What’s included in the 4 week TEFL Toulouse course? The main thing for you is that course content adheres to British Council guidelines for TEFL courses
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You’ll teach 6 one hour lessons, teaching English to real French students. This breaks down into one or two lessons a week. These lessons will be observed by a trainer and include a supportive feedback session afterwards, where you’ll reflect together on how the lesson went. What would you do again? What should you change? The first lesson you teach will be largely planned for you.
You’ll observe at least 3 lessons taught by experienced TEFL teachers, and will also have the chance to watch the other people on the course teach.
You’ll receive lessons on all the most important aspects of English grammar, including:
- Parts of speech
- Present, past and perfect tenses
- Tense and time (not the same thing!)
- Referring to the future
- Conditional structures
- Auxiliary verbs, modal verbs, phrasal verbs
- Passive structures
- Reported speech
- More complex elements of vocabulary, eg collocation
- Articles
- Form and function
You’ll learn the different phonological (pronunciation) features of English, including:
- The consonant sounds and symbols
- The vowel sounds and symbols
- Diphthongs
- Intonation and how it changes meaning
- Stress within words in English
- Stress within sentences and weak forms
- Connected speech
- Regional and international variations of English
- Articulation
Teaching isn’t just lecturing about grammar and phonology. Other theory sessions include:
- How to present language in context
- Teaching English grammar and vocabulary
- Improving your students’ speaking skills
- Improving your students’ listening skills
- Improving your students’ writing and reading skills
- Lesson planning – various approaches
- Lesson activities toolbox
- Eliciting and concept checking
- Using drama, roleplay and music in the EFL classroom
- Using dictation
- Error correction techniques
- Teacher language
- Educational Technology and online teaching
You’ll learn how to plan lessons effectively, and how to create appropriate lesson aims and make sure you achieve them. Also how to plan the individual stages of a lesson, anticipate problems that may arise during lessons and be prepared with solutions. We also look at:
- Learning to plan a lesson using established “scaffolding” methods
- Alternative approaches to lesson planning
- Cutting edge approaches to lesson planning
We look at some different theories of how we learn a language and different approaches we can take when teaching it, as well as the importance of different styles of learning and how they affect our approach.
- Basic principles of TEFL
- Language skills and systems
- Historical approaches to language teaching
- Learner styles
In these input sessions you’ll learn how to use both published course books and different types of authentic materials in your lessons.
- Exploiting authentic materials – including music – in the classroom
- Using course books in the classroom
- Technology in the classroom
You’ll learn how to deal with difficult situations that can arise in the TEFL classroom (adults, teenagers and 6 to 11’s) and different student profiles, as well as how to organise your physical classroom effectively.
How are Business English classes different to General English classes? You’ll learn how to teach business English students, improving their ability to give presentations, negotiate, deale with phone calls, participate in meetings socialise, take part in video conferencing… we also offer an add on course in how to teach Business English
How do you control a class of teenagers in the TEFL classroom? You’ll learn how to teach Young Learners, some different approaches and activities that you can use to teach kids and teenagers, as well as online tools such as Kahoot, that can keep them happy! If you want more, we offer an extra add-on module in this
You’ll learn how to teach online TEFL lessons and how they differ from classroom lessons. How do you get working in this field? We also offer an add -on course in educational technology
Also how to diagnose an individual TEFL student’s needs for one to one lessons, objectives and language issues, then plan a tailor-made series of English lessons.
During the course you’ll have two one to one tutorials with your trainer to discuss your progress and answer any questions you have about TEFL teaching or English grammar etc
Every afternoon, experienced TEFL trainers are on-hand to give help and advice for the lessons you are planning. Note that many TEFL courses don’t offer this, they just have “someone available during lunchtime”. We think it’s fundamental to have someone available to guide you every day. Running your lesson plan past a professional makes all the difference to your lessons.
We’ll give you a two hour session to provide help and advice regarding finding a TEFL job, including CV and interview tips and techniques for TEFL teachers, where and how to look for TEFL work, and how to set up as a freelancer (auto-entrepreneur) in France. We can put you in touch with ex trainees around the world! You get lifetime job guidance. with us
TEFL Toulouse course assessment:
Here’s how you’ll be assessed during the 4 weeks:
You are given 3 grades, so if all goes well your TEFL certificate will look something like this:
- Teaching Practice: Pass
- Theory: Strong Pass
- Professionalism: Strong Pass
The possible grades for each are Pass or Strong Pass. There is also a Below Pass grade, but if you get that overall (ie repeated below passes) then you do not gain certification. Don’t worry, many people get a Below Pass grade for something, but you can make it up with other Pass or Strong Pass grades.
There is NO FINAL EXAM you’ll be pleased to hear! We use continual assessment.
Teaching Practice
You’ll need to show that you can reflect on your own teaching and put into practice previously given feedback. We take the average of your 6 grades.
Theory Grade
This is made up of:
The One to One project 40%
This project is set in week 2 and submitted at the end of the 4 weeks. You’ll choose a student, diagnose his or her needs in English, then design a lesson based on this diagnosis, teach it, and evaluate it in depth. Finally you’ll design an imaginary further short course of study for the student. It’s quite a big essay but builds up bit by bit as the weeks go by.
Grammar tests 20% (10% each)
We’ll assess you on how well you’ve assimilated the English grammar and phonology input on the course, with 2 grammar tests. These only test you on what we have covered on the course, no previous knowledge is tested!
Unknown Foreign Language Observation Task 10%
You’ll have two beginner lessons in a language that most trainees do not speak, given entirely in the foreign language, and write a short project based on this experience. Through this you’ll gain an insight into how it feels to be one of your future students, being spoken to in a new language. The aim is to help you adapt teaching methods to find other ways of getting our meaning across, and to help you empathise globally to a greater extent with your beginner students. You’ll write a short project based on this experience.
Video demo lesson task 10%
You watch a video of a lesson and answer a series of questions about what you see
Professionalism
You need to be professional on the course. This means: enthusiastic about English and about teaching, warm, non defensive, open to course content and trainers’ comments, well organised, on time, smart / casually dressed (no need to dress up!) and just good company!
TEFL Toulouse objectives:
The TEFL Toulouse course is an intensive 4 weeks of training at our training centre in Toulouse, that will give you the knowledge and practical skills you need to start teaching English professionally in France and around the world. Successful trainees are awarded with the Certificate in TEFL at the end of the 4 weeks, which is the basic qualification that employers are looking for around the world.
What and who will I be able to teach after my TEFL course?
By the end of the course you’ll have the skills and knowledge you need to teach:
- General English
- Business English
- Young Learners
- One-to-One lessons
- Online lessons
…. and we also offer add-on professional development courses to make you even more employable in some of these areas.
How intensive is the TEFL Toulouse course?
Our 4 week TEFL course is demanding and intensive, but very rewarding and a LOT of fun. You’ll be at the training centre from Monday to Friday, 9am to 6.30pm. After week one there is usually the opportunity to leave the training centre mid afternoon a few days a week, but this depends on trainee numbers and timetabling which vary each course. You’ll need some evenings and weekends to work on lesson planning and assignments too.
The good news is that there is nothing particularly complex about what you are learning, there is just a lot to cram in, in 4 weeks. Just make sure you don’t have anything else going on in your life (dental appointments, football matches, weekends away..) for the 4 weeks.
“I just wanted to say thank you for the course, I enjoyed it, and I learnt a lot. After leaving, I went to Vietnam for three months volunteering teaching English. I travelled for a month in Taiwan and now I’m back in Vietnam teaching full time (and paid this time not volunteering!). I’ve been back a month already, I teach in public schools, from 3 to 11 year olds, they’re so cute and funny. I’m staying here for at least six months, after that maybe back to Toulouse, I don’t know yet. The TEFL certificate has definitely made a lot of difference, as it’s what everyone asks for here, so I just wanted to say a big thank you for helping with that! I wish you all well!”
Lauren Pearson – August 2018 course
Every morning you’ll receive over 3 hours of classes on teaching theory, how to plan TEFL lessons, how to teach the 4 skills, how to teach English grammar and pronunciation, and more. As well as this you will teach a minimum of 6 one hour lessons (teaching groups of real life students of English who come to our training centre) and get detailed feedback on your classes from qualified professionals. You will also observe lessons given by experienced teachers,and receive lesson planning help in the afternoons from 2.30 to 4pm.
A TEFL theory class
Teaching English through drama to our French students!
Here’s what a typical day might look like:
| 9.00am – 10.40am | Input session 1 |
| 11.00am – 12.45pm | Input session 2 |
| 12.45pm – 2.00pm | Lunch break |
| 2.00pm – 3.30pm | Lesson planning help time |
| 3.30pm – 5.40pm | Teaching practice and observation |
| 5.50pm – 6.30pm | Teaching practice feedback |
TEFL coursework, assignments and assessment
You’ll complete most of your coursework at our training centre during the working day, but the intensive nature of the course means that you will also need to spend a proportion of most evenings and weekends doing some home study and preparing lessons. Our TEFL course does not include as many assignments (ie work to be done at home) as some other TEFL courses, as we prefer to get as much as we can done during the day together as a group and with the staff onsite.
You’ll be assessed on your teaching practice, a one-to-one project, grammar tests, an unknown foreign language observation task and your professionalism throughout the course.
One to one teaching
Busy TEFL Toulouse seen from the street!
What’s included in the TEFL course price?
- 4 weeks of tuition from our qualified and experienced teacher trainers
- All course materials every day for 4 weeks
- For successful graduates, the official Certificate in TEFL from IATQuO, numbered and stamped, showing completion of the course, and a certificate from us, highlighting your performance and providing an explanation of grades
- Welcome drinks evening, and end of course celebrations including champagne and lunch / dinner
- Lifetime job guidance and CV help wherever you are in the world
- Free accommodation finding service
Still got questions?
No problem – that’s what we’re here for. Just contact us to ask them, no matter how big or small!