs.



ESL Shop

Sandra Aniston asked:


While there are all kinds of benefits that are associated with learning and furthering your educational goals there are even more benefits to those who wish to pursue online learning in order to achieve those goals. I hope you will find that many of these benefits are quite enlightening and carefully consider whether or not online learning for your education needs will be in your best interests.

1) Convenience. This is a word we are quite familiar with. Right along with instant gratification. We are a society of people who have lived with drive thru banking and fast food and are rapidly moving in the direction of drive thru pharmacies and dry cleaning. We live in a fast paced world and when we can work education into our busy schedules and on our own terms we find that this is something we tend to like a lot. I recommend that you watch for a growing number of online classes and online students in the coming years as more and more professionals decide to further their degrees and their careers.

2) Flexibility. You can take these classes or do the work during your lunch break, while the kids are practicing soccer, or while cooking dinner (depending of course on how well you multitask). You do not need to be in the classroom every night at 6:00 pm for the next five years in order to get the same degree of education. This by no means indicates that you will not have to do the work. The work will not change nor will the fact that you have a limited time in which to complete the work. What will change is that you will have the option of doing the work in the morning, afternoon, or after those 2 a.m. feedings when you can’t seem to get back to sleep.

3) Location. There isn’t enough that can really be said about this. Online education comes to you wherever you happen to be able to connect to the Internet. Whether you are at home, at work, or your favorite Internet cafe you can have the convenience of taking your work with you and enjoying the environment in which you are completing your work.

4) Less Expensive. No more convenience meals, childcare expenses, or gas guzzling trips to a college campus that thirty minutes away. You can now enjoy in your own home the benefits of an education without many of the financial hardships that are often associated with attending college. Internet access seems like such a small price to pay when compared with all the reasons mentioned above.

5) Believe it or not, online courses help you brush up your online abilities. Seriously. You will be better at dealing with email, bulletin boards, online research, and you will learn countless other skills along the way that you probably never realized had anything to do with the courses you are actually taking-because they don’t. In other words, you are getting more of an education than you bargained for when it comes to online learning.

6) Individual attention. Online students often have more one on one interaction with their professors than students in a classroom. The online classroom is virtual and correspondence through email is essential in this particular learning environment. For this reason it is quite possible that your professors will know more about you and your learning patterns and needs than they will know about most of the students they see two or three times a week in their classrooms.

While these are just a few of the benefits of taking online classes you should carefully weigh the benefits with the things that may be problematic about this particular type of learning situation before you take the plunge. As a writer of Exclusive-Essays.com, the company that provides custom essay writing services for students worldwide, I know exactly that learning is a lifelong process but if you are seeking a degree you do not want to jeopardize that by taking a course that will not address your specific learning needs. If you feel confident that you can be successful in this particular type of learning environment than I feel you will truly enjoy the experience and the flexibility it brings to the educational process.



Online Learning

Sue Jan asked:


Online learning varies from traditional education in that it does not limit learning within the physical boundaries of classrooms face-to-face with the teacher. Online learning really means “a classroom without walls.” Unlike traditional education where students learn under the supervision and guidance of teachers, students engage in assisted, self-directed learning.

In the past, it was difficult for working adults to continue their studies because of time constraints. But distance learning programs have now made it possible for them to continue with their studies, to earn higher degrees and to aim for brighter career opportunities. Thanks to education learning online, they no longer have to quit their jobs to attend college, or to spend hours in rush hour traffic, or to find a babysitter.

More and more people today are turning to online learning courses for their educational needs thanks to advancement in computer technology and the internet. If you are considering signing up for an online learning program, you should first understand how it works:

Once you have researched and found the most suitable and best accredited online learning institute, you are required to apply to one of its degree programs. Once you are accepted, you are asked to sign up for the required courses.

Once registration is complete, you will receive the online learning course study material and guidelines via the internet. Once you are logged onto your online classroom, you will be learning with the help of reading assignments, question and answer sessions, and instructor feedbacks. Some online learning programs even offer chat rooms or forums for students, where they can gather and discuss assignments. Students are graded based on their home assignments, test scores and final projects.

More established online learning programs today often make use computer software such as PowerPoint, whiteboard and video, audio clips and educational videos, thus helping to make online learning more interesting and informational for the students.



E-Learn Shop

Robert Baird asked:


The emergence of the internet and the prevalence of personal computers in almost every sphere of human activity has also made its foray into the academic sector and a new concept has been introduced, this latest innovation is referred to as online learning or e-learning and it promotes online education to all those individuals having access to a computer and it involves learning through interaction with qualified tutors online and upon the conclusion of the course, online degrees are handed over to the selected successful candidates. It is interesting to note that unlike traditional educational system by means of which knowledge is imparted to the students manually, here interaction is based on a medium which facilitates transfer of knowledge. Therefore there is required certain tools which would aid in this mode of online learning. Such tools are known as learning management systems which comprise of a set of software applications which in their turn provide certain functions which are extremely beneficial in contributing to the cause of online learning. One of the most popular among the various learning management content systems or LCMS is known as ATutor and it is also an open source application which came into being for the first time in 2002 and there are multifarious reasons because of which ATutor is considered to be one of the most prominent online learning management systems. ATutor is distinguished to be the first among the learning content management systems to abide by the various accessibility specifications laid down by the W3C WCAG 1.0 and XHTML 1.0. While the latter allows ATutor to be displayed in all similar technological specifications, the former enables this learning content management system to gain access to the various categories of its operation at any point of time by any user.

In terms of adaptability functions, it is to be noted that ATutor can function in any given learning or teaching environment and there are certain features which reflect its mode fo functioning. These include themes and tool modules as well as study groups and other privileges. For long, it was considered to be a shortcoming on the part of the learning management systems as they were unable to provide the benefits of online learning to the blind and disabled candidates. But applications at ATutor has enabled these disabled candidates in gaining the advantages of online learning and it also provides various professional development courses designed for the teachers and researchers as well.



Free Online Learn

John Morris asked:


Online courses offer more people than ever the ability to get a post secondary education. Because it is a self directed program, it may not be suited for people that aren’t highly motivated and organised. Of course, no matter what education you choose you should make sure that it is accredited, or even better, internationally recognized. Getting an education online offers more than you might have ever thought possible.

1. Learn From The Comfort Of Your Own Home

One of the greatest things about online learning is that you can learn anywhere – even in the comfort of your own home. This will save you countless hours of transit that you would otherwise waste every day going to and from school by car or bus. Instead of enduring a boring – and often stressful – rush to get to class at a horrible hour of the morning, you can use those hours for actual learning, or even sleeping in!

2. Avoid Schedule Conflicts

Online learning is extremely flexible, allowing students to learn when they want. This is great for students who have a full time job or have children and wouldn’t be able to attend classes any other way. You will get much more one on one instruction in the distance learning course because you can always contact your instructor by email or video conference.

3. Focused Learning – Accommodates multiple learning styles and mediums – Students can connect via email, chat rooms, or wiki pages – Students vastly prefer online learning – Skip over material you already know and focus on topics youd like to learn

4. Learn At Your Own Pace

It is possible for students to learn at their own pace – this means that some students will graduate from a 2 year program in 3 or even 4 years, whereas other students will graduate in 1 year, or even six months. This means you can be working much faster than you origionally thought – meaning you can pay back any student loans faster too.

5. Vastly Less Expensive

If you look around the internet you will find classes that are very inexpensive compared to a regular college or university program. Be sure to research the program carefully before you enroll. Interesting materials such as video lectures, taped lectures, and such, may be mailed to you. At the end of their education, when students finally hold their degrees, most of them are laden with huge student loans. Don’t let huge student loans get the best of you – get an online education instead and save vast amounts of money.



The Learn