250-hour TESOL Diploma: Methodology

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• What is elicitation?
• Asking concept questions
• Types of Concept Questions

Assignment 2

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Evaluation and its purpose
• Testing
• Types of tests
• Approaches to test construction: Direct and Indirect Testing
• What makes a ‘good’ test good

Task 10

• 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