What the course covers
The main components of the course are:
- Observation of Classes
- Teaching Practice
- Language Awareness ie Grammar and Phonology
- Foreign Language Journal
- Student Profile
- Materials Assignment
Observation of Classes
At the beginning of the course trainees observe classes, three of which are video lessons and the other two are live lessons normally given by the two main tutors. After watching these classes you write up your observations.
Teaching Practice
Although you can learn a lot about language teaching by discussing the theory, methodology and techniques of teaching, it is above all a practical skill. You will teach a class of foreign students for a minimum of six hours. Your teaching practice will be as varied as possible so that on completing the course we aim to have given you experience in teaching different age groups, levels and class sizes in a mono-lingual, multinational and one-to-one situation.
Language Awareness
Before starting the course you will receive a pre-course study pack which covers English grammar and phonology. Although both areas are covered during the course you will get off to a head start if you have spent some time working through these exercises beforehand.
On the course the tutors will help you to understand a wide range of grammar topics and show you how to apply this knowledge in order to teach it to a class of foreign learners. The focus is the practical application of the grammar and phonology. You will also learn about the sounds, intonations, sentence and word stress in English and some of the phonological difficulties experienced by different language groups. At the end of the course there is a written grammar test but the phonology is a take-home assignment.
Foreign Language Journal
You will have four hours of lessons in Russian or Turkish which will give you the opportunity of learning an unknown language as a complete beginner. It will allow you to experience and assess our language teaching techniques from a foreign student's point of view. You will be able to see how you can teach complete beginners without translating. You are required to keep a journal detailing and analysing the Russian or Turkish lessons writing about your learning experience.
Student Profile
You record an interview with a foreign student in order to examine in some depth the linguistic achievements and difficulties of an individual learner. You will gather information about your student's reading, listening, writing and speaking skills which you can then analyse. After completing your analysis you devise a remedial programme and one-to-one lesson to help your student with selected language areas.
Materials Assignment
Towards the end of your CertTESOL course you will be ask to select two pieces of material that you will have used in your teaching practice. One is a piece of material that did not work as well as you expected, the other being a successful piece of teaching material. You will evaluate their effectiveness and write an evaluation on each one. One of these pieces of material is a communicative game.