The TEFL Horizons Podcast
by TEFL Horizons
Welcome to the TEFL Horizons podcast. Join your host, Shannon Felt, for a deep dive into all things related to online English language teaching. We’ll cover everything from how to make your lessons more fun and more effective, how to cut down on planning and preparation, and even how to market your teaching skills to find more success as a freelance online teacher. You’ll also get to listen in on interviews with ELT experts and “teflpreneurs” all over the world who are making big moves in our industry. Whether you’re looking to sharpen your teaching skills, start your own online business, or just explore whether the world of online teaching is for you, you’ve come to the right place.
Episodes
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Episode Forty-eight
Let's talk about my new favorite word: "TEFLpreneur." You've probably pieced together that it's a fun combination of "TEFL" and "entrepreneur." But what does it really MEAN to be an entrepreneur in the ELT industry? What do you need to get started, what does it take to be successful, and why...
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Episode Forty-seven
In this week’s episode, I’m thrilled to welcome Karen Taylor as my guest. In 1999, KAREN created an amazing teaching tool called the Color Vowel Chart when she realized there had to be a better way to help students with pronunciation. The Color Vowel Chart took off, and in 2011, she co-founded…
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Episode Forty-six
In this episode, I'll walk you through engaging, student-centered ideas for presenting new vocabulary words in your lessons.
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Episode Forty-five
In this episode, I'm happy to welcome Brock Brady as my guest. Brock began his career in the ELT industry somewhat spontaneously, as you'll hear from our conversation. He started as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, West Africa and from there went on to earn a Master's degree in TESOL before…
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Episode Forty-four
In this episode, let's talk about what NOT to do when teaching a vocabulary lesson. I'll go through five of the most common mistakes I see teachers make when planning and teaching vocabulary lessons. We'll talk about why these aren't effective techniques... and what you can do instead.
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Episode Forty-three
Tune in to this week's episode to learn more about practice activities for the ESL lesson. Let's start with a quick refresher of the difference between controlled and freer practice as well as which types of lessons require "practice" to begin with. From there, you'll learn about how to find and...
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Episode Forty-two
Lorenzo Sclocco is an ESL teacher and education specialist based in Toronto, Canada. He has been teaching English (General English, EAP, Business English and Exam Classes) at language schools, universities, and colleges since 2009. He also teaches Italian and German. As a language learner…
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Episode Forty-one
Last week, I shared my top tips for teaching reading lessons online, so this week we're talking about online listening lessons! Once again, I'll go through my five best tips for making your lesson work - this time, when there's an audio track involved.
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Episode Forty
In this episode, I'm sharing my top 5 tips for teaching reading lessons online, including how to format and share texts, making tasks visible, the benefits of pair checks, and getting the most out of whole class feedback.
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Episode Thirty-nine
This is the second time Jackie has joined me as a guest on Expand Your Horizons, and I'm very happy to welcome her back. In this episode, we're talking about strategies for maximizing student talk time, minimizing teacher talk time, and making lessons more student-centered in general.
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Episode Thirty-eight
If you're an online English teacher, you may have experienced some common issues, including tech trouble, breakout room snafus, or even lack of student motivation (how do you get them to participate??). In this episode, we'll go through practical suggestions for the most common online teaching...
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Episode Thirty-seven
Error correction Episode Thirty-seven: Error Correction Expand Your Horizons Download Show Notes This week’s episode considers common questions around error correction: Should you correct every error your students make? If not, how do you know whether to correct an error? When is the best time to...
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Episode Thirty-six
I’m happy to welcome back a returning guest this week on Expand Your Horizons: Jessie Ebersole. Jessie joined me on the podcast in the fall of 2019, but in case you missed our previous conversation, let me briefly introduce her before we dive into our conversation. Jessie is the Director of...
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Episode Thirty-five
Welcome to the first Expand Your Horizons episode of 2021! In this episode, I'm sharing a few personal and professional updates, as well as summarizing a few key takeaway lessons I learned about teaching English online in the last year.
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Episode Thirty-four
In this episode, we're discussing the key differences to consider when teaching English online vs. in a physical classroom.
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Episode Thirty-three
Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of Expand Your Horizons. Today my guest on the podcast is Ricardo Fajardo, who is joining us to talk about teaching a specific type of English class – exam preparation. Ricardo has been a teacher of English for 24 years and a teacher trainer for the last…
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Episode Thirty-two
We're happy to welcome Andre Alipio to the podcast this week. André has been the DoS at GTP, Global Teaching Practice, for 10 years now, but he has been a teacher trainer since 1995, working for different institutes in Brazil, like International House Sao Paulo. As the director of studies, he is...
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Episode Thirty-one
In episode 31 of Expand Your Horizons, we're pleased to welcome Eliberto Salinas as our guest. Eliberto has extensive experience as an English teacher and is also a CELTA trainer at International House Mexico, where he is based in Mexico City. Today, he’s joining me to talk about something many...
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Episode Thirty
In this week's episode of Expand Your Horizons, we're talking with Andrew Watson about strategies for teaching young learners online. Andrew has great insight on working with young learners as well as extensive experience in the ELT industry. He got his first teaching job in South Korea in 1994,...
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Episode Twenty-nine
We’re kicking off Season 2 of Expand Your Horizons by welcoming a returning guest, Orlando Delgado. Orlando is the Director of Teacher Training & Development Operations for IH Mexico and has been a teacher trainer and CELTA and DELTA assessor for over 10 years around the world. Orlando is very...
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Episode Twenty-eight
"By the end of the lesson, students will be able to..." Does the phrase above look familiar? If you're a teacher, chances are you're aware of the practice of writing aims or objectives for your lesson. Maybe you learned about this in a training course, or maybe you work at a language school where...
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Episode Twenty-seven
In this week's episode, we're doing an in-depth review of teaching skills lessons, starting with how they differ from systems (grammar and vocabulary) lessons. It's tempting to think that every lesson should involve teaching students new words and grammatical structures, but it's equally…
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Episode Twenty-six
How do you approach teaching writing? Do you actually give your students writing exercises in class, or do you just assign writing tasks as homework? In this episode, we look at the benefits of working on writing in the classroom, and we go through exactly how to structure an effective writing...
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Episode Twenty-five
In this week's episode of Expand Your Horizons, our guest is Jackie Bolen. Jackie taught English in South Korea at private institutes and universities for over ten years. She now lives in Vancouver, Canada where she does some teaching, writing, and various online things, including running her two...
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Episode Twenty-four
We know that helping students develop their speaking fluency is important, but are students really getting better at speaking EVERY time they're talking in a lesson? In this week's episode, we look at how to devote an entire lesson to speaking fluency, including specific stages, activities, and...
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Episode Twenty-three
In this week's episode of Expand Your Horizons, our guest is Jessie Ebersole. Jessie is the Director of Academic Programs at Washington English Center, a non-profit English language school for adult immigrants in Washington, D.C., which relies on all volunteer teachers to teach 14 levels of...
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Episode Twenty-two
In this episode, we're going into even more depth on how to teach effective listening lessons. First, we talk about different ways we listen in real life and how we can apply this to our classrooms. Then we go over the different listening "sub-skills," why the distinction between them matters…
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Episode Twenty-one
Welcome to Episode 21 of Expand Your Horizons! This week, our guest is Orlando Delgado. Orlando has been working as the Director of Teacher Training & Development Operations for IH Mexico for 7 years now, leading the 15 IH TT Department branches in the country, and he is also a member of the...
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Episode Twenty
In this week's episode, we're continuing our series on helping students develop their receptive skills, but today we're shifting our focus to listening! We discuss why listening comprehension needs its own targeted focus and why reading out the transcript isn't as helpful as playing an audio…
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Episode Nineteen
We're continuing on in our series of how to teach reading, and this week we're talking through a common issue: how do you deal with vocabulary in a reading lesson? Yes, we know the main aim of any reading lesson should be reading comprehension, but what if students start to ask questions about…
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Episode Eighteen
This week, we're continuing on with the topic of how to effectively teach reading lessons. We're going into more depth on how to best help students develop their comprehension without feeling bored or overwhelmed. First we talk about three reading "sub-skills" and why the distinction between them...
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Episode Seventeen
We're switching things up this week; Lauren is hosting the show and Shannon is the interview guest. Tune in as Shannon, TEFL Horizon's other co-founder, describes what drew her into the TEFL industry, how her career progressed, her biggest professional development takeaways, and what she loves...
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Episode Sixteen
In this episode, we respond to a commonly asked question about reading lessons: should you have your students take turns reading a text out loud? Listen in as we first break down why asking students to read aloud is NOT an effective practice, then offer practical strategies for what to do instead.
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Episode Fifteen
This week, we welcome Stephanie Vogel as our guest on the show. Steph has had a long and successful journey through the TEFL industry. After dropping out of med school, she felt inspired to try something totally different, so she went to Istanbul to get a CELTA certification. From there, she…
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Episode Fourteen
This is a special episode of Expand Your Horizons, because the interview is with one of our co-founders! Shannon interviews Lauren all about her teaching experience in Romania, how she fell in love with the TEFL industry, and that one time she was invited to do a "small training" in Brazil that...
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Episode Thirteen
Today’s guest on Expand Your Horizons is Josh Niezgoda. After he got his CELTA, Josh spent a short time teaching at a local language school in Washington, DC to hone his skills before he headed overseas to teach English in Andorra. Tune in for our conversation about how he ended up in a tiny...
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Episode Twelve
In this episode, we're sharing our best strategies for how to master classroom management in the adult ESL classroom.
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Episode Eleven
In this episode, we're talking with David, who is the founder of passthecelta.com. After completing his own CELTA back in 2012 with the very difficult to achieve PASS-A grade, David realized he wanted to help other prospective teachers succeed on the CELTA course. Since then, he has helped...
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Episode Ten
In episode eight, we brought you six actionable tips for teaching grammar lessons. Now we’re taking it all the way back to the planning stage to help you structure a successful grammar lesson from the ground up. We’ve got six more of our best, most practical tips for you- this time focused...
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Episode Nine
Interview with Jocelyn Pollak: tefl pros and teaching in thailand Episode Nine: Jocelyn on TEFL Pros and Thailand Expand Your Horizons Download Show Notes This week, our special guest on the podcast is Jocelyn Pollak. Jocelyn is the co-founder of TEFL Pros, which she and her business partner,...
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Episode Eight
We’ve been talking a lot about teaching grammar lately. Mainly because it’s the type of lesson that seems to intimidate teachers the most. There’s often so much information out there that teachers feel overwhelmed at the thought of having to break it all down and present it clearly in the...
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Episode Seven
In this episode, I’m talking to Stephanie Clark. Steph has taught ESL in Korea, the Czech Republic and Spain, and she has traveled extensively in Europe and Asia. She completed her CELTA certification in 2016, achieving the coveted PASS-A grade. Today, she’s here to talk with us about what it’s...
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Episode Six
In this episode, we're talking to Richard Grant. Richard has extensive experience in the TEFL industry, where he's worked as an ESL teacher, a CELTA trainer and assessor, and the director of the first year writing program at his university. Today we're talking about the key differences he's…
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Episode Five
Have you ever dreamed of changing careers and running off to Vietnam to teach English? Theresa Troyer did just that. In this episode, we’re talking with Theresa about how she decided to teach and what it was like to dive into the field of TEFL. She gives us the lowdown on why she chose to get a...
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Episode Four
You’ve decided to get a certification like CELTA. Great! Where do you start? What’s involved? Do you really have to interview? Why does it seem like such a process- can’t you just pay your money and start? In our last episode, we (hopefully!) convinced you that getting some solid training before...
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Episode Three
You speak English fluently. That’s enough of a qualification to teach ESL, isn’t it? What more do you need? Is a course like CELTA really worth the investment? While being proficient in English is definitely the place to start, there’s a lot more to being a good ESL teacher. In this episode, we...
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Episode Two
Five Misconceptions About Teaching Grammar In this Episode… Why most native speaking English teachers start out extremely unprepared to teach grammar Some of the big mistakes we made in our first grammar lessons Why grammar books don’t always help with grammar lessons The difference between…
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Episode One
Have you ever thought about teaching English as a second language? In this podcast, teacher training duo Shannon Felt and Lauren Harrington offer actionable advice and inspirational stories for current and aspiring ESL teachers. Learn how to get started teaching ESL at home or abroad, get…
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Introducing: Expand Your Horizons
Something new is in the works! Expand Your Horizons Announcement
About this show
Welcome to the TEFL Horizons podcast. Join your host, Shannon Felt, for a deep dive into all things related to online English language teaching. We’ll cover everything from how to make your lessons more fun and more effective, how to cut down on planning and preparation, and even how to market your teaching skills to find more success as a freelance online teacher.
You’ll also get to listen in on interviews with ELT experts and “teflpreneurs” all over the world who are making big moves in our industry. Whether you’re looking to sharpen your teaching skills, start your own online business, or just explore whether the world of online teaching is for you, you’ve come to the right place.
Hosted by
TEFL Horizons