TeacherTraining
Online Teacher Development
Teacher development often gets stuck in theory or bombards you with endless recipes and activities without any real framing of when and why to apply them. Rather than being empowered as a teacher, you can end up feeling that you’re failing and that the only solution is yet more tools, more preparation, and more work.
Our approach to teacher development is different! We provide short clear insights into how learning takes place, and we explore the principles underlying current coursebooks and current methodologies, so you can understand better if and how you want to change your teaching.
Our ideas for adapting and producing material are guided by five clear principles of language and learning and show how you can really add value. We guarantee that the tasks and techniques we equip you with are:
- low tech and low resource
- repeatable in many different lessons
- adaptable to all course material
- focused on students and their ability to communicate
- aimed at keeping your workload down and increasing your value as a teacher
You can do our courses as self-study over a year, or follow the same content in four 90-min interactive Zoom sessions over 4 weeks.
All our online teacher development courses have free lessons you can try out, so why not have a look now.
What you get
- 8-12 hours of high quality content through quizzes, video, texts and reflection tasks.
- An in-course discussion board where you can share your ideas and ask questions.
- Additional links to content from Lexical Lab and external sites to extend your knowledge.
- Access to all materials for one year.
- A free webinar from Lexical Lab
- A free meet-up with tutor and fellow participants to discuss what you learnt and ask questions.
- An automated electronic certificate of completion with the name of the course and the Lexical Lab logo.
Format
We offer both self-study courses and Zoom courses. Self-study courses are always available. Zoom courses take place on Fridays at 1-2.30pm London time. For dates see individual courses below.
Courses
Teaching languages at low levels
Next zoom course: Aug 30th to September 20th. 1-2.30pm (London)
If you lack experience in teaching beginners and are unsure where to start, or find elementary classes boring, then this course for you. We will give you confidence to tackle low levels and show you how enjoyable and rewarding teaching these classes can be if you get beyond the traditional grammar-led syllabus. We’ll show you how an approach focused on enabling real communication can bring benefits in terms of more motivating lessons and address the real issues students have when they start learning a new language.
“I loved the course because not many people speak about beginners as people with a background and opinions. I watched the videos every day after teaching my own beginner classes and I felt that everything the teacher was saying made so much sense and was attainable. Most importantly: I couldn’t wait to try things out with my students the next day!”
Maria Eva Golinelli
“This is a great course for those who have never taught beginners or are simply feeling a bit rusty after not teaching the level for some time. I loved working with Andrew and a group of professional, dedicated colleagues. Thanks.”
Alexandra Calver
Plan smarter and get the most from your coursebook
Next zoom course: Sept 27th to October 18th. Fridays 1-2.30 pm (London)
This course is designed to help you understand how coursebooks are organised and how they relate to the way students learn languages, so that you can plan your lessons smartly and add real value to the material.
“I’m really pleased with the course. Sometimes I go back to it and try to recall things. One thing I found extremely helpful was the idea of affordances. I love the fact I can just take a single glimpse at a sentence or word and add extra value. It works out well.”
Hubert Komosa
Teaching Listening Better
Next Zoom course: Oct 25th to Nov 15th. Fridays 1-2.30pm (London)
This course is designed to help you help your students listen – and hear – better. It equips you with a range of tricks, tools and techniques to take into your classroom and shows you how to get more out of the listening lessons in whatever coursebook you use.
Special offer!
Course bundle
Do any two self-study courses and get a 25% discount.
Do all the Zoom courses and get one free!
Sign up to our mailing list for further updates, special offers, etc.
If you have specific queries about our Online Teacher Development courses, contact andrew@lexicallab.com.