Deadline: 4 November 2024
The U.S. Embassy in Thailand Online Professional English Network offers 8-week, online university-level courses in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) developed by U.S. educational institutions.
Objectives
- Teaching Grammar Communicatively:
- Understand key issues concerning grammar acquisition
- Incorporate effective approaches and techniques of presenting and practicing grammar into regular teaching
- Plan communicative grammar lessons for large, mixed ability classes
- Monitor, evaluate and improve grammar lessons
- Give effective feedback to students
- Use available technology to enhance grammar learning
- Teaching English for Critical Intercultural Awareness:
- Define the dimensions of culture and critical thinking as they pertain to teaching in their context
- Develop an increased understanding of critical thinking, experiential learning, and intercultural learning skills and the connections between them
- Further develop their ability to learn and teach intercultural competence and critical thinking by applying observation, inquiry, multiple perspective analysis, and self-reflection to their exploration of cultural phenomena
- Further develop their ability to learn and teach intercultural skills of active listening and empathy
- Critically analyze EFL textbooks’ treatment of culture
- Develop their own assumptions about the teaching of culture in their context
- Create lesson plans which integrate cultural learning and critical thinking
- Reflect on, and critically analyze, their lessons
- Using Educational Technology in the English Language Classroom:
- Understand computer-assisted language learning (CALL) and how technology affects language teaching in the 21st century
- Use strategies to develop vocabulary growth through social media
- Identify appropriate grammar activities that include opportunities for learners to discover, analyze, and produce grammatical structures as part of tasks that encourage learner interaction
- Use methods for selecting and adapting appropriate reading texts for accomplishing particular language learning goals
- Understand how to teach writing through CALL by selecting appropriate model texts, showcasing technology supported help options, considering the audience for writing activities, and developing writing strategies
- Understand how to select and adapt existing listening resources on the Internet to address language learning objectives
- Select Call materials that teach speaking skills and focus on the sounds and accents that are relevant for their learners
- Develop teaching units that incorporate one or more of the technologies learned throughout the course
- Teaching English Academic Writing to Speakers of Other Languages:
- Identify the core components of an academic writing course
- Gain an understanding of and competency with teaching process writing strategies and tools to help students become proficient academic writers
- Understand and be able to teach the components and principles of college application essay writing
- Gain an understanding of and competency with teaching reading and research strategies and tools to help students become proficient academic writers
- Understand and be able to teach the principles of academic summary writing; properly cite sources and teach students to do so
- Understand and be able to teach the principles of argumentative writing
- Show ability to provide feedback and assess student writing
- Create a syllabus for an academic writing course
- Teaching English to Young Learners:
- Explain the reasons for teaching English as a foreign (EFL) language at early ages
- Use effective approaches and techniques appropriate for young learners in the EFL classroom
- Develop appropriate activities for teaching the vocabulary, grammar, and the four skills—listening, speaking, reading, and writing to young EFL learners
- Describe your learning environment and develop a lesson for young EFL learners in your context
- Apply best practices for TEYL to your local context through a classroom observation of a peer
- Develop yourself professionally in the field of TEYL by participating in an international online learning community and preparing an action plan or training plan to share your new knowledge and skills with other TEYL professionals in their local community
- Professional Development for Teacher Trainers:
- Develop an understanding of what makes a teacher training workshop successful and improves student outcomes
- Create a course outline based on your goals and objectives for your teaching context
- Develop a plan for assessing participants to meet your goals and objectives
- Apply evaluative concepts in a reflective way to assess training and grow professionally
- Create a sustainable community of practice with colleagues for continued professional growth
- Creating and Implementing Online Courses:
- Identify best practices of online course design
- Create course objectives and a learner story based on a needs analysis of the teaching context
- Design a course outline and hybrid module framework based on a learner story and course objectives
- Develop appropriate formative assessments for an online course
- Use multimedia principles for online course design to develop learnings assets
- Explain the process and tools used for course evaluation
- TESOL Methodology:
- Explain the significance of teaching English as an international language
- Compare and contrast traditional and modern second language teaching methods
- Examine their current instructional strategies for ways to provide active, student-centered learning that helps develop learners’ self-efficacy and supports lifelong learning
- List learning style differences and the needs of diverse learners
- Identify principles and strategies for teaching integrated language skills
- Develop effective activities for listening, speaking, reading, and writing
- Develop a lesson activity that incorporates critical thinking and problem solving skills (analysis, synthesis, evaluation, decision making, and creative thinking)
- Summarize the impact reflective teaching has on teachers’ perspectives toward teaching English and their classroom practice, as well as learners’ attitudes and motivations to learn English
- Develop professionally in the field of TESOL by participating in a virtual community of practice and by preparing materials to share in their local community of professionals
- Teaching for Environmental Awareness:
- Demonstrate increased understanding of the definition of climate change as well as the basic concepts, causes, and impacts of climate change
- Incorporate strategies for developing their own and their students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills
- Create a tool (checklist, rubric, etc.) to evaluate and enhance the critical thinking and problem-solving focus of their lesson plans
- Review principles of project-based learning (PBL)
- Discuss elements of the PBL approach to use in their classrooms, with rationale
- Review fundamentals of the various language teaching models that integrate language and content from other content areas (CBI, CLIL, EMI)
- Discuss elements of language and content integrated approaches that they can use in their classrooms, with rationale
- Develop classroom-ready materials that incorporate the theme of climate change and integrate the teaching of critical thinking and problem-solving skills
- Create assessment tools that correspond to materials created above
- Present a portfolio of classroom materials and assessment tools as a final product at the end of the course
- Discuss how to collaborate across disciplines in their institutions as well as outside of their institutions to more effectively help students gain a full understanding of the issue of climate change
Courses
- Teaching Grammar Communicatively (TGC) by World Learning: 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 meet the needs of large, mixed ability classes, and using available technology effectively to enhance grammar learning inside and outside the classroom.
- Teaching English for Critical Intercultural Awareness (TECIA) by World Learning: 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 Educational Technology in the English Language Classroom (ET) by Iowa State University: 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.
- Teaching English Academic Writing to Speakers of Other Languages (TEAWSL) by Iowa State University: This course is for international educators of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). 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.
- Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL) by George Mason University: 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.
- Professional Development for Teacher Trainers (PDTT) by Arizona State University: This course, designed for both new and experienced teachers, gives participants methods for creating, presenting, and evaluating effective teacher training workshops.
- Creating and Implementing Online Courses (CIOC) by Arizona State University: This course will give participants powerful tools to create and implement online courses for students. Using the ADDIE model for instructional design, participants will first analyze (A) students, stakeholders, and objectives by writing a learner story.
- TESOL Methodology (TM) by University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC): 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).
- Fostering Student Motivation and Engagement (FSME) by University of Oregon: Fostering Student Motivation and Engagement (FSME) is an online course for English language educators or “participants” who want to improve their teaching practices and increase their students’ level of motivation and engagement in learning English.
- Teaching for Environmental Awareness (TEEA) by Kansas State University: 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.
Eligibility Criteria
- Candidates must:
- Be an English language professional
- Have strong English language reading and writing skills (minimum 525 TOEFL, 70 iBT, or CEFR B2). Applicants do not need to submit the test scores
- Be a Thai citizen
- Be living in your country for the entire duration (8 weeks) of the OPEN term (Orientation Starts on December 9, 2024-January 3, 2025, and Course Starts on January 14-March 10, 2025
- Have regular and reliable access to high-speed internet connection
- Be able to spend 10 to 12 hours online each week for the duration of the 8-week course
- Be willing to be enrolled in a second or third course, if your primary choice is unavailable.
For more information, visit U.S. Embassy in Thailand.