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COURSE SCOPE AND FOUNDATIONS
The LADO TEFL Certificate program trains teachers in accordance to the standards set forth by TESOL, the global educational association for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Recognized the world over, it is one of the most comprehensive certificate programs in the United States.
According to TESOL, respected certificate programs offer 100 class hours, are at least four weeks long, and have a practical teaching component; six hours of practice teaching is common. By comparison, LADO’s program is 135 hours of training, and our trainees typically do far more than the minimum of six practical teaching hours.
The curriculum is rigorous and extensive. Trainers cover various methodologies and teaching skills and offer a comparatively thorough examination of ESL grammar and phonology.
Trainees learn how to efficiently and effectively use activities and techniques and develop a mixture of covert and overt instruction.
They acquire well-established fundamental and practical skills for lesson planning and instruction. In all areas of instruction, the program offers the best professional teaching practices used in the profession.
Trainees are prepared to teach students in all areas of foreign language communication: reading, writing, integrated skills, functional skills, and especially listening and speaking (including pronunciation).
By the end of the course, each trainee will have acquired a comprehensive “toolbox” of ready-to-go lessons to take to job interviews and to use in the classroom with learners.
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Supplemental Resources
In addition to our thorough, rigorous course curriculum, The LADO TEFL Certificate Program offers a variety of supplemental resources and learning materials. All are available to trainees in class and also as alumni of the program. Complementary to every trainee is the LADO TEFL Certificate’s large, valuable database and online research companion which covers all aspects of living and working as a teacher of English to speakers of other languages. Bring a USB flash drive and download the resource folders and database before graduating the program.
Our resource folders and database contain activities and ideas for lesson planning, employment advice and job leads, professional development information, research on cultural issues, expertise on teaching specific English classes and diverse populations of learners, and much more.
A sample of the resource topics is below:
• Textbook and reference book library for teaching English
• Activity books and materials for teaching ideas
• Videos and DVD’s on teaching, ESL, and linguistics
• Journals and magazines for teachers of English to speakers of other languages
• Articles and bound research on current topics, issues, and trends in the field
• Job market profiles and employer contact information
• Employment sites and online job forum/message board links
• Cultural profiles for living and working in countries and cities across the world
• Links to our many school contacts throughout the world
• Information, advice, and contact opportunities through the TEFL Program’s worldwide alumni network
• Cross-cultural issues- current research, topics, practices
• Non-native speaker resources, including research, suggestions, challenges, and the benefits of being a non-native speaker who teaches English
• Professional development links and articles online
• Links to free online trainings
• Integrated skills teaching strategies
• Life skills and “survival” resources for immigrants
• Links to sites on English for Special Purposes
• Resources for addressing the needs of specific populations of learners such as senior citizens, children, refugees, and “generation 1.5” learners
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Topics Covered
Owing to the practical focus of the course, trainees leave the LADO TEFL program with a comprehensive “toolbox” of ready-to-go lessons that they can use with learners. Trainees gain experience with a wide range of lesson types and areas of language throughout the course.
The following topics are presented, demonstrated, and discussed:
• Adapting diverse teaching methodologies
• Teaching abroad- opportunities and challenges
• Lesson planning and the scaffolding process
• Assessment of learners’ educational needs
• Teaching younger learners, seniors, and in bi-lingual contexts
• Grammar, syntax and the language learner
• Highlighting structures and teaching meaning
• Curriculum development and lesson outcomes
• Concept checking and eliciting
• Problem-based & performance-based lessons
• Speaking activities
• Writing activities and integrated skill tasks
• Listening skill tasks
• Pragmatics of language usage
• Vocabulary presentation and lexical approaches
• Presentation of language samples
• Contextualization of lessons
• Developing materials for teaching and practice
• Role-playing and authentic language activities
• Drills and interactive practice activities
• Identifying and correcting student errors
• Segmental and suprasegmental pronunciation
• Bloom’s Taxonomy & language detective skills
• Learning styles and multiple intelligences
• Reflective teaching practices
• Simplifying instructional language
• Using realia to engage learners
• Tests, TOEFL, rubrics, and student evaluation methods
• Games, songs and jazz chants
• English for Special Purposes classes
• Cultural diversity and the learning environment
• Classroom management
• Using CALL materials
• Textbooks and supplementary materials
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Penny Jansen: "I really enjoyed my classes at LADO and I have tried to use/apply much of what I have learned.
I am working at Bilim Koleji, a private school in Malatya Turkey. I teach conversation/speaking to 4 year olds, 2nd grade, 4th grade, and 5th grade.
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