Detail
Would you like to increase your effectiveness as an English language teacher? Would you like to go beyond the well-known methods that often leave teachers frustrated with their one-size-fits-all approach? This course will take you on a fascinating exploration of what it means to be a teacher, how to understand who your students are and the needs they have, and how to choose the most appropriate materials and activities for your classroom. You'll learn how you can choose and fine-tune the principles that exactly fit your teaching situation.
During the next six weeks, we'll rethink the traditional native vs. non-native speaker distinction, see why teaching English is so different from teaching other subjects, and explore innovative approaches like Communicative Language Teaching and the lexical approach. You'll gain new insights and ideas for teaching vocabulary, grammar, listening, speaking, reading, and writing. You'll also discover what some of your options are in designing fair and accurate tests. And you'll learn how to keep learning and growing throughout your teaching career. Also, students who successfully complete this course will receive a TESOL Certificate of Completion.
So join us on this journey of becoming a more reflective and effective English language teacher!
Course materials are developed by Heinle I Cengage Learning, a global leader in ESL/EFL materials. Course content is approved by the TESOL Professional Development Committee so students who successfully complete this course receive a TESOL Certificate of Completion.
About The Instructor
Dr. Tom Scovel is a professor at San Francisco State University, where he teaches courses as diverse as ESL Grammar and Psycholinguistics. Scovel was born and raised in China and attended high school in India before going to the United States for his university education. His research and teaching interests focus largely on language pedagogy, psycholinguistics, and second language acquisition, and he has published and spoken widely in these areas, including the textLearning New Languages by Heinle. In his free time, Scovel enjoys being with his grandchildren and training for triathlons.
Annie Mueller will be your facilitator in the Discussion Areas. She has worked with ELT Advantage for quite a few years at the tertiary level. She has taught primary school in the US and is currently writing ELT materials for primary and secondary students in Hong Kong.
Syllabus
A new session of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.
All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when lessons are released. You will have access to all lessons until the course ends. However, the interactive discussion area that accompanies each lesson will automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such, we strongly recommend that you complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.
The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the final exam has been released, you will have two weeks to complete all of your course work, including the final exam.
Requirements
• Internet access
• Email
• One of the following browsers:
o Mozilla Firefox
o Microsoft Internet Explorer (9.0 or above)
o Google Chrome
o Safari
• Adobe PDF plug-in (a free download obtained at Adobe.com .)