The only TEFL centre to offer 5-week and part-time TESOL courses

The TEFL Course

The Trinity Certificate TESOL course is for people who want an internationally recognised qualification and practical course of teacher training.

Below is an outline of the main features of the TESOL/TEFL course . If you have any other questions please do not hesitate to get in touch with us or check our Frequently Asked Questions .

Before the TESOL/TEFL course starts

When you enrol for a TEFL course (following a successful face-to-face or telephone interview), we will send you a substantial pre-course task, designed to raise your awareness of teaching methodology and the grammar and phonology of English. Depending on your prior knowledge, this can take anything up to 20 hours to complete. You will be asked to buy (around 30€) "How to teach English" by Jeremy Harmer (Longman), an excellent introduction to English language teaching, and complete some tasks which will be handed in (but not assessed) at the start of the TEFL course.

Teaching Practice

The practical nature of the TESOL/TEFL course is emphasised from the very beginning. On the full time course, trainees are divided into teaching practice groups on the first day and begin their teaching practice on the second. Each group is assigned a practice class of real Spanish students and a teaching practice tutor. Teaching practice includes a feedback session where the teaching practice tutor discusses the lesson with you and gives you guidance on the teaching point for the following lesson. Halfway through the course the practice class is changed to provide trainees with an opportunity to teach classes whose English is at a different level.

Input Sessions

We believe in learning through involvement, and students are expected to participate in many different ways during the sessions. Each input session of the TESOL/TEFL course addresses specific language areas and TEFL teaching techniques. These are commonly presented via a workshop approach, where your tutor acts as a facilitator rather than a lecturer.

Teaching Skills

During these sessions of the TESOL/TEFL course you will acquire and practise a wide range of teaching skills found in mainstream current English Language Teaching. A large number of activities and areas are covered in detail and these are all of immediate practical value for planning your teaching practice lessons. Video is used in some sessions and observation of Active Language teaching staff and students provides further insights into lesson planning, staging and management.

Language Awareness

These sessions cover areas of grammar and phonology and are designed to provide TEFL trainees with a basic working knowledge of these subjects and how to teach them effectively. Trainees find these sessions of the TESOL/TEFL course particularly rewarding (and challenging!), as most native speakers of English have had very little previous opportunity of studying the nuts and bolts of their own language.

Learning an Unknown Language

You will participate in four language lessons in a language you have no prior experience of, taught completely in the language itself without recourse to English. This helps you put yourself in the position of a basic level learner of English and to experience communicative language teaching at first hand.

Written Assignments

During the TESOL/TEFL course 3 assignments are given. These include a record of your experience learning the unknown language, a case study of one of your students with a diagnosis of their language difficulties and a project where you create original material to be used with your learners.

Language Awareness Exam

You will sit a 45 minute written exam towards the end of the TESOL/TEFL course, which will test your knowledge of grammar and phonology.

Assessment

Your teaching practice, your 3 written assignments and your language awareness exam will all be graded from A to D. A, B, and C are pass grades. D is a fail. You must achieve at least a C grade in all 5 assessed components to be awarded a Trinity TESOL certificate. If an assignment or your language exam is a D grade you will be given an opportunity to resubmit the assignment before the TESOL/TEFL course ends, with advice on what you need to do to achieve a pass grade.

Assessment on teaching practice is continuous and is based on both your classroom teaching and your ability to reflect effectively on your own and others' teaching.

You will receive your grades on the Monday after the course has finished.

Certificates

You will receive 2 certificates. Trinity College awards a certificate to all successful candidates on completion of the course. In addition, we will award you a certificate with details of your grades, which employers often ask for.

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