Chapter 3: Examining Courses, Qualifications and Jobs 39
✓ To make sure that trainees can plan lessons with clear and achievable
aims using methods appropriate to the learners’ levels of achievement
and age.
✓ To give trainees basic classroom management skills and the ability to
provide relevant activities.
✓ To make sure that trainees are able to use and adapt published teaching
material and create their own basic teaching material.
✓ To highlight the main advantages and disadvantages of various language
teaching approaches.
✓ To ensure that trainees can continue their development in TEFL after
completing the course.
Before you start, the course provider sends you an EFL reading list and often
asks you to complete a work book that provides an introduction to three
important areas of the course. One is the unknown language section, the
second is a grammar section and the third section is about how to teach.Some courses include lessons in a foreign language so that you understand
how the students in your class feel. Through these lessons you can gain the
dual perspective of both a teacher and a student and experience various
teaching techniques. You produce a project based on these lessons near the
end of the course.Teaching practice is an essential part of the course so expect real live stu-
dents to volunteer to take part in your lesson. You also have the opportunity
to see various other experienced teachers at work and your tutor gives you
continual advice, feedback and support.Courses with a learner profile project give you the opportunity to get to know
one EFL student a bit better and analyse their language skills in depth. For
the project, you usually conduct an interview with the student and record
it. In addition you set them a written task so that you can write about their
strengths and weaknesses and discuss ways in which you would help them
through EFL lessons. You may teach one lesson with the student in which you
address one of that student’s weak points.A materials project is designed to help you use and adapt basic materials,
such as a photograph, in the classroom. You’re asked to show how to use the
same set of materials with students of different levels and abilities.At the end of the course there’s often a test on grammar and phonology
(pronunciation).