 11 fun ESL activities for young learners When teaching young learners, it's important not to spend too much time on any one activity as they can soon lose interest. It is also a good idea to have activities that give younger learners the chance to move about and use the boundless energy they have at that age. Below we present a list of short activities suitable for young and very young learners of English. What's the time Mr. Wolf? This is a good activity for practicing time with small classes. Clear a space in the center of the classroom and have a student stand in front of the board with their back to the class. This person is the wolf and the rest of the class stand at the back of the room. For each turn, the class asks the wolf what's the time, Mr. Wolf, and the wolf replies with a time it's three o'clock. The rest of the students then take three steps forward. The class keeps asking the question until the wolf says it's dinner time at which point he turns around and tries to catch someone. The person he catches then becomes the wolf for the next round. Telephone Split the class into two teams. Have students stand or sit in a line and whisper a sentence to the first student. Each student then whispers what they heard to the next student until they get to the end of the line. The last student then says the sentence aloud. The team who is closest to the original sentence wins. Basketball Using an empty waste paper bin is the basket and a screwed up piece of paper is the ball. The students have to try and throw the ball into the basket. Before they can take their shot, they must answer a question from the teacher correctly. If they get the ball in the basket, they get two points. If they hit the basket but don't get the ball in, they get one point. Volleyball Use two chairs and a piece of string to make a net across the middle of the classroom and use a balloon as the ball. Divide the class into two teams and have them play volleyball. When a winning shot is played, the teacher asks the whole class a question, the team that answers correctly wins the point and gets to serve next. Vingo. This classic game can be played with numbers, words or pictures on the student's bingo cards. The teacher calls out a number or word and the students mark off the corresponding number or word on their card. The first person to complete their card shouts out bingo and wins the round. Can you? The teacher asks students if they can do certain actions. If they can, the student answers yes, I can and then performs the action. If they can't, they say no, I can't and the teacher asks them if they can do another action. Be sure to have some actions that are easy for shy students to do. I spy. The teacher starts the activity by saying I spy with my little eye, something beginning with and chooses the first letter of the object. Students have to guess what object the teacher is thinking of. The first person to guess correctly takes over the teacher's position. For younger learners, colors can be used. The teacher writes four words on the board, three of which are related to each other in some way. The students have to say which word is the odd one out. This activity can be done with objects or pictures in place of words. A version of Simon says where the phrase Simon says is, is replaced with please. The teacher or a student asks the class to do certain actions, but they must only do them if the teacher says please. Anyone who does the action without it please, being said is out of the game. Mastermind. This is a good activity for older children. The teacher chooses a four or five letter word and draws the corresponding number of dashes on the board. The students have to choose a word of the correct length and one of them writes it on the board under the dashes. The teacher marks each letter with a tick, a circle or a cross. A tick means the letter is in the original word and is in the same place. A circle means the letter is in the original word, but in the wrong place. A cross means the letter is not in the original word. Blindfold Obstacle Course. Create a course in the classroom using chairs and desks, etc. Make sure that students won't hurt themselves if they bump into them. One student wears a blindfold and the rest of the class has to guide them through the course with directions, such as turn left, go straight on, climb up, stop, etc. Rearrange the course for each new blindfolded student. Are you ready to teach English abroad? These 11 activities are ideal for young learners in the ESL classroom and are also handy to know when you have some spare time in your lessons. Apply now for your TEFL TESOL certification course and start teaching in a matter of months. Speak with an ITTT advisor today to put together your personal plan for teaching English abroad. Send us an email or call us toll-free at 1-800-490-0531. To speak with an ITTT advisor today. Five activities for using movies in the ESL classroom. One of the first things you should learn during a TEFL certification course is that delivering interesting lessons goes a long way to keeping your students happy and motivated in the classroom. And if your students are stimulated by your lessons they are likely to progress quicker, which also makes the teacher's job that much more satisfying. So what exactly makes a TEFL lesson interesting? There are many things you can do to make your lessons stand out, but one of the main ways to peak the interest of your students is to focus on things that they can actually relate to in their own lives. In this post we show you five great activities based on movies that you can use in the classroom because everyone loves a good movie. Silent movie. This is a very simple activity that can be great fun for your students. Divide the class into pairs or teams, depending on the number in the class. Two students from the same team sit back to back, one facing the TV screen and the other facing away from the screen. The teacher plays a short movie clip with the sound turned off and the student facing the screen has to describe what is going on. The team gets a point if the second student can guess the movie. It helps if you choose popular movies that you think your students might know, however, even if they don't know the movies, the students will still gain valuable English practice. The prediction game. This is another activity that requires little preparation, but can result in a great deal of English practice among your students. Divide the class into small groups and then play a scene from a movie. Each group is then given time to come up with their own predictions as to what happens next. Have each group explain their theory to the class, ensuring each student gets involved and then play the next scene to see which group gets closest to the real movie plot. Vocabulary match. This game can be played individually or in groups. Hand out a list of definitions of items that are contained within a particular movie scene. Using the descriptions given, each student or group must identify and write down the items while watching the movie clip. For example, a list of definitions for a garden scene might include an implement used for digging holes, shovel spade, a container for growing plants, flower pot, used for drying laundry, washing clothes line. Points are awarded for each correct answer. This can be quite a tough activity, so you might need to play the scene through several times. Guess the dialogue. For this activity you need to carefully choose a movie scene that involves a conversation between two characters. Play the scene through once without the sound and allow the students to debate what is going on. First they can decide the general theme i.e. an argument, a marriage proposal, or a business transaction etc. After watching the scene again, the students can try to come up with dialogue to fit the clip. Finally, rerun the clip with the sound on to see how close they were to the actual movie script. Guess my movie. For this activity you should divide the class into pairs. Each student chooses a movie they know, and then they write down a basic outline of it. Details should contain things such as where it is set, the main plot, the character names etc. The next stage of the activity is to describe the movie to their partner using the written language. Points can be awarded to anyone who guesses the movie correctly. For this activity to work well the teacher may need to pre-teach some relevant vocabulary and you should ensure the students choose movies that are widely known. Are you ready to take your students to the movies? Lessons involving movies are just one example of how you can introduce new language that is relevant and interesting to your students. By utilizing the activities outlined above, you should have fun in the classroom and ensure your students want to come back for more. Apply now for your TEFL TESOL certification course and start teaching in a matter of months. Speak with an ITTT advisor today to put together your personal plan for teaching English abroad. Call us an email or call us toll free at 1-800-490-0531 to speak with an ITTT advisor today. ESA methodology. What is it and why should you use it in the classroom? ESA is a common methodology that teachers use when teaching students another language. It is also a large part of your TEFL certification course. By using the layout of the ESA method to plan your lessons, they will be more structured, organized and effective. This post was written by our ITTT graduate Cassandra L. What is ESA? ESA stands for Engaged, Study and Activate. By using ESA, it gives teachers the flexibility to conduct a classroom in an organized and productive way. ESA is extremely important when it comes to teaching because it keeps the students interested, motivated and eager to learn more. That is why all teachers, especially new ones, should learn the ESA method when teaching students a new language. The Engage Phase. The first phase that teachers should always start a lesson with is the Engage Phase. In the Engage Phase, the teacher simply gets the students ready to participate in the lesson. The students can include showing pictures, reallia, contrasts, discoveries, discussions with the whole class, miming and acting, prompting the students to answer and using questions to get the students thinking and speaking in English. The goal of the Engage Phase is to get the students' attention and to elicit the meaning of words or topics that will be covered in the lesson. This phase is extremely important because it gives the teacher a chance to include all the students in the activity. The Engage Phase also helps the students feel more comfortable and ready to learn. The Study Phase. After the teacher has engaged the students, they then move on to the Study Phase. The Study Phase can consist of many activities, such as studying from texts and dialogues, example sentences, crosswords, gap fill exercises, word searches, matching games and drilling. The purpose of the Study Phase is for the teacher to actually teach the students new words or topics and show them the correct way of using them. This phase is also where any errors may be corrected and discussed in a tactful way. In this stage the teacher can help students come to a better understanding of each subject so they can learn and move forward in the best way possible. The Activate Phase. Lastly, the teacher will conclude with the activating stage. The Activate Phase may include discussions that are for the whole class, small groups or even pairs, role play, story building, tasks such as posters or advertisements, simulations and debates. The Activating Stage is where students put to work the things they learned in the Study Phase. By activating the students, it will help the teacher to know how well they have understood the material that was discussed in the class. It is very important to make sure you always engage the students first and activate the students last. Benefits of using the ESA method. In conclusion, it is of utmost importance that teachers learn the ESA method of teaching. By learning this method, it will help teachers to stay on top of things in an organized manner. It will also help students to learn in a fun and productive way. The Engage Phase keeps students interested, the Study Phase helps students to learn, and the Activate Phase helps put into practice what they have learned. ESA can be structured in any way that is best for the teacher and topic she or he is teaching. The most common structure of ESA is the Straight Arrow Method which starts with an Engage Stage, then a Study Stage, and then concludes by activating the students. Teachers can also use a Boomerang Structure or a Patchwork Structure. All that matters is that the teacher starts off by engaging the students and ends with activating the students. When teachers learn about the ESA method of teaching, it will equip them to be more effective teachers. In turn, making effective students. Are you ready to teach English abroad? Apply now for your TEFL TESOL certification course and start teaching in a matter of months. Speak with an ITTT advisor today to put together your personal plan for teaching English abroad. Send us an email or call us toll free at 1-800-490-0531 to speak with an ITTT advisor today. 7-Authym ESL Conversation Activities to Really Get Your Students Talking We all know what it's like to teach a class with reluctant students who don't want to talk. It's like pulling teeth. However, with these 7-Authym ESL Conversation Activities, you can really get your students talking. 1. Icebreaker Janka For this activity, you simply use a tumbling block games such as Janka and write one simple icebreaker question on each block. Before a student places a block on the stack, they must first answer the question on the block. This activity is especially great for small ESL classes or for small groups in a big class. 2. Get to know you bingo First, take a few minutes to brainstorm characteristics a person might have. This could be something like has flown in an airplane or has a younger sister. Next, students fill out bingo boards with these characteristics as they please. Next, they mingle among the class asking a question to one student at a time. If student 2 answers positively, student 1 can check their bingo board. The first student with 5 in a row shouts bingo and wins the game. 3. Mystery Party Guest To play this game, the teacher assigns a mystery identity to about 5 students. One at a time, these students enter a party where another student is playing the host. It is now the host's aim to find out the identity of each person by having conversations with each guest. 4. 20 Questions Have a student choose an object. The rest of the class then take turns asking yes no questions to find out what the object is. The class can only ask 20 questions to determine what object student 1 has chosen. If they cannot solve it with 20 questions, student 1 wins the game. 5. Create a Game Have students group up and get them talking to each other by making up their own board game. Once they are finished, they present their game to the class. After, you can keep the games in your classroom collection and play them as a reward. 6. Apples to Apples This is a very popular game involving play cards. Group up your students and determine a judge for the first round. The judge then lays down a card and the other students need to play cards that they think relate to the judge's card. When all cards have been laid down, the judge chooses the card that is most appropriate and then must explain his reasoning behind the choice. Another student then becomes the judge for the next round. 7. Choose Your Victim This game is great for practicing a specific grammar point with your students. Have all students stand up. The first student to start asks a question using the grammatical structure and then tosses a ball to another student who must answer. If they answer correctly, they may ask a question and toss the ball to another student. If they answer incorrectly, they must return the ball and sit down. The last student standing wins. Are you ready to teach English abroad? These 7 activities will definitely get your students talking and make your classes interesting at the same time. Apply now for your TEFL TESOL certification course and start teaching in a matter of months. Speak with an ITTT advisor today to put together your personal plan for teaching English abroad. Send us an email or call us toll free at 1-800-490-0531 to speak with an ITTT advisor today. The 5 Best TEFL Games for Adult Students Most TEFL certified teachers abroad will come across adult students sooner or later in their career. While you might have already prepared a folder full of fun TEFL games that work like a charm for young learners, not all of them will be useful for adult students. That does not mean, however, that adults don't enjoy games in the classroom. Here are our 5 favorite TEFL games for adult students. Two truths and a lie. This activity is a great way to get adult classes going and it's so easy to play. Have your students think of 3 statements, 2 have to be true and 1 of them has to be a lie. Next, the students share their 3 statements with the class and the other students or the teacher have to guess which statement is the lie. This is especially great as a way to get to know your students in the very first lesson. It's even more fun when the teacher joins in as the students are always curious to learn interesting facts about you. Jeopardy. Jeopardy is a popular game for all types of students, but when playing it with adults, you can choose harder categories and they get really fired up. It will take some time to prepare, but once you have done it once, you can use the material over and over again. Here's how you can play it with adults. Select your categories depending on your student's level or background. For example past continuous or business focab. Next, write the value of a clue on one side of the paper and the question on the other side. Prepare clues valued at $100 $500 for regular and $200 $1000 for double jeopardy, just like in the TV show. Divide your students into 2 or 3 teams depending on how big your class is. When you're ready, determine who starts and have them choose a category. For example, business focab $300. Read out the question and wait for the student to answer. The student may consult with his team. If they don't know the answer, you can pass the question on to the other team. Keep track of the money and don't forget to subtract money for wrong answers. Movie trivia. This game works especially well for adults as it allows them to talk freely and express themselves in English on multiple levels. Basically, you divide the class into 2 teams. One student from each team writes down facts about a movie onto the board for everyone to see. His or her team members now need to guess the correct movie. If they get it right, they get a point but if they don't the other team gets a chance. You can also play this with books or even songs for example. To make it harder, you can limit the students to only sharing 3-4 statements about the movie. This also saves time and makes sure the game won't take too long. How To Game. A very fun game that really gets your students creative minds going is the How To Game. If your students don't know this game yet, show them a video of a short How To tutorial. Once they understand the concept, divide them into groups and have them write their own How To instructions for a secret task. Encourage advanced students to be as creative as possible, such as how to travel back in time or how to become a millionaire. Next, the groups present their tutorial and the other students need to guess the secret task. You'll be surprised what your students come up with. The Great Debate. Advanced students always love a good heated debate. Show your students photos or articles about recent or controversial topics such as war, protests, etc. Next, divide your students into two teams and assign an opinion on the matter to each team. One team will be pro and one team con. For example, one team is for the reunification of North and South Korea and the other is against it. It's important to assign the opinion to each team so that the students don't need to share their personal opinions. Next, have them start debating in an orderly fashion switching from one team to the next. Also be sure that every member of a team expresses their thoughts during the debate and nobody is left out. Are you ready to teach English abroad? These five TEFL games for adult students will make you their new favorite teacher. Apply now for your TEFL TESOL certification course and start teaching in a matter of months. Speak with an ITTT advisor today to put together your personal plan for teaching English abroad. Send us an email or call us toll-free at 1-800-490-0531 to speak with an ITTT advisor today. Top-time fillers for an EFL classroom As every TEFL certified English teacher will know, it is all too common to find you have completed the lesson, but there is still time left before the end of the class. While first-time teachers might panic in this position, experienced teachers will always have a few go-to activities to use in these situations. To help you out we have put together the following suggestions for fun, educational activities that can be brought out with little or no preparation. Telephone. This is a classic old classroom game that is still great fun to use today. First, you need to arrange the students in a circle. To get the game going, the teacher or a student comes up with a relatively long sentence, ideally using vocabulary or grammar points learned in the lesson and then whispers it to the first student in the circle. The next student has one go at passing on the sentence to the next student in the circle. Continue around the circle until you reach the last person. The last student then says the sentence they heard out loud. The teacher can then reveal the original sentence to see how it compares with what the final student said. Pictionary. This popular game is a great way for students to practice their vocabulary in a short space of time. All you need is to have the vocabulary you are currently studying written on separate cards ready to go. To kick things off simply choose a student to come up to the front of the class and choose a random vocab card. The student then has anything from 1 to 3 minutes depending on time constraints to draw pictures on the board to elicit the correct word from their classmates. No letters, numbers or symbol are allowed and the rest of the class can have as many guesses as they like until the correct answer is found or the time runs out. The student who correctly guesses the word then repeats the process until the lesson is concluded. The never ending story. This popular time filler gives the students a chance to be creative with the language they have learned. Start by writing a sentence on the board that could be used to start a story, ideally containing grammar or vocabulary from the lesson. The students then take it in turns to come up and add a single sentence to continue the story. The class can check each sentence for errors as you move through the activity. Once everyone has had a turn, one person can read out the story to see what you have ended up with. Once you have used this activity a few times you should find the students have the confidence to be increasingly creative. Why because this very simple game has the potential to generate plenty of laughs in the class. To start, each student is given two pieces of card or scrap paper. On one, they have to write a question that begins with why. On the second, they answer their own question beginning with because. Once complete, collect all the why cards and mix into a header box and then do the same with a separate pile of the because cards. Students can then pick a random card from each pile and read out the why because combination. Inevitably, there should be some funny results. To finish, you can have the students match up the correct why with the correct because. Charades. This classic party game is another that is great for practicing vocabulary. To get started, choose a random student to come up to the front and pick one of the cards that you prepared for the Pictionary activity mentioned above. Instead of trying to elicit the chosen word, the student must act out the word without speaking. In larger classes, it might work better to have two teams with one player from each team acting out the word at the same time. The first team to guess the correct word wins the point. To make it more competitive, you can keep a running score for a month and I award prizes to the winning team. Whiteboard slam. This fun activity offers yet another way to learn and practice vocabulary. Start by writing a simple four-letter word on the board. Then the students are tasked with producing a new word by changing only one letter. When a student has an answer they can come to the board and write it underneath the last. During the activity, make sure the students have the opportunity to ask for a definition of any words that they are unfamiliar with. Keep going until they have run out of ideas or the time runs out. Would you rather? This is another simple activity that can help you learn a little more about your students. All you need is a pre-prepared list of questions starting with would you rather? These can be simple questions such as would you rather eat an apple or an orange? Or more complex questions such as would you rather live in the 19th or the 21st century? Once you have asked the question, the students move to one side of the room or the other depending on their answer. The teacher can then ask a few students from each side to explain why they gave that particular answer. Open questions. On some occasions, particularly with higher level groups, it is useful to spend a few minutes on open questions where students can ask about material that you have covered in recent lessons. They could also ask cultural questions or about unknown vocabulary that they have come across. Ideally, other students will be able to answer the questions but if not then a straightforward explanation from the teacher can be very helpful to the student's progress. Are you ready to teach English abroad? Apply now for your TEFL TESOL certification course and start teaching in a matter of months. Speak with an ITTT advisor today to put together your personal plan for teaching English abroad. Send us an email or call us toll free at 1-800-490-0531 to speak with an ITTT advisor today. The three most popular ESL games that work in every classroom. Games and fun activities are a vital part of teaching English as a foreign language. Whether you're teaching adults or children, games will liven up your lesson and ensure that your students will leave the classroom wanting more. Games can be used to warm up the class before your lesson begins during the lesson to give students a break when you're tackling a tough subject or at the end of class when you have a few minutes left to kill. There are literally hundreds, probably thousands of games that you can play with your students. EFL games are used to test vocabulary, practice conversing, learn tenses, the list is endless. This list of some basic classic ESL games every teacher should know will help get you started and feeling prepared. Having these up your sleeve before stepping into the classroom will ensure your lessons run smoothly and should things get a little out of control, you'll be able to pull back the attention of the class in no time. This post was written by RTEFL certification graduate Y1. Board Race. There isn't an EFL teacher I know who doesn't use this game in the classroom. Board Race is a fun game that is used for revising vocabulary, whether it be words from the lesson you just taught or words from a lesson you taught last week. It can also be used at the start of the class to get students active. It is a great way of testing what your students already know about this subject you're about to teach. Why use it? Revising Vocabulary. Grammar who it's best for. Appropriate for all levels and ages. How to play. This is best played with 6 students or more, the more, the better. I've used it in classes ranging from 7 to 25 years of age and it's worked well in all age groups. Here's a step-by-step explanation. Split the class into 2 teams and give each team a colored marker. If you have a very large class, it may be better to split the students into teams of 3 or 4. Draw a line down the middle of the board and write a topic at the top. The students must then write as many words as you require related to the topic in the form of a relay race. Each team wins 1 point for each correct word. Any words that are unreadable or misspelled are not counted. 2. Call my bluff 2 truths and a lie. Call my bluff is a fun game which is perfect at the start of term as a getting to know you kind of game. It is also a brilliant icebreaker between students if you teach classes who do not know one another and especially essential if you are teaching a small class size. The game is excellent for practicing speaking skills, though make sure you save a time for after the game to comment on any mistakes students may have made during the game. I generally like to reserve this for after the game so you don't disrupt their fluency by correcting them as they speak. With older groups you can have some real fun and you might be surprised what you'll learn about some of your students when playing this particular EFL game. Why use it? Icebreaker, speaking skills who it's best for, appropriate for all levels and ages, but best with older groups. How to play? Write 3 statements about yourself on the board, 2 of which should be lies and 1 which should be true. Allow your students to ask you questions about each statement and then guess which one is the truth. You might want to practice your poker face before starting this game. If they guess correctly then they win. Extension. Give students time to write their own 2 truths and 1 lie. Pair them up and have them play again this time with their list, with their new partner. If you want to really extend the game and give students even more time to practice their speaking listening skills, rotate partners every 5 minutes. Bring the whole class back together and have students announce one new thing they learned about another student as a recap. 3. Simon says. This is an excellent game for young learners. Whether you're waking them up on a Monday morning or sending them home on a Friday afternoon, this one is bound to get them excited and wanting more. The only danger I have found with this game is that students never want to stop playing it. Why use it? Listening comprehension. Vocabulary. Warming up winding down class to its best for young learners. How to play. Stand in front of the class. You are Simon for the duration of this game. Do an action and say Simon says action. The students must copy what you do. Repeat this process choosing different actions. You can be as silly as you like and the sillier you are the more the children will love you for it. Then do an action, but this time say only the action and omit Simon says is. Whoever does the action this time is out and must sit down. The winner is the last student standing. To make it harder, speed up the actions. Reward children for good behavior by allowing them to play the part of Simon. Now it's your turn to get TEFL certified. Apply now for your TEFL TESOL certification course and start teaching in a matter of months. Speak with an ITTT advisor today to put together your personal plan for teaching English abroad. Send us an email or call us toll-free at 1-800-490-0531 to speak with an ITTT advisor today. Games in the classroom, what are EFL games? ESL games are games that can be used in the classroom to practice certain language points and encourage active and creative communication between your students. There are many different games created specifically for use in the English language classroom that can be found online or in any number of resource books. But we are not limited only to those games designed for the class, the majority of games that we play to children or still play as adults can be adapted and used in lessons. Whether games are cooperative or competitive, they are a great way to provide students with a goal to be achieved by using the English they have learned. Common misconceptions about games in the classroom. Games are fun but are not suitable for the classroom. There is plenty of research to show that this is simply not the case. Games provide a fun and relaxed atmosphere in which students are better able to recall language they already know and also retain new language. Rather than being seen as just a warmer time filler, games should be seen as an integral part of the ESL lesson that can improve lessons for students and teachers alike. Games are only for children. Adults enjoy playing games in the classroom and appreciate a break from the everyday routine of a lesson as much as anyone. While it is important to choose age appropriate games, there is no reason why you shouldn't incorporate them into your adult learner classes. How to use games in the classroom. One of the main things to remember when using games in the classroom is that they must be used for a purpose. Having your students play chess in silence for 15 minutes or letting them talk to each other in their own language throughout the game is not a suitable use of a game. Whether you are using a game as a warmer, as controlled practice of a specific language point or to encourage creative, spontaneous production of the language, there must be a reason for using the game in your lesson. Good resources for games to use in the EFL classroom. There are many books that contain communication games designed specifically for EFL lessons and most good language schools will have a variety to choose from in their resource centers. There are also a large number of websites with downloadable games covering a wide range of topics and language points. These can consist of game boards or cards that can be printed out to use in the classroom. Other sites provide games that can be played online. Local toy shops are a great way to find real games which were not designed specifically for the classroom and browsing the shelves may help you to find a game you had not previously considered. Almost all games can be used in your lessons in some way, all it takes is a little imagination. Lastly, you can always get out the craft materials and make your own. There is nothing more satisfying than watching your students enjoy a game that you have created with your own hands. Get creative and have fun while teaching English abroad. Take a TEFL TESOL course and learn many exciting and effective ways to teach English as a foreign language. Apply now for your TEFL TESOL certification course and start teaching in a matter of months. Speak with an ITTT advisor today to put together your personal plan for teaching English abroad. Send us an email or call us toll free at 1-800-490-0531 to speak with an ITTT advisor today. 5 Reasons Why You Should Teach English in Rural Japan Japan is full of vibrant, world famous cities that many people dream of living and working in. However, when I first decided to become an English teacher in Japan, I never held such a dream. I am an introvert who prefers quiet spaces and being close to nature is especially important for me. This is why when my goal of teaching English in Japan came true, I was ecstatic that I could find a place to work in the Inaka countryside. Japan's Inaka is full of small rural towns and reasonably populated but little known cities. My living and working situation is in the latter. Since moving here, my little rural city has been everything I hoped it would be and more. Aside from my personal preferences I've noticed that there are several advantages to living in Japan's countryside rather than its larger urban centers. If you're considering teaching English in Japan, here are five reasons I can give you from my experiences as to why teaching in rural Japan is worth considering. 1. Smaller Towns Have Cheaper Rent After hearing that friends of friends who lived in Tokyo were spending most of their paycheck on rent, I did a quick search of apartment prices in Tokyo. The first results I found advertised one-room apartments for as much as 100,000 yen a month, about 1,000 USD. However, when I switched my search from Tokyo to perfectures like Gunma, Hokkaido and Miyazaki, I found apartments that were the same size or bigger asking for half of that price. Anecdotes from people around me have always confirmed trends like this. As a general rule, the further you live away from urban centers, Tokyo especially, the cheaper your living expenses can be. Additionally, you don't have to be intimidated by apartment hunting in rural areas because resources exist to help foreign residents find housing. In my case, the education program I work for provided me with housing. In cases where you might be on your own, online search engines and support systems such as Gage and Pot Housing Service exist to help foreigners through the renting process. In short, if you're hoping to save money on living expenses, searching in rural areas could be a good option. 2. Fewer people, fewer crowds. During my last spring vacation, my mom and I made plans to experience cherry blossom viewing. This is one of the most lively times of the year in Japan and as we discovered, one's experience of it can be completely different depending on where you spend it. This was my mom's first time in Japan, we made a stop in Kyoto. The cherry blossoms were close to their peak bloom and seeing them against the backdrop of one of Japan's old capitals was spectacular. Once you ignored the crowds, of course. Everywhere we went in Kyoto we constantly brushed shoulders with strangers. In the worst cases, trying to move felt like wading through a river. This didn't stop us from having a good time, but the crowds were a constant nagging. A few days later, my mom and I found ourselves on the other side of the country in Shimane Perfecture. For cherry blossom viewing in western Japan, we stopped at Matsu Castle, Matsu City's most iconic tourist spot. Many people gathered to see the flowers in Matsu, but the environment was completely different from Kyoto. Several families had picnics on the castelons, but there was enough space for kids to run around and play. People bustled around the walkways, but each of us had our own bubble of personal space. My mom and I could walk wherever we wanted without fighting a crowd and the atmosphere was noticeably quieter. In short, Matsu Castle was a stunning and popular spot, but the crowds there were nothing close to the mad gatherings in Kyoto. Outside of annual events it isn't likely you'll encounter overwhelming crowds in rural Japan. This makes daily life and weekend travel a whole lot calmer. The market for English is everywhere. In order to enter high school or university every student in Japan is required to pass entrance exams. English is always included on these exams. This testing environment coupled with increasing numbers of foreign tourists creates a strong need for English proficiency all over the country. In other words, English teachers can find jobs anywhere in Japan. Government sponsored education programs, private education programs, and Ikewa, privately owned English tutoring centers, have a strong presence in every perfecture. Each of these employment options has different benefits and with just a little research you can undoubtedly find a job opportunity that fits your needs and experiences in a location that fits your personality. 4. Your presence can have a big impact. In areas that are our tourist hotspots, it is likely that students have many opportunities to interact with people from different countries. This often isn't the case in rural areas. For this reason, your presence as a foreign teacher has the potential to make a big impact with your students and your community. In a rural area, you may be one of the only foreign people your community will have the chance to spend an extended period of time with. This makes you a cultural ambassador as well as a language teacher, which is especially important going into the future. By 2020, Japan will implement new national English education requirements. These will require schools to begin formal English education from the fifth year of elementary school. Measures like these aim to increase Japan's ability to be active in an increasingly globalized society. Alongside such efforts there are many things foreign teachers can add to English curriculums, especially in communities that seem to be far from the rest of the world. For example, Japanese textbooks mainly teach standard American English and a teacher who uses any dialect other than this one is in a unique position to introduce students to the diversity of the English language. Also, your knowledge of conversational English is incredibly valuable since this is something that can be difficult to teach through textbooks. Any language or cultural knowledge you bring with you to Japan can turn into a teachable moment. This will have an effect on your students however small. 5. You may discover a hidden gem. As repeat visitors to Japan often realize, this island nation is full of well-kept secrets. Many fantastic travel destinations are simply outshone, but moving to Japan can be an excellent opportunity to discover a new side of Japan you wouldn't have otherwise seen. This is exactly what happened to me when I moved to Japan. I joined a government-sponsored education group called the Jet Program. Jet applicants can request certain perfectures they would like to be placed in, but they may not receive one of their choices. In my case, I was placed in Shimane, a rural prefecture that I didn't request and had never heard of. However, this ended up being the best thing that could have happened to me. I am a major mythology and history buff and this prefecture I had never heard of turned out to be Japan's hub of mythology and ancient history. On top of that, my community can't be beat. My co-workers and neighbors are all friendly, helpful and often go out of their way to invite me to community events. My friends and various other rural perfectures have recounted similar stories. Even if the place you live in Japan is completely unfamiliar to you, it can quickly become an element of home. When are you heading to Japan? If you consider living in rural Japan for no other reason, consider this one. Working in a foreign country is a valuable, once-in-a-lifetime experience and my own experience has taught me that venturing someplace new makes everything all the more special. Apply now for your TEFL-TESOL certification course and start teaching in a matter of months. Speak with an ITTT advisor today to put together your personal plan for teaching English abroad. Send us an email or call us toll-free at 1-800-490-0531 to speak with an ITTT advisor today. 10 plus activities for teaching English winter camp Having to organize and hold a winter camp is a daunting task, especially for new teachers who haven't done it before. For these kinds of English camps, teachers typically create up to 10 lesson plans for the duration of the camp. Winter camps can last anywhere between one week to a month or even longer. The main goal of an English camp is to have a fun and memorable time with the students while practicing their English. However, there is a lot more to an English camp than just playing some games. Since most teachers need to create and prepare their lessons in advance, we have compiled a list of games and fun activities for teaching English winter camp abroad. It's all about fun and props. Props will make your winter camp a lot more fun and exciting for the students. In contrast to their regular English classes, winter camp should involve a lot of interactive games and activities. You can use all kinds of different props for your winter camp, ranging from fly swatters, boiled eggs, a couple of dice, art supplies, a big container, boxes, and even costumes. Once you've got a variety of props, you can start creating fun lessons and activities around them. It's also recommended to take a game and blend it with other game 12 games to create a new one. Also, think like this, if you were the student, would you enjoy this game? Bingo is fun, but you can only play it so many times. Try something different. Making socks no men. With this activity, you first teach related vocabulary about winter clothes, and then the students get to make and dress their own snowman. Let the students be as creative as possible and create themed snowmen like Disney characters, superheroes or animals. All the students need to do is stuff the sock in two parts. First, they stuff the bottom of the sock, this is the body sew at a lot of stuffing. Then tie an elastic band around it to secure. Next, fill the second part of the sock with less stuffing to form the head and tie with an elastic band again. The remaining part of the sock at the top can be used to make a hat for the snowman by simply folding it over. Now the snowman is ready to decorate. What you will need. Make a sock for each student. Decorative bits such as pompoms and pipe cleaners, felt or colored paper, etc. Stuffing, either cotton balls or even rice. Elastic bands, rubber bands, a hot glue gun. This is such a fun activity and your students will love it. Make sure to let the kids take their pieces of art home after the class. Making Christmas or New Year's card. This fun activity is having the students make their own cards. Depending on when your winter camp is, you can either make Christmas or New Year's cards. For New Year's cards, you can focus on the number of the new year and maybe the animal of the Chinese zodiac for that year. Provide your students with a variety of colored paper, glue and scissors and explain how to fold the card and where to decorate. Make some greetings, seasonal phrases and wishes to be written inside the card. Have handouts ready. As you can't always predict how long an activity might last, it's always good to have some backup handouts ready to use when there's extra time. This can be anything from crosswords, word searches or double puzzles. You can also create your own grammar worksheets, fill in the blanks or surveys. It's great for calming the students down after an exciting game. PowerPoint computer games. A quick Google search reveals a seemingly endless array of PowerPoint games online. You can download them and then run them on the computer in your classroom. Some games also allow you to customize the content to suit your student's level for example. Like Jeopardy or Family Feud are great for review lessons and you can find many available PowerPoint versions online, even Christmas or Winter themed. Board games. Kids love board games, that's not a secret. A lot of schools have a collection of board games already that you can use and if not, they might be willing to purchase some for Winter Camp. Games like No, Jenga, Twister or Scrabble are very popular for English lessons. If your school can't provide board games, you can also find some resources to make your own online. If you make your own, you can incorporate the holiday spirit and create winter Christmas themed games. When your school doesn't have a budget or supplies. If your school can't provide any supplies and doesn't have a budget to purchase materials, there are some other fun games you can play that only require things every classroom has. A board, markers, paper and pens. Riddles for example, are a fantastic way to test your student's listening skills. You can find a lot of fun English Riddles online, but one example could be, I come with many colors, so beautiful and bright, I turn so many houses into a beautiful sight. What am I? Answer, Christmas lights. I get chopped, decorated and on one end you'll see wings on top. What am I? Answer, a Christmas tree. What do you look forward to that's filled with stuff and that looks like a giant person's sock? Answer, Christmas stockings. Are you ready to teach English abroad? These activities for teaching English Winter Camp will help you create fun lessons your students will remember for a very long time. Apply now for your TEFL TESOL certification course and start teaching in a matter of months. Speak with an ITTT advisor today to put together your personal plan for teaching English abroad. Send us an email or call us toll-free at 1-800-490-0531 to speak with an ITTT advisor today. 7 Amazing Winter and Christmas ESL Activities Your Students Will Love When the aroma of gingerbread and eggnog is in the air, you know it's time to translate your love for the most beautiful season of the year into your TEFL classroom with winter ESL activities. This is the perfect time to embrace winter in TEFL destinations with changing seasons. It's also ideal to educate your students living in places with tropical temperatures and other cultures about the holiday celebrations. Here are 7 Amazing Winter and Christmas ESL Activities Your Students Will Love 1. What makes the perfect winter day? Tell your students to imagine the following. You wake up in your bed and look out the window when you see a brightly decorated Christmas tree. It's cold and even looks like snow is slowly falling from the sky. The perfect winter day. What do you want to do today? What are you going to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Will you go sledding or have a snowball fight with your friends? Show a couple of photos to really visualize the scene and get some ideas flowing. Then, give your students some time to write their story. Next, have them come up to the front or make a chair circle and have them talk about their perfect winter day. 2. Write an article for a local newspaper. Wow! Look! It's all white outside and everything is covered in snow. What is happening? Write a news article or announcement for the local newspaper to break the news of this event. Are you ready for winter? Did you purchase all your Christmas gifts? Do you have a warm coat? Imagine how this is going to affect your neighborhood. This is a fun activity to report a real life emergency. It's especially fun to play in a TEFL destination where winter normally doesn't happen and the students have never experienced snow. It's also helpful to show some more visuals to get the students thinking. 3. Make paper snowflakes. This is great to bring a little creativity into your ESL lesson and your students are going to love it. Prepare by having several sheets of paper and scissors for all the students. You can use shimmery silver or golden paper in colors like icy blue, grey and white to really get into the winter spirit. Show your students how to cut the paper to create a snowflake using the folding and cutting technique and then have them create a couple of unique snowflakes by themselves. Once you're done, you can decorate the classroom with the little pieces of art or let the students take them home. 4. Read something about winter. While this might sound very generic, it's a clever activity to use for any group of students of any skill level. You can either use short texts for individual lessons or even choose a winter holiday inspired book to read throughout the entire season if you have the time. A quick google search gives you an array of options to choose from. 5. Play a game of taboo. This all time favorite game is a great way to introduce winter vibes into your classroom. Simply write your target vocabulary such as candy cane, blizzard, stockings, sled, reindeer, etc. onto various pieces of paper and put them into a big hat. Each student at a time draws a piece of paper and has to describe the vocab word to the class without saying the actual word. To make things more competitive, you can split up the class into teams and count points for correct answers. 6. Holiday extravaganza. Surely, your TEFL destination also has a lot of exciting winter holidays. Hanukkah, Three Kings Day, Winter Solstice, St. Lucia Day, St. Nicholas Day, St. Martin's Day, Kwanzaa, New Year's Day, there's so many to celebrate. Why not create a lesson around all of these interesting holidays and festivals and those celebrated where you're teaching abroad? You can compare them and also share your own cultures holidays with your students. 7. If everything else fails. These worksheets do the trick. If you need something for a quick time fill exercise or to calm students down after an exciting game, worksheets usually do the trick. Search the net for winter and holiday related worksheets and you'll be offered a limitless election. From matching gourds and coloring sheets to crosswords and fill in the gaps, your students are going to love your season themed worksheets. Are you ready to teach English abroad? Winter is the perfect time to tap into the energy and excitement of this beautiful season and you should bring it into the classroom. With these seven great winter and Christmas ESL activities you will create an amazing time with your students. Apply now for your TEFL TESOL certification course and start teaching in a matter of months. Speak with an ITTT advisor today to put together your personal plan for teaching English abroad. Send us an email or call us toll free at 1-800-490-0531 to speak with an ITTT advisor today.