International TEFL Academy

[Pages:8]International TEFL Academy Course Syllabus

The International TEFL Academy Online TEFL/TESOL certification course is a TQUK-certified course guided by a seasoned university-level instructor with an advanced degree in TESOL or a related field and international teaching experience.

The online TEFL course is designed for students who are looking to Teach English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) internationally in a professional environment.

Throughout this course, students will learn how to create activities and lesson plans that integrate in the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. They will also gain an understanding of different language teaching methods that have practical classroom applications.

This course will be delivered entirely online through the course management system Moodle. In Moodle, students will access online lessons, course materials, tasks, and resources. All tasks will be posted in an online forum or taken as an online quiz.

Course Hours:

The course is comprised of:

- 150 hours of online coursework ? which includes readings, tasks, peer participation, and self-checks. (Required) - 20 hours of Practicum (Required)

Part 1: Chapter Outline

Important Note: Refer to the course calendar below for specific task and peer participation due dates. Course activities and tasks will be explained in detail within each corresponding chapter. If you have any questions, please contact your course instructor.

Your 170-Hour TEFL/TESOL Course is divided into 10 separate chapters and a final project.

Chapter 1: Role of the Teacher

Reading and tasks on the history of English language; expectations for teachers on their first day of class; creating your teaching persona; recognizing traits of an effective teacher; ways to build community in your classroom; examples of how to be a good role model; strategies for maintaining professional relationships; terminology and abbreviations used in the TEFL profession; introduction to language levels, and effective and ineffective teaching practices.

Chapter 2: Creating a Student-Centered Classroom

Reading and tasks on the student-centered approach and teacher's roles; autonomous learning, the roles of collaboration and cooperative learning; creating scaffolded activities, experiential learning with examples of useful EFL activities; individual differences.

Chapter 3: Cultural Sensitivity

Reading and tasks on culture and cultural sensitivity, surface and deep culture; the five barriers to cross-cultural communication; four main cultural dimensions and their implications for the EFL classroom; and culture shock and its stages.

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Chapter 4: Methods and Approaches

Reading and tasks on the differences between approach, method, and technique; contemporary and traditional teaching methods; Communicative Language Teaching (CLT); characteristics of the Community Language Learning approach; general procedures used in a Silent Way classroom; the pillars of Suggestopedia; using Total Physical Response and Total Physical Response Storytelling in a classroom; principles of Content-Based Instruction; and ways to implement Cooperative Learning, Task-Based Learning, Project-Based Learning, and differentiation.

Chapter 5: Lesson Planning

Reading and tasks on the importance of lesson planning and how it relates to instruction; understanding language level distinctions, creating learning objectives for lessons, characteristics of an effective lesson plan; lesson planning for young learners, the foundation behind effective assessment methods.

Chapter 6: Grammar and Lexis

Reading and tasks on defining word root, prefix and suffix; common phrasal verbs and collocations; phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic understanding; selecting vocabulary words to teach in the ESL/EFL classroom; effective methods of vocabulary instruction; challenges and approaches to teaching idiomatic expressions; effective methods of grammar instruction with example grammar activities.

Chapter 7: Listening and Reading

Reading and tasks on how the brain processes listening output; types of listening input; types of listening materials and how to choose them for the classroom; how to tailor listening activities to student level and mental method of processing; ways to set up activities within a listening lesson and sequence of lessons; specific techniques for teaching listening skills; how the schema theory impacts ESL/EFL reading activities; common reading strategies that can be taught to ESL/EFL learners; selecting reading materials; intensive and extensive reading skills; types of pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading activities; and ways to assess reading both formally and informally.

Chapter 8: Speaking and Writing

Reading and tasks on the foundation needed for ESL/EFL students to improve their oral and written language production; commonly used classroom speaking activities; the sounds and most common pronunciation rules for English pronunciation and when to incorporate effective pronunciation techniques into ESL/EFL lessons; structuring ESL/EFL writing activities and lessons; and recommended outside resources to improve and expand teacher knowledge, methods, and materials of ESL/EFL speaking and writing.

Chapter 9: Visual Aids and Technology

Reading and tasks on the several benefits of using low-tech visual aids with English language learners; general criteria to follow when choosing a visual aid; low-tech visual aids and how they can be applied to the ESL/EFL classroom; ways to use the internet effectively with ESL/EFL students; precautions to consider when assigning internet-related activities; how blogs and wikis might be used to enhance students' communication skills; recommendations for effectively integrating video into the ESL/EFL classroom; ways to use video as a teaching and learning tool, and pros and cons to learning language online.

Chapter 10: Course Design

Reading and tasks on the basic concepts in course design: creating and delivery of needs analyses and diagnostic assessments; use of data collected via analyses; evaluating and selecting textbooks; producing a general course syllabus; creating a class contract to establish classroom standards of behavior.

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Final Project

At the end of the course, each student will need to submit a complete a Final Project.

More details can be found under Assignments and Tasks.

Part 2: Textbook and Course Materials

Required Text There are no required textbooks for this course. All of your reading material is available online within Moodle. However, the course material is available to purchase in either a paperback or PDF version. Purchase of the course book is optional and not a requirement to take the online TEFL/TESOL Certification Course. If you would like to purchase a paperback or PDF version of the textbook, you can do so here on the ITA Press store.

Recommended Texts ITA Online students are recommended to have a grammar book as a supplement to the provided course reading. Every ESL/EFL teacher should have a solid grammar resource that they take with them wherever they teach. We recommend Grammar Fundamentals for Teaching English as a Foreign Language by International TEFL Academy Press.

Part 3: Assignments and Tasks

Tasks Each chapter contains its own set of tasks (assignments.) Tasks will be completed in the following formats ? through submitting online quizzes, copying and pasting text into forum textboxes, or uploading files to forums. Uploaded tasks should be submitted in Word or PDF format. Each chapter has a different number of tasks that you must complete.

You can access the quiz or forum for each task(s) through the main course page of your course.

Your course calendar outlines the number of tasks that are to be completed for each module.

Tasks are due by 11:59:59 pm Central Standard Time on the specified due date.

Late Work Policy

Be sure to pay close attention to deadlines--tasks that are completed after the due date will be deducted points for each day late. (Deductions are taken in relation to task value. See specific rubric for point deductions.) Tasks that are submitted more than 3 days after the scheduled due date will receive an automatic grade of "0". In other words, chapter homework submitted after Wednesday of that week will not be accepted. It is the responsibility of the student to ensure that homework tasks are submitted appropriately.

Peer Participation Each week your course instructor will post a discussion topic in forums labeled Peer Participation. To receive full points, you must post a minimum of two posts per discussion topic. You will post a response to the instructor's discussion post by Friday and then post a response to at least one peer's post by Sunday. Posts are due by 11:59:59 pm Central Standard Time on the specified due date. Credit will not be given for posts made outside of the due dates.

Pre-Course Task

In the course, there is an assessment titled Pre-Course Task. The purpose of this task is to ensure that you are familiar with the course resources and format before you get started. Once you complete this assessment with a score of 100%, the course readings and tasks will automatically appear under the tab Readings and Tasks. There is no limit on the number of times you can take this assessment. Note that the Pre-Course Task is worth 1 point in the gradebook.

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Get-to-know-you Questions

In your course, you will see several activities labeled with a blue question mark icon. These are optional activities designed to increase interaction with your peers. They are not graded for points and can be completed at any point in the course.

Final Project

At the end of the course, each student will complete a final project that shows their mastery in many of the course concepts. The Learner Profile requires students to analyze the responses to a needs analysis and diagnostic assessments for one student out of three student options. After analysis, the student will respond to a series of prompts about the errors the sample student has made, the successes visible, and areas to focus on for improvement.

The final project is worth a total of 100 points and must be submitted within three days of the scheduled due date. Units submitted after that date will receive an automatic grade of "0".

The final project is a great start to your personal ESL/EFL careers. It can also serve as a sample to guide you when you first being working with English Language Learners. Details on completing your final project are found in your online course.

Course Evaluations

Throughout your course, you will be asked to complete 2 course evaluations ? a Mid-Course Evaluation and a Final Course Evaluation. The evaluations cover the course material, course instructor and International TEFL Academy. The evaluations should only take 10 ? 15 minutes and are worth 5 points each.

Viewing Grades in Moodle

To view rubric scores and written feedback from your instructor, click on the task and scroll to the bottom. Points you receive for graded activities will also be posted online in the gradebook. From the main course page, click on the Grades link in the left navigation bar to view your total points. Note that the gradebook only shows numerical scores. To view written feedback and rubrics, click on the homework task and scroll to the bottom. If you have any questions on your grades or written feedback, reach out to your instructor.

Your instructor will update the online grades within 5 days of the due date of the task. For the Final Project, the instructor will have the grade updated within 7 days of the due date. Tasks in the form of an online quiz will be automatically updated upon completion.

Part 4: Task Outline

Below is an outline of the course tasks that are to be completed each week. Some tasks will be completed by uploading a file or pasting/writing text into the appropriate forum. These tasks are labeled with an (F). Other tasks will be completed as an online quiz. These are marked with a (Q).

Week 1: Chapter 1 ? Pre-Course Task (Q)?1pt. ? Week 1 Peer Participation (F) ?10pts. ? Ch 1 Task 1: Quiz (Q) ?10pts. ? Ch 1 Task 2: Written Response (F) ?25pts.

Week 3: Chapter 3 ? Week 3 Peer Participation (F) ?10pts. ? Ch 3 Task 1: Quiz (Q) ?10pts. ? Ch 3 Task 2: Written Response (F) ?25pts.

Week 5: Chapter 5 ? Week 5 Peer Participation (F) ?10pts. ? Ch 5 Task 1: Quiz (Q) ?10pts. ? Ch 5 Task 2: Partial Lesson Plan (F) ?50pts. ? Mid-Course Evaluations ?5pts.

Week 2: Chapter 2 ? Week 2 Peer Participation (F) ?10pts. ? Ch 2 Task 1: Quiz (Q) ?10pts. ? Ch 2 Task 2: Activity (F) ?50pts.

Week 4: Chapter 4 ? Week 4 Peer Participation (F) ?10pts. ? Ch 4 Task 1: Quiz (Q) ?11pts. ? Ch 4 Task 2: Written Response (F) ?50pts

Week 6: Chapter 6 ? Week 6 Peer Participation (F) ?10pts. ? Ch 6 Task 1: Quiz (Q) ?15pts. ? Ch 6 Task 2: Quiz (Q) ?10pts. ? Ch 6 Task 3: Lesson Plan (F) ?50pts.

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Week 7: Chapter 7 ? Week 7 Peer Participation (F) ?10pts. ? Ch 7 Task 1: Quiz (Q) ?10pts. ? Ch 7 Task 2: Written Response (F) ?50pts.

Week 9: Chapter 9 ? Week 9 Peer Participation (F) ?10pts. ? Ch 9 Task 1: Quiz (Q) ?12pts. ? Ch 9 Task 2: Written Response (F) ?50pts.

Week 8: Chapter 8 ? Week 8 Peer Participation (F) ?10pts. ? Ch 8 Task 1: Quiz (Q) ?14pts. ? Ch 8 Task 2: Lesson Plan (F) ?50pts.

Week 10: Chapter 10 ? Week 10 Peer Participation (F) ?15pts. ? Ch 10 Task 1: Quiz (Q) ?10pts. ? Ch 10 Task 2: Textbook Evaluation (F) ?20pts.

Week 11: Final Project ? Final Project (F) ?100pts. ? Final Course Evaluations ?5pts.

To help keep you on track, the first 10 weeks of the course follows this due date* pattern:

Weeks 1-10**

Monday -Chapter Reading

Tuesday

Wednesday Thursday

*Mid-course and Final evaluations also have due dates. **In week 11, the required Final Project is due on a Thursday.

Friday

-Chapter Peer Participation Initial Post Due

Saturday

Sunday

-Chapter Tasks Due -Chapter Peer Participation Response Post Due

Part 5: Grading Scale

Your overall grade in the course will be determined as follows:

Homework categories

Percentage of course grade

Week 1?Chapter 1 Week 2?Chapter 2 Week 3?Chapter 3 Week 4?Chapter 4 Week 5?Chapter 5 Week 6?Chapter 6 Week 7?Chapter 7 Week 8?Chapter 8 Week 9?Chapter 9 Week 10?Chapter 10 Week 11?Final Project TOTAL:

5% 10% 5% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 10% 5% 15% 100%

Students must receive a 70% or higher final score to pass the course and be eligible to receive their certificate.

Part 6: Practicum

Practicum Overview

Practicum is an essential component of teacher training and provides valuable insight and experience prior to obtaining independent teaching positions. International TEFL Academy requires that all students accumulate a minimum of 20 hours for TEFL/TESOL certification. These hours can be achieved through observation, tutoring, student teaching or a combination of 2 or 3 of these in an ESL/EFL setting in which non-native speakers are learning new English language skills. Note that only 14 of your 20 hours can be in observation. Meaning, 6 hours must be in tutoring and/or student teaching.

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Hands-on experience with English language learners provides an opportunity for teacher trainees to apply teaching principles to real-life situations, build confidence in their skill and pedagogical style, gain exposure to various learning styles and classroom situations, and acquire valuable teaching experience. These components will assist a teacher in feeling more prepared, as well as add a competitive edge during one's job search and interview process.

Practicum Locations

You can do a web search for English language classes offered in your community. You will find that many different organizations will offer English classes to non-native speakers. Some examples of class sites are language schools, ethnic community centers, community colleges, park districts, local libraries, and faith-based organizations such as churches or synagogues. You may also find a non-native English speaker to whom you can offer one-on-one tutoring. It is up to each individual student to find a practicum location and set up their hours. For assistance in your search, see Preferred Practicum Locations- USA and Preferred Practicum Locations- International. If you have exhausted all opportunities to complete the practicum, online teaching is an also an option. See the practicum course for more details on how to successfully complete your practicum.

Practicum Due Date

Students have an additional 90 days to complete the practicum hours from their course end date. Access the Online Practicum Due Dates document for details on your specific course dates.

Part 7: Course Policies

Instructor and Student Expectations

As a student enrolled in this course, your success is dependent on your ability to engage with the course content and tasks, and interact with your peers and, me, your instructor. With that said, I take my role as your instructor very seriously, and, in fact, I care about how well you do in this course and that you have a satisfying, rewarding experience.

To that end, it is my commitment to you to respond individually to your emails, posts, and the work you submit in this class and to provide feedback in a timely manner. Peer participation posts will not always receive a response from me each week as I work to engage with the entire class and also allow for student led discussions in those fora. Weekly task submissions will receive timely feedback within 5 days of the due date, or 5 days after a late submission within the allotted extension period.

I host weekly office hours and prefer to have attendance in those for questions but will also communicate via email to any clarifying or support requests. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at your convenience. Please remember that I have 48 hours to respond but will try to respond before that time period. With that said, please do not wait until the last minute to email with requests for assistance as I may not have the opportunity to respond as quickly as you would like.

Participation

Students are encouraged to participate in all online activities as listed on the course calendar. In addition to submitting tasks, being active in the Peer Participation, taking advantage of the optional Class Chat, and attending Office Hours are all ways that you can participate and remain active in the course.

In order to stay on track, you MUST log in to the course at least once a day. If not, you may miss important announcements, date changes, etc. You will not be docked any points if you do not log in to your course every day, but it is highly recommended.

Build Rapport

If you find that you have any trouble keeping up with assignments or other aspects of the course, make sure you let your instructor know as early as possible. As you will find, building rapport and effective relationships are key to becoming an

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effective professional. Make sure that you are proactive in informing your instructor when difficulties arise during the course so that we can help you find a solution.

Transferring or Withdrawing from Your Course

Students who are unable to complete the online course must contact the Student Affairs Department at International TEFL Academy. Students can transfer courses a maximum of 2 times. Please refer to your ITA Terms and Conditions for a description about the transfer and withdrawal processes and contact Student Affairs with any questions ? StudentAffairs@.

Commitment to Integrity

As a student in this course, you are expected to maintain high degrees of professionalism, commitment to active learning and participation in this class and also integrity in your behavior in and out of the classroom. Cheating and Plagiarism will not be tolerated in this course.

Cheating is defined as "an act of lying, deception, fraud, trickery, imposture, or imposition. Cheating implies the breaking of rules."

Plagiarism is defined as "the wrongful appropriation, close imitation, or purloining and publication, of another author's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions, and the representation of them as one's own original work."

Students who are caught cheating and/or plagiarizing on course assignments will receive an automatic grade of "0" on their assignment with no chance of redoing the assignment for credit. If the student continues to plagiarize, he or she will be automatically withdrawn from the class. Students who get caught cheating and/or plagiarizing on the Final Project will receive an automatic grade of "0" and not be issued their TEFL/TESOL Certificate.

Who to Contact

The following steps outline who to contact with a question, concern, or complaint (note that only enrolled students ? not family members or third-party representatives ? are permitted to contact ITA instructors or staff regarding course performance or grades):

Step 1. Look for answers in this Syllabus, Frequently Asked Questions, Video Tutorials, and Pre-Course Task. Step 2. If you cannot find the answer to your question or have a complaint to make, use the information at in the table below to proceed. Step 3. Once you contact your Instructor or Student Affairs, they will get back to you within 48 hours. Step 4. If the parties cannot reach a satisfactory conclusion on a complaint, the student may choose to file a formal complaint with TQUK. TQUK will acknowledge your complaint within 48 hours and get back to you within 10 days.

Contact Student Affairs with questions related to... ? Job search guidance ? Practicum questions ? Log-in issues ? Course transfer or course

withdraw ? Course textbook ordering ? Moodle navigation questions

Contact your Instructor with questions related to... ? Course work/homework ? Grades & feedback ? Peer participation ? Final Project Questions ? Working ahead in the course ? Office hours ? Live lecture information ? Textbook/video questions

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Universal Design for Learning & Accommodation of Needs

International TEFL Academy is committed to the principle of universal learning. This means that our course, our virtual spaces, our practices, and our interactions be as inclusive as possible. Mutual respect, civility, and the ability to listen and observe others carefully are crucial to universal learning. It is the policy of International TEFL Academy to provide flexible and individualized accommodation to students with documented disabilities that may affect their ability to participate in course activities fully or to meet course requirements. If you are a student who will need accommodations in this class, please contact me to discuss your individual needs. Any accommodation must be discussed in a timely manner.

Third-party Tools/Privacy

Please note that this course may require you to use third-party tools (tools outside of the Moodle learning management system), such as Zoom and others. Some of these tools may collect and share information about their users. Because your privacy is important, you are encouraged to consult the privacy policies for any third-party tools in this course so that you are aware of how your personal information is collected, used and shared.

Copyrighted Course Materials

Please do not share material from this course in online, print, or other media. Course material is the property International TEFL Academy. Materials authored by third parties and used in the course are also subject to copyright protections. Posting course materials on external sites (commercial or not) violates copyright law. Students who share course content without the International TEFL Academy's express permission, including with online sites that post materials to sell to other students, could face appropriate disciplinary or legal action.

Questions about Course Guidelines and Policy

If you have any questions regarding the assignment policies, quiz policies, due dates, etc. please contact your course instructor. Contact information for your instructor can be found in your online course on Moodle.

Continuing with the course assures International TEFL Academy that you are aware of your role as the student and what is required of you throughout this course!

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