The 4-Week TESOL course in Spain is both intensive and demanding, providing you with 190 hours of course content, including 6 hours of teaching practices on genuine EFL students. There is a lot to learn about teaching in just 4 weeks. We are highly committed to producing the best teachers possible and we will be working with you so that your teaching meets the highest of standards. This means that during the course you will be mainly concerned with lesson planning and different areas of the course. So, time for sightseeing may be limited. You will also need to sleep and eat properly to be able to cope with the stress of working long hours. Therefore, we recommend you leave any plans concerning extensive tourism until after the course. Having said this it is our experience that if you follow our recommendations you will be able to enjoy both the course and the city life. Very often trainees comment that despite the hard work they found the course to be an invaluable challenging and rewarding learning experience.

Course Outline

The 190 hours is the total amount of the course, and includes the following:

Teaching Practice: TOTAL HOURS approx. 30

• Observation of experienced teacher: 6 hours minimum.
• Supervised teaching practice: 12 hours minimum.
• Own lesson planning time: About 2 hours per lesson (researching, writing up plan, etc.): 12 hours approx.

Input Sessions, Background Reading, Assignments, and Learner Profile Project:

The rest of the course hours are based on:

• Attending 3 hours of input sessions per day: 60 hours.
• Doing homework which involves reading materials and doing quizzes and assignments on Moodle: 60-70 hours (approx.)
• The learner profile project: 30 hours (approx.)

The course has been awarded a Level 5 on the QCF framework, but it has been based on an estimation by TQUK.

Weekly Schedule

This will normally consist of input sessions in the morning and early afternoon followed by teaching practice where, as well as teaching yourself, you will observe other trainees teach. This will allow you to learn from peers. After teaching practice a critique session is held where both trainees and trainer sit together, exchange constructive criticism and reflect on the different lessons they observed. The onus is on reflection as we believe this to be the most important component of the 4 week program. What really matters, more than a good performance in the classroom is for you to be able to reflect on your own and others' teaching experience and learn from it for your future development.

Course Outline and Contents

The certification in Barcelona consists of both theory lessons and teaching practice. In the theory lessons an experienced teacher trainer will introduce to you a number of different methodologies and approaches in TESOL. In these theory lessons, called "input sessions", you will also learn about the grammar and phonology/pronunciation of English, as well as reflect on ways of reconciling theory and methodological principles with day-to-day classroom practice. Special workshops will also be run to give you an insight into teaching young learners and teaching Business English, and how to adapt the general methodological principles to these specific situations. Both input sessions and workshops are designed so that you take part in dynamic activities and discussions where you are encouraged to actively participate and learn "through doing". So, we can guarantee you will not be bored. Additionally, you will receive input on "professional development" and you will learn about career paths in this field as well as ways of keeping abreast of new developments in the teaching world (symposiums, conferences, workshops, ELT magazines and websites, literature, etc.).

The main components of the course are:

1. Study skills

2. The Study of English

• grammar
• pronunciation: phonetics, stress, rhythm and intonation
• lexis

3. The Teaching and Learning of ESOL

• basic principles: motivation, leaning styles, communicative competence
• reading and listening skills
• speaking and writing skills
• visual aids
• errors and error correction
• teaching young learners
• business English
• testing

4. Lesson Planning

• lesson stages and plans
• lesson delivery
• classroom management

Classroom Practice

You will complete a minimum of six hours' teaching practice observation and feedback with real foreign language students, which is observed by the trainer. This will be followed by feedback by the tutor and trainee. You will be graded on different aspects of your teaching performance, and receive an overall grade for the lesson. This practical side of the course will enable you to learn from first-hand experience about the particularities of the classroom and about Teaching English as a Foreign Language. It will also equip you with the technique and teaching tools needed to become a versatile practitioner and deal with a range of different teaching situations and environments when teaching English abroad.

Observation of Experienced Teachers

Apart from learning from your own and your peers' teaching practice, as part of your training you will be able to observe experienced teachers deliver lessons to the very students you will be teaching. These will normally be your own trainers and you will then have the privileged opportunity to learn from a professional in the field of English teaching, doing what they do best: teaching English as foreign language to a group of non-native English language speakers.

Unknown Foreign Language Course

As part of your teacher training you will be asked to step in the shoes of a "foreign" language learner and take a three-lesson course in a language unknown to you. This will give you the opportunity to see things from a student perspective so that you can identify a number of needs you will need to cater to when teaching your lessons. The unknown language experience is often an eye-opener which sensitizes trainees to learner needs and develops their empathy towards the way students feel in the EFL/ESL classroom. Trainees frequently comment on how much they learned from this experience, which they regard as one of the strongest aspects of the program.

Assessment and Grading

The theoretical components are continually assessed - there are no written examinations. You will have set tasks, which are submitted for assessment by your tutors. These tasks are graded and returned with comments and guidance for your development. The sessions are always conducted in small groups with on-going support and instruction, helping to ensure your successful completion. The school prides itself on personalized support and small groups; and we are constantly available to offer individual support and coaching. These two things together mean that your success is virtually guaranteed.

Upon successful completion, trainees are awarded a certificate with one of the following grades:

• Distinction
• Excellent
• Very good
• Good
• Pass

Course requirements

In order to earn the certificate, candidates need to pass both the theoretical and practical components. In addition full attendance is required. This means you need to attend all scheduled input sessions and teaching practice slots. Exceptions can be made in case of illness certified by a doctor, in which case trainees normally have to make up for missed inputs or teaching practice. This is normally arranged between the trainee and trainer or director, always with the trainee's and the school's best interests at heart.