Tefl classroom

Certificate of Educational Studies in Tesol

The course material consists of over 440 pages in three modules, each containing four units. The course takes approximately 150 hours of study, including completion of the tasks and the assignments.

Detailed syllabus

Contents of Module 1

Unit 1 Language Teaching, Language Learning

  • Introduction
  • Language Teaching
    • Grammar-Translation Method
    • The Direct Method
    • The Audio-lingual Method
    • The Functional Approach
    • The Communicative Approach
    • Task-based learning
    • Conclusions
  • Language Learning
    • Motivation
    • Language learning strategies
    • The 'good' learner
  • Feedback on the tasks

Unit 2 Working in the Classroom

  • Introduction
  • Focus on the Teacher and Learner
    • 'Good' teachers
    • The students' and teacher's expectations
    • Interaction
    • Group work and pair work
  • Focus on the Classroom
    • Seating
    • Your resources
    • Displays
    • The class library
    • Gestures
    • A general pattern of learning
  • Focus on practical skills for the classroom
    • Giving instructions
    • Error correction in the classroom
    • Course books as a basis for your work
    • Board work
    • Useful teaching tips
  • Feedback on the tasks

Unit 3 Language Awareness

  • Introduction
  • What is grammar?
  • Grammar in language learning
    • Learning the grammar of our native language
    • Thinking about grammar
  • The basic units of grammar
    • Linguistic levels
    • The structure of English sentences
    • Word classes
  • Analysing language
    • The form
    • The meaning
  • Feedback on the tasks

Unit 4 Issues in Presenting Language

  • Introduction
  • When to present a new piece of language
    • Grading language
  • What to present
    • Content of presentations
    • Grammatical structures - form and meaning
  • How to present a new piece of language
    • The presentation stage of the lesson
    • Effective presentations
    • Techniques
    • Explanation
    • Elicitation
    • Discovery learning
  • Practical classroom techniques for presentations
  • Feedback on the tasks

Contents of Module 2

Unit 5 Speaking

  • Introduction
  • Speaking and writing
    • The basic building blocks of speech
  • The sounds of English
    • The phonemic chart for English
    • The consonants
    • The vowels
    • The diphthongs
    • Word stress
    • Indicating stress
    • Stress rules for English
  • Elements in connected speech
    • Sentence stress
    • The features of connected speech
    • Intonation
  • Speaking in the classroom
    • Getting the students to talk
    • Give the students a reason to talk
    • Some points about pronunciation
    • Practice drills
    • Some more communicative activities
    • What is the teacher's role?
  • Feedback on the tasks

Unit 6 Listening

  • Introduction
    • An important skill
    • Differences between listening and reading
  • There's listening, and then there's listening
    • Clues to understanding
    • Listening and responding
    • The objectives of a programme of listening practice
  • Characteristics of listening passages
    • Developing the sub-skills of listening
    • General listening
    • Listening for specific information
    • Listening for the message
    • Following instructions
    • Predicting
  • Methods of developing your students' listening skills
    • Questions and answers
    • Short dialogues
    • Short passages
    • Re-ordering information
    • Information transfer
    • Using humour to develop listening skills
    • Dictation
    • Jig-saw listening
  • Feedback on the tasks

Unit 7 Reading

  • Introduction
    • Intensive and extensive reading
    • Attitudes to reading
    • Reading for a purpose
  • Reading skills
    • Skills related to understanding
  • Intensive reading
    • Before-reading activities
    • While-reading activities
  • Extensive reading: The class library
    • Selecting the reader
    • Preparing to read
    • Who does the reading?
    • While-reading activities
  • Extensive reading - class library books
  • Feedback on the tasks

Unit 8 Writing

  • Introduction
  • Types of writing
    • The mechanics of writing
    • Sentences and paragraphs
    • Punctuation
    • Spelling
  • Integrate the four language skills
  • Controlled and guided writing
    • Controlled writing practice
    • Guided writing practice
  • Marking
  • Feedback on the tasks
  • Index

Contents of Module 3

Unit 9 Lesson Planning

  • Introduction
    • Lesson planning and variety
  • Lesson headings
    • Lesson steps and lesson activities
    • How much time will planning take?
  • Sample lesson plans
    • Timing
    • Following your lesson plan
    • Evaluating your lesson
    • Schemes of work
  • Feedback on the tasks

Unit 10 Teaching Vocabulary

  • Introduction
  • Focus on vocabulary
    • What is a word?
    • Selecting the vocabulary
    • Productive and receptive vocabulary
    • Idiom, metaphor and similes
    • Word formation
    • Words in context
    • Using dictionaries and keeping a vocabulary record
  • Focus on teaching vocabulary
  • Developing the students' vocabulary skills
  • Feedback on the tasks

Unit 11 Practical Language Activities

  • Introduction
  • Word games and activities
  • Picture games
  • Group/class games
  • Role play
  • General activities

Unit 12 Testing in the Classroom

  • Introduction
  • An introduction to testing
    • The environment
    • Why is the testing being conducted?
  • Test types
    • Formative tests
    • Summative tests
    • Norm-referenced and criteria-referenced tests
    • What language skills are being tested?
  • Getting the balance right
    • Objective and subjective questions
    • Correctness vs. appropriateness
  • Stages in the development of a test
  • Designing the questions
  • Testing vocabulary
  • Testing grammar
  • Testing writing
  • Testing reading comprehension
  • Testing speaking
  • Testing listening
  • Feedback on the tasks