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Unit 1 Course Introduction

Unit i 1 Course Int Cour ntroducti uction

Teaching English to young learners

Welcome to the International TEFL and TESOL Training course in Teaching English to Young Learners.

This Introductory unit aims to give you an overview of the company, the course and the possibilities you will have on completion of it.

International TEFL and TESOL Training (ITTT) is one of the most successful providers of onsite and online TEFL training in the world.

It is our mission to train teachers to a high standard of knowledge and awareness.

We believe that we are at the forefront of TEFL teacher training and endeavor to be ahead of the market in all aspects of our courses.

There are many young learner English teaching courses available on the market; you may well have researched them already. If so, you will have seen that most of these courses approach the subject in the same way.

The ITTT Teaching of English to Young Learners course aims to be different. We feel that our courses and the material within them should challenge and question the norms of thinking.

We aim to develop critical and analytical thinkers, who will decide on their methodologies after careful consideration of a range of theories.

Unit 001 ŠThese materials are copyrighted. All rights reserved.

No part of this course may be reproduced or published without express written permission from the copyright owner.

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Unit i 1 it Cours Cour ourse se Int ntro nt trod roducti uctio ction on Course Content Unit 1: Course introduction        

Course content How the course works Online course tutors Aims and objectives General terminology What is a young learner?

Prospects Task sheet unit 1

Unit 2: Teaching and learning       

Learning and developmental theories Native language and second language acquisition Adopting an approach The learning environment Skills Maturation Task sheet unit 2

Unit 3: Course development       

Level testing and needs analysis Limiting factors Syllabus design Oncourse assessment of students Examinations Course evaluation Task sheet unit 3

Unit 001 ©These materials are copyrighted. All rights reserved.

No part of this course may be reproduced or published without express written permission from the copyright owner.

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Unit i 1 it Cours Cour ourse se Int ntro nt trod roducti uctio ction on Course Content Unit 4: Materials and management        

Authentic and non-authentic materials Designing non-authentic materials Lesson planning Using book resources Using the internet Classroom management Materials webliography Task sheet unit 4

Unit 5: Teaching themes        

Songs, chants and music Games Stories Arts and crafts Seasonal activities Drama and movement Putting it all together Task sheet unit 5

Unit 6: Professional development        

Cultural issues Finding employment CV/Resume Additional qualifications Organizations and associations General EFL webliography Task sheet unit 6 Supplement and evaluation

Unit 001 ©These materials are copyrighted. All rights reserved.

No part of this course may be reproduced or published without express written permission from the copyright owner.

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How the course works

The course has been designed to allow for maximum flexibility. You can work at a pace that suits you, as long as you complete the course within six months of receiving your login details. The time remaining will always be displayed at the top of each page.

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 under a week and will also give you time to understand and digest the lesson fully before continuing. However, if you wish to work through the course more quickly, or slowly, the choice is yours.

Our online courses are designed to be as user-friendly as possible. To move comfortably through the course, simply follow these straightforward steps for each unit:

Work through the materials for the first unit until you 1 feel you have fully absorbed all the information provided.

you are ready you can then check your 2Once understanding of the subjects covered by completing the end-of-unit task sheet that accompanies the unit.

successfully completing the task sheet you 3After should click on the 'test' tab in the control bar which

will take you to the multiple choice assessment for the unit.

When you are happy that you have answered all the 4 questions to the best of your ability, simply click on

the 'submit' button at the bottom of the test which will take you to your results page.

completing the test you can then move on to the 5After next unit.

Click on the ‘instructions’ tab in the red bar at the top of the online course control panel for more details.

After successfully completing the course, you will receive your Certificate in Teaching English to Young Learners in the mail.

Unit 001 ©These materials are copyrighted. All rights reserved.

No part of this course may be reproduced or published without express written permission from the copyright owner.

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Unit i 1 it Cours Cour ourse se Int ntro nt trod roducti uctio ction on

Online course tutors

If you have chosen the tutored version of the course, you will be able to contact a tutor at any time by clicking on the green tab in the right hand corner of the online system (marked 'contact a tutor'). Your tutor will be available to help you with any questions you have regarding the course content for the duration of your studies.

For both the tutored and non-tutored version of the course, you can contact us with questions regarding administration or technical support issues by sending a message via the 'contact' tab in the control panel of the online training system.

All online tutors are experienced teacher trainers and English teachers and communicate with each other regularly to discuss the progress of their course participants.

If you are doing the course without a tutor and at any stage you would like to switch to a course with tutor support, please send us a request via the ‘contact’ tab in the control panel and we will make the necessary arrangements.

Unit 001 ©These materials are copyrighted. All rights reserved.

No part of this course may be reproduced or published without express written permission from the copyright owner.

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Unit i 1 it Cours Cour ourse se Int ntro nt trod roducti uctio ction on

Aims and objectives Target group This course is designed for practicing or intending teachers of English.

It is assumed that participants will already have completed a TEFL certification course and that they intend to be able to specialize in the teaching of English to young learners, now or in the future.

Participants are not expected to have any specific experience at this level.

Aim To give participants the opportunity to study ideas and methodologies, relating to the teaching of English to young learners, in an EFL setting.

Objectives On completion of the course participants should be able to: 

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 

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Discuss using standard industry terminology, the role of teaching English to young learners.

Have an understanding of the general role of a young learner English teacher, in a variety of settings.

Create a teaching syllabus.

Have realistic ideas for individual lessons and how to deliver them to a range of target groups.

Be aware of how to find or create teaching material.

Be able to create and apply assessment procedures, pre-course, on-course and post course.

Be aware of professional development opportunities.

Unit 001 ©These materials are copyrighted. All rights reserved.

No part of this course may be reproduced or published without express written permission from the copyright owner.

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Unit i 1 it Cours Cour ourse se Int ntro nt trod roducti uctio ction on

General terminology

Throughout the course we will inevitably refer to certain organizations and terms which often are quoted as acronyms. The following terminology is not exhaustive, but should cover most of the terms you will come across in subsequent units.

ARELS Association of Recognized English Language Services (UK) BASELT British Association of State English Language Teaching (UK) CALL Computer aided (assisted) Language Learning EAP English (teaching/learning) for Academic Purposes EFL English as a Foreign Language ELL English Language Learner ELT English Language Teaching ESL English as a Second Language ESOL English to Speakers of Other Languages ESP English (teaching/learning) for Specific Purposes ETS Education Testing Service (administer TOEFL examinations; US) IATEFL International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language IELTS International English Language Testing System (UK) IEP Intensive English Program L1 Native language L2 Second language SLA Second Language Acquisition TEFL The Teaching of English as a Foreign Language TESOL The Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages TEYL The Teaching of English to Young Learners TOEFL The Test of English as a Foreign Language TOEIC The Test of English for International Communication UCLES The University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate VSO Voluntary Service Overseas

Unit 001 ŠThese materials are copyrighted. All rights reserved.

No part of this course may be reproduced or published without express written permission from the copyright owner.

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What is a young learner?

A trivial answer could be 'anyone who isn't an adult learner'.

However we need to think about this question in a bit more detail than that. Ask this question to five different people and you may get five different answers. One of the problems associated with teaching TEFL and learning theories in general is that definitions tend to be hazy.

In order to develop the course however, we will have to make a decision as to whom we will define as 'young learners'.

It would seem sensible to define this group on the basis of learning and developmental theories. We will define our young learners as anyone between the age of five years (a typical school starting age) and thirteen years (when different motivational factors make younger learner theories untenable).

Even within this age range there are great changes taking place in our learners' minds and we need to address these changes in our subsequent units, particularly pedagogy.

You also need to keep in mind that learning theories talk about learning in general and not necessarily L1 language acquisition. Further to this, the learning processes of L1 and L2 are not exactly the same (according to much research) and so we have to make distinctions and adaptations to the general theories to account for this.

We will present the information as it currently stands and you can take from it what you will, but your greatest resource will always be the experienced teacher, rather than the behavioral psychologist or pedagogical researcher.

Unit 001 ŠThese materials are copyrighted. All rights reserved.

No part of this course may be reproduced or published without express written permission from the copyright owner.

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Unit i 1 it Cours Cour ourse se Int ntro nt trod roducti uctio ction on Prospects

Employment prospects for TEFL teachers are extremely good. If you have studied an additional field such as English for Young Learners your prospects are enhanced.

You will be able to find employment opportunities all around the globe and can live a relatively comfortable lifestyle in most countries.

The types of post you will find, their working conditions and salaries will vary, country by country, but below are some typical outlines of what you could expect.

Teaching in a language center or language school Here you are employed by a language school or academy to teach at the school itself, or contracted out to teach at another school. The language school is responsible for your remuneration.

Teaching in a private or state school Here you are employed by the school themselves and have a working contract outlining salary and conditions.

Teaching privately, or ‘one to one’ Teaching privately, you could work for a company or act as a freelancer. Working for yourself you obviously have no assurances of income, though this can be quite lucrative.

Unit 001 ©These materials are copyrighted. All rights reserved.

No part of this course may be reproduced or published without express written permission from the copyright owner.

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Salaries will be dependent to some extent on the local or national economy you may expect more than $2000 per month in the UAE but less than $500 per month in Eastern Europe for example. Far and Middle Eastern states offer higher salaries, but often have more stringent working conditions and practices on the whole, and there will also be higher costs of living.

Generally salaries will place you in the middle income bracket of the economy in which you are working.

The number of hours you will have to work is another area where there can be a great variation, as a freelancer you can obviously choose how much or how little you need to do, working for a company or school you may have as little as 18 contact hours or as many as 35 contact hours per week.

We would generally suggest around 25 contact hours per week as a reasonable maximum.

Unit 001 ŠThese materials are copyrighted. All rights reserved.

No part of this course may be reproduced or published without express written permission from the copyright owner.

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Unit i 1 it Cours Cour ourse se Int ntro nt trod roducti uctio ction on Task sheet Check your knowledge before attempting the unit test.

Note: not all the information needed for the answers can be found in the unit, so you may need to do further research from other sources.

Task 1 – In which units of this course will you study the following? a. Maintaining discipline in the classroom b. How to write a C.V. c. A Second language acquisition theory d. How chants can help children learn e. How to design a syllabus

Task 2 – What is the difference (if any) between TEFL, TESOL and TESL?

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No part of this course may be reproduced or published without express written permission from the copyright owner.

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Task 3 – Teaching approaches and methodologies have to be different for young learners and adults.

Give three reasons why this is the case, in your opinion, giving as much detail as possible.

(I)

(ii)

(iii)

Task 4 – State where you would like to work in the world and give three reasons why. (i)

(ii)

(iii)

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No part of this course may be reproduced or published without express written permission from the copyright owner.

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Task 5 – State three reasons why teachers would a. want to teach young learners: (i)

(ii)

(iii)

b. not want to teach young learners: (I)

(ii)

(iii)

Unit 001 ŠThese materials are copyrighted. All rights reserved.

No part of this course may be reproduced or published without express written permission from the copyright owner.

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