Teacher Training

Teaching online for the first time? These videos offer step-by-step instructions to teaching online using Zoom.

Training Programs

• Reach Out With English (ROWE): This 30-hour certificate program is offered by Wheaton College's Institute for Cross-Cultural Training (ICCT) and taught by professional and experienced ESOL teachers. Participants may take the course all at once (one week of lessons, six hours per day) or take the three component Basics of ESL Teaching 101, 102, & 103 courses (3 8-hour sessions, plus additional homework to reach the 30-hour requirement). This course is taught in-person in Wheaton, IL, but also available via Zoom or Skype. This course focuses heavily on theory and backgrounds of the reasons behind teaching, as well as a plethora of practical tools and tips. ROWE participants receive a flash drive with numerous resources, activities, and recordings of the lectures from the course and a Dropbox link with further materials. For the whole ROWE certificate, the price ranges from $375 to $425, depending on registration date. For individual courses, the price ranges from $45 to $115, depending on registration date, past participant status, and other factors. Discounts available for groups or those taking multiple courses in a term.

  • • Course topics (note: these courses may be taken in any order):

      • Basics of ESL Teaching 101: Philosophy of ministry, conducting needs analysis, lesson planning, methodology and approaches, and theoretical foundations of language teaching

      • Basics of ESL Teaching 102: Teaching pronunciation, teaching conversation and speaking, teaching listening comprehension

      • Basics of ESL Teaching 103: Teaching grammar, teaching literacy and low level learners, assessing learners' progress, selecting materials, curriculum development, materials and textbook choices

    • Additional one-week Essentials of Teaching English Grammar and Essentials of Teaching English Pronunciation courses are offered on alternating years, as well as a one-day individual teaching workshop; more information is available at the ICCT website.

• Mission to North America 12-Hour ESL Training (usually Friday night and all day Saturday): This course is taught by an experienced and trained volunteer ESL instructor and may be offered at any interested Christian church. This cost to the hosting church includes a $300 honorarium for the trainer, the trainer's travel expenses, and training manuals and supplies. The training may be available in person or over four days via Zoom. (More information on these specifics can be found at the link above.)

  • Topics include:

    • • How to start and maintain a fruitful ESL Ministry

      • How to teach ESL to adult internationals including:

        • • a. How to place students in the proper fluency level classroom

          • b. How to Lesson Plan using professionally written curriculum

          • c. How to introduce new vocabulary & sentences using new vocabulary

          • d. How to get the students to generate their own sentences

      • How to build authentic relationships with your students

      • How to share the Gospel both inside and outside the ESL Classroom

  • Southern Baptist Church's National Literacy Missions Partnership 12-Hour ESL Training (usually Friday night and all day Saturday). This course is taught by a pair of experienced and trained volunteer ESL instructors and may be offered at any churches in the SBC denomination free of charge.

    • Topics include:

      • How to start and run an ESL ministry

      • How to teach ESL to adults including:

        • a. How to place students in the proper fluency level classrooom

        • b. How to lesson plan

        • c. How to introduce new vocabulary

        • d. How to get students to use English

      • How to build authentic relationships with students

      • How to share the Gospel

• Note: the SBC and MNA trainings are very similar and use the same text, Teaching English Language Learners the Good News: A Guide for Church-Based ESL Ministries, available for free download.

Books and Videos

• Teaching Preliterate Adult ESOL Learners - video created by Rachael Sloan to help teachers of adult learners with no background in literacy in their first languages

• Introduction to Church-Based ESOL Ministry - video created by Rachael Sloan for new teachers in church programs

• Teaching English in Church by William Bradridge and Louisa Walsh - although this book is written for churches in the UK to develop programs, the same principles apply to US church-based programs.

• Minnesota Literacy offers tutor training for tutors in the ESOL classroom on topics such as citizenship, adult ESL curriculum development, teaching grammar, and volunteering in the classroom. Each training module is free, but users must sign up for an account. (Non-Minnesota residents should not submit assignments or expect continuing education credits; these are only available to residents of Minnesota.)

• Minnesota Literacy Adult Basic Education Professional Development videos: These videos demonstrate and include teacher interviews about working with adult learners on college and career readiness standards. Check out the videos for literacy learners, low beginning ESL, beginning ESL, and intermediate ESL. There's also a series of videos demonstrating classroom activities for adult ESL learners.

• New American Horizons Foundation, an organization supporting ESOL teachers, offers this free video series addressing such topics as building literacy with adult emergent readers, growing vocabulary with beginning learners, and working with multi-level classes. The 12 videos each range in length from 24 to 32 minutes and feature experienced adult ESOL teachers in public classroom settings.

• Intercambio, an organization that provides texts and training to ESOL teachers, as well as ESOL classes in Colorado, occasionally offers free webinars. Intercambio also offers a free library of videos for teachers on topics such as teaching pronunciation, culture, connecting with students, what to do on the first day of class, and instructions for using their textbook series, as well as videos for students teaching pronunciation of different vowel sounds.

• TEFLVideos - instructions and demonstrations for teaching

• Refugees generally go through cultural orientation (CO) before they leave their refugee camps and again at their resettlement agency. This free, self-paced training from the Cultural Orientation Resource Exchange may be helpful if you are working with refugees and would like to know more about CO to better understand refugees' experiences and incorporate it into your classes.

• Cambridge University Press free teacher training webinars

• Shaping the Way We Teach & From Observation to Action: Video-based modules from the U.S. State Department showing English instructors at different levels; intended for teachers working abroad.

• Minnesota Literacy Classroom Videos: Classroom observation videos for teachers

• Evangelical Free Church of America's ReachGlobal ESL Resource Library: Free resource library with documents, audio, and videos to help ESL ministry workers, including curriculum, tips, ideas, lesson plans, worksheets, books, and manuals. For access, email esl@efca.org.

Courses

• Foreign Language Teaching Methods from the University of Texas at Austin: This free, self-paced online modules focus on 12 different aspects of language teaching, each taught by a different expert instructor. The site contains video footage from an actual methods course held at the University of Texas at Austin. Note: these lessons are applicable for any language teacher instructing at the high school or college levels. Some aspects may not be as applicable if you are teaching learners with little-to-no formal educational background.

Working with Preliterate Adult Learners

• This brief Teacher Tip from Intercambio covers basics for teachers working with preliterate learners.

• Webinar created by Rachael Sloan about working with preliterate adult learners.