Initial Teacher Training: an ELT Chat Summary

Initial Teacher Training, such as the Cambridge CELTA and the Trinity CertTESOL, have set syllabi which aim to prepare trainees for the classroom. For those who have completed such a course, what should there be more of and less of in these preliminary teacher education courses?

Right at the beginning of the discussion, Shaun Wilden said that he had “little to say” on the topic and “not sure what the purpose” of it was. This is perhaps because such courses, like the Celta are often seen as rigid and unchangeable. However, just as the Celta developed over time, it is conceivable that Cambridge might look to implement changes in the future.

As James said in the discussion, in response to Shaun Wilden, such a question gives us “a chance to reflect on what we’d like to see in training that is perhaps neglected.” It is self-evident that the trainee’s perspective will be insightful, but so is the trainer’s perspective, as Angelos Bollas pointed out.

Areas which participants wanted to see included the following:

• More classroom management techniques (SueAnnan)
• More input about Second Language Acquisition theory and practice (aaronbroyer)
• More practice and less theory. Theory is good but too much was not so good then (vickyloras)
• More time for reflection and processing (SueAnnan)
• More self-study (Angelos Bollas)

In response to Aaron Broyer’s suggest of more input on SLA, Angelos Bollas asked why that would have been useful. Citing the desire to have more of a solid foundation in the theory behind the method, Aaron said that “SLA foundation allows trainees to evaluate the plethora of methods and techniques.” This of course chimes more of a diploma level course than a certificate level course. Nonetheless, it is an interesting and perhaps a stepping stone towards diploma level theory, were it introduced at certificate level.

Marisa Constantidines pointed out that the format of Initial Teacher Training courses, such as the 4 week intensive CELTA, leaves little room for teaching key areas such as acquisition theories, so they are left to be dealt with during diploma level courses.

Tom Flaherty felt that the current structure to preliminary courses is appropriate, as it covers the practical elements before the theoretical elements – often left for more advanced courses. He drew a comparison with English Language Teaching, in which learners are taught “practical language before theory (grammar)”, suggesting the same for teachers in training is applicable.

This desire to teach what is practical before devling into the theory is perhaps why certificate level courses teach very basic and easily applicable techniques, depsite the fact they might not be wholly pedagogically sound, such as Listening for Gist and then Listening for Detail.

Perhaps the most insightful way to gauge what Initial Teacher Training courses need to include and exclude more of are the in-house Professional Development sessions that schools regularly run. These are usually on the basis of observations and provide insight into what teachers can and can’t do post-certificate level.

5 Good Teaching Habits

As teachers and learners, we all expect different things from learning and teaching. Some learners expect language-heavy courses, full of grammar and with lots of teacher explanation. Others anticipate a more social learning approach, where they play with the language and acquire it through practice, practice and practice. 

Whatever the style you take or whatever the style your learners expect you to take, there are some basic behaviours that all teachers should follow in the classroom. These go a long way to building an effective learning environment. Teachers come in all shapes and sizes and they vary greatly, but great teachers all share some common features i.e. the core basics of good teaching habits.

Whether you have been in teaching for five minutes or five years, reminding yourself of the core basics of good teaching is always a good refresher.

So, what are these top five teaching behaviours or habits? Keep reading to find out…

ELTblog.net Podcast Episode 1

Welcome to the first episode of the new ELT podcast series from ELTblog.net! You can tune into the first episode by clicking play below.

As promised in the podcast, there will be a link to all blog posts and articles mentioned in each episode. Below you will find links to everything covered in Episode 1:

• TESOL Africa 1st Annual Conference in Khartoum
• Leo Selivan’s article from EFLmagazine.com Beginner’s Guide to Teaching Lexically

• An archived version of Geoff Jordan’s ELT and Applied Linguistics blog

• Hall Houston’s article from EFLmagazine.com Ten Pre-Listening Activities

Product, Process and Learner Writing

Most schools have a clear policy on writing. Many require learners to submit a certain number of writing tasks before the end of the semester. Some plan within the syllabus for a writing task to be completed every month.Others let the teacher decide what and when learners should do writing.

A piece of my own free writing in Spanish

Whatever policy a school or teacher might follow, the task at hand remains the same: the learners have to produce cohesive written texts. In English Language Teaching there are two main schools of thought on this topic: the Product Approach and the Process Approach.

This post is going to look at these two approaches and also at a third one which I am suggesting to get our learners writing not only more but more effectively. Keep reading to kind out more…

Acrostic Poems in ELT

When starting out in teaching, Newly Qualified Teachers tend to be enthusiastic collectors of in-class activities. It’s not unusual to hear in the staff room cries such as “Anyone have any good ideas that I can do with my intermediate group?” or “That sounds like a great activity, I’ll use that!” In short, new teachers will try just about anything once.

With a bit of time and experience, however, teachers come to realise that some activities work better than others. They tend to get a sense of what works and what doesn’t work with their learners, making statements such as “that sounds like a nice idea but I just don’t see it working with my group.” And sometimes you have to stop using an activity because you fear you might over do it – this rings particularly true of vocab games.

With years of experience and plenty of development, some teachers then start to question the value of in-class activities. They cast a critical eye over them and start to ponder what principles of learning are behind the activity. This is when you start to hear statements, such as “well, this activity is good fun and they enjoy it, but what are the learners actually getting out it?” That is to say, you start to take a Principled Approach to activities and their design.