Want the knowledge of a qualified English teacher without paying for expensive certifications and titles?
I’ve weeded out the most important pieces of a DELTA Cambridge diploma and I’ll help you implement them in just 5 short weeks—without the added cost.
With 15 years of experience in English language teaching, I understand that you don’t need a fancy qualification to be a successful teacher. You can have a qualification and still not really know what you are doing or have everything figured out.
While it’s great to have the time to spend on years of teacher training courses, peer observation, and writing background essays, I bet it’s even better to focus on those components you’ll actually use in your daily life as an English language teacher.
I’m offering a 5-week course that will guide you through:
- Dealing with Emergent Language
- Conducting Needs Analysis on your students
- The Art of Improvisation and Low Prep, Fun Classes
- Incorporating Students’ Interests into the Classroom
- Using (truly) Authentic Materials
This course is not for those who just want a certificate of attendance or a diploma. It’s for teachers who want the ABC (and D) of English language teaching and don’t care about the fancy schmancy certificate.
This is for you if you want to:
- Jump-start your career in ELT.
- Focus on the skills you need for your day-to-day tasks as an English language teacher.
- Know what is best for your learners and be ready to deliver lessons without hours of prep.
- Have more fun teaching and doing what makes you happy.
Here is what you find in this 5-week, short, course:
Week 1 – Unlocking Emergent Language in English Language Teaching
This first session introduces you to strategies for balancing structured lesson plans with the spontaneity of emergent language, crucial for fostering a natural and engaging learning environment.
Why This Matters: Embracing emergent language helps bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and real-life communication. When we embrace lessons with spontaneous language occurrences, it makes learning more relevant and deeply engaging for our students.
What You Will Learn:
- Balancing Act: Integrate emergent language into traditional lesson plans without compromising the learning structure.
- Spontaneity in the Classroom: Techniques for encouraging spontaneous language use, crucial for real-life communication skills.
- Adapting on the Fly: Strategies to adapt teaching approaches in real-time, tailoring lessons to the immediate needs and inputs of students.
This Session Answers the Following Key Questions:
- What is emergent language, and why is it important in ESL teaching?
- How can teachers balance planned and spontaneous language instruction?
- What strategies can be used to foster a natural language use environment?
- How can emergent language be seamlessly integrated into existing lesson frameworks?
Skill Development Highlights:
- Responsive Teaching Techniques: Learn to adjust teaching strategies dynamically as new language needs emerge during lessons.
- Student-Centered Learning Approaches: Create learner-focused environments where students’ spontaneous utterances guide the educational content.
Make your ESL teaching more adaptive, responsive, and aligned with the authentic communicative needs of your students. This approach caters to students’ engagement and learning outcomes.
Week 2: Needs Analysis in English Language Teaching
The essential practice of conducting thorough needs analysis to tailor your language teaching effectively. This session is about the methods of assessing students’ needs, from informal conversations to formal diagnostic tests, ensuring your courses are responsive and targeted.
Why This Matters: Understanding and addressing the specific needs of your students is crucial for effective language teaching. This session equips you with the skills to identify both the expressed and underlying language requirements of your learners.
What You Will Learn:
- Comprehensive Needs Assessment: How to gather and interpret data about your students’ language skills, preferences, and real-world application needs.
- Balancing Wants and Needs: Strategies to differentiate between what students believe they need and what will actually improve their language abilities.
- Adapting Materials: Tips for modifying course materials to better align with the learners’ needs, increasing engagement and effectiveness.
This Session Answers the Following Key Questions:
- What is needs analysis, and why is it foundational to language teaching?
- How can teachers effectively discern and prioritize student needs over wants?
- What tools and techniques can be utilized to assess and understand student needs?
- How can the information from a needs analysis influence course planning and material adaptation?
Skill Development Highlights:
- Effective Communication for Data Gathering: Conduct interviews and design questionnaires that yield valuable insights into student preferences and requirements.
- Analytical Skills in Language Teaching: Analyze and apply the data from needs assessments to directly inform your teaching methods and material choices.
- Adaptive Teaching Strategies: Dynamically adjust teaching methods and materials in response to evolving understanding of student needs.
By focusing on a structured approach to understanding and meeting learners’ needs, this session help with prioritizing student satisfaction and retention.
Week 3: The Art of Improvisation in Language Teaching
Practical strategies for embracing the unexpected in the classroom, preparing you and your students for real-world language use.
Why This Matters: Embracing improvisation in language teaching keeps the learning environment lively, engaging and adaptive, which encourages students to think creatively and communicate spontaneously.
What You Will Learn:
- Essentials of Improvisation: How to manage classroom dynamics when lesson plans don’t go as expected.
- Practical Improvisation Techniques: Transform potential classroom challenges into valuable learning opportunities.
This Session Addresses the Following Key Questions:
- How can improvisation benefit both teachers and students?
- Reduce dependence on strict lesson plans, fostering a more flexible and responsive teaching environment.
- What are effective strategies to implement improvisation in the classroom?
- Using improvisational games and activities to encourage active participation and improve on students’ language skills without relying solely on structured materials.
- How can I help students become more adaptable in their language use?
- Challenging students to use language creatively and confidently, even when they lack specific vocabulary or are faced with unexpected topics.
Skill Development Highlights:
- Adaptive Teaching Skills: Adjust lessons on the fly, a critical skill for maintaining the flow of learning regardless of unexpected changes or technical issues.
- Classroom Management: Techniques for engaging all students actively, ensuring that everyone in the classroom participates and benefits from improvised activities.
Week 4: Incorporating Student Interests into Lessons
Tailor your English lessons to align directly with your students’ interests, maximizing both engagement and effectiveness.
Why This Matters: Students are more likely to engage with material that resonates with their experiences and goals, making language acquisition faster and more profound.
What You Will Learn:
- Tailoring Content: Edit and supplement course materials to include topics that captivate your students, making them relevant and engaging.
- Practical Application: Case studies on adapting listening and speaking exercises for your students.
This Session Answers the Following Key Questions:
- How do I identify what interests my students?
- The insights from needs analysis can guide your lesson planning.
- What are some strategies for incorporating student interests into various lesson types?
- Choosing content that aligns with student interests.
- How can personalized lessons improve learning outcomes?
- The impact of personalized learning on student motivation, participation, and overall language acquisition through detailed case studies.
- Can I adapt these strategies for specific needs like business English?
- Learn from a detailed walkthrough of adapting a business English lesson to incorporate personal interests and relevant scenarios.
Skill Development Highlights:
- Personalized Learning Design: Techniques for designing lessons that incorporate student interests, increasing engagement and motivation.
- Responsive Teaching Methods: Learn to quickly adapt lessons in response to student feedback, achieving effectiveness of instruction and learning outcomes.
Week 5: Using Authentic Materials in Language Teaching
Maintain the authenticity of materials while ensuring they are comprehensible and relevant to students’ learning processes.
Why This Matters: Engaging with authentic materials prepares students for real-world language use and helps them develop a natural ease with the language. Create a learning environment that encourages critical thinking and adaptability through materials that students are likely to encounter outside the classroom.
What You Will Learn:
- Understanding Authenticity: What makes materials “authentic,” and why is it crucial to use them despite their complexity?
- Tolerance of Ambiguity: How can you help students embrace not fully understanding every aspect of a new language?
- From Input to Intake: What strategies can transform passive exposure into active learning?
- Noticing Activities: How can you design classroom activities that increase language awareness and promote active learning?
This Session Answers the Following Key Questions:
- What are authentic materials?
- Learn why materials not specifically designed for learners can be more beneficial and how they mirror real-life language use.
- How can I help students who are overwhelmed by authentic materials?
- Discover strategies to guide students’ resilience and help them be persistent in their learning.
- What activities help transform exposure into learning?
- Shift from mere input to genuine intake.
- How do noticing activities foster deeper language acquisition?
- Designing tasks that encourage students to notice language nuances themselves, a crucial step toward true language proficiency.
- What practical examples can I use to incorporate authentic materials into my teaching?
- Get clear, actionable ways to use newspapers, podcasts, videos, and social media to create engaging and educational content for your students.
Skill Development Highlights:
- Authentic Material Utilization: Effectively incorporate real-world materials that maintain their authenticity yet are accessible for learners at various levels.
- Critical Observation Techniques: Teach students to notice linguistic features naturally, fostering deeper language comprehension and retention.
Here’s what some testers of the course have said:
Testimonials:
- “Thank you, Meri, for this interesting training, lots of helpful advice and suggestions. The new metrics will definitely enhance learners’ motivation and our approach in helping them.” — Maria A. Trevisi
- “This was incredibly insightful; thank you very much for sharing it, Meri. I am always striving to incorporate improvisation into my classes, and it can sometimes be challenging. I look forward to implementing some of these ideas!” — Adriana Amadio
- “Thank you so much for all the great ideas and tips you offered in this video. I will definitely focus more on the new metrics you talked about when doing this type of activities and you reminded me of Padlet! It’s a tool I used to use more during the pandemic and that could be very useful for reading and writing tasks. Setting a specific day for these communicative/spontaneous activities is also a great way not to fall in the same ‘coursebook’ routine that can be so boring both for teachers and students.” — Claudia
Have any questions before you buy? Contact Meri at thenonnativespeaker.meri@gmail.com