Bridging Entry

Before immersing into studying aspects of teaching grammar and vocabulary I would like to summarize 2 previous courses of ESL TCP: Thinking about Theory: A Framework for EAL Instruction and Understanding the Language Classroom: Procedures for Effective Teaching.

Course #1 touches upon theoretical aspects of the EAL instruction: it reveals main principles of adult learning; takes us to a retrospective journey into the history of language teaching; dwells upon the diversity of teaching methods and approaches; analyzes peculiarities of learners and teachers and their interaction within classroom environment; this course introduces a concept of communicative competence and reviews core principles of applying the communicative approach in an EAL classroom.

Course #2 has a more practically oriented focus and it lets us penetrate into the essence of the EAL instruction process. It familiarizes us with an idea of the Canadian Language Benchmark system; leads us through the basic stages of the teaching process, from learners’ needs assessment to learners’ progress analysis. The course also covers the basic principals of teaching 4 language modalities (reading, writing, listening and speaking). And the last but not least, it states the key stages of designing a teacher’s professional development plan.