"Having to actually design a lesson and then get up and try to teach it. It was uncomfortable at first but I am sure it wasn't intended. And being shown how much thought goes into a lesson - all the aspects."
-Bill M.
TESOL Graduate
TESOL/TEFL Daily Teaching Practice
Improve your teaching skill daily!
“Learning by doing,” is our motto. Boosting teaching skills and confidence is best done through actual teaching practice. This concept is built into our TESOL course design. At least three hours per day on the course is devoted to designing and delivering ESL lessons. As each day passes, so the bar is set higher and the teaching simulation becomes increasingly realistic. Although challenging at first, our students are not alone. The course coach supports, provides guidelines and feedback.
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After a morning of pair work, role play and brainstorming, the first afternoon is devoted to delivering a simple ESL game or activity. This is the first chance that our students get to stand in front of a class and effectively instruct them on what to do. The challenge: To provide clear, unambiguous instructions to students through a language barrier.
Teaching ESL grammar is one of the greatest concerns our students have. What a relief to find that it’s a lot easier than they thought, after the course coach reveals easily grasped, structured methods of teaching it. Lesson planning techniques and grammar explanation methods are combined with the ESL games and activities from day one. The result: the second chance to practice teaching by delivering an effective grammar lesson in a fun, entertaining way.
How to teach shy, unresponsive students? How to build rapport with people of a different cultural mindset? Our students learn how cultural differences could affect their effectiveness as an ESL teacher. Day three involves planning more challenging grammar lessons and practicing to deliver them with cultural sensitivity.
Jeremy Harmer’s survey of ESL student needs concluded that they are looking for fun, interesting, meaningful lessons. How to teach reading and writing in a fun way? What a delight to learn that effective lessons can be delivered in the sunshine, outside the classroom. Here our students receive valuable feedback from their coach as they hone their teaching skills.
What to do when you hear this and other objections from your students? The coach shares the insights, tips and tricks that (s)he picked up in his/her years of overseas teaching experience. Our students put into practice everything they’ve learned so far, while learning to handle student objections. Their experience of doing this so closely resembles the reality of teaching ESL overseas, that they often comment that they felt that they were in an ESL classroom.
Cultural sensitivity, classroom management, lesson planning, delivering lessons as well as dealing with objections- With the support of the course coach, each student delivers a solo lesson to the rest of the class. They receive valuable feedback from their peers as well as evaluation from the coach.
Busy executives only have time for ESL lessons that make sense to them. The coach shares with our students how to design and deliver customized lessons that match business needs. One day seven our students practice how to teach negotiation, business presentations, exchanges in meetings as well as improving vital writing skills.
Practicing to teach children is a real challenge. Our students learn how to instruct while keeping words to a minimum. The coach supports them through all sorts of fun and games designed to catch and keep the attention of children.
There are thousands of students looking to improve their TOEFL (Test of English as Foreign Language) score. With the release of the new TOEFL internet based test (iBT) our students get an edge in the ESL job market by practicing how to tutor for this test. Most of the teaching practice on this day focuses on powerful strategies to help TOEFL students get ahead.
With nine days of training behind them, our students exhibit a noticeable change in their demeanor. While delivering solo lessons they exude confidence and authority in their ability to teach specialized ESL lessons.
Click here to register on one of our upcoming courses.