The TEFL Course available at ITTO is one of the most competitive, demanding, and internationally accredited courses available worldwide. This is how the course works: It consists of 140 hours (20 hours above international requirements) which are covered in 4 weeks Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Our course exceeds the international standard, which is why employers prefer our graduates over others in the market.
The most updated methodologies are included in your course, e.g. Blended Learning, Use of Technology in the Classroom, Apps in EFL/ESL, Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), etc.
These 140 hours are integrated as follows:
- 120 hours of Content Input Session
- 11 hours of observed teaching practicum on real EFL students
- 6 hours of observation on veteran teachers
- Teaching of 2 conversation classes
- Teaching 1 private tutoring class
The Course Timetable Monday through Friday:
- 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Input sessions covering grammar, phonetics, teaching skills, and classroom management
- 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Lunch
- 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Guided lesson preparation time
- 3:15 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. Class observation or teaching practice
The course is divided into five areas:
Topics covered include:
- The role of the teacher in promoting an effective learning atmosphere.
- Encouraging student interaction as a teaching tool in relation to the role of the teacher within a communicative education framework.
- Effective strategies for Classroom Management. The importance of eye contact, body language, voice projection, student grouping, lesson preparation, rapport with pupils and the use of the physical space as a teaching resource.
- Skills needed both in the production and presentation of visuals: the board, flash cards, drawing, etc.
- Discipline and behaviour patterns: managing groups of students of different ages.
- Giving instructions.
- Monitoring.
- Praising and providing appropriate feedback.
This is a highly practical element of the course where trainees consider:
- Planning for success: how to prepare a comprehensive lesson plan.
- Understanding language structure as a prior step to teaching grammar and vocabulary.
- Strategies for teaching vocabulary.
- How to address students’ mistakes appropriately.
- The specific needs of beginners, intermediate and advanced students.
- Using games in the classroom as an effective teaching tool.
- The use of communicative activities within the modern education paradigm.
- Language as a set of skills (speaking, reading, listening and writing).
- The inductive and deductive approach to the teaching of grammar.
- Teaching English for Specific Purposes.
- The principles underpinning good assessment.
This section of the course aims to consolidate trainee’s knowledge of the English grammar system and provides practical ideas as to how it can be taught.
Some different aspects of grammar covered include:
- Tenses: form, meaning and use
- Nouns and adjectives
- Verbs and adverbs. Verb forms (infinitives, gerunds, etc.)
- Parts of speech
- Modal auxiliary verbs
- Conditionals
- Relative clauses
- Phrasal verbs
- Teaching pronunciation, intonation and word/sentence stress
- Phonetics
This area focuses on areas such as stress, intonation and rhythm. Trainees will concentrate predominantly on the practical implications of these topics with regard to the teaching of English language musicality, drilling and expressivity and as opposed to the same characteristics of the native tongue of the learners.
The most practical and important element of the course. Trainees teach genuine EFL students following an official curriculum, the latter is extremely important, since many other training centers around the world recruit volunteers for trainees’ teaching practices or conduct these practices amongts the trainees.
All teaching practices 10-hrs. minimum, (six are the international standard), fully observed, constructively critiqued and graded by our trainers. The emphasis is on progression and trainees are expected to address issues raised during feedback.
A sample of our exit criteria is as follows:
Week One:
1. At the end of session one, trainees will be aware of:
- The reasons why people choose to learn a foreign language.
- A number of theories in relation to how people learn effectively.
- The differences between language acquisition and language learning.
- The factors which influence the success of language acquisition and learning.
2. At the end of session two, trainees will be aware of:
- The role of the teacher in promoting effective learning.
- Characteristics of an effective teacher.
- The choices which teachers have to make in managing a class.
- The factors which influence the decision making process of the teacher.
- Strategies for maximizing students interaction (STT) in the classroom.
- The ways in which teachers can unintentionally hinder or prevent learning.
3. At the end of session three, trainees will be aware of:
- Strategies for classroom management in relation to eye contact, gesture, voice, student grouping, pre-lesson preparation, rapport with students, behavior Management.
- Skills needed in the presentation of materials: the board, the flip chart, pre-prepared cards, note pads, etc.
- The use of audio visual equipment and technology: Projector, Tablets, CD-Players, Interactive White Boards and others.
