TEFL Practicum
This course is aimed at providing student teachers with an understanding of and hands-on experience on practical issues related to TEFL. Each academic year, a variety of topics (such as Developing Reading, Speaking, Listening or Writing Skills, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Teaching Grammar in a Communicative Context, Teaching Young or Adult Learners, etc.) are available for students to choose from. Workshops on these topics are offered by tutors who provide teacher training services to the Faculty on a volunteer basis. To see the topics of Workshops offered offered between the years 2004-12 click here. Student teachers are required to participate in at least two Workshops, each one of which entails 12-16 contact hours for a period of one month. Classes, lasting 3-4 hours a week, address groups of maximum 25 students, who are evaluated based on their class participation, in- and out-of-class assignments, and a final project assessed by the Workshop tutor.
Student assessment
In order to get credit for this course, student teachers must have a passing grade in both the Workshops they have chosen to attend and on the final exam which is based on reading assigned by the course instructor and their Workshop tutors. For completing other projects assigned by the course instructor, they may receive extra credit.
The professional portfolio
One of the projects student teachers may choose to do is to learn how to prepare a professional portfolio which is basically a record of the TEFL related knowledge and experience they have acquired and the skills they have developed. The end product is the Professional Portfolio, which is assessed for its contents and presentation.
Course evaluation
Students evaluate the Workshops they participate in by: (a) filling in and submitting anonymously to the course instructor a quality assessment form, (b) preparing evaluation reports on the workshops attended, and (c) discussing in class with other students and their instructor the positive and negative aspects of the Workshops.
Tutor feedback
When the instructor has all the information about each Workshop, she prepares a brief report for the Workshop tutor. Of course, tutors who are evaluated negatively are never again invited to offer a Workshop.