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My best advice so far: if you’re going to do an in…

My best advice so far: if you’re going to do an intensive TESOL course, don’t be ill! In order to pass it’s necessary to have 100% attendance, and as classes run basically 9-5 every day (with a few minor variations), there isn’t even time to go and see a doctor. I survived today on paracetamol and taking things as gradually as I could. But the problem is, the intesity of the course doesn’t leave much room for taking things gradually! Had I not been ill, I think today would have been fine. But as it is, with a half-speed brain, I’ve only just managed to finish all of my homework. One thing I had to do was to record a tape for listening exercises - something of a joke with my croaky frog voice! Perhaps I’ll have to re-record that one when I’m feeling better.

I really ought to be in bed already (having to get up fairly early to get to college on time) but there’s just time to tell you that we’re in a class of eight (six girls and two boys), with two main teachers and some other people to teach us a few other bits. Everything’s very organised (eg they tell us exactly how to file all of our notes), which is really for the best, as there isn’t much time to think about things! Today as well as having all sorts of preliminary information thrown at us, we had to start proper work too, with teaching aids, an example lesson, and introductory grammar and function sessions. (Communicative function being the reason for a particular set of speech, which can be taken as the basis for a lesson. For example apologising, or polite requests, or asking for directions). We also had quite a lot of stuff to do at home - not particularly difficult, but rather time consuming (at least if you’re not entirely feeling well!)


This entry was posted on Monday, January 29th, 2007 at 10:47 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can leave a response to this entry.


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TEFL jobs and TEFL courses, information, advice and ESL resources for teachers - TEFL course diaries - Kate Sutcliffe, Trinity Cert TESOL, Universal Language Training, Woking, UK