250-hour TESOL Diploma – Methodology
Introduction to First Language Acquisition
- First language acquisition and behaviorism
- Inadequacies of the behaviorist approach
- An innate language-learning capacity
- The grammatical development of children
- Telegraphic speech
- The development of inflections and function words
- The development of transformations
- Cognitive factors in first language acquisition
- Language and concepts
Task 1
Chapter 1 – Approaches to Language Teaching
- A Summary of History of Language teaching
- Grammar-Translation Method
- The Reform
- Direct Method
- Audiolingual Method
- Communicative Language Teaching: Communicative Approach
Video tutorial: Direct Method, Audiolingual Method and CLT demos.
Task 2
Chapter 2 – The First Class
- Icebreakers and fillers
- The first class (getting-to-know activities)
Video tutorials:
1- Observe How it Works in Practice: First Class Icebreakers
2- Fillers: A Simple Way of Using a few Spare Minutes
Task 3
Chapter 3 – Communicative Approach
- Main features and goals
- Role of the teacher
- Characteristic of the teaching/learning process
- Student-teacher interaction: Interactive patterns
- Teacher Talk Time (TTT)
- Typical activities in the Communicative Approach
- Techniques and materials
- Functions and exponents
Video Tutorial: Identifying Functions and Exponents
Task 4
Assignment 1
Chapter 4 – Lesson Planning: Presentation Stage
- Teaching grammar using the Communicative Approach
- Presentation of new material: The P-P-P Framework
- The six steps of the presentation stage
- What learners need to know about a new item of language
- Other ways of presenting new language: The Test-Teach-Test (TTT) framework; Engage- Study- Activate (ESA); Grammar analysis; Generative contexts and situations; using texts; using songs
- Communicative Approach ESL textbooks
Tasks 5 and 6
Chapter 5 – Elicitation Techniques: Concept questions
- What is elicitation?
- Asking concept questions
- Types of Concept Questions
Assignment 2
Chapter 6 – Lesson Planning: Practice Stage
- The importance of oral practice
- Characteristic of the practice stage (Mechanical drills, meaningful drills, communicative drills)
Video tutorial: Types of Drilling and Oral Practice
Assignment 3
Chapter 7 – Lesson Planning: Production Stage
- The importance of the production stage
- The problems of the learners
- The role of the teacher
- Communicative production
- Group work
Video tutorials:
1- Group Work Activities
2- Typical Activities in the CA (From Practice to Production)
Task 7
Chapter 8 – Teaching Vocabulary
- How to introduce new vocabulary
- How to make vocabulary memorable
- Different techniques to introduce vocabulary
Video tutorials:
1- Vocabulary teaching strategies
2- Teaching parts of speech communicatively
Assignment 4
Chapter 9 – How to Write a Lesson Plan
- The fundamentals of lesson planning
- What is involved in a lesson plan
- Guidelines
- Why a lesson plan
- Plan your lesson
- Layout of a lesson plan
- Stages in a lesson plan
- Timing
- Aims/assumptions/ anticipated problems
- Interactive patterns
- Identifying and describing lesson aims
- Lesson plan samples
Video tutorials:
1- Why is Lesson Planning Important?
2- Teaching Beginners
Assignments 5 and 6
Chapter 10 – Class Observation
- What to observe in a class
- Observations tasks
Video recorded ESL lessons:
1- Grammar (Adverbs of Frequency) and Speaking Lesson (Beginner Level)
2- Phrasal Verbs and Speaking Lesson Using Task-based Learning (TBL) (Intermediate Level)
3- Grammar (Conditional Sentences) and Speaking Lesson (Intermediate Level)
Assignments 7, 8, and 9
Chapter 11 – Teaching Skills: Speaking
- Introduction to the four major skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing
- Staging a speaking lesson
- The role of the teacher
- Integrating speaking to other skills
- Speaking lesson plans samples
Videos tutorials:
1- Storytelling in ESL
2- Communicative Activity: Integrated Skills
Video recorded ESL lesson: Different speaking strategies, integrating grammar in the speaking lesson
Assignment 10
Chapter 12 – Teaching Skills: Listening Comprehension
- Aims of a listening task
- Steps in a listening lesson
- Types of listening tasks and activities
- Sample listening comprehension lesson plans
Video recorded ESL lesson: Different listening comprehension strategies; integrating speaking and writing
Assignments 11 and 12
Chapter 13 – Teaching Skills: Reading Comprehension
- Aims of reading comprehension
- Types of reading texts and activities
- Sample reading comprehension lesson plans
Video tutorial: How to Help Students Improve Reading Comprehension Skills
Video recorded ESL lesson: Mistakes to avoid in a reading comprehension lesson
Assignments 13 and 14
Chapter 14 – Teaching Skills: Writing
- Motivate your students to write
- Stages in a writing lesson
- Examples of writing tasks
- Task Based Learning (TBL) applied to writing lessons
- Using mind-mapping in writing lessons
- Writing and beginner learners
Task 8
Chapter 15 – Correcting Students Mistakes
- Correction techniques
- Purpose of correction
- When to correct
- What to correct
Video tutorials:
1- What Should a Teacher Know About English Pronunciation?
2- Teaching Intonation
Video: ESL students’ pronunciation mistakes
Assignments 16 and 17
Chapter 16 – Classroom Management
- Recognize the different roles of the teacher
- Work with different group dynamics
- Analyze behavior problems
- Solve problematic situations in the classroom
- Make the most of materials and resources
- Create the best learning environment
Video tutorial: Creating a Well-Functioning Classroom
Task 9
Chapter 17 – Evaluation and testing
- Evaluation and its purpose
- Testing
- Types of tests
- Approaches to test construction: Direct and Indirect Testing
- What makes a ‘good’ test good
Task 10
Chapter 18 – Using Authentic Material
- The importance of using authentic material in the ESL classroom
- What’s video for?
- Uses and techniques
- Teaching the four skills with video
- Sample authentic material lesson plans
Video tutorials:
1- Using the Internet in the Classroom
2- Using Authentic Material – TBL Lesson Plan Using a Video Clip
Assignments 18 and 19
Final methodology exam
Methodology Syllabus – Certificate in the Theory and Methodology of TESOL
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