The TEFL For Target Learner Groups
Certificate Course:
Featuring FREE of CHARGE to every enrollee (in addition to many other valuable teacher aids not given in other teacher training courses), THE TEACHER'S ENGLISH GRAMMAR MODULE and THE TEACHER'S LANGUAGE COMPARISON MODULE, for customizing instruction for every Target Learner Group need: combined value 460 GBP. (Please note, however, that the Language Comparison Module and the Teacher's Grammar Module are not currently offered separately from the TEFL Course, as graduates of other Certificate Courses would generally not qualify for entry due to inadequate preparation.)
In defining and describing the contents of our world-renowned TEFL for Target Learner Groups TEFL Certificate course, it is important to realize that most persons teaching English abroad are teaching to student groups who all share, or who mostly share, the same native language, and we call such a class a "Target Learner Group". There is a reason for this, and that is that while many teacher training courses stress teaching all, or nearly all, leaners of English in almost exactly the same way, we know that if their teachers are not focused on the basic linguistic differences between their students' language and English, they are not looking at the entire 'bag' of learning problems their students (their 'Target Learner Group') have, nor on what has caused them. It's like shooting at a target blindfolded (forgive the imagery): Sooner or later (generally between a half-year and four years down the road), these students' teachers may begin to figure out both of these things and find a way to help. We can only hope that further on other training courses will begin to recognize this student need and will accommodate it in their training, at least when their graduates are going to be teaching EFL learners.
Such a problem on the part of a teacher is, in fact, wholly needless, and the solutions are easy! Indeed, through the simple techniques taught in our course, you will learn how you can actually walk into a classroom of new students you have never met before and know in advance, and almost completely, what learning problems they have and what to do to help them. (Note that teachers do NOT have to actually know or speak their students' language to be able to do this!)There are generally complicating learning problems that have to be overcome, of course, in the case of Asian students of English in particular. Most Asian learners, such as the Thais and multiple other nationalities, don't give themselves a chance to practice what they have already learned about our language. Indeed, most simply WILL NOT use English daily in speaking, reading or writing if it can be avoided, because, at the most basic level, they regard it as a foreign language that may later have its place, but which does not have to be used now. Our course accommodates these learners exceedingly well also, and actually gets students using our language rapidly!
To assist our teacher trainees to become proficient in all of these ways, as well as in all the 'standard' ways taught by other courses and types of courses (mainly through disposable sheets), our own course consists of six Library of Congress copyrighted Modules which are described as follows. Please note that, although ALL of our Modules are crucial to you in becoming an effective teacher of English as a foreign or second language – in the process maximizing your income at all times – we first describe Module Three of our course, which is the 'Language Comparison Module' we have referred to, and then Module Five, which is 'The Teacher's Grammar Module', as these are what set our course apart from all other training programs:
Module Three: Thai Problems in Learning English: Insightful Consideration of Differences between Thai and English as the Origin of Many Learning Problems. (This Module, through linguistic comparision and contrast of the Thai language with English and vice versa unlocks the sum of Thai learning problems with English and what caused them, as well as what measures a teacher can take to help students overcome the problems. This is more than just a way of helping Thai students, however, as the principles taught here apply to any Target Learner Group in the world, such as native speakers of Arabic, to whom in the back of Module Three our trainees also are prepared to teach successfully! A crucial part of the Module Three teaching system also included with your course modules is the Pronunciation CD. This illustrates how you can help your students improve their pronunciation dramatically, and, of course, their listening comprehension at the same time.
Module Five: English Grammar in Communications: An Important "Portrait Summary" for EFL Instructors, with Special Emphasis on Asian Learner Group Need. This is the English grammar review needed by persons who were not excluded from our course just because they could not remember, or had not learned, the grammatical terminology and parts of speech in English well enough to be able to explain things to students. This is also the English grammar you will need to help you explain grammatical elements and structures to your students quickly, efficiently and accurately, so that you can get them right back into their conversation lesson. (We are in the classroom to get them talking, after all, not to lecture about grammar for an hour or two!) Finally, this is grammar explained in the way you will need to know it in order to help Thais and other Asian learners overcome their unique problems. It's not hard; it's actually fun, if you do not try to memorize the whole book all at one time!
Module One: Teacher Orientation: Course Description, Requirements, Objectives and Benefits.
Module Two: The Need for Grammatical Knowledge by the EFL Teacher; and What's in the Books? Practice in Finding and Teaching the Grammatical Skills and Structure of EFL Dialogs.
Module Four, Unit 1: How Students Learn – Preparing the Environment. (Elements of learning theory; environmental factors; the different roles of teachers; the different personality types of students; cultural imperatives for the teacher trainees; principles of teaching; Class Control; Teacher Faults; Job Aids for Course Preparation, and many, many other essential subject areas.
Module Four, Unit 2: Successful Lesson Planning. 120 pages to make sure you have a good "flight plan" when you step into the classroom! The most complete lesson planning materials of any teaching certificate training course.
Module Four, Unit 3: Effective classroom techniques. Setting up a a productive learning environment and constructing a really good lesson plan are crucial. However, nothing will work if there isn't a lot of fun going on in the classroom! This unit contains a wealth of fun role plays, games and interactive situations to get everyone in the classroom involved and having fun. (Everything else disappears, in the students' minds: The are learning English and they're having fun. That's all that matters to them!)
Module Six: Teaching in the "Real World": Practical Tips, Guidelines and Readings to Ensure Success in EFL Teaching. Something else missing from most teacher training programs! What to do if you have to substitute teach for a friend who is sick (and didn't leave a lesson plan); how to teach from another teacher's lesson plan; how to correct students' mistakes without destroying their confidence; how to teach children; how to teach private students; how to teach business English: indeed, everything you need to know to go and teach successfully in the real world of EFL! That's what it's all about, isn't it?
Finally, we include among your module materials, the elementary level of Raymond Murphy's famous book, English Grammar in Use. This book is too easy for you! It's your "pharmacy". In other words, when you see your students making the same mistakes over and over again (that is, by habit), you just copy the appropriate two pages from this book and give these to your students to do as homework. Then you spend a few minutes going over the homework and giving just a few short explanations and making some examples, and your students' mistakes begin to be a thing of the past.
The result of all this caring preparation on our behalf is best illustrated by the fact that our course certificate is readily and gratefully accepted by quality schools of all levels everywhere, sometimes even before our graduates are able to apply for work in person! Indeed, not only do our graduates find excellent work in Thailand, we also have graduates who are teaching on every continent of the globe except Antarctica – currently in over 30 different nations altogether.
The TEFL Advanced Skills Diploma Course.
NOTE: There is currently a HUGE DISCOUNT of 30%-43% or more off the 790 GBP Diploma Course fee (in addition to which you pay 25 GBP for materials and documents), to enable you to achieve top professional earnings in the shortest period of time. For example, if you are taking your first TEFL Certificate Course with us, your Diploma Course fee is just 450 GBP + 25 GBP for materials and documents, in addition to your Certificate Course fees. (Click here for other savings if you've taken an intensive TEFL Certificate Course previously.)
Of all TEFL Diploma programs
in the world, ours is at once the most unique, the most practical, the
most affordable and the shortest. In is not difficult to describe the
difference between a TEFL Certificate Course and a TEFL Diploma Course:
The former is to train people and give them the skills and confidence
to teach conversational English as a foreign or second language to
natives of
non-English speaking countries. The emphasis is, and must be, on
conducting successful conversation classes, as that is the most urgent
need for all foreign learners of English. It does not, and cannot,
train teachers to teach more specialized English classes, however.
A TEFL Diploma Course, on the other hand, comes after the Certificate
Course, and is concerned with teacher development.
In other words, it is designed to help already-trained teachers to
improve and continue to improve and grow throughout their entire
careers, in terms of teaching methods, techniques and cutting edge
knowledge. It focuses teachers on how to improve, what techniques other
teachers use and how successful these are, and on what new teaching
discoveries have made that can be applied to one's own students. Such
courses could be, for example, the Cambridge DELTA (Diploma in English
Language Teaching to Adults) Course, which is conducted online for
about six months (an approach we do not quite approve of), and the
Trinity Diploma Course which can run as long as two years to complete.
Other diploma courses (heavily burdened by intensive educational
theory) typically run 12 weeks, and still do not focus well, if at all,
on the teaching of advanced skills courses.
Most such courses, and a number of others, are worthy of the study,
particularly if one aspires to write one's own textbook materials
and/or aspires to share knowledge that has been learned with others as
a speaker at a TESOL Conference. However, in the real world that we
share with teachers who need to maximize their earnings, and who in
order to achieve that need must develop skills in teaching very
highly-paid English classes other than just conversation, we see a
diploma course as an Advanced Skills Diploma Course, that facilitates
teacher development in the most important sense...
in order to be successful in both their lives and their careers.
In
this approach, teachers trained through our course become focused of
their own accord on their professional development, and on all of the
new cutting edge developments that are being made in the EFL/ESL
world. In other words, we minimize theory in the course by giving trainees the advanced skills they will need to best advance
both themselves and their students, while at the same time motivating
them to continue on their path of self-improvement. They
will develop themselves, and many, we have little doubt, will end up as
authors of teaching materials and speakers at any TESOL conferences
they might choose to address.
The Diploma Course Content. The content of our Advanced Skills
Diploma Course is of two divisions:
1. The Career
Studies Division. In
order to get the best jobs, EFL and ESL users of English must have very
high levels of English ability, ititially just to enable them to study
in universities abroad. It is vital that such students take
and pass either the T.O.E.F.L. (Testing
of English as a Foreign
Language) Exam or the I.E.L.T.S. (International English Language Testing
Services) Exam at a high level in order to achieve this objective.
Unfortunately, very few English native-speaking teachers in Asia have
been trained or are otherwise qualified to teach these students, with
two very unfortunate results: The quality of teaching is very poor,
resulting in low test scores;
and there simply are not enough teachers around to meet the demand.
Another type of course is required to enable Asian students to obtain
work in the airline industry in such jobs as air hostesses, check-in
clerks, accountants, baggage handlers, controllers or pilots. This
latter group prepare for their employment by taking the T.O.E.I.C.
(Testing of English in International Communications) Exam, though this
test is also administered to persons throughout the business community
as a
gauge of how well staff are able to understand and relate to foreigners
using English.
Still other teaching needs are courses to help students with their
study
skills, reading skills, writing skills and listening skills. Business
English, per se, must also be
taught, and taught well, to enable staff to do their jobs effectively
and advance
their positions. And students with special needs require teachers with ESP (English for Special Purposes)
skills such as, for example, how to
locate companies, set up appointments with managers, and powerfully
present proposals to foreign company executives, while they are
traveling outside their own country.
2. The Young Learner Division. A TEYL (Teaching English to Young
Learners) Course is a very valuable
block of training for anyone aspiring to teach English successfully to
young children. While such a course is not mandatory, and our own TEFL
Certificate Course provides enough substantial information to enable
one to embark on teaching children, most teachers would prefer more
specialized and intensive knowledge, in order to teach as well as they
are capable of teaching, and to acquire the the best-paying jobs.
Unfortunately, such TEYL Courses are quite rare in Asia, and
this
division of our Advanced Skills Diploma Program fills that void with a
pleasant, but comprehensive, internal course. Therefore,
if you are planning on teaching English to children, or accept that
that may be the best English teaching job you may be able to get for
awhile, it would be a very good idea to take the TEYL course after the TEFL Certificate Course, just as
soon as it can be arranged. (You can take just
this part of the Diploma Course, initially, if you wish, and follow up
on the other half later on.)
All of the above skills, and
many
more, are what you will acquire if you do
our TEFL Advanced Skills Diploma Course, which consists of only 80
hours, spread easily over sixteen weeks, with classroom attendance on Sundays only.
In short, our courses are usually remembered very fondly by graduates, partly because of the fact that, instead of teaching sheets, they were given real teacher training books that they can refer to at any time, forever. The following teacher's unsolicited remarks illustrate this fact most eloquently:
" Hi James,Ruth here. I'm still in Korea teaching at a "hagwon" and have been meaning to email you for some time. After two years of teaching under my belt I have now realised that this has become my calling. It's a job that I love and it's all due to the outstanding training and content of your course. I have such fond memories of my time in Thailand, memories that I will never forget. Moreover the training that you give to potential teachers enables them to travel and teach anywhere in the world. Thank you for this gift James. I will treasure my freedom and new found joy in life." — Sincerely, Ruth B.
Special Benefit!With your TEFL Certificate of successful course completion and a high school level of education, you will be eligible for 40 pre-accreditation credits towards a five-semester BA TEFL degree from Middlesex University!
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