Introductory Certificate
This level contains two units and takes 40 nominal hours to complete. There are no prerequisites for this level.
The Structure of Language
This unit will familiarise you with the elements of the structure of language that you need to be able to teach your prospective students.
Outline
Parts of speech
- The function of the parts of speech.
- The names of the parts of speech.
- Using the correct word in context to the subject.
- Subject-verb agreement.
- Some common tenses.
- Contractions.
- How words relate to each other.
- Common mistakes.
- Singular and plural.
- Countable and uncountable nouns.
Sentence structure
- Phrases and clauses.
- What makes a sentence.
- Sentence structure.
Spelling
- Spelling rules.
- Teaching strategies.
- Some suggestions for teaching spelling.
Teaching
- Some suggestions for teaching writing.
- Some lesson plans.
Outcomes
The aim of this unit is to present the elements of language structure when communicating in English. This is the base that you will lead from to effectively teach your prospective students. You will be encouraged to provide the student with strategies to facilitate their learning, whilst always providing a safe and supportive environment.
At the end of this unit:
- You will demonstrate your understanding of the structure of a sentence.
- You will demonstrate your understanding of the naming of parts of speech and how words function in the English language.
- You will demonstrate your understanding of spelling and root words as well as how to teach these.
Next Steps
Teaching English to School Aged Students
This unit will provide you with sufficient understanding of the art and practice of teaching to enable you to take your place as a teacher of English. Your skills will be towards leading young students, for whom English is not their native tongue, and who live in countries in which English is not the official first or second language.
Outline
While it has been said that it takes many years to turn ‘new teachers’ into ‘good teachers’, it is also true that a lot of great teaching happens from the first day of taking one’s place in a classroom as a teacher.
Teaching is just as much about learning as it is about ‘teaching’.
Some people are ‘born teachers’, having a natural ‘feel’ for the processes that support learning, while others learn their craft as they go along, based on ordinary, sound principles that can be mastered without a great deal of difficulty. Perhaps the majority of professional teachers are a blend of both and will readily acknowledge that teaching is as much about their own learning as that of their students.
It is these ordinary, sound principles that we hope to present clearly in this unit for you, so that you will develop the confidence that you too can become an effective and capable teacher of young people who wish to learn one of the most difficult alphabetically constructed languages.
Principles
Good teachers know:
- What it feels like to be a student.
- That different people learn best in different ways.
- The importance of introducing variety into their teaching strategies, no matter how comfortable they feel with their own personally preferred strategy for instruction.
Outcomes
This Unit sets out to enable each student to:
- Develop an understanding of the process of teaching,
- Develop an understanding of the process of learning, and
- Acquire a range of practical skills for teaching English to school-age students.
There are 12 modules that make up the core learning for this Unit.
- Who? Me? Teach?
- Achieving happiness and success as a TESOL teacher.
- Learning the secrets of a successful start to teaching.
- Learning the correct use of language.
- Learning about language.
- Learning about learning.
- Life isn’t always easy.
- A methodology for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.
- Teaching listening and learning.
- Teaching reading.
- Teaching writing.
- Understanding assessment.