TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAMMES
MLS offers practising language teachers two different types of teachers’ course during the summer. Each course lasts two weeks and can be followed either as a single course (2 weeks) or as a combination course (4 weeks)
COURSE A: OVERSEAS TEACHERS GENERAL REFRESHER COURSE Course length: 2 weeks
Course objectives
The course is intended primarily for qualified language teachers specialising in the teaching of English at primary or secondary school level. The course is also suitable and appropriate for teachers of other languages as a foreign language. The course provides course participants with opportunities in these areas:
1. language improvement: to improve their overall command of English on all levels: grammatical, functional, lexical, phonological and syntactical.
2. professional skills: to raise their awareness of the current methodologies employed in English language teaching, as well as in the teaching materials and aids used to achieve this.
3. practical observation and teaching: to observe the teaching at the College of experienced teachers teaching at different levels, as well as participating in peer teaching themselves with other course participants; take part in post lesson discussion and feedback on lessons observed and peer teaching.
Course contents
1 Language improvement:
• oral competence (speaking): concentrating on accuracy of speech to include pronunciation of individual sounds and connected speech; word and sentence stress; intonation patterns; fluency of speech to express ideas confidently and communicatively.
• aural comprehension (listening): training in accustoming the ear to interpret the natural rhythms of the spoken language; to identify not only individual words and sounds but also to decode the language and extract meaning from a continuum of sound; training in the skill of gist listening for overall (global) understanding and in the skill of scan listening to pick out specific information from a text.
• reading comprehension: gist reading for overall understanding in order to gain general comprehension of a text; scan reading for specific information; training in the interpretation of the written word and using context to work out the meaning of unknown words.
• writing competence: expressing oneself with the written word clearly, confidently and accurately; being able to function with the written word in terms of reports, essays, notes, memoranda, letters, e-mails etc.
2 Professional skills:
• the purpose, content and different types of needs analysis; interpreting and utilising the result; matching student needs with course content.
• lesson planning: format, aims, skills, timing, variety of activities.
• the student-centred approach: relationship and rapport; target setting and achievement.
• the communicative approach involving role-play, simulation, authentic texts, presentations
• classroom management
• the awareness and ability to utilise, exploit and adapt authentic materials, where appropriate; creating materials specific to the student’s needs.
3 Practical observation and teaching
• the opportunity to observe experienced language teachers at the college teaching at various levels
• the opportunity to take part in peer teaching and observation with other course participants
• to observe with particular relevance to the importance of posture, stance, eye contact, physical distance, mobility, voice projection, physical mannerisms
COURSE B: OVERSEAS TEACHERS COURSE IN PREPARATION FOR THE FURTHER CERTIFICATE FOR TEACHERS OF BUSINESS ENGLISH (F.T.B.E.) Course length: 2 weeks
Course objectives
The course is designed both as an introduction to teaching Business English for qualified teachers of General English as well as further training for those teachers who have already had some experience of teaching English for Business. There is an end of course examination (see below). The aim is to enable the candidate to develop a basic knowledge and understanding of teaching business English in order to:
• demonstrate an understanding of the professional skills required of the business English teacher
• identify the methodologies that are most effective in the business English classroom
• demonstrate an understanding of the basic business concepts and practices that the business English teacher is expected to be familiar with.
Course contents
1 Professional skills:
Analysing student needs; interpreting and utilising the results; matching client needs with course content
Lesson planning: format, aims, skills, timing, variety of activities
The client approach: relationship and rapport; target setting and achievement
Feedback and evaluation with reference to motivation and explanation of rationale to the client; understanding of the need for ongoing negotiation with the client during the course
2 Methodology
• A learner-centred approach to business English teaching
• Communicative approach involving role-play, simulation, authentic texts, presentations
• Classroom management
• Awareness and ability to utilise, exploit and adapt authentic materials, where appropriate; creating bespoke materials specific to the client’s needs
• The methodology of one-to-one tuition
3 Business concepts and practices
• Awareness of basic business communication: phone, fax, e-mail, promotional material, enquiries, meetings, sales, offers, orders
• Social English: networking, register, small talk, corporate entertainment
• Basic written forms of communication: layout, style, content, key language
• Familiarity with basic corporate structures: different types and the make-up of a company
• Familiarity with basic marketing principles: advertising, promotion, product launches, sales techniques and USP’s
• Familiarity with basic financial terms and with general business documents and terminology
The course leads to the LCCI’s Further Certificate for Teachers of Business English (FTBE), an examination that takes place at the end of the course. It consists of one paper of two and a half hours, containing three sections:
Section A: Professional Skills
Section B: Methodology and Materials
Section C: Basic Business Awareness
The rationale for both courses
The focus for each course is very much on the practice of language teaching and aims to provide course participants with ideas and techniques within a corpus of teaching material that they will be able to apply to their own teaching in their own country. Each course will be an important forum for the discussion of all matters relating to their own teaching and course participants will be encouraged to introduce matters for discussion that relate specifically to their own teaching situation and to share experiences with the other course participants. |
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