Concept by: Sheila Corwin
Description
This ELT course has been created for experienced English language teachers who want to update their language teaching skills and meet other English (and other) language teaching professionals from around Europe.
Course participants will engage in effective student-centered teaching methods through meaningful and interactive tasks with the intention of developing their current knowledge and language teaching practices. They will also collaborate and share different teaching experiences and create their own activities.
Emphasis will be placed on Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), Task Based Learning (TBL), Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), and Content Based Instruction (CBI). Participants will also engage in and learn more about using authentic materials while integrating all four skills (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) in their English language learning classroom. Finally, ELT course participants will gain a deeper understanding of student versus teacher roles, contextualized grammar teaching, pronunciation activities, and become more effective in dealing with classroom management issues such as error correction and the providing of useful feedback.
By the end of the course, participants will have learned how to maintain student motivation and how to create and sustain an effective and stimulating learning environment. Teachers will also be given ideas for continuing their own professional development after the course.
Learning outcomes
This course will help the participants to:
- Feel more confident, creative, and inspired in their classroom;
- Involve their learners through a variety of tasks that encourage active participation and engagement from everyone in class;
- Gain useful skills for creating an effective (and fun) learning environment when teaching both content and language;
- Discover new formulas and tips for maintaining student motivation in language learning.
Tentative schedule
The schedule describes likely activities but may differ significantly based on the requests of the participants, and the trainer delivering the specific session. Course modifications are subject to the trainer’s discretion. If you would like to discuss a specific topic, please indicate it at least 4 weeks in advance.
Day 1 – Course introduction & welcome
Welcome; Course Introductions; Presentations; Warm-up Activities; Needs Analysis; Teacher (and Student) Responsibilities; Learner Preferences, Pair and Group Work; Student versus Teacher centered classrooms; Journal Reflection;
Day 2 – Classroom communication
Communicative Language Teaching (CLT); is your classroom communicative and interactive enough? Motivating and Communicative activities–let’s practice some; Communicative Competence—what’s more important fluency or accuracy? Teaching through contexts (situations, scenarios, and events);Guided tour of Florence in the afternoon;
Day 3 – Incorporating materials
Authentic Materials: How to incorporate listening and reading texts from the real world of native speakers. Task Based Learning—what can your learners design, create and produce? TBL Framework; Presentations and Feedback, Games and Teaching Pronunciation through innovative language rhythms
Day 4 – CBI and CLIL in your classroom
Focus on Content Based Instruction (CBI) versus Content Integrated Learning (CLIL);How to create a CBI or CLIL lesson or unit integrating all four skills; What is the best way to manage a classroom? How to deal with various classroom scenarios? Instructions, Monitoring, Developing Rapport; How should we really correct our students errors in output (writing and speaking)?
Day 5 – Presentations, peer feedback
Final Presentations–Providing learners with feedback; Pursuing Professional Development; Peer Observation.
Day 6 – Course closure & excursion
Course closure
- Course evaluation: round up of acquired competences, feedback, and discussion;
- Awarding of the course Certificate of Attendance.
Cultural activities
- Excursion and other external cultural activities.