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COURSE ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS:
Though 100% attendance is expected, trainees must have a minimum of 85% in order to pass the course. This amounts to at least 17 days of attendance in the Intensive Program and 34 days in the Semi-Intensive class.
Trainees who do not comply with the course attendance requirements will have to wait for the next scheduled program session to begin their studies.
What to Expect in Class
The average TEFL class at LADO has six trainees, a lead trainer, several co-trainer/observers, and the occasional guest lecturer. The small classes allow large amounts of trainer-trainee interaction. It enables the trainers to monitor trainee progress and address the needs of students on an individual level. Graduates leave the program with confidence in their abilities to plan lessons and teach classes ranging from absolute beginner to advanced levels.
Training sessions model the same student-centered classroom practices that trainees should strive for in their own classrooms, with a strong emphasis on facilitating trainee participation and engaging in a variety of learning activities. Each day, trainees apply this new learning to real classroom practice as they team-teach guided lessons to a class of ESL students. Trainees work in pairs, small groups, and individually throughout the course.
Our expert staff of trainers enrich lessons by using the following instructional techniques: lectures, projects, presentations, participant-observer lessons, practical teaching, modeling, individualized tasks, lesson videotaping, ongoing assessment and feedback from trainers, and teamwork.
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Course Workload
The LADO TEFL Certificate is likely to be one of the busiest, most challenging educational experiences you have ever had. To become an effective teacher, there’s a lot to learn! Due to the course’s relative brevity, each class is packed with information and concepts that you are likely to think about long after the course ends.
Although the content of both the intensive and semi-intensive courses is the same, each has its own character, benefits, and challenges. . .
The four-week program is fairly intensive. Don’t plan on going to a night job or having other outside-of-class commitments and activities on weeknights; you will not have the time to accommodate them. Especially during the first week or two, trainees sometimes feel a little overwhelmed with learning so much new information, and then having to review materials and plan and coordinate lessons each evening. However, as trainees become used to teaching and lesson planning, the course seems easier to handle, and many trainees even use some of their evenings and weekends for more social pursuits. The material in the course is reintroduced in many different presentations over the four weeks in order to help students reinforce their understanding. Our encouraging, supportive trainers help ease the demands on trainees throughout the course, especially for those who choose the Intensive Program schedule.
The evening/Saturday, or Semi-Intensive, course is primarily designed to fit the schedule of a full-time working person. It is the same course with the same lessons and number of practice teaching classes as the intensive program; it is just spread out over ten weeks instead of four. Because most trainees in the Semi-Intensive Program are at work before they come to class, the schedule can at times seem a little tiring, but trainers make classes engaging and fun to try to raise everyone’s energy level.
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Homework Assignments
Most of the course homework involves lesson planning and collaboration, followed by reviews of course handouts and textbook readings. Trainees create their own original materials (exercises, language samples, etc.). They are encouraged to look at different books for ideas, but they must then devise their own lessons based on specific procedural recommendations. This becomes much easier for trainees as they progress through the course. Occasionally, trainees are asked to complete an additional training assignment at home and to turn it in or review it with the class.
After classes finish, trainees have up to one month to submit a “toolbox” of materials.
The following are required parts of the “toolbox” -- a final exam, a detailed lesson plan and assessment, a reflective summation on course themes and content, and a detailed cultural profile that explains how and where the trainee will use his or her LADO TEFL certificate.
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Required Texts
The following three texts are required for the LADO TEFL Certificate course:
• Azar, Betty. Understanding and Using English Grammar. 4th edition. New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2009.
• Lado, Robert. Teaching English Across Cultures. McGraw-Hill, 1988.
• Snow, Don. More Than a Native Speaker: An Introduction to Teaching English Abroad. Virginia: TESOL, 2006.
Trainees may purchase these independently or at cost with the LADO bookstore.
A wealth of handouts and materials accompany trainer presentations throughout the course. These feature the latest research, practices, and methodologies in the profession. Trainees heavily use course handouts as they lesson plan and work to effectively teach in the classroom.
Evaluation Methods
Trainers expect gradual but constant improvement and application of skills and techniques in the classroom. Assessment of trainee teaching performance is thorough and continuous throughout the course. Trainers give each trainee ongoing written and oral feedback, coaching, lesson preparation advice and assistance, and other formal and informal assessments. Feedback focuses on trainees’ efforts to demonstrate mastery of teaching performance benchmarks that are established and studied each week of the course.
The LADO TEFL Certificate prepares trainees to achieve three essential competencies by the end of the course:
1) a strong knowledge base of content and strong awareness of learners
2) thorough, effective planning strategies
3) effective
Expertise and Learner Awareness
Lesson Planning and Materials Development
Highlighting and Explanation of Language
Student-centered Communicative Strategies
Professionalism and Classroom Management
By the end of the course, trainees must demonstrate through their teaching performance that they have acquired the skills and expertise to meet each of the five standards for graduation.
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End-of-Course Evaluation
A passing performance is recognized with one of the following three ratings:
• Satisfactory performance for meeting all program standards
• Highly successful performance for exceeding standards
• Outstanding performance for excellence throughout the program on all standards
Upon successful completion of the program, trainees receive a detailed evaluation, a recommendation letter, a certificate with the number of hours of practical teaching experience that the trainee gained, and a letter describing the program. The letter indicates the exceptional, comprehensive standards that the LADO TEFL Certificate requires of its graduates.
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Understanding and Using English Grammar,
Azar, Betty,3rd edition. New Jersey: Pearson Education, 1999.
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More Than a Native Speaker: An Introduction to Teaching
Snow, Don. English Abroad. Virginia: TESOL, 2006.
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Teaching English Across Cultures
Lado, Robert. McGraw-Hill, 1988.
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