Inlingua® English Teacher Training Certificate Program Outline

9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday/8 to 15 students per course
$1800 per person + registration ($55) and materials ($100 to $150)
Course date: March 6 to March 30, 2007

Pre-requisites: An applicant must have a TOEFL score of 550 or higher.
An oral interview by a teacher trainer may be required.

E-mail TEFLCertificate@inlinguadc.com or fax (703) 527 – 9866 for more information.

The overall objectives of the four-week course are to introduce the basic tenets of good language teaching practice and to give trainees practice teaching in a language classroom. Due to the amount of material to be covered in such a short time, the program is very intense and the classes are quite concise in their objectives. Flexibility for questions and catch-up time has been built into the schedule with this in mind. Each day also winds down with a feedback session of what has been learned in input but more particularly in teaching practice.

In general, the objectives for the course are divided into different components (Teacher Skills, Needs of Students, Language Skills, Teaching Contexts, and Materials/Resources) and these components are spread out over the course of the four weeks. Each day is divided into morning Input sessions (classes for teachers) and afternoon Teaching Practice (classes taught by the trainees for their practice).

In week one, trainees are immersed in background of language teaching and theories, an overview of the components of English language teaching, how to simplify language for learners, and an introduction to key materials. Trainees are also taught the value of teaching in only the target language. In the afternoon sessions of the first week, trainees observe the trainers teaching classes to orient them as to what is expected of them.

In week two, more teaching skills are addressed as relate to the learners (concept checking, encouraging student autonomy in correction and discovery, understanding false beginners, and collaborative learning), and to time management in the classroom. The language teaching focus this week is on how to teach grammar and pronunciation. Trainees begin teaching 20-30 minute classes with very specific aims (one language item, for example) in their teaching practice in the afternoons. The goal of the teaching practice this week is to be attentive to student needs and to practice correction, concept checking, and other skills learned in the input sessions.

Week three tackles the classroom (the use of materials and media in the classrooms) and how to encourage language production in stages. In addition, the trainees are coached in the fundamentals of assessment of skills – formal and informal testing, and how to create useful measures of assessment if no established ones are available. Language teaching goals are focused on how to teach listening and speaking skills. Trainees begin to teach longer sessions in the practice teaching time (40-50 minutes) in which more activities are introduced for their students to practice what they have learned. Because trainees have had input sessions about different kinds of communicative activities and resources, they will be expected to make use of this knowledge in their teaching practice.

Finally, in week four, trainees learn about teaching contexts – how to manage in different teaching scenarios with varying levels of resources, and how to teach specialized English courses – programs geared towards test preparation, children, business, or academic preparation. A brief introduction to curriculum writing is introduced as needed; and language skills are focused on more segmental pronunciation, as well as learning to teach reading/vocabulary and writing skills. Trainees now are able to conduct 60-90 minute classes in teaching practice, which mirror an average teaching block in most EFL programs.

Various blocks of time are left open in order for trainees not to feel overwhelmed and to give them an opportunity for feedback and questions.