Teaching Skills Input Session 1B: The Course Units
Unit 1: Teaching Skills
Unit 1 comprises over 50% of the course’s content and is the most important component of the Trinity Cert TESOL course.
It consists of three sections, each of which receives an individual grade.
(a) Teaching Practice Sessions
During the course you will complete teaching practice sessions totalling 6 hours of observed teaching practice:
You will teach at two different levels and will try out a variety of lesson types.
Tutors will help you prepare your lessons, though levels of support will ease off as the course progresses.
After the lessons, you will have a feedback meeting with your observer and peer teachers on the session.
For every teaching practice session, you will need to have the following paperwork:
• a detailed lesson plan including your teaching resources using the lesson plan pro forma included in the Teaching Practice Portfolio.
• a reflective analysis and self-evaluation of your teaching practice
• a signed assessment sheet from your observer.
Verbal feedback will take place on the same day as your session. All individual lessons you teach will receive a tutor grade.
(b) Class Observations
In addition to the teaching practice, you will also complete 4 hours of observation of ESOL classes taught by experienced teachers. The first of these will be a recorded observation. Later you will watch a teacher give a class to the learners you will subsequently be teaching. Finally, there are two other live observations of experienced teachers. The aim of these observations is not only to give you a chance to see an experienced practitioner at work and pick up some techniques, but also to give you an opportunity to consider the reasons for and implications of certain classroom practice. To this end, you will complete a form for each of the observations. These will focus on a different aspect of each lesson observed.
(c) Teaching Practice Portfolio
This will contain all the documentation for the Teaching Practice component of Unit 1 as outlined above. You will also need to write a post-Teaching Practice summary in which you reflect upon your Teaching Practice experience and the areas you still need to work on. In the course timetable many sessions focus on different elements of Unit 1, these include:
• contemporary approaches and methodology
• lesson planning
• dealing with errors
• guided observations
• materials
• classroom management
• classroom resources and ICT
• Global Englishes
• receptive/ productive skills
• internal and external assessment
On the course you will be given detailed guidance on all the elements required for the Teaching Practice Unit. You will be continually assessed during your teaching practice and will receive feedback from your tutor and peers after every teaching practice session. Contemporary TESOL approaches and methodology will be discussed throughout the course, particularly during lesson planning sessions and during the feedback sessions following teaching practice.
Unit 2: Language Awareness & Skills
Unit 2 makes up over 20% of the course content and includes the key grammar, language and structure input that will be vital for you to learn and use on the course and in your future career as a teacher of English.
While you will have done considerable work relating to this unit during the pre-course assignment, the course will provide specific class teaching sessions on grammar, vocabulary, and phonology.
The relevant input sessions will not only be dedicated to the analysis and teaching of these key areas but will be presented in such a way as to provide suggestions for strategies and techniques you might employ in your own teaching.
In addition to the input sessions, the course tutors will provide guidance on how to teach grammar, lexis and phonology during teaching practice feedback.
In order to pass Unit 2, you will be given a written Language Awareness Test towards the end of the course to evaluate your knowledge of the areas required for Unit 2. You will need to achieve a score of at least 60% in the test to pass this unit.
Unit 3: Learner Profile
For Unit 3, you will be working with an individual learner in order to complete the Learner Profile. You will need to interview this learner and, following an analysis of their needs and motivation, deliver a one-to-one class and develop a short course of study to help them with their language skills.
As part of the profile, you will draw up a detailed analysis of the learner’s language abilities, including phonological features of the learner’s oral English.
Using this information, you will then design and give a suitable 45-minute, one-to-one lesson, and finally, you will draw up a set of suggestions for future study.
Trainees will be expected to spend time outside the timetabled hours of the course completing the Learner Profile.
Unit 4: Materials Assignment
In order to successfully complete the materials assignment, you will reflect on and evaluate a teaching resource that you used during your assessed teaching practice.
You will produce a written rationale and evaluation of the material which will provide the basis for the assessment interview with an external moderator from Trinity College London.
You will be expected to spend time outside the timetabled hours of the course completing the materials assignment.
During the course you will be given guidance on the required content for the Materials Assignment and you will be given the opportunity to prepare for the assessment interview.
During the course you will attend four 1-hour teaching sessions in an unknown language.
You will be required to complete a reflective journal to evaluate these language lessons.
The aim of this part of the course is to consider the experience of learning an unknown language and how that may impact on your teaching of English.
Additionally, you are likely to pick up a range of strategies from these sessions that you can apply to your own teaching of low level learners.
You will be assessed through successful completion of a reflective journal consisting of an evaluation of each of the 4 unknown language lessons. For each session you will be given a different theme to focus on in your evaluation.
