Apply for Online Professional English Network Program (Tajikistan)

The OPEN Program offers 8-week professional development courses developed by U.S. universities on topics such as Developing and Teaching Academic Writing, Creating and Implementing Online Courses (CIOC), Fostering Student Motivation and Engagement (FSME), Integrating Critical Thinking Skills into the Exploration of Culture in an EFL Setting, Methodology for TESOL, Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL), Teaching Grammar Communicatively, Using Educational Technology in the English Language Classroom and Professional Development for Teacher Trainers, Teaching for the Future: English Teaching to Take on Climate Change.

Course Descriptions

• Teaching for the Future: English Teaching to Take on Climate Change
  • Course Overview
    • The purpose of this online course is for participants to learn about, discuss, and create English Language Teaching (ELT) materials they can use in the classroom to help prepare their students for the future. Participants will examine documents about climate change and the environment and evaluate their usefulness in their own teaching contexts. Participants will then prepare to share what they have learned in the course with colleagues through conference presentations, workshops within their schools, or discussions with others within their contexts.
• Developing and Teaching Academic Writing (DATAW)
  • Course Overview
    • As a participant in this course, you will learn what academic writing is and how to develop courses that suit the writing needs of your students. You will also develop an understanding of different approaches and key components of academic writing courses while learning the important strategies for teaching academic writing skills in a student-centered classroom. Specifically, you will learn to teach students how to go through the writing process, how to search for and evaluate sources, how to develop arguments, how to follow the characteristics of different text types, and how to consider the context/audience/culture, and even how to prepare an application essay for possible study abroad in the United States.
• Creating and Implementing Online Courses (CIOC)
  • Course Overview
    • This course will give participants powerful tools to create and deliver hybrid and fully online courses for online learners. Using the ADDIE model for curricular design, participants will first analyze (A) students, stakeholders, and objectives by writing a learner story. They will then design (D) and develop (D) the course by creating a course geography and course outline. Finally, participants will develop an action plan to demonstrate how they intend to implement (I) and evaluate (E) the English language courses they develop. The main outcome of the course is to have participants apply tools and strategies for creating and delivering online courses in their contexts.
• Fostering Student Motivation and Engagement (FSME)
  • Course Overview
    • Fostering Student Motivation and Engagement (FSME) is an online course for English language educators who want to improve their teaching practices and increase their students’ level of motivation and engagement in learning English. Participants will develop skills to increase student motivation and engagement, acquire knowledge about differentiated instruction, develop skills to address students’ learning needs, and engage in reflection activities as a matter of professional practice. Participants will identify an area of need in their teaching contexts and will choose tools, strategies, techniques, and resources to try with a group of learners to help meet that need. At the end of the course, this will become a collection of resources, or a “toolkit,” that they can use in their contexts and share with others.
• Integrating Critical Thinking Skills into the Exploration of Culture in an EFL Setting (ICT)
  • Course overview
    • Exploration of culture in an EFL setting requires helping students engage in authentic situations to develop the ability to navigate across a variety of cultures. This intercultural ability requires language choices and awareness of oneself as a cultural being. It also requires critical thinking skills, which are themselves culturally defined. Using experiential learning as the organizational model, this course will engage participants in analyzing personal experiences, media, EFL textbooks, and classrooms to develop the capacity to think critically about the cultural assumptions and viewpoints embedded in their teaching content and process. After examining themselves as cultural beings and assessing learners’ needs and goals, participants will develop a concrete teaching lesson that reflects their view of teaching critical thinking and intercultural competence in their particular context.
• TESOL Methodology (TM)
  • Course Overview
    • This course is designed to provide participants with current methodologies for teaching English learners (ELs) of different ages in many learning contexts. Participants will discuss and practice a wide variety of strategies and techniques for teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL). While exploring best practices for teaching listening, speaking, reading, and writing, including grammar and vocabulary, participants will learn how to create an effective and communicative language classroom for all learners. In addition, participants will examine what best practices means in the context of teaching English in the 21st century, where English is an international language, and the use of English incorporates modern technologies.
• Professional Development for Teacher Trainers (PDTT)
  • Course Overview
    • This course, designed for both new and experienced teachers, gives participants methods for creating, presenting, and evaluating effective teacher training workshops. You will gain tools and techniques for promoting professional development in your teaching context. Through participation in this course, you will develop your skills for delivering engaging and relevant teacher trainings.
• Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL)
  • Course Overview
    • Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL) is designed to introduce you to the theory and practice of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) to young learners 3-10 years old. Through engaging videos and practical readings, you will explore approaches for teaching English to children that are not only effective but also fun and engaging. You will learn techniques for teaching new vocabulary and grammar that encourage student participation. In addition, you will gain new ideas for teaching listening, speaking, reading and writing in a meaningful context. Through learner-centered activities and group discussions, you will have many opportunities to share ideas with peers and apply course content to your learning environment. Get ready to learn about TEYL and be part of an international learning community with teachers around the world!
• Teaching Grammar Communicatively (TGC)
  • Course overview
    • In this practice-oriented course, participants will explore how to adapt grammar instruction to meet their students’ needs. They will also focus on integrating grammar instruction with teaching language skills, varying grammar instruction to meet the needs of large, mixed ability classes, and using available technology effectively to enhance grammar learning inside and outside the classroom. Participants will discuss different challenges their learners may have with learning grammar and discover how they can help learners use grammar to improve fluency and accuracy.
• Using Educational Technology in the English Language Classroom (ET)
  • Course Overview
    • This course is designed to help English language teaching professionals around the world acquire and maintain basic knowledge and skills in technology for professional purposes through hands-on learning. It will help teachers integrate pedagogical knowledge and skills with technology to enhance their language teaching and learning through their reading, discussion, and creation of new learning activities. The course will help participants apply technology in record keeping, feedback, and assessment, and use technology to improve communication, collaboration, and efficiency by participating in online discussion and presentation.

Eligibility Criteria

• Candidates should be highly motivated teachers, teacher trainers, or ministry officials who are both dedicated to their own professional development and willing to share their knowledge with colleagues.
• Qualified candidates should:
  • Be a citizen of and reside in the nominating country at the time of the course.
  • Not hold dual citizenship in the United States.
  • Have the ability to complete academic work at a U.S. university level (CEFR approximately B2)
  • Have at least 8-10 hours per week to devote to coursework.
  • Have regular access (4-5 times per week) to a reliable, internet-enabled device.
  • Have an understanding of English technical terms.
  • Have basic technology skills related to creating usernames and passwords, using credentials to log in to secured websites, using email, searching the internet, and accessing and managing electronic files (e.g., pdf, MS Word, Excel), including downloading and uploading files.
  • Have the ability to type in English well enough to participate in online discussions and submit written assignments in a timely manner.

For more information, visit U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan.