Entry Requirements
Applicants must:
- Be 18 years old.
- Have university entrance qualifications (A-levels, High School Graduation or similar), or equivalent experience and knowledge.
- Have an English proficiency of CEFR C1 (IELTS 7 or similar) - in plain language: advanced level English.
- Complete a pre-interview language awareness task.
- Pass an interview which involves discussion of language usage.
- Complete a written interview task focused on teaching and learning.
Course Syllabus
The CertTESOL course contains 7 modules of study, taken over 12 weeks. Course information at a glance:
- Module 1: Course Introduction
- Module 2: Language Awareness
- Module 3: TESOL Approaches and Methods
- Module 4: Guided Observation
- Module 5: Learners and Learning
- Module 6: Teaching Practice A
- Module 7: Teaching Practice B and the Materials Assignment
Moderation: Online group interview (30 mins) and Online Materials Assignment interviews (15 minutes per trainee)
Assessment
The Trinity CertTESOL is divided into 6 assessed pieces of work:
- The Guided Observation Journal: Four 500-1000 word evaluations of observed lessons taught by trained and experienced teachers of ESOL.
- The Unknown Language Journal: Four 500-1000 word reflections on your experience as learner from attending four online, beginner-level language lessons held in a language which you are not familiar with, and delivered by a previous course graduate.
- The Learner Profile: A 5000-word profile of a real language learner, including a full needs analysis, targeted lesson and curriculum design, a 1-1 lesson, and recommendations for the learner's future study.
- Teaching Practice and the Teaching Practice Portfolio: 6 hours of observed teaching, including lesson planning tutorials for each lesson, post-lesson evaluations and materials design, collected in a portfolio record of the 7 lessons that you teach on the course.
- The Language Awareness Exam: A 90-minute live exam covering grammar, vocabulary and methodology theory from the course.
- The Materials Assignment: A 500-word rationale and evaluation of a piece of teaching material you have designed for one of your Teaching Practice lessons, followed by a 10-minute assessed interview with a Trintiy College London moderator, who externally assesses your performance in this assignment.
Teaching Practice
Course participants must be available for a four-week period of Teaching Practice in the final four weeks of the course. This can be at a physical centre close to their location, or online with a group of at least 5 students. We can provide support with finding students to teach, or you can make contact with a school to organize teaching practice and start building a network for your future career.
FAQs
How is Teaching Practice organized?
You will teach 6 lessons, either online or in a physical classroom, during the course. You will either record or livestream the class to your tutor, or your tutor will sit in as an observer in your online lesson, in order to assess the teaching and learning that you facilitate. For every lesson, you will spend around 20 minutes with a tutor, planning out the stages and materials that you will use, and then after you have taught the lesson, you will gather with your tutor and your co-trainees to evaluate the lesson together.
How can I find students to teach for the course?
Depending on whether you will teach students online or in-class, we can recommend ways of finding students to teach, or provide students from our partner organizations, either online or faceto-face, depending on timing and availability. Building a network of students is important for online teachers, so we provide a pack to help you to do just this, either independently or through an online tutoring organization.
