Foundation TEFL: getting started

Transcription

1 Foundation TEFL: getting started Hello and welcome to Foundation TEFL. We hope you enjoy the course and find that it prepares you for teaching English as a second or foreign language. This short guide should help you find out How to take the course What you ll learn in the course How you ll be assessed during the course How to take the course First, go to training.ef.com and log in with your username and password. You should then see a dashboard like the one below. On the panel marked My courses click Foundation TEFL You ll then see the different modules which make up the course. Click into the Introductory module.

2 Click the word Launch to launch begin. You ll then see a screen with two Begin buttons, which are colored orange. Click either of these to launch the course content. You may then have to wait a few moments for the course content to load.

3 After launching the course you can usually Click anywhere on screen to move to the next page (or slide). Use the scroll bar at the bottom of the screen to move forwards or backwards. Click Submit on quiz slides. You have to submit answers to all quiz slides in order complete the unit. There is a picture of a submit button below. Let s look at how the course is made up. Every unit (we ll tell you about the units in a moment) starts with a spoken introduction and a puzzle question to get you thinking about the topic at hand. These puzzle questions aren t assessed and you won t get feedback on them. They re just there to help you think. After typing something in the box and hit submit. A click anywhere to continue button will then appear. At the end of the spoken introduction you ll see the three learning objectives for the unit. You ll notice these slides always have a picture of an arrow at the top right, which looks like the one below. After this you will need to read through several slides of information and input. It s a good idea to take notes on some key points. Most units will contain a video. The videos vary in length. The shortest last a couple of minutes, the longest last up to fifteen minutes. The video slides all have a video icon at the top right, like the one below. After the video you ll be asked some questions about what you saw and heard in the video. Don t worry if you get these questions wrong they re there to help your learning. You can get feedback on these questions by clicking review quiz at the end of the unit. At three points during each unit you ll be asked some questions related to the learning objectives for the unit. There five different types of questions you ll be asked. We ll show you one example of each so you can get used to these.

4 Ordering questions (simply, put these in the correct sequence) True or false questions (I think you can guess what these are) Multiple choice questions (which usually have three or four options. Sometimes, more than one answer is correct, but we ll tell you when this is the case) Fill in the blank (where you need to type the correct word into the space provided. Often, more than one correct answer is possible) Drag and drop (you ll need to drag an item, like a word, into the correct box) Again, don t worry if you get these questions wrong they re there to help your learning. You can get feedback on these questions by clicking review quiz at the end of the unit (like the one below). When you get to the end of a unit you ll see a screen which says End of unit. You ll need to click the exit button (a small cross at the bottom of the screen) to exit (like the one in the bottom right of the scroll bar below). What you ll learn The diagram below shows the four modules, the four units making up the Engage module and the three learning objectives which go with one of these units. characteristics Engage Understand Learn Your learners Making sessions interesting Utilizing materials Communicative teaching Responding to learner needs Choose activities to accommodate different learning styles Identify learner needs Assess the affect of previous language learning experience Why are there these four modules for the course? These modules are based around what students need and expect from foreign or second language lessons. We believe that students are the most important people in the classroom and if we focus on their needs, it will lead to more successful learning. So, we believe that all students need to be engaged before learning can begin. It s very difficult (or even impossible) to learn if you re bored. The first module is all about engaging students. It s called Engage.

5 Unlike most of the classes we ve attended as students ourselves, second or foreign language learners have an additional barrier to their learning. That is, understanding what s going on. It s harder to understand a lesson in a second or foreign language than it is in a first language. The second module, Understand, will help you help students understand. Students expect to leave the classroom having learned something. Otherwise a class is just an engaging interaction in another language where the students understood what was going on - something that students could have done for free seeking out an English speaker in Starbucks. This module is called Learn. Finally there s a module on your students. We believe that all students need to be engaged, need to understand and need have learned something at the end of class. This is true whether six or sixty years old, whether they re in a room with you and fifteen other students or whether they re online in a coffee shop hundreds of miles away. We believe students all share these similarities, but also have some key differences. We ll look at the specifics of your students in the module on your students. How you ll be assessed Remember, the questions you re asked during each unit aren t for assessment; they re to help your learning. After viewing all the content for one module (that s four units), you ll unlock the quiz for the module. There will be three questions per learning objective. Since this is a course on how to teach English and not Math, we ve done the sums for you Each module = 4 units Each unit = 3 learning objectives Each leaning objective = 3 multiple choice questions So that s 4 x 3 x 3 = 36 multiple choice questions at the end of each module. You need to score more than 70% in order to pass. If you don t get 70% the first time round, you can take the test again. And again. (And again if you need to.) There are four modules and you ll take the tests for each of these after working your way through all the units in each module.

6 That s it for multiple choice assessment. Then there s one more thing to complete before you graduate. The final assessment consists of planning a lesson for a specific group of learners and including in this plan examples of how you d apply the learning objectives in a real lesson. This sounds complicated, but don t worry, it s not. For example, in the engage module, one of the learning objectives is choosing warmers and wrap ups to engage students. To do this in your lesson plan, you need to tell us what warmer or wrap up you might use and why you think it would engage students. One of the Foundation TEFL trainers will then give you feedback on your lesson plan. Distinction lesson plans include examples of more than 70% of the learning objectives. Pass lesson plans include examples of more than 50% of the learning objectives. If your plan include examples of less than 70% of the learning objectives, you ll need to edit and resubmit your lesson plan. You ll be able to see the marking sheet (or rubric) that our trainers use to mark your lesson plan so you should know exactly what to include (as well as what not to). Frequently asked questions How long does the course take to complete on average? This really depends on your experience and familiarity with the content. What happens to the answers I give during the exercises? Are they recorded? Or just to make sure I m paying attention before I move on? Both. We can see your answers (so please don t say anything impolite!) but we re not able to give you feedback on these. The purpose is to help you focus before you move on. How did you decide on the content? The content is based on years of experience of the Foundation TEFL trainers teaching adults, online and young learners and is based on the needs of learners.