120-hour Combined TESOL Course

The purpose of this Introduction is to provide you with an overview of the course. You will find full details of the course contents as well as information on how the course is organized, how to complete it successfully and how to proceed through the course.
The TEFL International TESOL course is unique for an online course as it enables graduates to receive ongoing career support and teacher development after completion. It also provides an opportunity to see 'real' lessons through our online videos.
We believe that you will find this course useful as you embark upon a career in TESOL community.
Thank you once again for choosing TEFL International online TESOL Certificate Course.
 

COURSE AIMS 

   
This course aims to provide a solid introduction to the world of TESOL. Upon completion of the theory, trainees will acquire good working knowledge of the English grammar and phonology systems as well as an awareness of the skills and techniques required for successful language teaching.
While the course is both theoretical and knowledge- based, we also try to make this course as practical as possible with the help of the videos.
We recommend that while studying the course, you should try to arrange to observe experienced teachers at a local language  school. You may even get an opportunity to act as the teacher's assistant or to give a supervised lesson yourself!
Ideally, you might want to give one or two supervised lessons yourself, and receive feedback from an experienced teacher afterwards. If you are ever able to video record one of your lessons, we would be happy to look at it and give you our comments.

COURSE CONTENT    

This 120-hour course consists of fifteen units, carefully chosen and organized to ensure a gradual buildup of knowledge while not overloading trainees with too much information at any one time. The final component of the theory is a short essay-writing task of between 500 and 1,000 words.
The course units are:
Introduction

• Unit 1: Principles, Teachers and Learners
• Unit 2: Methodologies, Equipment and Teaching Aids Unit 3: Warmers
• Unit 4: Context and Contextualization Unit 5: Teaching Speaking
• Unit 6: Teaching Vocabulary
•  
• Unit 7: Teaching Grammar Unit 8: Teaching Listening Unit 9: Teaching Reading Unit 10: Teaching Writing
• Unit 11: Communicative Activities
• Unit 12: Basic Grammar: Parts of Speech, Sentences and Tenses
• Unit 13: Basic Phonology: Intonation, Stress, Phonemics and Articulation
• Unit 14: Classroom Management Unit 15: Lesson Planning
• Short Essay (500-1000 words)

HOW DOES THE COURSE WORK?    

The course is designed to allow for maximum flexibility. You can work at a pace that suits you, as long as you complete the course within two months of receiving your login details.
In order to get the maximum benefit from the course, we recommend working on one unit per day. This will allow you to complete the course in more than two weeks and will also give you enough time to understand and digest the lesson fully before moving to the next one. However, if you wish to work through the course more quickly, or slowly, the choice is yours.
Our online course is designed to be as user-friendly as possible. To move comfortably through this section, simply follow these straightforward steps for each unit:
Work through the materials for each unit until you feel you have fully absorbed all the information provided. You can also watch the video of that unit   VIDEO- (if any) to catch the main ideas of the lesson. (Remember each video does not present the whole lesson. It only provides you with some examples or focuses on the  important parts of the lesson.)
 
Once you are ready you can then check your understanding of the subjects covered by completing the end-of-unit task sheet that accompanies the unit.
After completing the task sheet you should click on the ‘START TEST’ tab which will take you to the multiple choice assessment for the unit.
After completing the test you will know the result and then move on to the next unit.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA    

In order to pass the course, the average score on the 15 unit exams must be 75% or over and you need to pass a final writing task: a short essay of between 500 and 1,000 words.

COURSE GRADING    

Each candidate who attends the course will be awarded one of the following final grade levels:

ONLINE COURSE TUTOR    

If you have any questions during the online course, you will be able to contact a tutor at any time by clicking on the tab marked 'CONTACT US. Your tutor will be available to help you with any questions you have regarding the course content for the duration of your studies.

POST- COURSE JOB GUIDANCE    

TEFL International Vietnam will provide you with assistance in finding a TESOL/ TEFL job after you have completed the course.
     

COMMON TERMINOLOGY    

If you have been doing any research on English language teaching, you will have probably come across a variety of acronyms that are commonly used. These are the major terms used but expect to come across many more during your teaching career! A brief explanation follows:
 

• TEFL: Teaching English as a Foreign Language. This term is predominantly used when English is being taught in a country where it is not the native language (for example, teaching English to Spanish people in Spain).
• TESL: Teaching English as a Second Language. This is where English is being taught to non-native speakers of English in a country where it is the native language (for example, teaching immigrants to the UK or USA).
• TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.
• This term theoretically encompasses both of the above.
• ELT: English Language Teaching. This term is mainly used by institutions in the UK.
• EYL: English for Young Learners. This is a common term used for teaching children.
• ESP: English for Specific Purposes. This refers to teaching specialist and specific areas of English. There are many examples, such as English for International Banking and Finance, English for Nursing, for Tourism, etc.
• EAP: English for Academic Purposes.
• EAL: English as an Additional Language. This is a term becoming more widely used in the US and the UK, and has a similar meaning to TESL.

RECOMMENDED READING    

The following books have been found useful by many teachers, during both their TESOL course and teaching careers:
Practical English Grammar, A.J. Thomson and A.V. Martinet (OUP
English Grammar in Use, Raymond Murphy (CUP) Practical English Usage, Michael Swan (OUP) How to Teach English, Jeremy Harmer (Longman) More Grammar Games, Rinvolucri and Davis (CUP)
 
Grammar Practice Activities, Penny Ur (CUP)
Grammar    Games    and    Activities,    Peter    Watcyn-Jones (Penguin)

English Teacher, Chandler/Stone (Delta)
1000 Pictures for Teachers to Copy, Andrew Wright (Nelson)
It is certainly not essential to have all (or any) of the above. However, we would particularly recommend the books by Swan and Harmer.
There are several editions of many of the books above, but as the fundamental information in them is not likely to change much, the edition should not really matter.
That is the introduction over!
Please remember that all course components must be completed within three months.
We wish you the best of luck with the rest of the course.

The TEFL International Team