An Acronym is a word formed by using one or more letters of the words in a phrase‏‎. It's used as an abbreviation of that phrase, e.g. USA, TEFL, NATO. A Backronym is when we take an existing word and invent a phrase around those letters. It is, if you like, formed in the opposite way to an acronym, e.g.TEFAL = Teaching English For A Laugh. For more, see Acronyms‏‎ & Backronyms in English.

An Adjective is a word we use to describe a noun:

big, red, boring book

For more, see Adjectives‏‎ in English Grammar.

Adverbs tell us more about nouns or verbs, etc. Adverbs of Degree tell us how much: Is there enough wine? Adverbs of Frequency tell us how often: I never eat meat. Adverbs of Time tell us when: I saw him last Sunday. Adverbs of Manner tell us how: She dances badly. Adverbs of Place to tell us where: I saw him at the cinema. For more, see Adverbs in English Grammar.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Afghanistan.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Africa.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Albania.

The Apostrophe - ’ - is a diacritic mark in punctuation‏‎. It is used in 2 different ways in English‏‎: to show possessive nouns to show omitted letters. For more on this, see the main article Apostrophes in English.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Argentina.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Asia.

The Audio-Lingual Method or AM Method is a way of teaching English where students are given lots of language to repeat and use in set patterns. Drilling is a major part of this. For more, see Audio-Lingual Method in TEFL.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Australia.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Austria.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in the Balkans.

Beginners are starting out learning English. They might know nothing at all in English or they might be able to say a few phrases, give their name and have very simple conversations. Read more: Beginner Level Students in English.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Belgium.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Bolivia.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Brazil.

The British Council is an organization set up to promote British culture around the world. They often have schools teaching English as well in most countries. For more, see The British Council.

British English is the variety of English spoken in Britain: England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. For more on this, see British English.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Bulgaria.

Business English is English as it is used in the business workplace. It focuses on business phrases and typical workplace vocabulary often used for negotiations, telephone conversations, interviews, presentations, meetings, etc. For more, see Business English.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Canada.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in the Caribbean.

The Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults or CELTA is a teaching qualification issued by Cambridge Assessment‏‎. It used to be known as the RSA. For more on this, see CELTA.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Central America.

Like the coalface, the Chalkface is where the real, dirty, tough, hard work is carried out. If you work at the chalkface it means to work at the toughest end of education: standing in front of a class teaching, using a chalkboard to explain and elucidate. (Of course these days chalkboards have been replaced by whiteboards or interactive boards but the term is still used.) Traditional teaching is known as Chalk & Talk - it means you stand at the chalkface and write and talk and write and talk... until your students fall asleep. For more, see Chalkface - Chalk & Talk.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Chile.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in China.

Classroom Focus is concerned with who is the main focus of teaching in the classroom. Essentially there are two possible foci: the teacher - the class is Teacher Centered the students - the class is Student Centered Traditionally classes have been Teacher Centered however more recently classes have become more Student Centered. And this improves learning. For more, see Classroom Focus‏‎.

Classroom Management is all about dealing with the day-to-day practicalities of managing your class: dealing with discipline issues, sorting out missing coursebooks, collecting homework and so on. For more, see Classroom Management.

A Cloze Test (also known as Gap-Fill) is a simple exercise where a text has certain words removed and students must suggest suitable alternatives to go in the space.

I ___ up at six this morning.

For more, see Cloze or Gap Fill Tests.

A Collective Noun is a noun used to describe a group of objects (things, people, etc). For example, when we talk about collections of people we can use words like:

a group of men a gang of teenagers a mob of rioters a squad of soldiers

For more on this, see Collective Nouns.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Colombia.

A Conditional is a kind of sentence‏‎ which uses a word such as if... and talks about situations which are not real and imagines what might happen.

If they want, I can make the tea. If you ask me, it's a stupid idea!

For more, see Conditionals‏‎ in English Grammar.

The Conditional Clause is the clause usually beginning if in a conditional sentence:

...if you leave me... ...if they ask politely... ...if he wins...

For more, see Conditional Clauses‏‎.

A Copula or Linking Verb links the subject of the sentence to more information about that subject (the predicate). The most common copula is BE however other verbs can be used as copulas. For more, see Linking Verbs.

Countable Nouns are nouns which can be counted and made plural, e.g. 1 dog, 2 dogs. They are also known as Count Nouns. On the other hand, Non-Countable Nouns can't be counted or made plural, e.g. water, rice, air, etc. They are also known as Non-Count or Mass Nouns. For more, see Count and Non-Count Nouns‏‎ in English Grammar.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Croatia.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Cyprus.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in the Czech Republic.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Denmark.

Diacritics are small signs written on top of or under a letter to show different pronunciations. English does not generally use diacritics but other languages do. These are examples of letters with diacritics:

á ž ÿ ç Ǒ

A Dictionary is an alphabetical list of words‏‎ with their meanings. Some dictionaries may also include the etymology‏‎ of the word, examples of usage, pronunciation (either using the International Phonetic Alphabet or some other system) and cultural notes. Dictionaries for learners will often include pictures as well. For more, see Dictionaries in TEFL.

The Direct Method or DM is a way of teaching English: the students' MT is not allowed and students are encouraged to speak a great deal. It copies the way in which native speakers learn their first language. For more, see Direct Method‏‎ in TEFL.

DoS is an acronym standing for Director of Studies. The DoS is a member of staff in larger, more professional TEFL schools. They are responsible for administering the academic side of the school which will often mean dealing with teachers and the material used in teaching. For more, see DoS‏‎ - Director of Studies.

EAP or English for Academic Purposes is usually concerned with teaching English‏‎ to students who are involved in higher education at an English speaking university or college. For more, see EAP - English for Academic Purposes.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Ecuador.

EL stands for English Language as in...

EL students EL teachers

Eliciting is when you gets the students to provide information rather than telling them directly. It's about asking the right questions and getting them to think for themselves. For more, see Eliciting in TEFL.

Elision happens when you miss out one or more sounds as you’re speaking. Sometimes it’s known as slurring or muting For example, people often say: fam-li instead of fa-mi-li. For more, see Elision.

ELT stands for English Language Teaching. It's a general term for teaching English as a Foreign or Second language. For more, see ELT‏‎ - English Language Teaching.

EFL is an acronym we use to talk about English as a Foreign Language. EFL students usually live in non English speaking countries and want to learn English mainly to use it on their travels or business trips abroad and to communicate with English speaking visitors to their country, etc. For more, see EFL‏‎ - English as a Foreign Language.

English Only is a simple technique whereby you allow your students ONLY to speak English in the classroom. This means even if they are gossiping they are doing it in English and thus learning & practicing. For more, see English Only‏‎ in your TEFL Classroom.

ESOL is an acronym meaning English to Speakers of Other Languages. It is all about people who do not have English as a mother tongue, learning English. Typically these might be immigrants or workers or students who have moved to a new country. For more, see ESOL - English to Speakers of Other Languages.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Estonia.

A Euphemism is a way of hiding something bad, offensive or tasteless behind a good word or phrase. So, for example, instead of saying that someone died, we say they passed away. For more, see Euphemisms in English.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Europe.

The EU or European Union is a collection of European countries; easy for British and Irish teachers to work there, more difficult for those without an EU passport. For more, see Teaching English in the European Union‏‎.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Finland.

A Flashcard is a small card with a picture on it. It may also have the name of the picture on the reverse. They are incredibly useful in the TEFL classroom and well worth using; often teachers will make their own. For more, see Flashcards‏‎ and TEFL.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in France.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in the Macedonia (FYROM).

General English is a loose term used to describe the type of English‏‎ required for everyday situations: hold a general conversation, read a newspaper, watch television and so on. It can be compared to more specific English teaching such as Business English‏‎, English for Academic Purposes‏‎ and so on. For more, see General English.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Germany.

A Grammarian is someone who studies (and sometimes writes about) grammar. For more, see Grammarians.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Greece.

A Headword (sometimes known as a lemma) is the main word in a dictionary under which all the entries are placed. This means a headword can have different meanings belonging to different parts of speech. For more, see Lemmas in English Grammar.

Homographs are words which have the same spelling but different meanings.

bank = building full of money bank = by the river

row = ˈroʊ = line row = ˈraʊ = argue

Homonyms and Heteronyms are types of Homograph. For more, see Homographs‏‎.  

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Hong Kong.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Hungary.

IATEFL is the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language. It is a respected organization set up in the UK in 1967 bringing together TEFL professionals including teachers, academics and researchers. For more, see IATEFL.

An Ice Breaker is a simple activity for the first class of a group of students who don't know each other. A good ice breaker will help the class get to know each other and allow you to get an idea of how good their English is.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Iceland.

An Idiom is a phrase which has a figurative meaning which is very different from the literal meaning. For example, in The Godfather famously Luca Brassi sleeps with the fishes which does not literally mean that he sleeps with undersea creatures but that he is dead. For more, see Teaching Idioms in TEFL.

IELTS stands for the International English Language Testing System and is a test to see how well a learner speaks English‏‎. It is generally taken by students studying British English. For more, see IELTS‏‎.

The Bare Infinitive is the base form of the verb‏‎: be, have, walk... The Full Infinitive has to at the beginning: to be, to have, to walk... Both are known as the Infinitive. For more, see Infinitives in English Grammar.

An International School is a school based in one country but which use a curriculum and teaching methods from another country. Most countries around the world, for example, have one or two international schools teaching British exams, in English, with British staff. American, German, Italian and French schools are also common. For more, see International Schools.

The IPA or International Phonetic Alphabet is an alphabet‏‎ of sounds (not letters). It is used to show how to pronounce words‏‎. For example:

about - /əbəʊt/ america - /əmɛrɪkə/

For more, see IPA - International Phonetic Alphabet.

For more about living, working and teaching English in Iran, see Teaching English in Iran.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Ireland.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Italy.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Japan.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Korea.

Simply put, a Language Item is a discrete piece of language which you can teach or practice in a lesson. A language item could be:

• numbers 1 - 10
• the past perfect
• the construction, "never before had I"

For more, see Language Items in TEFL.

The Language Skills are reading, writing, listening, speaking. For more, see Language Skills in TEFL.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Latin America.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Latvia.

Students learning English are often described as Beginners, Intermediate or Advanced. Roughly speaking this is their level, i.e. how much English they know, how well they can speak and understand and so on. For more, see Learner Levels‏ in TEFL.

A Lesson Target is the focus of an individual lesson. It is, if you like, the single main point that you are trying to teach in that particular lesson. Often it can be summed up in a single sentence thus:

At the end of the lesson the students will know how to... ...order a pizza. ...ask the time. ...apologize for being late.

For more, see Lesson Targets in TEFL.

A Lexeme is the term used in linguistics‏‎ to refer to a word with a distinct meaning; it can be equated to the headword in a dictionary so there is one lexeme with a number of forms:

lexeme: eat lexeme forms: eat, ate, eaten, eating

For more, see What is a Lexeme?

LGBT refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. It is a hidden issue in TEFL with many teachers keeping quiet depending on the country they live in and coursebooks pretending there are no non-heterosexual people at all. For more, see LGBT and TEFL.

Simply put, a Lingua Franca is a language used by different language speakers in order to communicate. Often these days it's English but it could also be a mixture of several different languages. For more, see Lingua Franca‏‎.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Lithuania.

The language of the country where you are living/working.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Luxembourg.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Malaysia.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Malta.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Mexico.

Minimal Pairs are pairs of words‏‎ (and sometimes phrases‏‎) which differ in their sound by just one element or sound. For example, these are minimal pairs:

bus – but haul – hole baking – making

For more on this, see Minimal Pairs and TEFL.

Modal Verbs are used to express ideas such as ability, necessity, permission, and possibility. There are not many modal verbs: can, could, dare*, need*, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would. There are also modal constructions: be able to, ought to, be allowed to. For more, see Modal Verbs.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Montenegro.

The language a child learns from its parents when it first learns to speak; sometimes known as a first language. For more, see MT - Mother Tongue‏‎.

MT Influence or Mother Tongue Influence is when the grammar‏‎ or vocabulary‏‎ of a student’s Mother Tongue‏‎ influence the way in which they use their Target Language‏‎ or TL. For more, see Mother Tongue Influence.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Myanmar.

Simply put, an n-gram is sequence of letters within a corpus of language. Looking at n-grams is useful to help work out how language works and is used in everyday situations. For more, see n-grams and TEFL.

A Needs Analysis is the process of assessing the needs of your students. In other words, finding out what they know already (how much English), what they want to know, and finally what interests them. Once this has been established, the syllabus and individual lessons can be designed to suit those needs. Put basically, you find out what your students need to learn and then teach them this. For more, see Needs Analysis‏‎ for TEFL.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in the Netherlands.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in New Zealand.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in North Korea.

A Noun is a major part of speech; a good, general, definition of a noun is that it is something which is used to name an object or thing:

car, door, elephant...

For more, see Nouns in English Grammar.

OHP stands for Overhead Projector which is a useful device for projecting material onto a white wall so the whole class can see. For more, see OHPs.

An open-ended question is one which cannot be answered by a simple Yes or No. For example:

What did you do at the weekend.

They are good for getting students to speak. For more, see Open-Ended Questions‏‎.

A Participle is a form of a verb‎. There are two participles:

present participle: -ing, e.g. walking, thinking

past participle: -ed, e.g. walked, thought

For more, see Participles in English Grammar.

The Past Continuous (also called the Past Progressive) is used in several different ways: interrupted actions in the past; parallel actions in the past.

They were kissing when we walked in.

He was working when we met him.

For more, see Past Continuous in English Grammar.

Personal Pronouns are a subset of pronouns‏‎ which stand in for people, places, things and ideas. These include:

I, me, my, you, their, its, themselves, ours...

For more, see Personal Pronouns in English Grammar.

To learn more about looking after yourself, see the main article: Personal Safety when Teaching Abroad.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Peru.

A Pidgin is a simplified or "broken" form of language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common. For more, see Pidgin‏‎.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Poland.

This is a collection of articles, ideas, thoughts and so on you, as an English teacher, should keep to help you in your work and career. For more on this, see the main article: TEFL Teacher Portfolios.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Portugal.

Parts of Speech (often abbreviated to PoS and sometimes known as Word Classes) are the different categories of words‎ in English. They refer to the way in which those words are used grammatically. Common PoS include adjectives, nouns, verbs, adverbs and so on. For more on this, see Parts of Speech in English Grammar.

Pre-Teaching is teaching a few language items before the main activity. The students will need this in order to understand the main activity. It is, essential, preparation. For example, if the students are looking at a long text, you might pre-teach a few essential definitions so that when they read the text they will understand it better. If the students are going to do an activity involving conditionals, you might quickly revise how to make conditionals before beginning the activity.

The Present Continuous is a verb form also known as the Present Progressive. It's used to describe what is happening right now:

am/are/is + {present participle}

I am working now. She is talking to her friend. They are running for the bus.

For more, see Present Continuous‏‎ in English Grammar.

The Present Simple is used mainly to talk about situations which are always the same or at least consistent for a long time. This includes habits, facts and so on.

My name is Joe and I am from Ohio.

The Earth goes round the Sun.

For more, see Present Simple in English Grammar.

A Private Lesson or One-to-One or 1-to-1 lesson outside the normal school. It is usually 1 teacher and 1 student (but sometimes 2 or 3 students). For more, see Private English Lessons.

Pronouns are words which can be used in place of nouns in a sentence‏‎. For example:

William took the ball and then William kicked the ball.

becomes, with pronouns:

William took the ball and then he kicked it.

For more, see Pronouns‏‎ in English Grammar.

Pronunciation is simply the way in which words and phrases‏‎ are spoken. For more, see Pronunciation in English.

Proverbs (aka Maxims) are simple sayings which are used to show common sense and popular wisdom. They are regarded generally as informal rather than formal language. Thus they're mostly used in common everyday spoken language:

In the kingdom of the blind the one eyed man is king.

For more, see Teaching Proverbs in TEFL.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Romania.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Scandinavia.

When a student learns English‏‎ in order to live and work in an English speaking country we say they are learning English as a Second Language. Compare this to someone who does not live in an English speaking country but learns the language to do business in another country; they learn English as a Foreign Language. For more see Foreign Language‏‎ and Second Language.

A Semantic Field is a group of words related by meaning: colors, jobs, cities, animals, verbs of perception, sports, etc. For more, see Semantic Fields in TEFL.

If we talk about 1 person or thing, this is Singular. If we talk about more than 1 then this is Plural. For more, see Singular and Plural Nouns in English Grammar.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Slovakia.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Slovenia.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in South America.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in South Korea.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Spain.

Split shifts happen fairly often in schools that teach English. Most commonly it means you have to work for a few hours in the morning, then take a long break, and then start work again in the evening. For more see the article: Split Shifts and Teaching English Abroad.

Study Skills are those language related skills which students needs in order to study English at University. These skills could include notetaking, summarizing, thesis writing style and so on. For more, see Study Skills.

Survival English is a term we used to talk about the essential English someone needs to know in order to survive - live or work - in an English speaking environment. For more, see Survival English.

SVO stands for Subject - Verb - Object which is the usual order of sentences in English:

{subject} + {verb} + {object}

I + love + you.

We + ate + some eggs.

For more on this, see the full article, Subject Verb Object.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Sweden.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Switzerland.

A Synonym is a word which has almost exactly the same meaning as another word. For example:

student - pupil old - ancient

For more, see Synonyms in English.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Taiwan.

TEFAL is an ironic term playing on the acronyms, TEFL and TESOL and meaning Teaching English for a Laugh.

TEFL stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language. Simply put, this is usually used to talk about teaching English to people who live in a non-English speaking country and who want to learn English for business or to take an exam, etc. It is pretty much equivalent to TESOL and TESL. For more, see TEFL‏‎ - Teaching English as a Foreign Language.

A TEFL Certificate is the basic qualification to teach English to non-native speakers. Good ones are usually 120hrs and cover teaching methodology, classroom management, lesson preparation and so on. For more, see TEFL Certificates.

In grammar a Verb Tense is a form of a verb‎ used to indicate roughly the time when the action described by the verb takes place. Here we talk about 3 basic tenses: Past, Present and Future. (Some people talk about more than 3, however.) Compare this with Verb Form which is the form of a verb in a particular tense, e.g. present simple, present continuous, etc. For more, see Verb Tenses‏‎ & Forms in English Grammar.

TESL stands for Teaching English as a Second Language. It's pronounced TESL to rhyme with WRESTLE. Simply put, this means teaching English to people who are not native English speakers but who live in a country where English is the main language. For example, teaching English to Chinese speaking immigrants in Canada. For more, see TESL‏‎ - Teaching English as a Second Language.

TESOL or Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages is usually used to talk about teaching English to people who do not already speak English. It's more commonly used by American teachers. For more, see TESOL - Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.

TEYL stands for Teaching English to Young Learners. Young learners are roughly 3 - 12 years old. For more, see Teaching English to Young Learners.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Thailand.

TOEFL (pronounce toy-full or toe-full) or Test of English as a Foreign Language is a test of American English to see how well a person speaks English‏‎. It is often used by students wishing to attend American universities, etc. For more, see TOEFL‏‎.

Total Physical Response (TPR) is a teaching method based on the idea that a new language can be learned through actions and that movement can help students learn and understand. For more, see TPR - Total Physical Response in TEFL.

A Transitive verb is one which takes an object while an Intransitive verb does not. For more, see Transitive & Intransitive Verbs in English.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Turkey.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in the United Kingdom.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Uruguay.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in the USA.

An Utterance is the spoken equivalent of a sentence. The only difference between them is that one is spoken whilst the other is written. For more, see Utterances‏‎.

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Venezuela.

Verbs tell us about an action; they are sometimes called doing words or action words. Verbs describe what is happening:

run, walk, read, talk

For more, see Verbs‏‎ in English Grammar,

To read about working here, see Teaching English in Vietnam.

A Visa is an official document stating that a person is authorized to enter the country or territory for which it was issued and teach there. Depending on your own nationality, you may or may not need a visa to work in certain other countries. For more, see Visas for TEFL Teachers Abroad.

Vocabulary is the number of words you know. Learners have an Active Vocabulary which are the words they use when they speak or write; they also have a Passive Vocabulary which are the words they may well understand but do not actively use. For more, see Vocabulary‏‎ and TEFL.

Voiced and Voiceless (sometimes Unvoiced) describe the two different ways we can make sounds in our mouths. The basic difference is:

• voiced sounds occur when the vocal chords vibrate, e.g. /van/ voiceless sounds occur when the vocal chords are still, e.g. /fan/

For more on this, see Voiced & Voiceless

Vowels and Consonants are the sounds which go to make up the English language.

• If air passes straight through the mouth without being stopped or constricted this forms a vowel, written a, e, i, o, u
• If the air is stopped at any point or the mouth then this creates a consonant, written b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z

For more, see Vowels and Consonants‏‎ in English.

Warmers‏‎ or Warm-Up Activities or Lesson Starters are quick activities used at the beginning of a lesson to get students warmed-up and ready to learn. A good warmer will introduce the subject, get the students interested and provoke questions. For more, see Warmers‏‎ or Lesson Starters.