Dont Forget the Subject! Common ESL Mistakes

Dont Forget the Subject! Common ESL Mistakes Recently Ive been noticing a lot of my ESL/EFL students that speak Spanish or Portuguese as a first language make a similar mistake, leaving out the subject of certain English sentences.For example, Ive heard several students say: Is hot.Can you see the problem with that sentence? It is missing a subject. The sentence should be, It is hot, with it as the subject.The reason for this mistake is fairly obvious. In Latin-based languages, such as Spanish or Portuguese, the subject is often part of the verb. In Spanish, for instance, the same sentence would read: Hace calor. The verb hacer has been conjugated to indicate the subject.In English, the subject is separate from the verb, and only changes it in the third person singular with a few exceptions (to be is one of the exceptions). Saying Is hot, would be similar to saying Hacer calor in Spanish. People would probably understand what you mean, but the sentence sounds strange.Ok, we hope that helped you. If you have any questions about English, feel free to contact us or write them in comments, and we will help.If youre interested in English classes, please contact us with the link above. Click here if you are interested in Spanish classes.

Why teachers abroad need to make cultural competence a priority

Why teachers abroad need to make cultural competence a priority With demand for teachers internationally at an all-time high, there’s never been a more exciting time to explore teaching abroad. However, for many teachers abroad, finding their feet in a culturally diverse classroom is one of the biggest obstacles they’ll face in their teaching career. Teachers abroad need to be mindful of cultural differences in the classroom and how these can impact teaching and learning outcomes, both inside and outside the classroom. Without this awareness, they risk creating a cultural gap that can hinder positive relationships with students and their families. We recently asked our teaching community to share with us any areas of their teaching practice they most wanted to improve on. The vast majority of teachers we polled identified a critical gap in their teaching practice - specifically in the area of culturally responsive teaching. This didn’t come as too much of a surprise to us at Teach Away. Despite the steadily increasing numbers of culturally and linguistically diverse student populations in schools worldwide, research has shown that teacher preparation programs still lag behind when it comes to embracing culturally responsive teaching practices. That's why we’re happy to announce that we’ve launched a brand-new professional development course to help our teachers abroad better relate to students from a broad range of racial, cultural, socioeconomic, and linguistic backgrounds. Culturally Responsive Teaching: Connecting with Students and Parents of Different Cultures was designed with a leading diversity expert to give international teachers the tools that they need to better support their students and create culturally inclusive classrooms. By taking this course, teachers abroad can make the transition to becoming a culturally competent global educator. Culturally Responsive Teaching marks the first in an ongoing series of online teacher professional development courses from Teach Away, focusing on delivering learning opportunities, directly relevant to a teacher’s practice, that respond to critical needs in the classroom. Additional Teach Away course offerings are in the works for later this year, so stay tuned to the blog for more on that front!