A Practical Introduction To Teacher Training in ELT

Teaching English
A Practical
Introduction to
Teacher Training
in ELT
John Hughes
a!
Pavilion
Packed with practical advice, training tips, and workshop ideas
A Practical Introduction
to Teacher Training in ELT
John Hughes
A Practical Introduction to Teacher Training in ELT
© John Hughes
Published by:
Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd
Rayford House
School Road
Hove BN3 5HX
UK
First published 2015.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in

a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, other than the pages
specifically indicated by the Q symbol.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBNs:
Print: 978-1-910366-99-8
Epub: 978-1-911028-00-0
EPDF: 978-1-911028-01-7
Mobi: 978-1-911028-02-4
Pavilion is the leading publisher of professional development products in

the health, social care, education and community safety sectors. We believe
that everyone has the right to fulfil their potential and we strive to supply
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support continuing professional development.
Author: John Hughes

Editor: Penny Hands
Cover design: Emma Dawe, Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd
Printer: CMP Digital Print Solutions
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of A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015.
Contents
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A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015.
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About the author
John Hughes is a teacher trainer and author. He has also managed a teacher
training department and now works as a freelance teacher trainer, running
courses for teachers from all over the world. He is a former committee member
of the LATEFL Teacher Training and Education Special Interest Group.
As an author, he has worked on many ELT titles including the course series
Life (National Geographic Learning) and Business Result (Oxford). He also
writes on ELT methodology and has published numerous articles for the
journals English Teaching Professional and Modern English Teacher (both
published by Pavilion). He also has a resource book with Pavilion called
ETpedia. His blog can be found at www.elteachertrainer.com.
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Introduction
When I first moved from teaching into teacher training, I received little
formal training on how to train but instead, like many teacher trainers
before me, I picked it up on the job. When preparing a training session, one
of my first starting points was to recall how I’d been trained by others. I
remembered the methods of trainers and senior teachers whose input and
feedback I had valued and benefited from. When observing teachers in
the classroom, it was important to visualise myself teaching at the same
stage as the teachers I was working with. For example, when about to give
feedback to pre-service teachers, I would quickly picture how I had felt as a
novice teacher before, during and after my very first teaching practice.
Another part of my development as a teacher trainer was to search for

information and advice in journals and books. After all, there are so many
of these types of resources for language teachers, so why not for teacher
trainers? And yet, somewhat surprisingly, it is difficult to find a single
book that provides a general introduction to teacher training. Having now
managed, trained and developed teacher trainers for over 20 years, I am
convinced that other people who are moving from teaching into teacher
training have the same need. I hope that this book will help to fulfil that need.
How the book is organised

Chapter 1 looks at the typical routes into teacher training. It is aimed at the
new trainer, and discusses how the skills we use as teachers are transferable
into training. Chapter 2 looks at the techniques we use in input sessions
and ways of structuring our sessions. These techniques range from ways
of introducing basic teaching skills to inexperienced teachers, to working
with qualified teachers employed in a language school. Chapter 3 considers
ways of helping teachers to plan lessons. This will be especially useful for
training new teachers through lesson planning to the point of teaching for
the first time; however, it also includes advice for contexts where a school or
institution needs experienced teachers to reflect on the ways in which they
plan. Chapters 4 and 5 consider different approaches to observing lessons
and giving feedback. The final chapter is aimed at anyone responsible for
Introduction
planning, managing or co-ordinating a training course. This could be a

training manager, a head of department or a trainer in charge of setting up
a new programme.
Throughout the book, both face to face and online training contexts are
taken into consideration. They are dealt with side by side, reflecting the
increasing tendency of training programmes to blend course content so
that it is delivered both face to face and online. Trainers might give a short
presentation in a room with a group of trainees, but they could equally be
talking to trainees spread across the world via a webcam. Even classroom
observation of teaching practice (which has, until recently, required the
trainer, the teacher and the students to be in the same room at the same time)
can involve trainees sending video extracts of their teaching to their trainer
via the internet. The trainer can then deliver feedback notes in the form of an
email or even record their comments in a podcast or via video link.
‘Ask yourself’ questions

Within each chapter you will find a feature called ‘Ask yourself’. This is
a prompt for you to stop and reflect on what you have just read and ask
yourself certain questions about how it relates to you. If you are using this
book in combination with a course in training to be a teacher trainer, you
could discuss these questions in groups.
A note on the terminology used in

this book
People often distinguish between training and development. The term teacher
development is sometimes used with reference to the way more experienced
teachers might wish to develop their craft. However, this book uses the word
training in its broadest sense, to cover both pre-service and in-service courses. *
Note also that the people undergoing the training are referred to as trainees,
course participants or teachers, depending on the context.
iu A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing

and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015.
Introduction
Photocopiable pages
As well as providing a background to teacher training, the book includes
photocopiable pages indicated by this symbol O. These pages include ideas
for training sessions and teaching practice observation forms. They are also
available as full-size A4 pdf pages, which can be downloaded from https://
Wwww.pavpub.com/practical-introduction-to-teacher-training-downloads/.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the following people: Penny Hands for her
editorial support; Fiona Richmond, Helena Gomm and the team at Pavilion
Publishing; the teacher trainers Ceri Jones, Jude Richardson and Stacey
Hughes for their feedback and comments; colleagues at Cactus TEFL and
Trinity College London; finally, the many teachers and teacher trainers
I have worked with over the years who have either directly or indirectly
influenced the content of this book.
The publisher would like to thank Cactus TEFL for permission to use
images from their online courses.
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1. Teacher training for
the first time
This chapter looks at:
a routes to becoming a teacher trainer

a ways of working towards being a trainer
@ key considerations when moving into training

@ different training contexts
a the skills required.
Routes to becoming a teacher trainer

A different kind of classroom
Unlike other career paths for experienced ELT teachers, such as
management or materials writing, teacher training appeals to those who
want to stay in the classroom, but who are, as a senior trainer once said to
me, ‘looking for a different kind of classroom’.
This book is for those intending to work, or who are already working, in that
‘different kind of classroom’. As well as being aimed at teacher trainers, it
is also for those people who define themselves as managers or directors of
studies, who, as part of their job, are involved in training their staff. Finally,
the book aims to help teachers who are interested in self development or in
the development of their peers. For expediency, the book refers to all these
people as teacher trainers, or simply trainers.
What is the typical profile of a teacher trainer?

Many teacher trainers are people with extensive knowledge and experience
of teaching. They have probably taught many different levels of student,
1. Teacher training for the first time
different class sizes, cultures, nationalities, age ranges and students with
different needs — from young learners through to adults with specific work-
related needs. As a practising or prospective teacher trainer, you'll be a
reasonable jack of all trades and perhaps even something of a specialist
in one or two of them. If you have a specialisation, such as teaching young
learners or teaching English for academic purposes, that might be an area in
which you want to train others.
Starting early
Longevity in teaching is often a job requirement for the teacher trainer,
and probably forms one of the most common routes into teacher training.
The first signs of wanting to train can, in fact, emerge at an early stage of a
teacher’s career. Take, for example, this common scenario: a teacher who has
been teaching for a year or so is standing in the teachers’ room organising
some materials for her next lesson. Another teacher comes in and asks her
what she’s doing with her students today. She explains the idea behind a
lesson or task and the colleague thinks it’s a really great idea and asks to
borrow it. For many teachers, the pleasure of suggesting and sharing ideas
is their starting point into training.
Running workshops
A few more lessons and a few more good ideas later, and the same teacher
is being asked by the school’s Director of Studies to present her ideas at the
monthly workshop for the school’s teachers. Suddenly the teacher is not just
talking to a colleague about her ideas, but formally presenting them to her
peers. At the end of her presentation, she also has to handle a discussion of
any issues arising from her presentation, and allow time for the teachers
to share their own experiences and ideas based on what she has presented.
If that type of scenario sounds familiar to you and (however nerve-racking
it was) you found it rewarding and enjoyable, then you will probably like
working as a teacher trainer.
Mentoring
In some schools, there are systems of mentoring in place where newer,
inexperienced teachers are assigned to a more senior teacher. If you
have
the opportunity to take on the supporting role of a mentor, take it; it’s
14 A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing

an ideal way to develop your professional skills, while supporting a less

experienced colleague.
These early stages of sharing ideas and experience and running workshops
for your peers are among the most common routes into teacher training.
Future trainers are usually noticed by their school as someone who is
experienced and who works well with less experienced peers. If you work in
larger schools, you may also have a teacher training department which you
could approach or apply to, asking to be trained up with a view to working
on pre- and in-service courses.
The Director of Studies as trainer

One other significant category of trainer might be the head of the teaching
department (often called a Director of Studies). The core of this person’s job
is often the day-to-day administrative management of students and staff.
Nevertheless, as probably the most experienced teacher, this person will
often be called upon to provide in-house training.
Ask yourself
m@ Consider the idea that teacher training appeals to those who are ‘looking
for a different kind of classroom.’ In what ways do you think the teacher
training classroom is different from the normal classroom?
® Think about your current CV (either real or imaginary). Which aspects of it
make you suitable to become a teacher trainer?
™@ List examples of any occasions when you have trained other teachers,
either formally or informally.
Ways of working towards being a trainer

If you are in the process of thinking about becoming a trainer or are working
on your own as a trainer with little or no formal input, the following ideas
may help you to take action.
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015. fey
Observe others
trainer in an input
Watch teacher trainers at work. Ask if you can observe a
session or sit in on an observation of a teacher and the feedbac k process that
the
follows. If you regularly attend conferences or workshops, notice what
presenter or trainer does and how your peers react.
Think back
Think back to when you first trained. What did you like/dislike about the
trainer’s techniques? What benefit did you gain from the course?
Volunteer
Volunteer to run an in-house workshop for your fellow teachers. If your
school doesn’t have teacher development meetings, suggest that they start.
Offer to run the first one.
Keep up to date
Read journals, books and websites. Build a personal learning network via
social media and be up to date with what people are talking about in the
world of ELT, especially with regard to technology-enhanced language
learning and the applications of online learning. (See the ‘Further reading
and resources’ section on page 167.)
Gain further qualifications

Because teacher training is so varied, and expectations vary from country
to country, it’s hard to say what qualifications you should have. In certain
areas, specialist know-how alone may well get you the job, but in the UK, for
example, the Trinity Diploma in TESOL or Cambridge DELTA qualification
is often a minimum prerequisite for someone looking to become a trainer.
Around the world, many training positions can expect a candidate to have e
postgraduate qualifications such as an MA in Applied Linguistics or TESOL.

You should also consider taking courses in how to deliver online training
and working as an online teacher trainer.
io A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015.
Ask yourself
@ Which of the action points described above have you already started doing?
m@ Which could you start doing in the future?
Key considerations when moving

into training
Jumping in too soon

As you can see, the route into teacher training in ELT is not necessarily
a formal path. If you are lucky, you may have the opportunity to receive
formal training and an induction programme. Training courses on ‘how to
become a trainer’ do exist, but for the majority of teacher trainers, learning
how to train is done on the job. As a final word of warning, don’t skip too
quickly from teaching into training; make sure you have a wide range of
experience of teaching English before launching yourself as a trainer.
A balancing act
Many trainers juggle some training work with other jobs such as teaching,
examining and writing. Training contracts are often irregular, so you may
need to balance a portfolio of work. There is a strong argument that this
is a healthy way to train; getting back into the classroom and teaching
students who are learning English is a good chance for you to remind
yourself what it’s like for your trainees. Nevertheless, taking breaks from
training, as with teaching, can lead to a loss of confidence and the concern
that you will get out of practice. At the other extreme, it’s easy to become
known only as a trainer, so you’re always either running input sessions
and workshops for teachers or observing and giving feedback, which, over
long periods, can also feel limiting.
Time and rewards

There are few teachers who don’t, from time to time, bemoan the lack of pay
and time for preparation. Some even look to teacher training as an avenue
to greater rewards. However, the professional day-to-day life of a teacher
trainer can sometimes feel even busier than teaching.
Becoming the expert

As a teacher trainer, you may find you are the most experienced person
in the school. Gone are the days when there was always someone around
with more experience who you could ask. Instead, you are increasingly the
person being asked. If you are a Director of Studies expected to train staff,
for example, you may find that youre quite isolated. This is where joining
professional organisations and attending ELT webinars and conferences will
really help your ongoing development and sense of being connected.
Different training contexts

To the question ‘Who am I training?’ should come the obvious reply:
‘Teachers’. However, the answer is much more complex. After all, teachers,
like language students, come from different contexts and backgrounds, and
have different needs. Here is an overview of some of the common contexts
for training teachers. Note, of course, that this kind of summary is prone to
generalisations, and that the demands on the trainer are changing as rapidly
as English spreads and evolves around the word. Many of these contexts will
be enlarged upon in later chapters, where they are referred to in more detail.
Pre-service (pre-experience) teachers

A common context is to prepare people with no prior experience of teaching
for the classroom. While they may have a high (possibly proficient or native-
speaker) level of English, there is no guarantee that they know how English.
works or how to communicate that knowledge to learners. The focus of such
a course (such as the CELTA or Cert TESOL) will be on building language
awareness and providing classroom techniques and skills. As courses for
pre-
service teachers vary from region to region in the world — from introducto
ry
‘taster’ courses through to year-long postgraduate qualifications —
so too will
the demands of the trainer working in this context.
iO A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing

INSET training
INSET stands for ‘in-service training’. This type of training can involve you
working with a group of people who have as many or possibly even more
years of teaching experience than you. Typically, they will need training in
new skills sets such as handling an online learning management system
or preparing students for a new type of exam. As well as being interested
in activities and new ideas they can take away and use in the classroom,
teachers will also want to discuss issues in greater depth. In such cases, the
role of the trainer becomes one of facilitator of discussions.
In-house training
In-house training is really a form of INSET (see above) but it can feel
slightly different because it refers to the idea of training colleagues at your
place of work. For many trainers, it’s often their first introduction to running
training and provides the opportunity to present your ideas to peers at work.
It’s important to note that quite often, this group of people will have varying
levels of experience and expertise, so pitching the training can be difficult.
You may also find that in-house trainees prove to be less automatically
accepting of your ideas than pre-experience trainees.
Teaching-training combination
With the global spread of English and the need for increasing numbers of
teachers, teacher trainers will often be working with trainees on their classroom
skills while at the same time teaching them English in order to raise the level
of course participants’ language competency. Even on courses where the main
focus has been teacher development, it’s common for teachers whose first
language is not English to say how much they enjoyed the opportunity to
improve their English, while at the same time discussing teaching.
Online training
Whole courses or parts of courses may be delivered online using a
combination of tools such as learning platforms (e.g. Edmodo and Moodle),
email, screencast video and Skype. These kinds of courses tend to attract a
highly international mix of participants, and MOOCs (massive open online
courses) can boast literally hundreds of attendees from all over the world at
any one time.
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015. 19
When it comes to observing classroom teaching practice and giving

immediate feedback, many training courses still rely on face-to-face training
in a physical classroom; some online courses may, however, make use of
video recordings of lessons or live-streaming via a camera in a classroom.
Many teacher training courses are a blend of face-to-face input and lesson
observation, with online training in areas such as language awareness and
methodology. The online component may also be a place to hold synchronous
and asynchronous seminar-type discussions between the tutor and the
course participants.
The message for any budding teacher trainer, therefore, is that the more
familiar you are with the ever-growing range of tools and opportunities for
online teaching, the better placed you will be to work as a trainer.
Exam training
The fact that many teachers have to attain a recognised standard and
qualification in education means that the job of a trainer might be to
prepare teachers to pass an exam or gain a qualification. In such cases, the
course will have to respond to external syllabus requirements. An example of
this would be the TKT (Teaching Knowledge Test) developed by Cambridge
English Language Assessment, which tests candidates’ knowledge of
concepts related to language, language use and the background to and
practice of language teaching and learning.
One-to-one training
The context of one-to-one training or ‘mentoring’ will vary from school to
school. Informally, this may simply involve the experienced teacher in the
staffroom taking the new teacher under his or her wing. More formally,
a mentor may be a senior teacher who is assigned the task of guiding a
teacher or a trainer in a one-to-one relationship with a trainee. The roles of
the trainer-mentor may vary, but here are descriptions from some ‘mentees’, .
who were interviewed on how they regarded their mentors: a model, a
shoulder to cry on, someone to show you round, someone to discuss ideas
with, someone to give you feedback, a co-planner.
“fy 3 5 :
£45 A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its
licensors 2015.
Assessing and inspecting

In some contexts, the distinction between the role of trainer and assessor
is blurred (see Chapters 4 and 6); in other words, a trainer may also have
to award grades. This could take the form of observing and assessing a
lesson or judging the quality of a journal submitted by a trainee in which
the trainee is required to reflect on an aspect of their teaching. Similarly,
a Director of Studies may have the responsibility of quality control and
monitoring teachers’ performance.
Ask yourself
Look back at the list of different types of teacher training contexts above.
@ As a teacher, which of the contexts have you experienced?
m@ Which of them were especially positive in terms of your development as a
teacher? Why do you think one context was more beneficial than another?
# What proportion of your training has been face to face? How much has
been online?
The skills required

The good news is that the knowledge and skills that you have acquired and
developed as a teacher are transferable to teacher training. There are some
differences, but in general the development involves a shift in emphasis
rather than the need for complete change or retraining. To illustrate the
point, let’s review three key roles of a teacher and consider how these can be
applied to training.
The facilitator
The role of facilitator is a key role to take from your language teaching
classroom and transfer into your training room. In the language classroom,
we facilitate discussion and try to create an environment that is conducive to
learning. When transferred to the training room, this translates into the need
to set aside time for discussion and reflection. With less experienced trainees,
this may involve asking questions to which you already have answers, or
‘4
hal
implementing discussions on topics about which you already have an opinion.

At a higher level, for example, at an in-house staff training session, it may
be that the aim of the workshop is to bring teachers together and have
them share their expertise in order to try and establish possible solutions
to problems raised. This kind of workshop demands that you facilitate the
discussion and lead it to a place where it is generative and useful.
The expert
While emphasising the need for a trainer to be a facilitator, we should also
recognise that in many contexts you will know more than your trainees,
and they will expect you to give them answers. I have observed training
sessions where the trainer has taken the facilitator role to an extreme, with
trainees only ever being led to an answer through questioning, discussion
and elicitation. After a certain stage, the result — especially in the case of
pre-experience teachers — can be frustration. There has to be a point in
such a session where you demonstrate the wealth of your experience and
knowledge. Trainees need to know if they have come to the wrong conclusion
rather than discover it in the middle of a disastrous lesson.
The model
Just as your language students look to you to provide ‘correct’ models
of English, so too will your trainee teachers be looking for good models
of teaching in the way you carry out your training. We know that in
teaching there is often more than one way to do things but, especially with
inexperienced teachers, you need to provide the participants with basic
techniques to emulate in the early stages of teaching. For example, when
giving instructions, you will need to give precise and clear instructions and
concept-check everyone’s understanding of what they have to do in an input
session. Clearly, your authority and credibility will be undermined if you
tell trainees to be clearer in their instructions when teaching, but you then
fail to do so in a face-to-face session or when structuring an online task. .
Similarly, badly designed materials or inept classroom management do not

motivate or set an example.
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hate A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media
Ltd and its licensors 2015.
Ask yourself
Think about a training session you have attended recently. It might have
been in a classroom or perhaps it was online, for example, a webinar
presentation. Which type of role(s) did the trainer assume? Were these roles
effective for the context?
As well as teacher roles, there are other skills that we acquire as teachers
which naturally transfer into the training room. Let’s look at a few of them:
Language awareness and presenting language

On many training courses, teaching trainees how English works and then
demonstrating how to present it to students is at the core of the programme.
The techniques you use to present a grammar point or to introduce the
phonemes to language learners can be used to teach trainees. Often, the
language students and the trainee teacher begin at parallel stages, with
both needing to understand the mechanics of the language.
So, for example, if you were introducing students to time reference using
different verb forms, you could use timelines. The shift in emphasis comes
where students need to understand only the time reference in the sentence
via the timeline, while the trainee teacher also needs to understand the
value and application of using timelines in a lesson.
A still from a video of a teacher trainer presenting a timeline from

an online course in language awareness for new teachers
Z i
Having presented the language point to the trainee teachers, the trainer
might then ask them to create their own timelines. The photocopiable
handout on page 25 could be given out by a trainer to pre-service trainees.
Planning
In the same way that language lessons need some kind of plan, input
sessions and workshops for training also need some forethought. One way
to approach the planning of a training session is to structure it in the
same way that you might plan a language lesson. Well-known models and
paradigms that are used in lesson planning, such as PPP (presentation,
practice, production) and TBL (task-based learning), could all be used as the
basis for structuring training sessions.
Another useful lesson planning model is the ‘ESA’ model (Harmer 1998). The
idea behind it is that when we are teaching language, we need to Engage
the learner’s interest perhaps with a game, an anecdote or some music.
Then the learner needs time to Study something such as a text highlighting
a particular point. The third element is to Activate the language, with the
learner practising a new language item in a freer practice situation. This may
involve making mistakes and experimenting in the safety of the classroom.
These three same elements can be present in a successful teacher training

input session. Take, for example, the training plan on page 26, which was
designed for a training workshop on dealing with spoken errors. In stages 1
and 2 of the plan, the trainer engages the participants’ interest before stage 3,
where they study the specific errors in detail and consider ways to deal with
them. Stage 4 combines familiar pairwork and roleplay to practise correction
techniques, and then encourages trainees to consider their effectiveness.
Note that the plan shows only one order of events; others are possible. The
trainer could have changed the sequence by starting with the list of spoken
errors, continuing with active practice and ending with a discussion of a °
policy. As Harmer points out, there is no fixed order, but all elements will
usually be present. This is true of many training sessions and workshops,
and certainly a useful way for anyone new to training to assess their own
training plan.
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd
and its licensors 2015.
Presenting timelines
Presenting timelines
A timeline exercise is one way to present tense and aspect. Here are four timelines, each illustrating
a different time perspective.
| get up at 6am every day. I'm watching the TV at the moment.

Now Now
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We're meeting at 8pm this evening. | was born in 1983.

Now Future Past Now
~~ — x |
Q)spm 1923
Discussion points
1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using timelines such as these?
2. Is there anything you would change about them? For example, would you add more details such
as words or pictures?
Now devise your own timelines to represent the expression of time in some or all of the following
sentences. Be prepared to draw them on the board for your peers.
1. They were driving to a party at midnight.
2. They were driving to a party when the car broke down.
3. I've lived in this house for three years.
4. One day I’m going to be a footballer.
5. I'll see you next week.
6. By the end of next year, I'll have worked here for six years.
Training plan on correcting spoken errors

Stage Procedure Aim/outcome
(Time)
1 Write the following on the board: To discuss error

correction and
(0-10) Errors are a sign of poor teaching and should always be
establish policy.
corrected.
Put trainees in pairs. They discuss the extent to which they
agree or disagree with the statement, and then rewrite it to
arrive at their own policy statement on error correction.
Brainstorm (as a whole group) the reasons why spoken Identify reasons
errors occur, e.g. over-generalisation of a rule, poor for spoken
(10-15)
teaching, L1 interference, student trying to say things errors.
beyond capability, false friends, tiredness, pronunciation,
CLG
Put trainees in groups of three. Give each group a copy Develop skill
of the list of spoken errors (see handout on page 27). The of identifying
(15-30)
groups discuss the list and: reasons
1. identify possible reasons for errors for errors.
2. discuss possible technique for correction (e.g. tell them

correct answer, repeat the error with rising intonation, use
phonemic chart).
Put trainees in pairs for roleplay. Trainee A plays the role of Practising
teacher, Trainee B is the student. Trainee B reads out five different
(30-45)
of the errors and Trainee A uses a technique to correct. techniques
Afterwards, Trainee B comments on the effectiveness of the for error
technique. Trainees swap roles and use the five remaining correction.
errors on the list.
Whole group together. Round-up of different techniques Feedback and
used and discussion of any issues. Ask the group if they reflection.
(45-60)
would change their earlier policy statements about error
correction as a result of the workshop.
26
£0 A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing
List of spoken errors to be handed out to trainees in O

stage 3 of the training plan.
1. I'm going to wok to work.

2. They've seen him last week.
3. She must to drive on the right.
4. She live there for five years.
5. It leave at midnight.
6. | wouldn't tell her, if |am you.
7. The sheep sails tonight.
8. | am liking this game very much.
9. We did a mistake and got the wrong train.
10. He's so unpolite.
Listening skills and empathy

Early on in many training courses, teachers learn that they need to keep
unnecessary teacher talking time down to allow for useful student talking ae
time. This frees the teacher up to focus on listening and monitoring
student progress.
Similarly, listening skills are important for a trainer. Showing that

youre listening will encourage trainees to speak during discussions and
monitoring participants during closed group tasks allows you to evaluate a a
progress. During the feedback session after an observation lesson, a period tH) ac
where the trainee speaks and you listen can often help the trainee to reflect; = 7
it can also provide a cathartic release after a particularly stressful lesson. = s
Similarly, empathy with your trainees is crucial. When working with less mo
experienced teachers, you should constantly remind yourself of what it was = Z
like when you first began to teach. Show understanding and provide lots of Seas
praise, especially after observing their lessons. aa =
~~
eee
Class management
The management skills we bring from our language classrooms are also
equally important in the training room. Large groups of people need clear
direction, and groups of trainees can become as noisy as a group of students.
Deciding when you should stand at the front (to signal ‘Listen to me’) or when
aa
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015. fat
you should sit with everyone in a circle (to signal ‘Let’s hear your opinions’)
is equally relevant. So don’t forget or be afraid to apply your management
skills: learn the names of participants straight away, vary the dynamic
with pairwork, groupwork and working as a complete class, and use clear,
meaningful gestures. Discipline problems shouldn’t normally arise, but
handling a trainee who isn’t listening or who challenges what you are saying
will require skills acquired from dealing with similar language learners.
Rapport
In one report on a workshop in which three groups of experienced trainers
were asked to brainstorm a list of ‘what makes a good teacher trainer’,
their responses included: ‘creates a good atmosphere’, ‘is able to interact
with trainees’, ‘has a sense of humour’, ‘has good interpersonal skills’ and
‘inspires and enthuses’ (Johnson J (2001) 10 out of 10. English Teaching
Professional 18 56-7). These qualities can all be seen as making up what is
known as rapport — a teaching skill which we need both in the training room
and in the classroom.
Use of resources
The materials we use when training will often differ from those used
in teaching; however, there will be elements of crossover. For example,
trainers will find it useful to keep copies of work produced by language
students for trainees to analyse, and they may use coursebooks as a way of
demonstrating to trainees how to evaluate teaching materials. Similarly,
teachers’ use of classroom equipment is often transferable to the training
room. The way a trainer works with a board, a projector, an IWB or a mobile
device in any session is likely to influence a trainee’s own use, so trainers
should work with a variety of equipment in order to demonstrate how it may
be best employed. Finally, videos of lessons can be helpful for demonstrating
a teaching point, as can texts in the form of articles from journals. Whatever
materials are used, though, the ability to select, design and incorporate e
them remains the same.
£0 A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing

Teaching-with-technology skills
The work that many teachers do involves using a variety of technology and
digital tools, both in face-to-face teaching and online courses. For example,
you might have activities that entail using tablets in class, or you might
be teaching students via Skype. Many language courses also make use of
learning platforms like Moodle, which allow you to deliver all or part of a
course online with embedded video, audio, text and exercises. Any skills you
acquire using technology in your language classroom will be essential if you
plan on working as a teacher trainer in the future. In addition, the business
of running online courses entails the refining of a new set of soft skills, such
as creating rapport between an online community and managing team-
building online.
Developing learner/trainee independence

Taking responsibility for one’s own learning is as important for trainee
teachers as it is for students learning English. When dealing with new
teachers, we need to provide them with the skills to evaluate the strengths
or weaknesses of their own teaching without the continual observation
of an experienced trainer. Teachers who are much further down the road
of professional development will need guidance on where to find more
information on a topic, or how to set about carrying out classroom research.
It is the trainer’s job to develop those independent skills.
To help trainees think about ways to develop themselves independently

at work or after a course has ended, distribute copies of the photocopiable
handout on page 30 for them to complete and discuss.
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015. Paes}
\
Teacher development action plan
‘Teacher development action plan

| Tick the things you do and add details where necessary.
1. Share my ideas with colleagues. L]
2. Study for a further qualification in teaching or another subject that interests me and may
help my teaching. L]
3. Subscribe to a journal for teachers. L
4. Write an article for a teacher's journal. L]
5. Regularly attend workshops, webinars and/or conferences. )
oO Present at workshops, webinars and/or conferences. L]
al . Observe my peers teaching and invite them to observe me. L]
8. Have an extensive online personal learning network. LJ
9. Participate in online teacher forums and/or make use of free online training such as webinars
and MOOCs. L]
10.Write a journal or blog about my teaching. 1
| Which one of these would you like to start doing in the future? What action will you need to take?
Write your action plan.
| Tell a partner about your action plan. What does your partner plan to do? Is there a way you can
help or support each other?
Ask yourself
Review the following teaching skills, which are transferable to teacher training:
m@ Language awareness and language presentation. |
®@ Lesson planning.
@ Listening skills and empathy.
@ Classroom management.
@ Rapport.
m@ Use of resources.
@ Teaching with technology.
@ Developing learner/trainee independence.
1. Which of these skills do you think are your strengths as a teacher? How will
you make use of them as a teacher trainer?
2. Identify any weaker areas in which you feel you could make improvements.
How might these areas of weakness affect your work as a trainer? How
might you work on improving these areas?
3. Can you think of any other skills that you have as a teacher which you can
make use of and build upon as a trainer?
Conclusions
In this chapter, we have seen that the routes to becoming a teacher trainer
are not always clear, and that much of what we already do as part of our
professional development may be defined as ‘training’. People often report
‘learning on the job’ and ‘remembering being trained to be teacher’ as the
methods they use for knowing what to do. We have also seen that many of
the skills we develop as teachers are transferable into the training room and
provide the starting point for becoming a teacher trainer.
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015. Ot
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2. Training techniques
preparing for input sessions
techniques used in input sessions
selecting and combining input session techniques
appropriate classroom layouts.
Preparing for the training session

Being responsible for planning and running a training session is the stage at
which many people start to perceive themselves formally as a ‘teacher trainer’.
The format of training sessions will vary according to the requirements

and needs of the course and its participants. In some situations, it might be
appropriate for the trainer to present information through a lecture or a talk.
Alternatively, training can take the form of a discussion-based workshop, with
participants being encouraged to respond to questions or complete a task.
In most cases, successful training sessions tend to be a combination of both
formal input (e.g. a lecture, a presentation or perhaps a reading text) and
tasks which participants complete in pairs or groups, face to face or online.
A useful starting point is to assume that your training session will respond
to three questions relating to the topic:
gm WHAT is it?
Define the topic of the session and then explain what that topic covers.
For example, if your topic is classroom management, you'll need to
explain what it is and outline its different components.
g@ WHY is it important?
Highlight the reasons why the subject of the session is important and
state its relevance to a teacher and student. So, if the session is about
giving classroom instructions, the participants will need to know why it’s
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015. Oe
important to be able to give instructions effectively and understand the

consequences of giving poor classroom instructions.
m HOW can I apply it?

The third and final key aspect of any training session is that the
participants leave knowing how the subject can be applied to their own
situation. So, if the aim of the session is to understand a certain area
of grammar, many teachers will want to leave a training session with
a collection of practical classroom activities that they can use in their
classrooms in order to teach and practise it. Similarly, if you are planning
a session on using mobile devices in the classroom, then as well as
explaining what mobile learning is and why it’s important, you'll also
want to dedicate plenty of time to looking at practical ways in which
mobile technology can be used with students.
So in the early stages of planning, try visualising the training session like
this triangle split into three sections:
At the very top is the question ‘What?’ because you need to say what
the
session is about. This will take up the least amount of time in the
session
but it is nevertheless of obvious importance.
34 A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing

Next, you need to answer the question ‘Why?’ by exploring the topic’s
relevance. You can present the reasons yourself, or you can draw on the
experience of your participants. If you plan to ask trainees for their input,
you'll need to assign a little more time to this part of the session; it’s
generally an opportunity for some discussion.
Finally, the largest proportion of the time in many training sessions

is devoted to looking at how a particular topic might be applied in the
classroom. This could mean participants try out a variety of practical
classroom activities to use with their own language students or a more
hands-on task where the participants draw up a list of practical ways to
implement it.
There are, of course, exceptions to this ‘What?/Why?/How”’ formula.

You will undoubtedly have attended some excellent training sessions by
experienced trainers who did not follow it precisely. However, as a new
teacher trainer, it’s often wise to apply this kind of model in order to help
in the planning and structure of a training session, and to ensure that
nothing vital is missed out.
Ask yourself
1. Think of a training session that you attended as a participant (not as a
trainer).
@ What was it about? Why was it relevant to teaching? How did the trainer
suggest you apply it to the classroom?
m@ Approximately what percentage of time was dedicated to (1) defining
the subject matter, (2) looking at its relevance and (3) its practical
teaching applications?
2. Start planning a training session that you are going to run in the near
future (or would like to be able to offer in the future).
m@ What is the title of the session and what are your aims?
@ In what ways will your subject be relevant to your participants?
@ List some practical classroom ideas and/or activities that they will be
able to take away from the session.
oO
The topic of your input session

and/
The topic of your input session usually depends on course requirements
or the needs of those attending. Here is a sample of topics found on general
introductory courses for pre-service teachers:
@ Language awareness: the parts of a sentence

@ Pronunciation: word stress
m How to teach vocabulary
m@ Motivation
B® Teaching young learners
Compare those with these titles, taken from a series of workshops organised
by a Director of Studies to help in-service staff in a private language school
based in the United Kingdom:
@ Project work on summer schools with mixed ability classes

m@ Using songs in the classroom
@ Helping Korean students with pronunciation
@ Liven up your speaking lessons
@ Preparing students for IELTS
You will see that there is quite a distinct difference in focus between the two
sets of course titles above. The first one, for pre-service teachers with little
or no prior knowledge, is presumably based upon a course programme or
syllabus which covers all the basics for learning how to teach. The second set
of titles is a much more eclectic mix of topics, and presumably reflects the
various needs of staff at the school.
Establishing the trainees’ requirements

It’s always wise to find out as much as you can about the requirements for
the session. Some of these might be written down or might be part of a pre- —
determined course programme but, as with teaching English to a class of
students for the first time, you will need to ask questions as well.
The checklist shown on page 38 is an example of a form created for trainers

who are preparing for a face-to-face training session. It helps less experienced
trainers make sure they have all the information they need. (Note that
Qn eer 3 ek
30 A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015.
Chapter 6, ‘Managing teacher training’ offers more detailed comments and

guidelines on carrying out training needs analysis and course design.)
Techniques used in input sessions

Having established as much as you can about the aims, participant profile
and training environment, you need to consider the various methods of
delivery open to you. Some of these will be familiar from teaching and can be
adapted. Other types of delivery, such as a lecture, are often avoided in the
language classroom, but may be suitable options for the training room.
lcebreakers
When starting a new course or leading a one-off training session, it is often
the case that the participants constitute an unknown mix of people with very
different perceptions. An icebreaker helps to unite the group and focus thoughts
away from their other day-to-day concerns (e.g. J must get those assignments
marked by tomorrow, I forgot to complete the register, I hope my children are
OK). An icebreaker sets the tone for the session; it also puts the onus on the
trainees, giving you time to get an initial feel for the dynamic of the group.
Icebreakers are familiar territory for many ELT teachers, and training
sessions often begin with icebreakers designed for use with language learners.
This may work well if it leads into the topic of your session, but, initially, you
might wish to pitch the task at the trainees as teachers, rather than trainees
pretending to be students. The photocopiable activity on page 39, is a well-
known icebreaker taken from a language lesson that has been adapted to suit
a group of in-service teachers on day one of a week-long course. The trainer
makes one copy of the page for each teacher. At the beginning of the session,
the participants walk around the room interviewing each other until they
have one name written next to each ‘Find someone who...’ sentence. At the
end, the group reports back on its findings.
Note that icebreaker tasks are just as necessary on online training courses, and
task types are similar to those used in face-to-face contexts. At a basic level,
participants can post a photograph of themselves with a short personal profile.
Alternatively, they could share a webcam video of themselves saying a few
words about who they are and why they are taking the course. Another option,
if you have set up a forum, is for participants to ask each other questions such
as ‘Where are you from?’, ‘Who do you teach?’, etc.
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015. oF
A teacher trainer’s checklist
A teacher trainer's checklist

Participant profile
What is the level of the trainees’ English?
w What are their backgrounds in teaching?
What is the mix in terms of nationality, age range and culture?
Needs and expectations

@ What will the participants want to take away from the session?
@ What are their expectations? Will they prefer lots of hands-on ideas and discussion, or are they
expecting more tutor-led input?
Aims and outcomes

@ What do you want them to be able to do by the end of the session?
@ What do you want them to try and implement in their teaching or personal development?
@ How will you decide whether those aims and outcomes have been achieved?
Timing
@ How much time do you have?
@ Are your aims achievable in the time allocated? If not, how will you address this?
(For example, will the course require a self-study component?)
Prior knowledge/experience
m@ How much do the trainees/teachers already know on this topic and about teaching in general?
Find someone who...
Find someone who...

1. has taught outside their own country
2. plays background music in their classroom
3. also teaches another subject
— teaches another subject using English
5. never translates during a lesson
6. often translates during a lesson
~ . is learning another language
8. learnt a new English word recently
9. was recently asked a really difficult question by a student
10. has had another career as well as teaching
11.finds it hard to switch off from teaching at the end of the day
12. has recently read something interesting about teaching
13. has recently read something interesting that wasn't about teaching
14. uses activities like this one this with their students
Lead-ins
As with teaching, starting an input session by leading the trainees into the
topic can be motivating and helps everyone to focus. The lead-in can take
the form of an activity you might use with language learners. This has the
benefit of giving trainees an idea for an activity they can use in their own
classes. It should also introduce the topic of the session in some way. For
example, you could write an incomplete sentence such as “Teaching teenagers
is...’ on the board or in an online chatbox, and ask everyone to finish it in
their own words. This would then lead into a session on teaching teenagers.
Alternatively, if you ask a group to do the kind of roleplay you might use with
students, the trainees will experience the task and hopefully have some fun.
You could then follow this up with a brainstorming session or a discussion
about what makes an effective roleplay.
Below is another example of a lead-in, which is taken from the notes of a

trainer’s plan. The aim of the session is to introduce inexperienced teachers to
the subject of Business English, which they will all be required to teach in the
future. As a lead-in, it explores the group’s preconceptions about the topic of
the session before going more deeply into the area of Business English.
Perceptions of Business English

1. Draw the following scale on the board and ask the participants to copy it.
General English English for work Business English
2. Read the following phrases aloud or write them on the board.

1. How was your journey?
. We've met before, haven’t we? At a conference | think.
. The business invests around 25% of its turnover back into research.
. Would you like me to add it to the schedule?
. Can | have another cup of tea, please?
. Should you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
. If they ordered in bulk, we’d probably be able to offer a bigger discount.
WM
MOO
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing

Working in pairs, participants decide where a phrase fits best on the scale
according to the type of English they associate the phrase with. So, if they
feel the phrase could happily be taught in a general English lesson they
write the number of the phrase to the left hand-side of the scale.
3. Afterwards, the pairs compare their scales with another pair. Open the
discussion up to the whole class. Note that you could also set this task
up online using a polling function, or with participants writing answers
in a chatbox.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming can work well as a lead-in as it helps to tune everyone
in. It also has the added benefit of focusing everyone on the topic. Many
teachers begin brainstorming by writing a word in the middle of the board
(or in an online chatbox), and then the group is invited to call out (or write)
anything they associate with the word. So, if the topic of the session is about
encouraging student self-study, a quick brainstorm using the board might
produce something like this:
read ing
graded readers
watching You lube listening to

MUSIC videos Enolish pop Songs
self- study
using @ course textin friends

book's website ih Eralish
be
Another example of a trainer using brainstorming in a training session

can be seen in the outline below. It shows details of a session in which
participants explore ways that a board (or IWB) can be used, and think
about how to organise information on it. The trainer plans to start the
session by brainstorming, but then to take it a step further by considering
ways to organise the information generated from the brainstorm.
Presenting information on the board

1. Ask the whole group to brainstorm the types of things that they might put
on the board during a lesson, e.g. a timeline, a picture, a new word, etc.
As the groups brainstorm, write their ideas all over the board.
2. Put participants into small groups of three or four. Give each group a large
piece of paper that represents a board. They must organise the information
that is on the main class board in a way which will best help a teacher to
remember and understand the information. This may involve categorisation,
colours, pictures — anything which will help others memorise the lists of
information. Groups plan their boardwork on the paper; they can add new
ideas to the brainstorm on how we use boards in class.
3. When the designs are ready, groups present them, explaining their
rationale. End with a general discussion about why board organisation
is important.
Lecture/talk
Many trainers from a teaching background in ELT have natural
reservations when it first comes to giving extended talks and lectures. After
all, many of us were trained to avoid too much teacher talking time in favour
of student talking time. However, training rooms can benefit from periods
when the trainer talks and trainees listen and take notes. In fact, feedback
from many training sessions often suggests that participants welcome this
kind of approach from time to time as an alternative to an over-reliance on .«
pairwork or group discussions.
Of course, lectures can go on too long and they do need to be varied. One
approach is to speak for a few minutes and then open things up for discussio
n
or questions. Lectures also work when interspersed with practical ideas
or
opportunities to try out a classroom activity that has been described.
ob L, A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing

Another technique that can add interest and motivation in a lecture involves
asking the trainees to write down three questions that they have about the
topic before you start talking. Then, while you are delivering the lecture, they
make a note of any answers that you provide. At the end, trainees ask questions
relating to any of the points they made that have remained unanswered.
The following description of an input session shows how a lecture can

successfully be integrated into a training session. The trainer’s aim is
to look at listening skills, and so she has participants listen to a lecture
about listening.
A lecture on listening skills

1. Write the following on the board.
Prediction Interest Keep playing?

First listening task Good quality Detailed comprehension
Tell the trainees that in a few minutes they are going to listen to a lecture
about listening. Put them in pairs and allow two minutes for discussion |
about what they think you might say about the six items on the board.
2. Ask the group to now listen to the lecture and number the items on the
board from 1 to 6 in the order they are referred to. Read the following
lecture at natural speed.
More than any other classroom procedure, the teacher's handling of listening material
is absolutely critical if the listening tasks are to succeed. First of all, teachers need
to check that the quality of the audio equipment and the recordings they use are
adequate for the students to hear well. It is essential that the teacher provides an
informative lead-in for a listening exercise in order to arouse interest. This may take
the form of discussing the topic the students are going to hear, or showing pictures
which the students interpret before they listen. Before playing interviews, the teacher
can give students the interviewer's questions and ask them to predict what the person
to be interviewed will say. If the listening material is on video, this stage could be
facilitated by watching the sequence without sound. Prediction is also an extremely
important stage. It allows students to get interested in the topic and predict the kind
of vocabulary they are likely to hear. It means, above all, that they are not approaching
the task ‘cold’. The teacher will then give the first listening task clearly so that the
students have no doubt about whether they are listening for general understanding,
Continued >
to extract specific information or to judge a speaker's attitude or opinion. When the

students have listened to the recording for the first time, the teacher will play it again
so that they can work on more detailed comprehension, perhaps prompted by a set
of questions on a handout. Sometimes they will have quite a lot of difficulty, in which
case, the teacher will play parts again, pausing at various points so that students can
‘catch their breath’ or focus on a particular piece of information or language. In some
extreme situations, the students may continue to have difficulty, and it will then be the
teacher's decision how long to go on.
(Adapted from J Harmer ‘Teaching Listening’, English Teaching Professional: 3 (1997) 32-3.)
3. Check trainees’ answers to step 2, and ask them which of the six points
on the board can be applied to this listening task. Doing this should elicit
that (1) the listening was of ‘good quality’ because it was live rather than
recorded, (2) you attempted to raise interest and encourage prediction
through the pairwork task and (3) you set a first listening task of ordering
the six items.
4. Explain that you want trainees to listen to the lecture again. Write these
comprehension questions on the board so that trainees can answer them
while they are listening:
‘What should you check before a listening lesson?
What qualities should an effective lead-in have?
What does the speaker suggest students should predict?
Name one type of first listening task.
How can we prompt detailed comprehension in the second listening?
ee How can the teacher help the students understand difficult listening
texts?
7. Trainees work with a partner to answer the questions. You could follow this
up (perhaps with more experienced teachers) by asking pairs or groups to
suggest, for each question, two more answers not mentioned in the talk.
8. Put the trainees into small groups and assign one short recording (either
taken from a coursebook or from an authentic source) to each group.
Ideally, trainees would go to different parts of the building to listen to q
their recordings. Their task is to design a listening lesson based on the
recording following the basic structure and ideas outlined in the talk. This
stage can easily take 30 minutes. :
?. Groups present their listening lessons to their fellow trainees.

Webinars (for online lectures)

Increasingly, lectures and talks are being given in the form of webinars (or
‘web-based seminars’). A webinar allows you to talk via a webcam to a group
of participants. This could also be done with other video-based tools such
as Skype. But webinars offer more than just the ability to video-conference;
they also come with a range of interactive tools including chatrooms, poll
functions, a facility that allows participants to ‘raise their hand’, to show
slides, websites, video, and to draw or write on the screen. This means that
many teacher training techniques (not just lectures) are easily transferred
to the webinar format including brainstorming and discussions. (Further
uses of webinars are mentioned in later sections of this book.)
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Screenshot from training webinar on the topic of materials writing.

Reprinted with permission of IATEFL.
A ‘How-to’ demonstration
This technique is especially important for pre-service teachers or for
retraining teachers with a new approach or methodology. By watching a
demonstration of a technique used in the class, participants see a useful
model of how to implement it. Although the use of this technique may
have the drawback of implying that there is ‘only one way to do it’, it offers
inexperienced teachers an immediate idea of what is expected. So, for
example, although the skill of drilling students in a new structure can be
explained to trainee teachers, there is no substitute for actually watching
how it is done (or even experiencing it) first hand.
The technique of demonstrating and modelling teacher skills can take

different forms on training courses. It could be a five-minute interlude,
or it could be a lecture in which the trainer presents a technique as a
model. The only drawback to the lecture method is that you, as the trainer,
have to switch between playing the teacher and then being the trainer. It
requires concentration, and the lack of authenticity of the situation is not
always satisfactory.
One option is to invite a colleague in to demonstrate or model the teaching

skill. This can help you to focus on specific aspects of the demonstration.
On some initial teacher training courses, trainees are given mini-lessons
in which they are taught a few words of a language they have never learnt
before. This gives them the chance to experience similar feelings to those of
their students, and also offers a model of how to introduce new language,
especially at beginner level, where English is often taught entirely without
recourse to translation.
Observing experienced teachers working in real classrooms is a useful

way to highlight new techniques (see also Chapter 4). Trainees observe
the teacher and are given an observation task, which will focus them on a
particular aspect of the course. It does, however, have the drawback that
the input trainer cannot isolate a particular element in the lesson and one
cannot always guarantee that the lesson itself will include the target skill.
One way to resolve the logistical problem of observing a teacher at work

is to build up a bank of lessons on video from which the trainer can
select extracts to play to trainees. Video is especially useful for online
teacher training courses because you can embed the video into the course.
Participants can watch it in their own time and then comment on it and
discuss it in the forum.
You can also post videos on YouTube. Trainees can watch them either before
or after the face-to-face session. This ‘flipped classroom’ approach, as it is ,
sometimes called, can work well, especially if time is short. For example, some
trainees once asked me how to use Cuisenaire rods for language teaching. There
simply wasn’t time on the course to include a complete session on the topic,
so instead I filmed a short video with some ideas for using the rods, and then
included a little time for questions at the beginning of the next training session.
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and
its licensors 2015.
You(fIp* = Q
Presenting language with cuisenaire rods
Cuisenaire
rods in ELT
johnhugheset
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(For more on using video in teacher training, see pages 55-57.)
As well as offering trainees a model of how something should be done, one

alternative is to provide them with a demonstration of poor practice. The
following outline describes a session on giving instructions. The trainer
demonstrates what can go wrong with unplanned instructions and sets the
trainees the task of working out how to improve them.
Giving poor instructions

1. Tell the group you are going to read out some instructions. They should try
to follow the instructions. Read the following out (the aim being that they
will be very confusing to follow).
OK. We're going to work in pairs for this next activity and I’d like you to stand
up...oh no sorry. I’d like you to sit down first and then pick up your pens before
you stand up. OK? And then can you stand up and move to another part of
the room...and you need to stand with the person you were sitting next to...
and you'll need a piece of paper as well as a pen...so get paper if you need
it...right, OK. Now I'd like you to make a list of rules for giving good classroom
instructions and then compare your list with another pair afterwards before we
all report back to the class. OK? Everyone understand?*
Continued >
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015
their list of rules

>. Afterwards, leave everyone standing in pairs to draw up
for giving good classroom instructions. For exampl e:
Break down each instruction into steps.
Ask students questions to check they understand each stage.
Give instructions in order.
Plan your instructions beforehand.
Keep instructions short and simple (also known as ‘KISS’).
3. Choose a variety of tasks from coursebooks or teacher resource books.

Give one task to each trainee. Trainees prepare a set of instructions to
accompany the task.
4. Put the trainees into groups of three or four. They take turns to try out their
instructions on each other.
5. Trainees give each other feedback on how well they think the instructions
worked.
Here are some other possible follow-up tasks:
™ Make a copy of your instructions in step 1 for each pair or group. Ask them to
rewrite the instructions and prepare them so they are easier to follow.
m |f trainees are currently planning a real lesson, they could prepare sets of
instructions for parts of their own lesson and try them out on each other.
A similar kind of task can be done online:
1. Record and post the instructions.
2. Participants listen and post their suggestions for rules in an open forum.
3. Participants record their own instructions and post them for others to listen to.
*Activity inspired by an idea from J Scrivener Learning Teaching, p65.
Teaching language
There are various instances where you will find yourself teaching language to
trainees in the same way as you would to your normal students. One category of
teachers who want this kind of training often have quite a few years of teaching
experience, but they want to improve and/or maintain their language skills.
A second category is those teachers who are fluent in English but have little
grasp of how the English language works. These teachers are often native
speaker teachers taking initial training courses. Often, the actual grammar
of English can be studied in books or online before the course starts. For
example, the screenshot below is taken from an online course designed
using Moodle to raise would-be teachers’ awareness of how English works.
The introductory lessons include information about how language works,
practice quizzes to check understanding and video footage from real lessons.
+ Introduce yourself and contact your online tutor

(a Cactus TEFL Glossary
1 E) Lesson 1 Defining Language

Practice 1A
Practice 1B
Practice 2A
[| Practice 2B
| 3 [Bj Lesson 3 Verbs

Practice 34
Extract from a course contents screen for an online teacher training course
The activity on page 50 was designed for a face-to-face introductory teacher

training course which aimed to help trainees become familiar with some
key grammatical terms. It’s a game-like activity based on the card game
pelmanism, which is often used in the EFL classroom. The cards are copied
and cut up with one set of cards per pair or group of three. The group
spreads the cards face down on the table, and then take turns to turn over
pairs of cards. If a player turns over a card with a terminology word on it
which matches a word that exemplifies that concept, they win the two cards
and have another go. If the cards don’t match, they are placed faced down
again and it’s the next player’s turn. The player with the most pairs of cards
at the end is the winner.
Answers to terminology pelmanism: NOUN: bike, VERB: goes, ADVERB: quickly,

ADJECTIVE: easier, DETERMINER: the, PREPOSITION: towards, CONJUNCTION: and,
EXCLAMATION: Wow! PRONOUN: mine
Terminology pelmanism CJ
Terminology pelmanism
NOUN VERB ADVERB
ADJECTIVE DETERMINER PREPOSITION
CONJUNCTION EXCLAMATION PRONOUN
Example word cards
bike goes quickly
easier the towards
and Wow!
Peer teaching
Peer teaching is an effective way of having trainees try out a teaching
technique. Typically, the trainer may have presented a technique, for example,
by demonstrating or modelling. The trainees are then put into groups and take
turns playing the role of the teacher with the others in the group pretending
to be students. It’s a useful way to practise a skill and also to ‘rehearse’ before
attempting it with real students. Note that the structure of the plan on page
47-8 (the demonstration of poor practice) makes use of peer teaching, when the
trainees are asked to prepare and try out some instructions on each other.
The following activity is an example of how peer teaching can be used at

the beginning of an initial teacher training course to break the ice, building
bonds between a group of trainees. It also introduces them to the idea of
reflecting on different ways of teaching.
Trainees are given a copy of a short set of instructions (see page 52) on the
theme of teaching a secret talent of their own choosing. Ideally, trainees have
at least one evening to prepare their mini-lessons at home. Then, on the day of
the micro-teaching, make copies of the observation form (see lower half of next
page). After each mini-lesson, some participants are assigned the task of
filling in the observation form and using it for the basis of discussion and
reflection afterwards. Alternatively, you can use the form during the lesson
itself by organising the classroom as shown here:
PT The group of trainees has been divided into

PS PS two groups: a group of peer trainees (PS) and
ps PS a group ofpeer observers (PO). The first group
works with the peer teacher (PT) to learn the
ropes secret talent. The peer observers watch the peer
PO PO teacher giving the lesson, but do not participate.
They complete the form and then give feedback
PO PO afterwards. One reason for using this kind of peer
approach is that when you are playing only the
part of a student, it is difficult to observe the teaching/learning process at
work. You may find that a similar approach has uses in many more of your
training sessions. For example, the same principles may work in a webinar
format, with participants taking turns to lead a webinar. Participants would
then fill in the observer’s form and share it with each other online.
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015. Cn EN
Secret talent! CJ
Secret talent!
Instructions for peer teacher
You are all good at something. Maybe you know a song, how tojuggle, make a paper aeroplane,
recite a poem, do a dance, perform a trick ... anything! Prepare a five-minute lesson in which you
will teach the rest of the class your secret talent.
Observation form
1. How did the teacher present the talent? (Through demonstration? By describing how to do it?
By throwing the students in at the deep end and correcting their mistakes?)
2. At what stage in the lesson did the students begin to practise the talent (at the beginning,
the middle, the end)?
3. Did everyone learn the talent at the same speed? Why? Why not?
4. How much did the teacher have to repeat information? Why? Why not?
5. How involved were the students in the lesson? How do you know?
. What is one thing this observation has taught you about teaching somethin
g for the first time?
Guided discovery
The term ‘guided discovery’ normally refers to exercises or techniques
which draw language learners towards finding out about language through
discovery. (See J Scrivener Learning Teaching, Macmillan (2011) pp166—
168.) Rather than being told the answer (as perhaps in a lecture), they have
to find out for themselves. This ‘discovery’ is not a way for the teacher to
negate all responsibility, but rather a question of leading the learner to the
answer through providing the necessary clues.
Similarly, in training sessions, we often use the same method of guidance.

When we facilitate discussion, we ask trainees questions, paraphrase
answers and summarise comments to lead to another point. We can also
design exercises that guide trainees to certain conclusions.
In the example of guided discovery on page 54, the trainer wants trainees to
draw conclusions about the basics of designing a simple classroom exercise.
Each trainee receives a copy of the two exercises and compares them to find
the differences between the two. Having found the differences, the group
then discusses the reasons for the changes (or posts their views online).
The trainer could have lectured on these points and begun a talk called
‘When you design your materials, you need to...’ Instead, she chose to
encourage trainees to discover the answer for themselves. At the other end of
the discovery scale, a trainer could have given no input on materials design
and waited for the trainees to teach a real class, use a piece of material and
discover its faults. This is discovery without guidance. There are cases when
this is valid but, on initial training courses in particular, it can sometimes
be stressful and counter-productive, with trainees left wondering why they
weren't told how to do something properly before they had to teach it.
me
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015. rePe)
Materials design: designing a gap-fill exercise i
Materials design: designing a gap-fill exercise

Exercise A
Complete these sentences in the past simple or present perfect using the verb in brackets.
Last week | (go) to Paris.
Yesterday | (meet) my friend Bill.
(see) Rachel at the party last night.
(be) to Japan twice before.
(play) lacrosse.
(work) for this company since 1996.
(join) the company in 1995.
Exercise B
Past simple and present perfect
Complete these sentences in the past simple or present perfect.

Use the verb in brackets.
. Last week |went (go) to Paris.
. Yesterday she (meet) my friend Bill.
(see) Rachel at the party last night?
(be) to Japan twice before.
(play) tennis?
(work) for this company since 1996.
(not/join) the company in 1995.

Answer key
The differences between A and B are as follows:
M@ Exercise B has a title so the students know what the aim of the task is.
@ The instructions in B appear as two short sentences rather than one long
explanation, as in Exercise A.
m™ Numbers have been added to each gap-fill sentence in B for ease of
reference.
m@ Number 1 in B has been done to provide an example.
m@ Exercise A only practises the ‘I’ form whereas B includes the other forms —
you, he/she/it, we and they — as well as negative and interrogative forms.
™@ The word ‘lacrosse’ is replaced by ‘tennis’ for greater relevance to the
learners.
@ The two added questions in B allow early finishers of 1-7 to work on
something else, provides freer practice and involves students in something
more communicative.
Video
We've previously noted that video can be used to record a teacher
demonstrating key techniques. However, video is such a key tool in teacher
training (both face-to-face and online) that it merits further exploration.
Sometimes, it may be appropriate to watch an entire lesson, though video is
rarely a substitute for observing a real lesson; it’s harder to observe all the
relationships between people and to see how learners are reacting. (See also
Chapter 4 on classroom observation.) Video can also be helpful as a way to
record a teaching practice lesson so that the trainee can watch the lesson
afterwards or the trainer can pick out key moments to discuss with the
trainee. (See also Chapter 5 on giving lesson feedback.)
In particular, video works well in online courses because it brings the

classroom to teachers working from home. The screenshot on page 56 is from
a training course in which the teachers are required to watch a video extract
from a real lesson and comment on how the teacher builds rapport.
» As you watch,
AS consider this question and make notes on it:
met these students. How does he try to buila rapport

as ever me
has
' - fms ss - hysil- nor
|
|
to create a positive environment for learning? Note down any

_ f ; ? Note qn
» 00:02 EEE 100% Bf «ill
nission’ and write your answers and ideas in the box that appears. Then
Extract from an online TEFL course
When planning a face-to-face training session, consider the fact that video
often provides a good change in pace, with the focus shifted away from
everyone in the room for a few minutes. Here is a selection of ways in which
you might try using video in training sessions:
m@ Show an extract and ask the trainees to discuss in pairs what they think
the teacher will ask the students to do next.
m@ Show an extract of a free practice task (such as a speaking activity) .
and ask trainees to guess what the teacher had done with the students
beforehand; in other words, what the aim of the task was. This is a
helpful way to address the issue of logical staging in lesson planning.
m@ Turn the sound down and play an extract focusing on the teacher’s
gestures. Play the extract once and trainees note down all the gestures
the teacher uses. In pairs or groups, trainees discuss which gestures were
meaningful or served a purpose as part of the lesson. Play the video with
the sound up and then discuss their answers afterwards. This focuses on
the importance and relevance (or irrelevance) of certain gestures.
@ Choose a section of a lesson with plenty of words and noise. Cover the
screen so that trainees only hear the lesson. As they listen, trainees make
notes on what they think is happening in the class. (What is the teacher
doing? How much are the students participating?) They then watch and
compare with the actual sequence. This is a useful way to introduce the
subject of teacher talk and instructions.
@ To highlight the importance of changing interaction and classroom
dynamics in a lesson, choose a lesson with plenty of changes with regard
to pairwork, groupwork, seating, changing positions and so on. Tell the
trainees they are going to observe a lesson for changes in interaction.
Play the video on fast forward. Every time there’s a clear change in the
lesson, stop the video and trainees note down what they think might be
the reason for the change in the classroom interaction.
Discussions
The art of leading and facilitating discussion is one of the oldest training
tools. Most teacher trainers have already learnt the art of leading a
discussion when working with language students and encouraging them to
talk about their point of view in a lesson. Similarly, the ability to encourage
teachers to discuss, reflect and comment on teaching is a technique which
is invaluable in virtually every type of training session. It can even form an
input session in its own right, particularly on courses with very experienced
teachers who may have been involved in research or reading assignments.
Here are some tips and guidelines which can help to facilitate lively and
useful discussion. You may well recognise some of the ideas from your own
experience of teaching.
m@ In face-to-face training, have everyone (including you) seated in a circle
or around the same table as this puts the group on equal terms and says,
‘everyone’s views are welcome here’.
m™ Discussion tasks often start well with a brainstorming activity. This
is because, as we saw earlier, brainstorming (see pages 41-2) allows
everyone to contribute, boosting confidence and encouraging participants
to discuss the topic more readily later on.
: gD |a
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015. Oi
The questions you ask will make a great deal of difference to the flow
of discussion. A closed question (i.e. one that leads to a yes/no answer)
followed by a series of open questions often works. So for example:
Closed question: Did you think that activity would well?

Open question: Why?
Open question: What were its strengths?
Open question: Can you think of any situations where it might not work?
@ Allow the discussion to begin in pairs or small groups before opening it
up to the whole group.
™@ Use phrases for helping the discussion to flow: I see... That’s interesting...
Go on... Can you say a bit more about that?... What does anyone else think
about that?
m™ Use body language to help the discussion flow, e.g. nodding, leaning
forward, gesturing for the speaker to speak to the whole group and not
only to you. For online courses, participants might want to indicate
gesture and feelings through the use of emoticons, for example, © for a
positive response.
m Stop speaking! If there is a pause, don’t instantly fill the silence — wait.
Similarly, in an online discussion, don’t respond to a participant instantly.
Allow time for other participants to reply.
Provide thinking time. Setting a task that allows trainees to gather their
thoughts before commenting can really help. For example, the following
quotes were used in a training session looking at using technology in the ELT
classroom. The trainer put the quotes up on the board at the beginning of the
session as trainees entered the room. The participants started to read them,
and then, when everyone was ready, the trainer asked them to discuss their
thoughts and views on each quote with a partner.
In the future we won't need teachers because of technology. 4

I’m nervous of using technology in class in case it goes wrong.
My students know more about technology than most teachers.
Classes are only interesting to modern students ifyou are using the internet.
m@ Most of the tips for running effective discussions also apply to online
courses; discussions will be run synchronously or asynchronously using a
oe é
58 A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015.
chatroom or discussion forum. Most of the tips above still apply, although
if the discussion is run asynchronously, participants will contribute over
a longer period of time; this means that the trainer needs not only to
allow time for responses to be posted, but also to set a deadline by which
everyone must have commented. The following extract is taken from
an online course in which a discussion about pronunciation was run
synchronously in an online chatroom. Mark and Kath are the trainees. In
this case, John, the trainer, asks a question to try and prompt responses,
but the majority of the discussion is handed over to the trainees.
Mark: | often sing the intonation of the sentence and they repeat the song
and then we put words in.
Kath: Sounds interesting.
John: | hum intonation — or do you literally sing it?
Mark: de dum de dum! Plus the rhythm if there are variables.
Kath: I've never done this! I’m fascinated.
Mark: It’s difficult to demonstrate in a chatroom!
m Ifyou are conducting an online discussion, note that the platform you are
using may include other tools which will help to facilitate the activity. For
example, to instigate a new topic, I posted the question below to a group of
12 teachers who were on a course looking at the uses of new technologies
in ELT. The poll shows their responses, which then led into a more detailed
discussion of their views on mobile learning.
c—
In the future, do you think all schools will allow mobile leaming in the classroom?
Yes 50%, 6 vote(s

EeEl ae EON
No 8.33%, 1 vote(s
EES
Maybe 41.67%, 5 vote(s
A poll on Edmodo
Loop input
When presenting a new teaching technique, it’s common for a trainer to
follow this two-step procedure:
Step 1: Trainees are asked to pretend to be students and then the trainer
models or demonstrates the technique.
Step 2: The group discusses what was done before trying out the new skill
themselves.
However, ‘Loop input’ offers an alternative by combining the two steps.
Since Tessa Woodward defined the term in her book of the same name
(T Woodward Loop Input, Canterbury: Pilgrims (1989). Out of print), the
term ‘loop input’ has become an expression commonly used by trainers when
referring to a method of training which combines process with content.
To illustrate how loop input works, take a look at the following steps, taken
from a trainer’s session on how to use dictation. In it, the trainer dictates
a text describing how dictation works. In this way, the trainees learn about
the content and experience the process simultaneously.
Using dictation
1. Tell trainees that you are going to read a text aloud and that each
participant needs a pen and paper to write down what they hear, word for
word (or as much as they can). Read this text:
‘A dictation is simply an activity in which the teacher (or someone else) reads
out a piece of written text and students write down what they hear. The text
could be the first few lines of anewspaper article, a verse ofasong, or even
the instructions to another activity. It’s useful, since it practises writing and
speaking as well as listening. If you include language that you’ve recently
taught, you can evaluate whether students have learnt it.’
2. Afterwards, trainees compare their texts in pairs or groups. Read the text
again so that everyone has the entire text (more or less). Briefly discuss as
a class what the listeners found difficult and what they imagine students
might find difficult about doing a dictation.
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media

Loop input appears to have the benefit of presenting information quickly

and more efficiently than presenting the technique and then discussing it.
However, a loop input activity will also require discussion afterwards, and
some ‘unpacking’ of the process and content.
Note that other activities and training plans in this book also contain
elements of loop input. For example, in the session description on page 43,
the trainer reads out a lecture on listening and the trainees then complete
listening exercises. So they are involved in a listening lesson while also
learning the content. A similar idea would be to give trainees a reading
text from a methodology book on ways of teaching reading, and then to
ask trainees to complete the types of tasks (gist questions, comprehension
questions, giving an oral summary) that we ask students to do with a
classroom reading.
Required reading
Setting reading or directing trainees in the direction of an article, website
or book which provides more information on a topic is something we often
do before a session so trainees arrive with prior knowledge. Alternatively,
a trainer will tell trainees to read up on a topic after a session to follow up
on what was covered. Journals such as English Teaching Professional and
Modern English Teacher provide a wide range of topics for trainees to look at
with a good mix of theory and practice. Articles from these journals can also
be taken into an input session for trainees to read. At the end of a long, busy
morning of workshops which has involved lots of discussion and activities,
reading an article (perhaps a couple of pages long) can be a pleasant,
relaxed way to end. Equally, you could set the reading at the beginning of a
workshop and use it as a springboard for discussion.
Online tools are also helpful for providing platforms to post, index and share
useful articles. Sites like scoop.it or flipboard.com allow you to personalise
and curate article selections and make articles available to your trainees.
Critical incidents
Sometimes, input sessions may present a world of teaching where
everything runs smoothly as long as you know the ‘secret’ of teaching. In
the real classroom world, this, of course, isn’t true and the use of critical
incidents to highlight ‘what-ifs’ or ways of trouble-shooting is an important

technique in input sessions. Critical incidents are like mini case studies
where we present trainees with a real situation and they have to suggest
a solution. Critical incidents can be used at any stage of the training
session: at the beginning as a warmer, in the middle to illustrate a point,
or at the end so trainees can apply new knowledge or skills to a lifelike
situation. Below is a ‘critical incident’ from an input session on motivation.
Trainees look at different ways to motivate others and then have to arrive
at strategies that enable them to handle different situations.
A teacher has a Business English class with pre-work students at a business

school. It is the first week, and one of the students is clearly not enjoying
the classes. He is not being disruptive but he isn’t participating during the
lessons. You ask to speak to him at the end of the lesson. He explains that
his parents sent him to the business school. He wanted to go to university
and study a humanities degree but they wouldn't pay for that. They would
only pay if he studied business. He thinks business is boring and doesn’t
want to discuss it. You find out that in his spare time he likes skateboarding
and is trying to set up a skateboard park in the town with friends.
If incidents are based on real situations, an answer card outlining what the
teacher in question did can also be prepared and handed out at the end.
Below is the answer card for the critical incident described above.
The teacher set up a project where the students worked in groups to design
a business plan. The student who lacked motivation was put in charge
of his group. Their task was to research and write up a business plan for
a skateboard park in the town. They had to contact local suppliers, cost
the project and give a presentation at the end. As a result of this series
of lessons, the student went on to actually create the park his group had
designed. It still exists to this day.
IZ A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing

Poster presentations
You can often see poster presentations used at conferences; a teacher might
have carried out some classroom research or might wish to present some
teaching ideas by putting information onto a poster. It’s a simple tool that
can also be used in training sessions. Typically, a group of trainees are
given a task and they work towards producing a presentation of their ideas
and work on large flipchart paper. The various posters are then posted up
around the class and, towards the end of the session, participants walk
around looking at what the other groups have produced. Alternatively,
trainees can take turns to describe
their posters. The photograph shows
a trainee giving a presentation to her
peers. Her group’s task was to design
the basic layout for a set of materials to
use with their students on the topic of
careers. Afterwards, she took questions
from her peers.
The idea of poster presentations can also

be carried across into online training.
Participants could post the results of
their work online via a blog, a wiki or a
site such as glogster.com. These sites are
like virtual posters, allowing you to post
a collection of different media (i.e. video,
images, useful links, messages etc.),
which can be shared with peers.
A message wall
This simple tool is similar to the idea behind a poster presentation. You
allocate part of the wall in the training room (or perhaps an empty space on
the noticeboard in the teacher’s room) as a place for people to post messages
or ideas related to training and development. Alternatively, you could set
up an online equivalent using a site like padlet.com. This is like a virtual
corkboard, or a place for online ‘sticky notes’. Here are some possible uses:
m Put up a ‘word of the day’. This can be a piece of terminology that

trainees need to learn for their course. Trainees can get into the habit of
looking each day and making sure they know what it means.
m If you're teaching phonemic script to trainees, have them write messages

to each other in phonemic script. The messages should require replies.
Trainees can also be encouraged to correct any mistakes they find. For
online messages in phonemic script, use an online tool such as typeit.org.
m@ At the end of a session, ask each trainee to write down one question that
they have about that day’s input session. They pin their question to the wall.
You can read the questions and either choose to answer them the following
day or not. Similarly, other trainees may choose to answer the question.
Summing up
It’s often a good idea to set time aside at the end of an input session to bring
all the strands of the session together and to sum up the main points. This
is the equivalent of the time at the end of a language lesson which we often
use for giving feedback or checking everyone has understood.
Summing up may be something as simple as listing the key points of the

session on the board or on a handout, talking through them and dealing with
any final questions or points to clarify. However, there’s no reason why the
trainees can’t summarise the session and in turn revise what has been covered.
Another way of summarising the session is to ask trainees to write a set

of anti-rules. In other words, ask trainees to write a list of incorrect rules
for the topic of the session. This is more fun than asking them to list real
rules and it’s often a memorable way of summarising a session. Here
is an example of a set of anti-protocols taken from the end of an input
session on using coursebooks.
Trainees can present their rules on large pieces of flipchart paper, which e
can be pinned up around the room. Participants can then be invited to

walk around the room and read what each group has produced. In the
case of online courses, trainees can post and share their ideas for the
rules in a forum.
What NOTto do
whew using a coursebook:
1 Begin the lesson by asking students
to turn to the page.
2 Bow't bother to check what the unit

Ls about before the lesson.
3 Ask a student to read the whole

page aloud.
4 Miss out the listening because your

students always find them really hard.
Reflection tasks
Reflection should happen as a matter of course during many of the different
training techniques presented so far in this chapter. However, a trainer
needs to consider what activity types will develop trainees’ reflective skills
and should also set aside time during a session for formal reflection. Here
are some techniques you might try:
m At the end of the input session, ask individual trainees to sit back and
try to write the trainer’s lesson plan for the session. They should note the
stages and try to decide what the trainer’s aims were. This task helps
them to review what they have looked at, but can also help with ideas for
structuring a lesson plan. The plans can either be shared at the end or
put away without comment.
m One popular session on pre-service courses is for trainees to experience

a lesson in a language they have never learnt before. A teacher comes in
and teaches them using the target techniques. Afterwards, trainees can
write up their reactions to the lesson in a journal, commenting on what
they noticed about being a student and what techniques the teacher used
which they may be able to transfer to their own lessons.
@ The idea of keeping a journal or blog is one that can be introduced during
input and then continued at home. Trainees are encouraged to keep a
diary about the course. They might write up how they felt after a day of
training and teaching. Again, this could be something read by the trainer
or kept for the trainee’s own personal reflection. Note that if you do read
such a diary or journal, your feedback should avoid making judgements
of any kind. The journal is space for thoughts to evolve and not be
quashed. Your comments might take the form of questions building on
the thoughts of the writer or agreement to reassure the writer of their
findings.
™ Setting up a blog or course website is also a great way for trainees to post
their reflections and thoughts following on from a session. You can set up
a blog for free using Wordpress (www.wordpress.com) or you could also
use a social learning platform like Edmodo (www.edmodo.com), which
allows participants to share thoughts, ideas and reflections within a
secure closed group environment.
m@ Some training programmes require that trainees write essays or
complete research projects. Though possibly onerous to some, these tasks
demand a great deal of reflection and become a useful tool for trainees to
reflect more fully on what was discussed in an input session.
Revision and recall

As we know from language teaching, the néed for recycling and providing
opportunities that help recall is crucial. The same is true for training. For
example, it may involve simple techniques like writing down terminology ~
on cards, and, at the beginning of every session, going through the cards
and checking that everyone knows what the term or concept means.
Quizzes are another easy way to help and test recall. If trainees need
theoretical knowledge for a written exam, for example, they can write
questions for each other. Websites like www.quizlet.com allow you and

your participants to create online vocabulary quizzes, which can be used for
revising key terminology.
Board games that are popular in language teaching are another way to revise
material and prompt recall. The board game on page 68 was given to small
groups of trainees on the final day of the initial teacher training course, but
the basic principle behind this sort of game can apply to any aspect of teacher
training. The trainees are placed in groups of three or four players. They
each need one copy of the board game, a counter and a coin. They follow the
instructions on the squares as they land on them.
Ask yourself
1. Review the list of training techniques included in this chapter. Make sure
you know what they refer to and look back at the relevant section if you
need to refresh your memory:
m@ Icebreakers m@ Discussions
@ Lead-ins @ Loop input
m@ Brainstorming M@ Required reading
@ Lecture/talk @ Critical incidents
@ Webinars @ Poster presentations
m A ‘How-to’ demonstration m@ A message wall
@ Teaching language m Summing up
@ Peer teaching @ Reflection tasks
M@ Guided discovery task @ Revision and recall
m Video
2. Which of these techniques are familiar to you as techniques used in

your own language teaching or in training sessions you have attended?
Which do you think you will be using for the first time ever when you start
delivering training?

Teaching English Survival Game
Teaching English Survival Game

10. 9. 8. The,
What's your A teacher is off sick. You have to cover a Your colleague needs
number one tip for You have to cover lesson in 30 minutes’ some more ideas for
a new teacher? the lesson. Go back time. What's one thing lessons. Recommend
one square. you need to know? a resource book.
6.
Wl.
Suggest a
How could you
adapt this game The Teaching English strategy to cut
planning time
for your students?
Survival Game! on a course.
23
How to survive your first 5:
Suggest a way Your timetable
to continue your teaching job changes at the
development as last minute. Go
a teacher after back a square.
this course. Instructions:
NS
Snnencecorttn/SRSNn
enn
SSS
SADA
SSSI
tment
enSOon
1. Place your counters on START.
2. Toss a coin. For heads move two 4.
FINISH squares. For tails move one square. You're told to choose
Ask the other 3. Move your counter and follow the your own coursebook.
players a question directions on the square. Suggest one thing you
about teaching. would look for in a
suitable coursebook.
Us 2 3:
What's one The DoS shows Suggest a ‘
question you you the teacher's classroom activity
would ask at a job room. Ask a you would use
interview about a question about on day one with
new teaching job? resources. a new class.
Selecting and combining input

session techniques
In this chapter, we've looked at various techniques used in input sessions.
It is important to add that very few of them would be used in complete
isolation. When we are planning our input sessions, we usually combine these
techniques. Here are three common combinations that trainers often use in
training rooms and online courses.
1 Lead-in (brainstorm) > Guided discovery >

Discussion > Summing-up
This is one of the most commonly used patterns for planning an input session
with any kind of group. There is a lead-in to set the scene, and then a longer
task which leads the group in a certain direction; perhaps to raise issues
relating to a topic, or to come to certain conclusions. This kind of discovery task
will often be done in small groups (or pairs) working together. The groups then
feed back on their findings, which leads into a discussion. As discussion can go
off at a tangent, and not necessarily follow linear patterns, many trainees will
appreciate a summing-up of the key points or issues for future reference.
The plan for a training session on types of language syllabus shown on page
70 follows this pattern. It leads in with a quick brainstorm; then, trainees
are given an ordering task which guides them towards considering different
ways of structuring a syllabus. Next, trainees compare and discuss their ideas
about syllabus before finally summing up the main points.
Ov
Types of syllabus
1. Brainstorm the reasons for having a syllabus.
2. Put these three lists on the board or hand out copies:
A B C
past continuous agreeing at the bank
future perfect disagreeing at the supermarket
present perfect asking for opinion at the airport
past perfect giving opinion at home
present simple recommending at the restaurant
present perfect continuous welcoming at the cinema
past simple saying goodbye at the cafe
future perfect continuous offering at the post office
‘will’ and ‘going to’ suggesting at the meeting
present continuous asking for repetition at the train station
past perfect continuous interrupting at the hotel
es Trainees work in groups. Ask them to look at lists A, B and C and rewrite
each list in the order they would expect to teach each item on a course.
For example, in list A, most courses would begin with the present simple.
. Groups compare the order of their items. Encourage them to justify their
choices. (Note that there is not an exact or ‘correct’ answer, although
many teachers will have views on this, and courses and coursebooks often
prescribe an order.)
. End with a more general discussion about which list was easiest/most
difficult to re-order. You could also discuss the following points:
@ What type(s) of syllabus do you/does your school follow?
m@ What do you think this says about your/your school’s beliefs with regard
to language teaching and learning?
m@ What type(s) of syllabus does your current coursebook follow?
lm How might students’ level, age group and culture affect syllabus choice?
. Ask trainees to sum up the key points about syllabus design that they will
take away from the session.
Answers to the task

@ List Ais a grammatical syllabus and is usually the easiest for trainees to order
because this type of syllabus views language in terms of easy > difficult.
@ List B is a functional syllabus. Although starting with the function of
welcoming is probably logical, the rest of the order is less obvious and will
depend very much on learner needs.
@ List Cis a ‘situational’ syllabus. Trainees may organise it around the principle of
a storyline or by considering what grammatical or functional language is likely
to crop up in each situation. This one is probably the most difficult to order.
Also, remind trainees that what we might consider as logical in terms of
syllabus may not necessarily be the order in which our learners will acquire
the language items.
2 Demonstration > Peer teaching > Discussion

This pattern is often used for teachers at pre-service level, or for those being
retrained in a new approach or method. Take the following description of a
training session as an example:
1. Present and contrast modals of obligation and necessity to the group (or
show a video of a teacher doing this).
2. Divide the trainees into two groups: A and B. Give each group a grammar
item and ask them to prepare a presentation on it. When they are ready,
they work in pairs, each consisting of one trainee from group A and one
from group B. They take turns to present their grammar item to each other.
3. Follow up steps 1 and 2 with the following discussion questions:
m@ What did you like about the presentations you saw? How did they help?
m What do you think students find hard about using modals?
3 Lecture ~ Discussion > Summing-up

Reading/Reflection
For academic input sessions (for example, a lecture on theories of second
language acquisition), it may be more appropriate to start with a short
talk or lecture, before opening up the content for discussion. The format
of lecture followed by discussion may be used repeatedly throughout a
session in order to break up the lecture and allow for questions or further
exploration of a point. Such sessions will still benefit from a summing-up;
often, some reading or a reflection task may be set as an assignment to be
completed before the next input session.
For an online course, you could follow the same structure, using a webinar
to deliver the lecture, and then holding an online discussion with questions
and answers afterwards. Alternatively, trainees could watch the lecture and
then hold an asynchronous discussion in a forum about the content. At the
end, the tutor can sum up the main points to emerge out of the discussion
and assign follow-up reading.
Ask yourself —
Towards the keane atthis chapter (‘Ask yourself’, page 35), you started .
to plan a training session. Now consider which techniques discussed in this
chapter might be appropriate to include in the session. For example, how will.
you lead into the topic? Will you need to demonstrate something or will you.
give a short lecture? Is there a guided discovery task you could assign which _
involves some group discussion? Do you have a list of reading texts and/or
online resources that Participants could look at afterwards?
Conclusions
Having established the needs of your training context, you have a number
of different training techniques available to you when planning an input
session. Some of these are extensions of techniques that we use when
teaching language; they act as a way of modelling classroom practice. Other
techniques are less common in language lessons but highly effective as
methods of training. When planning a training session, our considerations
will be very similar to those involved when planning a language lesson, with
aspects such as staging, pace, classroom management and classroom layout
being very important factors.
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and

Media Ltd and its licensors 2015.
3. Lesson planning
and preparing for
teaching practice
@ approaching planning and preparation
providing input on lesson plans
pre-service lesson planning and teaching practice
experienced and in-service planning and teaching practice
assessing the plan.
Approaching planning and preparation

An approach involving the planning of lessons followed by teaching practice
is the norm on many courses. It’s logical that after attending various input
sessions, trainees have a chance to put their new skills into practice. This
is certainly the case at pre-service level and on courses such as the DELTA
and some MA programmes. Similarly, directors of studies need to help their
staff with day-to-day planning as well as making plans more detailed for
inspections by validating bodies or as part of internal staff development.
Helping and training teachers to plan and prepare for a lesson is something
that different training courses approach differently. Typically, the factors
affecting our decision are:
= How much formal (or timetabled) time can be given to a trainer to help
individual trainees to prepare?
3. Lesson planning and preparing for teaching practice
@ What is a reasonable amount of time for a trainer to spend helping

individual trainees to plan (bearing in mind the fact that we need to
develop independent planners)?
@ How much ready-made resource material should be made available and
to what extent should trainees create materials of their own?
@ How early on in the course should trainees (especially at pre-service
level) be expected to teach?
@ Should they begin by team-teaching as a group?
g@ What length of lesson should they begin with?
How you answer those questions will depend on the needs and experience
of the individual trainees, the resources (time, money) available for what is
often one-to-one training and your beliefs about the best way for a teacher to
learn how to plan; for example, do you believe they need plenty of mentoring
and guidance or is teaching practice an opportunity to sink or swim — to
learn by doing?
Ask yourself
When you first started teaching, how much formal help did you receive from
a trainer or mentor? Would you have liked to received more input, or less?
Providing input on lesson plans

Teachers often talk about ‘planning’, but this can mean entirely different
things to different people. It may simply consist of deciding what order to
put the all the activities in, or it may involve rigorously deciding on your
aims before choosing the classroom tasks to fit (or vice versa). Planning
might entail brainstorming issues related to the aims, level, nationalities
b
needs and wants of a group of students. Or it could be a simple case of

checking what is on the next page in the coursebook. On training courses,
planning is often thought of as a period of time on the timetable allocated
for lesson preparation, which is then documented on a form which could be
handed to the observing tutor before teaching practice.
“ed fe A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd
A plan answers two main questions: (1) ‘What is the aim of the lesson?’
and (2) “How are you going to achieve that aim?’ For many teachers, it may
barely result in any formal documentation at all — perhaps a few notes
scribbled down like a shopping list. However, in training situations, there
are important reasons to establish that the plan needs to result in a more
detailed document.
Building strategies
For inexperienced trainees, developing a detailed plan provides them with
the strategies they will need later on for day-to-day planning. It’s possible
that their plans will never be as detailed again but there will be a thought
process they learn from having had to write it out in full in the early days.
Re-assessing and reflecting

For more experienced trainees, having to plan in detail helps them to re-
assess the way they work. The plan makes them break down the process
that they take for granted and reconsider their assumptions.
Understanding thought process

The plan on paper is a useful point of contact between the trainee and the
trainer. During the lesson, the trainer can follow the plan so it provides
a way into the trainee’s thought process, helping the trainer to form
constructive feedback.
An agenda
The written plan helps a trainee stay on track during a lesson. While
teachers should feel free to stray from the plan in order to respond to
learners’ needs, it does provide a basic agenda.
The lesson feedback

After the lesson, the plan provides a useful reference point for the feedback
discussion. A trainee can use it to account for what did or didn’t happen and why.
2015. fQ
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors
A written record
As a document or record, the plan acts as evidence for any outside inspection
of the course, and on many assessed courses, it will be submitted as part of a
body of work from the course.
To be repeated
Plans can be referred to and used again by the trainee after the course. For
new teachers this will be very useful in their first year of teaching.
Ask yourself —
Look back at the different reasons for producinga plan. Which of them are
you familiar with? Does the act of writing a detailed plan help you with your —
planning process? Do you write plans in order to be able to repeat a lesson
at a later date?
Provide a form for the plan

When you start training teachers and helping them to plan lessons, you'll
need to decide what you would like your trainees to include in a lesson plan.
Once you have established what your requirements are, it’s worth holding a
formal input session on lesson planning and stating your expectations. This
might include providing teachers with a form which they are required to
complete or follow as a guideline.
The form on pages 77-78 is typical of the type of form given to trainees
to fill in. The first part provides an overview of the lesson with all the key
details. In the second part, the teacher writes out the procedure of the lesson
stage by stage. This form could include other columns such as indicating
classroom layout or anticipated difficulties.
oO A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015.
Lesson plan form O
Lesson plan form: 1 of 2
Name of teacher:
Date of lesson:
Time/length of lesson:
Classroom:
Main aim:
Subsidiary aims:
Additional aims:
Student/class profile:
Rationale for the lesson:
Assumption about students’ knowledge of the language points in this lesson and anticipated problems:
Materials:
Lesson plan form QO
Lesson plan form: 2 of 2

Time -— Procedure ~*~” a ce Aims of this stage a
Input activities on lesson planning

Many trainees find it helpful if you provide them with a completed lesson
plan in order to demonstrate what is required. You can also use this kind of
plan as the basis for an input session; there are a number of activities you
can use it for.
The plan on page 80 is designed to be copied, cut up and used as part of

a series of input session activities. It contains some suggested activities
which focus on different aspects of planning. The activities may all form
one complete training session or you could use only some of the activities to
target the specific needs of the group.
Activity 1: Focus on aims

Hand out plans but with the column headed ‘Aims of this stage’ cut off.
Trainees read each stage and procedure and decide what the aim of each
one was.
Activity 2: Focus on staging

Cut up the plan stage by stage. In groups, trainees re-order the stages in the
way they think they were planned. Discuss whether the stages could have
been planned in a different order, and if so, what the effect would have been.
Activity 3: Focus on timing

Remove the timings column. Trainees guess how long they think each stage
was planned to take.
Activity 4: Considering the whole plan

Make copies of the whole plan for each trainee and set any or all of the
following tasks:
1. Define the teacher’s role at each stage, for example, controller, monitor,
listener, instructor or facilitator.
2. Define the main aim of the lesson, for example: ‘To enable the student to
write a description of a holiday’.
3. Draw the classroom layout and interaction patterns for each stage.
4. Design the boardwork for each stage.
5. Peer-teach parts of this lesson to your colleagues.
“ry
iy
A jigsaw plan
A jigsaw plan
oe we em teee me
Time Pe oredtra - Aims of this stage

a ome seme ae a
“10 mins : oar econ Poe extractoe myreer in yee to oe

: Mallorca. Students brainstorm words that describe
~ my holiday in pairs. Then elicit whole-class feedback
‘ and write words on board.
’ Give gach hudene a rescipaee ofa Ahelickayarto read! + Reweinig for detail.
, Students answer comprehension questions
‘on board.
{
Roeeaaes me tee nin an mn ww we ww am of
' 10 mins Stucients necting ee nimple fee in theetext Slo eorie on ae simple tense.
describing the holiday. Elicit rule for regular verbs and >
. the ed ending. Illustrate the structure of the question
‘ form on the board using a substitution table.
' Drill the question form using the information in the te pee Sontrollees Aes
: holiday description as prompts. : of question form.
10 mins Put Redene in pairs.News acim pair two copies — ‘To eronde ae cee with
* a description of another holiday. These should be p/s questions forms.
, the same as each other but with different pieces
_ of information missing. Students ask each other
» questions to get answers and complete
_ the description.
‘ Hand out a series of cartoon pictures showing Fee proche wath Bae ay
, something that went wrong on a holiday. Students
' discuss in groups what happened and report back.
Slicers tell ther poner Seer her last Roncer Free speaking practice.
' Carry out error correction and give feedback on To clarify any problems/errors.
, speaking activity by writing sentences with errors
, on the board — students identify the mistake.
15 mins eens write a deserionon 7 en ie Ratiday or ' To provide writing practice

| the holiday shown in the cartoon story. and consolidation of the
past simple.
, Pin students’ descriptions around the room for Reacting peer correction ae
' everyone to read. " nice way to end the lesson.
Pre-service lesson planning and

teaching practice
On pre-service teacher training courses, there is often a period of time
set apart from the input sessions in which trainees can prepare and plan.
Early on in the course, a trainer may be available to help and give advice
on trainees’ plans. The trainer tends to take on the ‘mentor’ role in this
situation. The relationship is often one to one with the trainer listening to
the trainee as they explain their plan.
(Note that the remarks in this section tend to be focused on pre-service

courses with scheduled planning sessions. However, a number of the issues
will also be relevant to the contexts of some advanced teacher training
programmes and in-service training.)
For many trainees, the lesson planning stage is highly stressful. It is unlike
the normal input sessions which focus on one aspect of teaching. In the lesson
planning session, trainees are suddenly confronted with the whole range of
variables and choices — it can feel like someone has asked them to cook a
three-course meal in a giant kitchen with every ingredient imaginable.
Narrow the choice

The first way to reduce the stress level at the early stages of a course is to
limit the decisions of the trainees. The most obvious way to do this is to tell
them what the aim of the lesson is, and probably give them the material
you would like them to use. You could even provide a model plan or tell
them to follow the contents of the coursebook. There are many trainers
and courses which discourage this kind of hand-holding and suggest that
trainees should learn to plan lessons from nothing and have to invent their
own materials. The rationale for this is clear — that we want to develop
independent teachers. However, offering a good model is a perfectly sound
approach to training at the early stages. The concern that trainees will
think there is only one way to do something correctly is a valid criticism,
but in the first few weeks of teaching, a novice often only wants one way to
do it before experimenting.
24
oO}
Narrowing the choice also relates to the resources you offer trainees. Many
training rooms will be stocked with published resources or will offer shelves
of filed classroom activities. There is an obvious desire to proudly open the
doors to your trainees as if to say, ‘All this is for you to use’. This well-meant
intention may result in distraught trainees, five minutes before a lesson,
buried in a sea of photocopiable resource books unable to choose between
six different activities. It’s advisable, then, at the beginning of the course,
to offer a few books and then to build up the availability as the course
progresses. If possible, let the type of book being added reflect the content
of the input sessions; for example, if the session was on reading skills, add
those books to the resource bank after the session.
Relate input to the lesson plan

As a general rule, encourage trainees to incorporate what has been covered
in an input session into their lesson planning. So, if your most recent input
session was on drilling, try to assign a lesson which will make use of drilling,
and insist that the trainee refers to drilling in their plan.
Customise the plan

You can also provide trainees with a ‘customised’ plan, which will guide
them towards integrating techniques presented in input or help them to
improve on personal areas of difficulty. For example, a trainee needing
to improve their boardwork can add a new column to their plan showing
exactly what will be on the board at each stage of the lesson. This might
even include blank space to indicate that the board has nothing on it.

Aim Procedure’ Time Boardwork

Draw picture of
man on desert
island. Ask 3 mi ¢
students what ae
he might be
thinking. eee ee
Present Build up
second sentence from
conditional suggestions
which uses . If tr post => would + int.
the second 3 mins ( lf (had « bottle,

conditional; ('d send a message
e.g. ‘Ifl hada fei
Aly as
bottle, I'dsenda
message.’
Alternatively, you might follow up an input session on interaction patterns

and classroom management by asking trainees to include a column in their
plan to indicate the interaction for each activity. In the following example,
the trainee has been asked to think about and implement changes in the
classroom layout.
Procedure Classroom
Present the second
conditional on the board if
with the substitution S S
table and drill the S S
structure.
S S
S S
S S
Put students in pairs

to play picture game SS
and practise using the Sc
structure.
Tt
55
Ss
SS
The whole plan can be customised to control how a lesson is staged

(see example on page 85). The plan can be laid out so that it requires a
presentation stage at the beginning or a free practice stage in the middle.
This approach is very prescriptive, and would only normally be used on pre-
service courses since it doesn’t encourage building on what a teacher already
knows about planning. It aims to remove the problem of how to stage a
lesson and leaves the teacher free to concentrate on how to devise each of
the stages.
The lesson plan form on page 85 was designed to help trainees plan a
lesson involving using a listening task to teach a function. The trainees
had to choose a recorded conversation containing a function, for example,
a conversation in a restaurant with people recommending and ordering
different dishes. The lesson plan form then guides the trainee towards a
well-structured lesson with appropriate aims and procedures.
3
OFF Reet
A practical F
introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd
\ ‘listening and functions’ lesson plan
A ‘listening and functions’ lesson plan

Stage 1: Prepare two or three questions (or tasks) for students to answer when they listen to the
dialogue for the first time.
Stage 2: Devise an activity where students listen for and identify the functional language,
€.g. a gapped version of the listening script.
Stage 3: Plan a controlled practice activity where students try out the functional language.
Stage 4: Plan a freer practice activity which will generate use of the functional language.
Stage 5: Predict the type of problems the students might have. Be prepared to give feedback
on these at the end.
Ask yourself
a
m How do you feel shout asking trainee ee touse a2 fora pro jidin
~ model lesson plans to follow?— _
@ What are the advantages? Do you think there are any dese
Jumping in and backing off

Having provided sufficient input and guidance on planning, you may find
that you are only supervising trainees’ planning, that is, you are simply
available as a sympathetic sounding-board for trainees to let off steam and
as an approachable person to come to for advice. Knowing how much help to
give a trainee with their planning is something of a balancing act between
helping them too much and not giving enough support. A combination of
factors such as the trainee’s confidence, their stage of development, the stage
of the course and proximity of the actual lesson will all affect what you do.
Read about the following three trainees in a lesson preparation session on a

pre-service course. Pause and consider what you might do, and then read the
commentary that follows.
Trainee X _
It's week two of teaching practice, with all trainees having taught twice so far.
You left one of the trainees (Trainee X) at the beginning of the session with a.
few ideas to work on fora lesson including a handout to use in class. Half an
hour later, you return to find that the trainee hasn't progressed a further.
There's only ten minutes before the end of the session. _
Commentary:
At this stage of the course, it’s probably appropriate to tell Trainee X what to
do step by step, or to try and elicit the plan from the trainee through careful
questioning, e.g. ‘Now the students have discovered the rule, what do you
want them to do next?’ ‘What will they want to do next?”
Oo A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its
licensors 2015.
Trainee Y
It's week four of a course, and trainees are teaching their penultimate lesson
on the course. You haven‘t had much to do in this preparation session, with
no one appearing to need your help. A confident trainee (Trainee Y) asks you
to listen to her ideas for today’s lesson.
Commentary:
Further on in the course, many trainees will want to be left alone until they
are ready to talk through the plan, as in Trainee Y’s case. This often involves
the trainee simply describing each stage of the lesson. The trainer doesn’t
necessarily need to do anything other than nod or agree, posing the odd
question such as: ‘How do you intend to deal with students not knowing that
word?’ or ‘What if they finish early?’ The actual act of describing the lesson
is, for the teacher, an act of rehearsal and a opportunity for reassurance.
Trainee Z
A competent trainee (Trainee Z) who lacks confidence has described a lesson.

Overall you think the lesson will work well but one classroom activity does not
sound very realistic. However, the trainee is very excited about this particular
activity in the lesson and has spent a lot of time preparing for it.
Commentary:
When you see (or hear) a plan where you consider something really will not
work, you quickly need to evaluate the need for change. Is there time for the
trainee to change the plan before the lesson? Will making a change have a
more damaging effect on the trainee’s confidence than simply allowing for
some problems in the lesson? In fact, will leaving the problem in the plan
be a useful discovery experience for the trainee? Are they ready to identify
and deal with difficulties on the spot? Much may depend on the stage in the
course. Certainly towards the end of the course, trainees should be able to
plan independently, and intervention should be at a minimum. In Trainee
Z’s case, the trainer may well not suggest a change.
As a final word on telling trainees to change their plans, it is worth noting

that sometimes trainees have the benefit of not having any set ideas about
2015. OOnex
how things should be done. As a result, they may try out an idea that we
have long since rejected, only to see an inexperienced teacher make it work.
As one trainer mentioned to me about observing pre-service teachers: “They
will often do things with great success which experienced teachers aren't
brave enough or perhaps can’t be bothered to do any more.’
Rehearsing the plan

Having completed the plan, you may like to instigate the technique of peer-
teaching (see page 51 in Chapter 2). The trainee can try out parts of the
plan on his or her peers in the lesson planning session. This doesn’t have
to be the whole lesson (which would take too long) but parts where there
are potential difficulties, for example, a set of complicated instructions or a
technique like setting up a roleplay.
Team planning
Getting trainees to plan together on pre-service courses can be useful for the
first few lessons. Three or four trainees may have to plan a series of lessons
together and even team-teach. With hour-long classes it might be that they
all begin by teaching 15-minute lessons before progressing to 60-minute
lessons. In general, this kind of preparation requires longer formal planning
sessions, as the group has to communicate with each other. As well as
working on their own lesson, trainees have to take into account the needs of
others in the group. This can have the beneficial effect of the group sharing
ideas and bonding into a supportive team for the rest of the course (which
will also help with peer feedback — see Chapter 5). On the other hand, group
planning can magnify the lack of expertise, and the heightened emotions
of early planning sessions can bring personality differences quickly to
the fore. In the later weeks of a course, you will often hear trainees say
they actually feel happier to be teaching a 60-minute lesson on their own,
citing the fact that planning becomes easier on your own and that the time
taken to plan 15 minutes is as long and arduous as 60 minutes. This kind
of reaction does, of course, reflect growing confidence and independence
as a teacher. Nevertheless, team planning should still be considered as
a way to encourage group solidarity and to foster an environment where
trainees share and discuss ideas across the table in much the same way as
experienced teachers will in a teacher’s room.
22
OO Pane Po
2015.
The students attending teaching practice sessions

The students who attend the lessons for teaching practice are, of course,
an important factor in this process on pre-service courses. It’s easy to lose
sight of the bigger picture in teaching practice; we become so focused on
how our trainees perform or how well they executed the plan that it’s easy
to forget that the students do actually hope that they will learn something
and that their needs will be met. If we see the students as mere ‘guinea pigs’
in our teaching experiment, then the human factor in the teaching becomes
sidelined. (See also Chapter 6 for more on managing trainees’ teaching
practice with real students.)
The first teaching practice

The first lesson between trainees and students should emphasise the
need to find out about each other. This could include ‘getting to know you’
activities or even some kind of needs analysis. It’s also helpful if this lesson
is unassessed and that the feedback at the end is quite general with an
emphasis on the positive.
One approach to the first day of teaching

The approach described on page 90 can work well with a new group of
teachers and a class of students on the first day of teaching practice. The
basic principle behind it is that the trainee gets to experience teaching for
60 minutes, but follows the same plan four times. By working with small
groups, the trainee will find the first lesson less onerous than facing a whole
group and feeling that they are ‘on display’.
From the language students’ point of view, the lesson has a personal feel
and lets students get to know their new teachers quite quickly. Students
attending pre-service teaching practice are more likely to tolerate the
inevitable problems and pitfalls of lessons if they feel they have a good
relationship with the trainee teachers and are clearly a valued part of the
teaching practice.
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015. OW
The first teaching practice

1. Organise the room like this, with four teachers and four groups of students
sitting in different parts of the room.
11
Seles
S
S S
72 005 5 ae
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S
5s
T4
2. The four trainee teachers (11-4) each have their own activity lasting around
15 minutes. In each case, the activity is straightforward. T1 has a collection
of photographs of his or her family and home to describe; then the
students describe their families or homes. T2 has a needs analysis form,
which each student responds to and fills in with help from the teacher. T3
has a board game, where students land on different squares and have to
talk on a topic for one minute. T4 has a short reading task. Each student _
is given a text. Students ask each other questions to complete a table of —
information and then talk about how the topic applies to their own life.
3. Each group (one teacher and around three or four students) starts their
lesson at the same time. After fifteen minutes, the groups of students
move to a new table for another lesson. The process begins again until
each teacher has taught their fifteen-minute lesson four times to four
different groups of students.
Experienced and in-service planning

and teaching practice
Much of this chapter has focused on lesson-planning sessions carried out on
pre-service courses. The reason for this is that the involvement of a tutor in the
preparation stages is usually far greater than on courses for more experienced
teachers. On more advanced courses, we expect trainees to be familiar with
lesson planning, and be able to select appropriate aims for the class. As for the
students taking part in in-service teaching practice sessions, the difference is
that they are usually familiar with the teachers, and when you observe, they
may not even be aware that their teacher is receiving further training.
For teachers who have completed their initial training and since then have
received no further training, much of the advice in the earlier section on pre-
service lesson planning may apply. However, at this more advanced level, we
tend to assume that the trainer’s involvement in planning is more that of
‘coach’ — emphasising and building on the teacher’s existing strengths, and
guiding them to work on any weaknesses that have been identified.
Working on aims
One area in particular where teachers beyond pre-service level often
continue to need further help is with defining their aims and accounting
for why they are doing what they do. For example, they will have an idea
of what it is they plan to teach (e.g. a grammar point, a function and so on)
and have a series of relevant classroom activities, but they may still find it
difficult to articulate the aims precisely. The ability to define the aims and
then to structure a lesson to achieve them is the sign of an advanced teacher
and a requirement on many advanced courses that include assessment.
Developing the ability to define aims

The handout on page 93 was created to help teachers develop their ability
to express their aims. The trainer begins by writing some broad aims on the
board. For example:
™ to enable students to order a meal at a café
m to enable students to write a letter of application for a job

m to enable students to read and comment on a newspaper article
CY4
LS ie:
wi
Working in pairs or small groups, trainees choose one of the main aims and
write it at the top of the handout. Then they discuss and write down possible
sub-aims next to the relevant categories that follow. In each case, trainees
discuss whether this lesson is likely, for example, to have a grammar point,
or what kind of vocabulary will be presented. They can use the list of key
verbs given below to help them to phrase these sub-aims.
Having prepared the sub-aims, the trainer tells the groups they have 20
marks to distribute among the sub-aims according to their importance and
prominence within the lesson.
The second form is a completed example version. Notice that the trainee
assumes that the lesson will not include writing so doesn’t need to write an aim
and allocates ‘0’ marks. However, the trainee believes that the grammatical
point of countable/uncountable nouns will be a prominent part of the lesson.
At the end, all the groups compare their ideas for the lesson and give their
rationale. This discussion can lead into issues of the types of activity that
the groups have in mind, and how the allocation of marks will be reflected in
the timing given to the activities during, for example, a one-hour lesson.
Example answer:
To enable students to order a meal at a café.

Grammar to introduce countable/uncountable nouns _4
Functions to practise phrases for ordering 4
Vocabulary _to__ revise and extend food and drink words 3
Pronunciation to practise word stress Z
Reading to scan for Rey words and prices 2
Writing 0 (2) .
Speaking to practise ordering food and drink 3
Listening to listen for functional language and prices 3
Key verbs: give, consolidate, develop, revise, introduce, scan/skim, listen for,
focus, practise, raise awareness, encourage, establish, set a context for...
be a A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd
‘Defining aims’ form O
‘Defining aims’ form
To enable students to
Grammar
Functions
Vocabulary
Pronunciation
Reading
Writing
Speaking
Listening
Key verbs: give, consolidate, develop, revise, introduce, scan/skim, listen for, focus, practise,
raise awareness, encourage, establish, set a context for...
Team teaching
Team teaching and therefore team planning has a particular role in
development. It is especially appropriate for internal staff training and can
work in two ways:
1 Mentor team teaching

If a member of staff is having difficulty with a new type of course, for
example, a more experienced ‘mentor’ teacher can be assigned to help share
the class for a few lessons. The less experienced teacher can use the mentor
as a resource; he or she plans lessons in partnership with the mentor
(without fear of loss of face). In these joint planning sessions, ideas can be
suggested, discarded or developed. They may choose to teach together or
to take different parts of the lesson, with one of them observing at certain
times. This kind of process is often acknowledged by both sides (trainee and
mentor) as an invaluable development tool.
2 Peer team teaching

Team teaching can also work well when members of teaching staff are
paired up to plan and teach a lesson together. Teachers remark on how much
they can learn from each other by seeing how teachers work differently.
It’s a useful team-building tool among staff and is often regarded as a less
threatening process than peer observations in which the peer takes no
active role in the lesson and is perceived more as an outsider. (See more on
peer observation in Chapter 4.)
Ask yourself
Have you ever team-taught a lesson? What did you and your colleague gain
from the experience? Would you do it again?
Assessing plans
As part of many training courses, teachers are assessed by their trainers.
Chapter 4 of this book looks at assessing the teaching practice when
observing, but you may also need to assess the lesson plan itself as part of a
final grade. Here is an extract from a school assessment criteria document
for teaching practice, with a specific section on the lesson plan.
Aims Procedures
A The plan's aims are appropriate and It is logically staged with
supported by the content. a good range of activities.
B The aims are fairly appropriate with {tis reasonably well-staged
the necessary content. with some different activities.
(S, The aims are limited and are not The staging is basic and has
always supported by the content. a limited number of activities. *
D The aims lack a relationship to the The staging is unclear and
content of the lesson. - not logical.
i A
D4. A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing
The trainees receive a letter grade from A to D for each of the criteria, which
in this case comprise aims and procedure, but can also include areas such as
timing and planned use of materials and resources. The individually graded
criteria are then combined to produce an overall grade.
Lesson plans are sometimes also assessed as part of a journal or portfolio of

work. A teaching practice folder or ‘TP journal’, as it is sometimes known,
is a record of a series of lessons including lesson plans, self evaluations of
how the candidate felt about the lesson afterwards and feedback notes from
an observer. For these kinds of requirements, it is especially helpful for the
trainee to be provided with clear models such as a form showing how the
lesson plan should be set out (see example on page 77).
Ask yourself
Do you feel you could assess a lesson plan using the assessment criteria
above? What might you change? Would you add anything to the criteria?
Conclusions
The level of direct involvement of the trainer in the lesson planning
process will normally be quite high on pre-service courses. We should
aim to decrease this involvement throughout a course, gradually taking a
more reactive approach, rather than a proactive one. Whether you suggest
changes to a trainee’s plan will depend on their personality and their stage
of development. Throughout, it’s important to emphasise to trainees that
they should take into account the needs of the students, and they should not
view teaching practice as a performance. The first few teaching practices
should be guided, and they should focus on the trainee learning to manage
groups of people rather than necessarily presenting anything new. At more
advanced levels of training, input will often focus more on fine-tuning areas
of planning such as defining aims. Team planning and team teaching with
the trainer as mentor may be an effective tool as part of an internal staff
training programme.
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4. Observing lessons
the reasons for observing lessons

the trainer observing
observation for assessment
trainees and teachers observing
types of observation form.
The reasons for observing lessons

There are different reasons for observing lessons, and the relationship
between the person being observed and the observer can vary. An
observation might involve the teacher trainer observing a teacher in order
to give feedback as part of a training course; the observer might also have
some kind of assessor role requiring him or her to grade the teacher in
some way. Peer observation, in which one teacher observes another, is a
useful component of teacher training and teacher development. This type of
observation usually involves the peer observing the other teacher; however,
it may be that the focus is on the students and how they react to different
ways of teaching. The ease with which most of us can video-record our
lessons means that we can also regard self-observation (videoing our own
lessons and watching them afterwards) as a useful component worth adding
to a teacher training course. In this chapter, we will look at all these formats
for lesson observation, and consider how they all form a useful purpose in
any teacher training programme. |
In Chapter 2 we looked at various techniques for input. Lesson observation

might also be regarded as a technique for introducing new aspects of
teaching, or for developing and reflecting on a teacher’s existing skills.
However, observation differs from other techniques because it takes place
outside the formal input session. Lesson observation might also be regarded
as being similar to the practice of planning and teaching lessons (Chapter 3)
in the sense that all the isolated aspects of the input such as ‘how to teach
grammar or ‘building rapport’ are united in real time. Unlike teaching
practice, observation allows the trainer and trainee to unpack the lesson
into separate parts, and gives us the luxury of wondering what would
happen if we were to repackage them in a different way, in a different order
or with a wholly new approach.
The trainer as observer and evaluator

There are two distinct roles for the trainer in observation.
The first role involves the trainer acting as a mentor. Observing provides
a useful opportunity for a more personalised form of input, allowing us to
address individual needs. Through observation we can measure the success
of our input sessions as we see trainees implement the skills taught or
identify areas that need further input.
The second function of trainer—trainee observation is evaluative. It can be

the means by which trainees are evaluated by a trainer on a certificate-
based course, or the way in which teachers are assessed by their Director of
Studies for ongoing quality control purposes.
Observation as classroom research

Observation that involves trainees watching a peer or a more experienced
teacher at work in the classroom is also a useful training tool. The role of
the trainer here is to select and assign appropriate observation tasks. The
trainee’s observation task tends to focus on how the lesson works and what
they can learn from that. So the observation is less about evaluation and
feedback and more about relating what is observed to their own teaching
in some way.
Part 1 of this chapter covers issues relating to the trainer as observer; part 2
deals with the idea of the trainer setting observation activities for trainees.
However, the issues raised on both sides should be relevant to any observer.
O28
IO ait introduction to teacher
A practical eee in ELT © Pavilion
training Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015.
Part 1: The trainer observing

Whether you are a trainer on a training course or a senior member of staff
observing teachers as part of ongoing in-house training, your first point to
consider is how you handle the person being observed.
The observer-teacher relationship

Having an observer sitting at the back of a classroom can be rather like
hosting a party with one person sitting on their own the corner who nobody
knows. No one speaks to this person, but every so often they are reminded
of his or her slightly uncomfortable presence. As the host, the teacher being
observed is in the most uncomfortable position of all. Even experienced
teachers will be heard in staff rooms bemoaning the imminent arrival of an
observer to a lesson, and for a new or inexperienced teacher, it often takes
their stress levels into realms thus far undreamt of. Teaching a group of
students, perhaps for the first time ever, and being observed by a trainer or
Director of Studies (however well-intentioned) is a daunting combination.
Reducing the stress factor

To help teachers relax before they are observed, try to establish an
atmosphere of mutual co-operation and support. Having said that, on more
formal training programmes, it may be policy that the trainees are awarded
grades or scores for their performance, in which case the dichotomy of
development and assessment are problematic to resolve. As a result, many
trainees or teachers walk into a lesson more concerned by the final grade
they will receive than any advice or judicious feedback you may offer.
Here are some ways you can help to reduce the stress in the observed lesson:
1 Make criteria public

If you are assessing the teacher, make sure they know by what criteria.
2 Meet before the lesson

Spend about ten minutes with the teacher beforehand talking through their
plan and discussing the students’ profiles and the class dynamics.
2015.
3 Make observations the norm

Let the teacher become used to being observed by making the first observed
lesson one which isn’t graded or assessed. Observe and keep the feedback on
the first lesson fairly short.
4 Let teachers determine the observation

You could let the observed teacher decide which areas they wish to be
observed on, or ask them to provide an observation form.
5 Peer observation
Encourage teachers to observe each other before being observed by a trainer
or a perceived authority figure. By doing this, teachers become familiar
with the experience and it can also build a sense of supportive camaraderie
among the observed.
6 Don't leave anything open to interpretation

If you aren’t observing the entire lesson, then let the teacher know; don’t
leave them feeling you walked out halfway because you couldn’t bear to
watch any more. Ideally, discuss beforehand what will be a good stage of the
lesson to ‘disappear’.
Ask yourself |
@ How do:you es before you are observed?
@ Consider times when you have been observed in the past. Was the
experience positive or negative? Did you find it stressful? Why? Why not? —
Stress among the students

Unless one of your motives is in fact to observe a student at work, the
students in the lesson need to be aware that they are not being evaluated
in a way which will affect them. Also note that students, like teachers, relax
the more often observations take place. r
In certain contexts, it may also happen that students assume that there
is something wrong with their current teacher because the lesson is being
observed. If you are a Director of Studies observing your staff, make it clear
UL, A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing

to arriving students at the school that this is part of policy; make the fact
that you observe and encourage ongoing staff-training a good reason to be
attending this school.
Observation forms
Although observation is about watching and listening, you will want to
make notes for a number of reasons. You will want to be able give feedback
after the lesson, so you will need notes to refer to. Usually, these notes can
be given to the observed teacher as a record of the observation and, on an
externally validated course, may formally appear in a portfolio of work.
Working from some kind of form will also help you organise your thoughts
and make them accessible to both you and the teacher.
The observation form on page 102 is typical of the type of form that trainers
use. It encourages the observer and teacher or trainee to meet prior to the
lesson and agree upon an area for focus. This might be ‘instructions’ or
‘student interaction’, for example. The teacher or trainee chooses his or her
own criteria to be the main area for development. The trainer then observes
and makes notes for feedback later on with specific reference to the ‘agreed
focus for observation’.
Guided versus unguided observation forms

The form on page 102 is typical of an observation form that follows the
lesson chronologically, with the observer making notes about the lesson as
it unfolds. In this case, the lesson sets the agenda for the observation rather
than the other way round. It offers few pointers to the trainer, and therefore
assumes a developed skill in knowing what to observe for and how to make
suggestions to the trainee or teacher regarding what he or she needs to
work on. In other words, it is not a form that will work well in the hands
of an inexperienced observer as it provides no focus. Learning to observe
effectively (and usefully) needs time. It is not intuitive. How a trainer
makes notes on this kind of form is dealt with in Chapter 5. If you feel you
would prefer to work from a more focused document — for example, one
that concentrates on a specific area of teaching — you should refer to later
examples of forms in this chapter.
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101
Trainer’s observation form
Trainer’s observation form
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Agreed focus for observation:
Time :_ Stages of the lesson/Strengths Points to consider __

Other points to remember

As well as noting your observations on a form, it is worth remembering
these other issues when observing.
1 Discussing the lesson to be observed

Before most observations, it’s helpful to receive a lesson plan from the
teacher (see Chapter 3). If there’s time before a lesson, it will also be helpful
to have studied the plan and then to have met with the teacher to have
them talk through what they expect from the lesson. Note that at this stage
it is usually unwise to pass opinion on the plan (since any comment could
be taken as criticism and cause anxiety). The short discussion should aim
to put the teacher at ease and help to clarify any queries. You can also use
this time to ask the teacher if there’s any particular area they'd like you to
observe for.
2 Be focused
Arrive a few minutes before the lesson and organise yourself. If you arrive
late, stressed or still thinking about another issue, then this can affect both
the teacher and your feelings about the lesson. Allow yourself five minutes
to settle, relax and focus yourself on the lesson; you owe this to the teacher
as much as to yourself.
3 Position
As a general rule, position yourself at the back of the class or to the side. Try
to be out of the eyeline of the person teaching and not in a position where
students might be tempted to talk to you. If you know the students being
taught, make it clear they are to direct any questions at the teacher — not you.
4 Movement during the lesson

While observing, you might need to stand and look at what students are
doing (e.g. completing an exercise in their books). However, this can be
distracting so try to avoid too much intrusive movement.
5 Intervention
You might observe a lesson where the teacher explains something
incorrectly to the class or, worse still, the teacher loses control of a class.
However, there remain very few situations where you should intervene or
take over teaching the remaining part of a lesson. If the teacher explains
something incorrectly, it’s usually a point that can be re-taught if necessary
a ra
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015. i 03
at a later date. If the problem is one of classroom management, such as a

discipline problem, then you have to be absolutely satisfied that intervention
is the only option available to you. Taking over a lesson is not your role, and
will have obvious repercussions on a trainee teacher’s confidence. It may be
possible to pass a note to the trainee at some point during the lesson, but
again, this may put some trainees off. There are some occasions where the
trainee will come up to you for advice or to check something (perhaps while
the students are busy doing groupwork). If you can answer quickly, it may be
appropriate, but in general, avoid this situation.
6 Observe based on what they know

Observe for what you know the teacher should be expected to know. For
example, a pre-service teacher shouldn’t be judged negatively on how they
mishandle spoken errors if they have received no input on it.
7 Observe the lesson

It’s easy to forget that an observation is of the lesson and not simply the
teacher. Remember to take into the account the learners, the assigned
coursebook or materials, and the classroom provided.
8 Standardising the observation

Where you are using an observation form which is also being used by other
trainers, especially when the observation involves formal assessment (see
next section), make sure you all prepare for observation with some kind of
standardisation and agreement. One way to do this is for two trainers to
attend a lesson and agree on their response afterwards. If it isn’t feasible for
more than one trainer to attend the observation, you could video the lesson.
Other observers could watch the lesson at a later date, sharing thoughts and
comparing the marks they would award for the lesson. Note that a video-
recording is never as effective as live observation because you only receive
the viewpoint of the camera.
Ask yourself | : ee . : oo=

Think of a lesson in which you were observed, where the process of being -
observed was especially positive. What was it about the Sane and the
lesson that made it such a beneficial experience?
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Observation for assessment

Much of the published literature on lesson observation emphasises the
importance of observation as a developmental tool. However, many trainers
are also required to observe in order to assess a teacher. Observation for
assessment may form part of external validation on a training course, or
the Director of Studies in a school may have to observe and assess staff on a
regular basis as part of school (or even government) policy.
There is, perhaps, an uneasy balance between trying to assess a teacher, while
at the same time helping them to develop. When the aim of an observation is
primarily assessment, it might be questioned whether a teacher also develops
in such situations or whether they are simply being seen to complete certain
tasks for the purposes of assessment. The answer is probably ‘yes’ to both.
A teacher will perform certain actions for an assessed observation, but by
having attention drawn to certain areas, the teacher is also being encouraged
to improve and develop certain key skills, techniques and knowledge.
The extract on page 106 is part of the assessment and observation form used
on the Trinity College London Licentiate Diploma in TESOL. The trainers
use this form as part of the training and development of a candidate on the
course before an external observer assesses a lesson. This kind of form needs
to be made available to trainees early on in a course and used as a way of
focusing on what needs to be improved.
Similar forms might also be developed in-house by language schools, with a

teacher being scored by a set of criteria. When designing such assessment
forms, there are certain points to remember in your design.
Making assessment forms manageable

Assessment criteria for lessons can be broken down even further than
those shown above, but assessment forms that are over one to two pages in
length usually become unworkable at a practical level and are in danger of
overloading the teacher with too many criteria to consider during the lesson.
Transparency
When using such forms it’s advisable to make sure that teachers have
seen and understood the requirements. For example, if your role is that of
Director of Studies assessing your teaching staff, then it’s worthwhile
105
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Trinity College London Diploma in TESOL assessment form i
Trinity College London Diploma in TESOL assessment form
aoe oe 22 z 7. Fall Pass Distinction : is |
=. — - " assessor/ xaminer

1. Professional presence
@ The candidate succeeds in creating a positive
and motivating learning environment.
B The relationship with the group and individuals
is professional and encouraging.
® Non-verbal communication is effective in
conveying meaning to the learners.
@ Clear voice projection enhances teacher talk
and listener confidence.
@ Teacher talking time is appropriate.
@ Empathy with the learners’ difficulties and
learning styles is evident.
@ The candidate is assertive when appropriate.
NO . Language awareness
®@ The candidate's language awareness and

knowledge of target language are appropriate
to intended aims.
® An ability to convey language concept
effectively is evident.
™@ The candidate checks concepts and shows
i evidence of evaluation of learning.
@ Phonological aspects are integrated with
language teaching and learning.
™@ Tasks are appropriate to linguistic aims.
@ The candidate responds effectively to linguistic
difficulties.
@ The learners’ strengths in language awareness
are acknowledged.
@ Effective error awareness and feedback are
encouraged.
2. Classroom management
@ Sensitive management of learners’ needs is
demonstrated.
.
@ The candidate succeeds in implementing tasks
and activities through clear instructions.
@ Student interaction patterns are effective and
appropriate.
@ Reflection and evaluation of main learning
aims are encouraged.
B Effective eliciting is demonstrated.
@ Awareness-raising and noticing techniques are
relevant and effective.
™@ Pace and timing are appropriate to the task
in hand.
having a staff meeting before the start of observations where teachers have
a chance to study and discuss a form. It allows time for everyone to agree
on what is meant by, for example, ‘effective classroom management’. Indeed,
such meetings could even be used to involve the teachers in the observation
form’s design, giving it real transparency and a sense of joint ownership.
Joint ownership of the assessment

Observing a teacher and talking to them afterwards about the lesson will
tell you a great deal about their development and can provide you both with
a list of the key areas a teacher needs to work on. For example, consider this
extract from an observation assessment form:
The teacher seeks to establish rapport

and involve the students right from the Ve 5 678 9 0
beginning of the lesson.
The observer might circle a lower score, such as 3, on the first observation.
It becomes the observer’s job to help the teacher close the distance between
3 and 10.
For even greater joint ownership in the process, discuss and establish the
areas of strength and weakness using the Personal assessment observation
form on page 108 before a lesson observation. Choose five areas to write on
the form such as those in the example that follows. Note that the tendency
may be to only focus on areas where the gap is wide, but it is important
that strengths are also included in which the trainee may score 8 or 9. This
avoids demotivation as well as highlighting that even strengths can be
worked on. In the completed example shown below, the observer identifies
that the teacher has strengths with regard to materials and classroom
discipline with a group of young learners, but that she needs to incorporate
greater free practice and work on rapport. The same form can be used again
later on to see if there has been improvement.
Making the criteria useful

The assessment criteria should reflect either what the trainee teacher has
been taught or what you expect a teacher at a certain stage of development
to be able to do. Interpreting and using the same criteria for a teacher six
months after their initial training course in the same way for a teacher with
six years’ experience is probably inappropriate.
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Part 2: Trainees and teachers observing
Teachers can observe each other as part of a training course or as part of a
peer observation scheme for staff development in a school. There are various
reasons for encouraging this type of observation among peers on a course or
teachers working in the same department.
1 Share ideas
Teachers will get ideas from each other. I’ve even seen cases where teachers
from different departments have observed and gained from each other — for
example, a biology teacher observing an ESOL teacher and vice versa.
2 Team building
Many teachers feel the isolation of teaching alone. When introduced
effectively, peer observation can build a feeling of working as part of a team
and an environment where peers look to each other for help
3 Developing skills
The observing teacher can work on developing their own analytical skills
and feedback style.
4 Seeing students differently

Observing another teacher teaching your students or students at a similar
level is often helpful and lets you see your students from another perspective.
5 Working on a weakness
Being an observer may afford you time to consider areas of your teaching to
work on and the chance to see how others handle classroom practice.
Establishing protocols
If you are introducing the notion of peer observation, certain contexts may
demand that you spell out the expectations of what it is to be an observer in
someone else’s class. Particularly in the case of internal staff development,
there may be tension about peers observing each other, and an outcome of
worry and concern rather than an environment of sharing and developing.
Teachers need to be aware that certain expectations or protocols should be
adhered to; the principle of ‘observe others in the way that you would like to
be observed’ is a good starting point for guidelines.
One way to address the issue of observation protocol is to hold a workshop

beforehand where the group of teachers agree on how to approach an
observation. This can be done quite simply by making a copy of the cards
shown on page 111. Cut out the situation cards. Put the teachers into groups
of three or four. Hand out some or all of the situation cards at random. Ask
teachers to discuss each of the situation in terms of ‘How would you feel if
this happened to you?’ Note that the situations are not always clear cut and
should inspire plenty of ‘Yes, but...’-type of discussion.
At the end, the groups feed back and summarise their responses to the whole
group. Groups then draw up a list of rules or guidelines for observing, as a
result of their earlier discussion. These rules might be along the lines of:
1. Arrive at the classroom five minutes before it begins.
2. Do not talk to the students during the lesson.
3. Have a clear and agreed observation task.
After the session, write up the agreed protocol and make sure everyone has
a copy to refer to.
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5 A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and
Observation protocol cards
Observation protocol cards
You find out that the The person who The observer
observer described is scheduled to chats to some
your lesson to observe you asks if of the students
another colleague the observation can during some of the
afterwards. be postponed. S/he groupwork activities
tells you one hour in your lesson.
before the lesson
is due to start.
The observer comes You find out that the The observer asks
over to talk to observer described you for a lesson
you during one of a very successful plan to look at.
the free practice activity you used to
activities. another colleague.
The observer After the lesson, the The observer leaves

interrupts and points observer doesn’t before the lesson
out a mistake you mention the lesson has ended.
made on the board. or say what they
thought.
You have an odd The observer arrives One of the students

number of students a few minutes after wants to ask the
for a pairwork the lesson has observer a question.
activity. The observer started.
volunteers to make
up the numbers and
work with one of
the students.
Types of observation
Earlier in this chapter, we referred to the difficulty of expecting an observer
to observe with only a blank page to fill in. It takes an experienced trainer
to observe and, as the lesson progresses, to decide what the focus of the
observation needs to be.
Where (especially less experienced) teachers observe other teachers, it is

wise to tell them the focus of their observation and to offer them a task or
pre-designed form that will guide them during the observation.
The remaining part of this chapter suggests a variety of ways to design

observation tasks and forms. These can be applied to different aspects of the
lesson and you will find that they can be adapted. (As well as making them
the sole focus of an observation task for a trainee or teacher, you will almost
certainly draw upon these techniques in part when you yourself observe.)
Sentence completion observation

Some observation forms require trainees to complete sentences about the
lesson they have observed. This is especially useful at the early stages of
a teacher’s development as it does two things: firstly, it focuses them on
specific areas of the lesson and secondly, it provides them with a framework
for discussion during the feedback session afterwards. The form on page 113
is based on this idea, and was designed to be completed by trainee teachers
observing a lesson for the first time.
Prompting observation
In simple terms, a prompting observation is one that offers a checklist of
what to observe or a set of questions which require a response. The prompts
on the form are a very direct way of ensuring that observers respond to
areas of your choosing. As was pointed out earlier, observing and reflecting ,
on the observation is not an intuitive skill, so early observation tasks may
need to guide the observer in this way.
The form on page 114 is an example of an observation form that

uses
prompts designed to address a number of key areas in a lesson. It
would
be used by trainees who have attended a number of input sessions
and are
likely to have experience of teaching practice.
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ild A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its
licensors 2015.
sentence completion observation
Sentence completion observation

As you watch the lesson, complete these sentences.
1. The first thing that strikes me about the lesson is
2. One thing that me surprises me is
3. A really interesting thing is that
4. | hadn't expected
Prompting observation form a
Prompting observation form

The class
lengthotlesso) ——————— ee =. ee ee ee Se eee
Number of students: __ —— : _ _ - _ ——
Materials and aids used: a = echelon — eee
Classroom layout: — = = ee ee —_ : ——
The teacher and the teaching

What do you think the teacher's aim and objectives were?
Were they achieved? Why/why not?
The learning process

What were the learner outcomes?
Could the students do something at the end which they couldn't do at the beginning?
Errors
What were some of the typical errors?
How did the teacher correct?
Motivation
Did the students seem motivated?
How did they (or didn’t they) show this?
Future lesson
If you were teaching this group for their next lesson, what would be your aims based on what
you've observed?
4, Observing lessons
Chronological observation
Observation forms may be designed so that the response to the lesson is
not necessarily organised in the order that the events take place. In the
form on page 113, the order in which the observer completes the sentences
may not be from top to bottom. In other cases, it could be that most of the
sentences are completed during a particular part of the lesson. Perhaps
the observer finds most to write about during the final 15 minutes of the
lesson. Many observers prefer the task to be organised so that it clearly
reflects the chronology of the lesson. It’s helpful, then, to include a section
where the time of the lesson is recorded next to a comment or a report on
what was happening. The first column in the form on page 117 is a record
of the timing and we will see time included in the observation forms that
follow. The drawback in focusing on time is that it can make the teacher and
observer overly preoccupied with timing, and tends to encourage a lack of
spontaneity in the lesson. However, it also provides a useful reference point
when making comments and observations about the lesson.
The form on page 117 is an example of a very basic observation sheet which
can be used in a number of ways to follow a lesson chronologically. The ideas
that follow are all different ways to make use of this observation form.
Copying observation
A copying observation requires the observer to make little judgement,
but simply to record or ‘copy down’ an aspect of the lesson for discussion
afterwards. For example:
elu Oe ee
1545 | Teacher asks sts to stand up and get Lnto groups.
- Sts remain seated and three begin speaking tw thetr Lt.
Another example of a copying observation would be where the observer

copies down word for word what the teacher says. This is helpful where we
want to focus on a specific aspect of teaching, such as giving instructions.
It can help to highlight which aspects of ‘teacher language’ were effective
and which were unclear or unhelpful. The transcript can be studied in more
detail after the lesson, either with the teacher in question or among a group
of observers, as a piece of real classroom data. A similar observation activity
: a 44k
iio
that uses copying involves drawing what is on the board at each stage of the
lesson. This can be used to demonstrate effectively organised boardwork; it
will also help a teacher to see how his or her boardwork can be improved.
Diagram observation
The form on page 117, can also be used to draw diagrams, and reflect
changing aspects of the lesson. It works by keeping a record of the time in
the first column and then by drawing diagrams of the shape, layout and
interaction of a class. For example, you could ask the observer to make a
record of the classroom layout at each stage of the lesson, like this:
In the example above, the teacher has put the students into pairs, but the
teacher’s position may suggest that no monitoring is taking place (adapted
from Wajnryb, 1992).
Another type of diagram observation can show where the teacher tends to
focus most attention during each stage of a lesson. In the example below, the
teacher spends a great deal of time interacting with students at the front on
the left-hand side (adapted from Wajnryb, 1992). This may serve to highlight
that certain students are demanding more of the teacher’s time and perhaps,
why students in the rows behind may not be taking any interest.
_ Observation
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Trainee’s observation form
Trainee’s observation form

Time Observation
Lesson plan observation

A simple but effective technique is for the observer to try and recreate the lesson
plan that the teacher is following. The lesson plan form on page 77 in Chapter 3
can be copied for each observer. With pre-service teachers observing experienced
teachers, it is a useful way of drawing attention to the structure of a lesson. The
observation form is the plan which can be analysed afterwards or can form the
basis of a discussion with the teacher, if possible. If the teacher has also produced
a detailed plan, then the two documents can be compared, and differences can be
explained or discussed. It is also good training for writing the aims of a lesson or
highlighting to what extent the aims were achieved or defined.
Scale observation
The observation form on page 119 makes use of a scale or ‘cline’. The
observation could require a cross to be marked on a scale to indicate when
the teacher chose to correct a spoken error. You write ‘Immediately’ at one
end and ‘Delayed’ at the other. Then, if the observer hears a spoken error,
they make a note of it, and then mark on the scale the point at which the
teacher dealt with it.
Other areas that lend themselves to this type of observation include teacher
talking and student talking (teacher talk < > student talk), pace (slow < >
fast), practice activities (free < > controlled), teaching of grammar (guided < >
unguided).
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142
11O A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and
Scale observation form
Scale observation form

Time/Stage What was happening?
ee
Graph observation
We have seen how observation tasks can be more focused where visual
representations are made of the lesson. This is because they offer a more
immediate representation of the lesson. A graph observation form can also
provide the observer (and teacher) with a visual snapshot of the lesson
(Woodward, 1992).
The graph in the form on page 121 has a number of uses. The x-axis can
represent time during the lesson. The y-axis can represent an aspect
of teaching such as one student’s involvement in a lesson, the use of a
coursebook, student talking time, pace, and authenticity of task. When these
aspects increase or decrease, the trend line rises or falls. If you have more
than one observer of the same lesson, assign the same graph, but set two
different areas of focus.
Here is an example of the graph observation where the observer has marked
periods of teacher talking time. After the lesson, this presents an instantly
accessible record of the teacher’s activity. The observer could also note on
the graph what purpose the peaks of talking served. Another observer could
have been set the task of marking student talking time on the graph and
then the two can be contrasted.
|
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Graph observation form
Graph observation form
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Table observation
One of the most commonly used observation forms is one that consists of
a set of rows and columns, or a table. Quite simply, the trainer designs the
form to pick out areas he or she wishes the observer to look out for. It can be
used for virtually any area of teaching.
The observation form on page 123 was designed by a trainer to encourage

inexperienced teachers on a pre-service course to focus on the purpose of
each stage in the lesson and, in particular, how the teacher dealt with errors.
Here is an extract from a table observation form which the observer has
started to complete.
Vow ae the "What aide

_of tbs. earner error _ teacher deal with©_ materials or
. stage
7 on. _ you noticed the error? _ equipment
_ fluency or _ at this _were used at
_ this stage?
/10.33 Fluency : Q relast Waited until Board.
. __ the end of the
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_ tt ow the board. '
|Asked students to —
| comment. : _
This second example shows how the various types of form presented in this
chapter might be integrated (Wajnryb, 1992).
| &.ém A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing

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Table observation form

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Team observation
When more than one person observes the same lesson, it can be beneficial to
assign the same observation task to each observer, and to encourage them to
meet afterwards and compare their notes. Their combined feedback can then
be integrated into an input session on the topic of observation. Alternatively,
you could assign different observation forms or tasks, so that one lesson
gains from being observed in different ways. This provides the basis for
wide-ranging feedback and/or discussion. Another option is to offer a bank
of different observation tasks to the observers. The observer then selects an
area in which they are personally interested, or which they would like to
develop in their own teaching.
Self-generated observation forms

More experienced teachers can be encouraged to create their own
observation form. This has the double benefit of (1) helping the trainee to
carry out the observation itself and (2) giving him or her practice in the
process of researching and developing the form beforehand. The trainee
selects a particular area of interest or weakness in his or her teaching, and
then develops a form to address the issue. This type of exercise can prove
highly motivating; indeed, one examination board makes it a formally
assessed part of their coursework:
‘... The candidate devises an observation instrument* that must be

reviewed at least twice from its original version on the basis of experience
of observations... The instrument and its revised versions must relate
to one theme, e.g. error correction. The assignment shows, therefore, the
development of the instrument and how this affected the results of the
observation, and the candidate’s evaluation of the results.’
(From LTCL Diploma TESOL, Trinity College London, Syllabus, p. 42.)
* Note that the term instrument here refers to the observation form or tool
created to observe
a series of lessons.
Z
Self-observation (video and audio recording)

One other format for observation involves a trainee recording their
lesson
and then watching the recording themselves. While video is not a
perfect
‘4 Apractical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing

substitute for observing a live lesson, some trainees find it useful to observe
themselves at least once. Again, a task can be assigned in order to focus
the observation, or the video can be watched with the trainer, who might
choose to stop and start sections of the lesson or fast-forward to illustrative
moments. Audio recordings can also be appropriate, especially where the
focus is on, for example, improving a teacher’s instructions, or listening to
the type of spoken error that students are making.
Conclusions
In this chapter, we have looked at what needs to be considered when setting
up observations, both in terms of the observer and the teacher. When the
trainer is observing, the roles of trainer and assessor may be combined.
When the teacher or trainee is observing, the aim may be research-led as
much as evaluative. The observation tasks need to be assigned according
to the training focus and be designed according to the experience level of
the observer. Pre-service or inexperienced observers will need tasks and/or
forms which are very carefully guided, whereas in-service teachers may need
less guidance, or may even create their own form in response to a personal
area of interest.
Some observations require no follow-up or feedback session with the teacher,

for example, if they are research-based, or if the aim is to see how someone
else handles a particular aspect of teaching. However, many observations
will require some form of follow-up feedback session. Either the trainer
needs to discuss the lesson with the teacher, a peer wants to offer some
comments, or a more inexperienced observer has questions for the teacher
he or she has been observing. This feedback stage is the subject of the next
chapter.
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9. Giving feedback
the language of feedback

techniques for giving feedback
ways of organising feedback
examples of feedback situations

written feedback
follow-up tasks from feedback.
Many (though not all) observed lessons are followed by some kind of
feedback. Giving feedback can work at many levels. It could be a brief
comment at the end as you leave: ‘I really enjoyed your lesson. Thanks for
letting me sit in and watch’. Or it could come in the form of a pre-arranged
period of time set aside to discuss the lesson. Whatever format your feedback
takes, make sure both the observer and the observed teacher are clear about
how feedback will be given — and the purpose of it.
A large part of this chapter will be of use to the trainer giving feedback to
the less experienced teacher or trainee teacher. It considers the language we
use and ways to organise and vary the feedback session in order to respond
to the observed teacher’s stage of development. However, it also suggests
ways of handling peer feedback, which may involve a fellow trainee simply
reporting back on what they observed (‘This is what you did at this point’) ...
or peers expressing their opinions (‘I liked the way you ... I'd like to use that
in my lessons’).
The language of feedback

Just as we pitch our language to students of English at different levels, a
trainer needs to pitch the language of feedback to the observed teacher's
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015. DhO
5. Giving feedback
stage of development. Consider these three sentences, in which the trainer

wants the trainee to realise that there were problems with boardwork in the
lesson, and wishes to encourage him or her to find ways to improve it.
Sentence 1: There’s a problem with your boardwork. It’s very confusing for
the students. Here’s a way to organise it ....
Sentence 2: Let’s take a look at your boardwork. How could you improve it?
Sentence 3: Tell me what you think about the lesson. What would you change
next time?
In sentence 1, the trainee is inexperienced and possibly teaching for only

the first or second time. The trainer’s role at this stage is to inform and take
a ‘one way works’ strategy; in other words, there may be different ways in
which to approach the problem, but at this stage of the training, the new
teacher can often only cope with the idea that there is one solution to apply
to a similar situation next time.
In sentence 2, the trainer starts to draw on the trainee’s prior knowledge

and experience and lead him or her to a solution. The trainer’s job is still to
make the trainee aware of a problem but, rather than give the solution, the
aim is to elicit a similar solution or strategy from the trainee. In this way,
the trainee starts to become more independent and self-analytical.
In sentence 3, the trainee might well be an experienced teacher on an in-

service course or higher-level qualification. The trainer assumes that the
trainee has greater self awareness and is capable of reflecting on his or her
strengths and weaknesses.
We often use certain words and phrases when we give feedback, and it
can be useful for new trainers to refer to them when first learning to lead
feedback sessions. The list below is by no means comprehensive, and I’m
not advocating using the same phrases all the time (to the point where they
might become clichés). However, it does provide a framework for managing
feedback sessions, including those where the trainee’s peers have been
observing and can be invited to join in the feedback process.
40 wars or
i 28 A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015.
5. Giving feedback
Starting off feedback

How do you feel now?
The students really enjoyed that. How do you think it went?
What did you think of the students today? How was the class?
Did your lesson go according to plan?
How did you think the whole lesson went today?
What did you enjoy about your lesson?
What went well?
Explaining why things went well

It went well because you...
| think the students enjoyed it so much because...
| think the students got the hang of it so quickly because you...
Encouraging trainees to be analytical

Why do you think it worked so well?
What was it you did that made it work so well?
Why did you choose to do it that way?
Did you consider any alternative approaches beforehand?
What do think might have happened if you’d...?
What else could you have done?
Leading group feedback (with peers)

What did you like about today’s lesson?
How do you think the lesson went?
What would you use in your lesson that you saw today?
Any ideas on how she/he could have tried that another way?
This is an interesting point for any teacher.
Everyone finds that difficult at first. Let's. think about some ways we can
deal with it.
This relates back to your input session on...
5. Giving feedback
_
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Techniques for giving feedback

In Chapter 2, we looked at different techniques for training. Many of the
skills we employ for input sessions also apply when giving feedback. Here
is an overview:
Telling
Trainers can sometimes shy away from telling trainees what they should*
do, and indeed, there is a great deal to be said for helping trainees find
things out for themselves. But, at the early stages of teaching, trainees
also need to benefit from your experience, so a trainer will often both
pinpoint the problem and suggest a solution or a possible way to deal
with
an issue. Remember also that ‘telling’ includes telling trainees how
good it
re e
30" practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media
5. Giving feedback
was and how well they did it, as well as encouraging them to do lots more
of the same next time.
Questioning and eliciting

We know from teaching language that asking questions or eliciting
an answer can be an effective way to bring a learner to an answer or
conclusion. It also helps trainees’ own critical thinking and prepare them for
autonomous teaching and development.
Showing and encouraging noticing

Sometimes, the quickest route is for trainees to have their attention drawn
to something and to notice it. For example, watching a video of the Jesson
may help them to notice how well they monitored students during a group
work activity; reading a transcript of what they said word for word during
instruction-giving can help them to notice repetition or unclear directions;
showing a teacher diagrams of student interactions throughout the lesson
might highlight a need for more (or less) variety in seating arrangements.
Demonstrating
It can also be necessary for a trainer to demonstrate what the trainee
needs to do. For example, if a trainee attempts to use drilling, the trainer
may wish to show the trainee how he or she might have done it more
effectively, or simply present alternative ways of drilling. This is an example
of where having peers in the feedback or group feedback can help. These
other trainees can play the parts of students, and they may also benefit by
receiving input.
Discussing
Especially at further stages of teacher development, a seminar-style
discussion is often required. It is a way of addressing wider issues relating
to a lesson. It encourages trainees to explore ways in which the teacher
might do things differently, and reflect together on why any problems might
have come about. For example, a lesson where the reading task caused
difficulties for the students could be the basis of a discussion about how we
teach reading skills.
AQAA
Ltd and its licensors 2015. i1o4 i
5. Giving feedback
Listening
Some trainees will not want to say much after their lesson. Others may
react by wanting to talk. Sometimes, such talk may be a way of dealing
with the adrenaline of teaching a lesson, but as a result, the trainee starts
to reflect and analyse. In such cases, the trainer may choose not to speak,
but needs to show that he or she is listening by responding with short
comments, or by helping the trainee to phrase their thoughts. Even where
the trainee’s conclusions seem to be incorrect, it may be wise not to interrupt
the flow of thoughts immediately.
Chairing
During a feedback session where two or three teachers have been teaching
and observing each other, or where peers have observed the whole lesson,
the trainer may want to ask for people’s comments on the lesson. Observers
need to be encouraged to give plenty of positive feedback by responding to
such phrases as, What was one thing you observed about X’s lesson that you
would like to do in yours?
Equally, it’s important to develop an environment among trainees which is

supportive, but where they will also make suggestions or identify ways to
improve. Here, the trainer chairs a discussion and ensures that everyone is
allowed to speak or defend themselves in the case of any overly harsh (or
simply wrong) feedback. (See the case studies at the end of this chapter for
more guidance on this.)
Handing over
In the case of training for more advanced and experienced teachers, you
might find that a teacher has reached the stage of reflection and analysis
where he or she is able to describe and analyse the whole of their own
lesson without any feedback from you. When a teacher is able to say
everything you intended to say, then your role simply becomes that of the®
person to agree with and confirm all that has been said. (Quite often,
such
a teacher is at the stage where they might be considering moving into
teacher training themselves.)
‘94 Apractical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing

5. Giving feedback
Ways of organising feedback

By the end of a feedback session, a trainee will need to know what you, the
trainer, thought of the lesson, so at some stage you will need to summarise
your thoughts. There are numerous ways to run feedback, and varying the
process will help trainees to look at their work in different ways. This next
section provides some of the most common formats. Note that within one
feedback session, it is possible to combine elements of these formats.
Sandwich feedback
This type of feedback involves beginning with the strengths of the lesson,
moving on to looking at problem areas and possible solutions, and ending
with summing up, which, again, should stress the positive. This suggests
that the trainer may be doing much of the talking but in fact, a lot of the
reflection and feedback can come through astute questioning.
So, tell me three

things you liked
about today's
lesson.
Was there anything
that didn’t go so well?
How could you deal
with that next time?
So, let’s sum

up what we can
build on from
this lesson...

CO
5. Giving feedback
Chronological feedback
This approach involves the trainer giving feedback in the order in which
things happened. Similarly, trainees often find it easy to talk through a
lesson by discussing each stage in chronological order. This type of approach
to feedback is helpful when addressing problems of timing. It allows trainees
to compare the length of time an activity was intended to take with how
long it actually took. By talking through the plan, trainees can also pick out
which stages could have been omitted or adapted. The only downside to the
approach is that it has the danger of becoming a narrative of what happened
without looking more closely at the reasons why something happened.
Mini-presentation
Draw two columns on the board with a plus and minus sign at the top. Ask
anyone who has been teaching to write things up that went well and things
that didn’t. It might look something like this:
a —
. Good boardwork - 1 didn’t Leave time for the

jrovp activity.
= le stucents Used the
tarset lansvase. ae [ couldnt answer question

about pretixes.
<i enjoyed it for the first time!

_| Felt uncemFerta&ble a&beut
jood time. when te cerreéct.
= They ees a
Writing on the board like this works well with more than one teacher, as
it brings together feedback for the whole lesson without singling out an
.
individual. Allow about ten minutes while you leave the room. On your
return, ask the trainees to talk you through their notes on the board
in the
form of a mini-presentation. You could suggest ways to address
the issues
listed in the negative column or prompt trainees to consider how
they might
build on the strengths detailed in the positive column.

5. Giving feedback
Closed peer feedback

Put trainees in pairs so that an observer gives his or her personal feedback
on the lesson, without the involvement of the trainer.
Afterwards, there are different formats for reporting back on the lesson in
the light of what has been discussed:
1. The trainee speaks to the trainer and the whole group, taking into
account the comments of the peer observer.
2. The observer speaks to the trainer and the whole group about (1) what
he or she observed and (2) what she or she thinks now after talking to
the trainee. The observer may even speak on behalf of the trainee by
outlining the trainee’s thoughts, too.
Read and think

Trainers often give written feedback after the oral feedback, but it can be
helpful for a trainee to read and consider the feedback before opening it
up for discussion. This kind of reflective writing may even form part of a
teaching journal. (See the section that follows about written feedback.)
Trainee self-assessment
When using assessment criteria (see the assessment criteria document on
page 94), it can be helpful to allow the trainee some time after the lesson
to grade their own performance. They then compare their assessment with
yours. This forms a useful basis for discussion, and helps a trainee to fully
understand how they are being assessed. If you are running an exam-based
course, where trainees are working very closely together, asking the trainee’s
peers to grade as well can be helpful.
Peer presentations
When teachers observe other teachers as peers, the feedback given
should focus mainly on the lesson and the students, rather than being an
evaluation of the teacher’s performance. It’s true that a peer observer may
have some useful suggestions for his or her colleague but, unless there is a
distinct difference in seniority between the two teachers, the focus should
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015. oO
5. Giving feedback
aim to be on sharing what was observed, rather than being a summing-up of

the teacher’s performance.
As a general rule, when peers have been observing a lesson, it’s useful to
give them a focused observation task such as noting down any learner errors
they hear or observing how one individual student reacts to each stage of
the lesson (see the observation forms described in the previous chapter).
Begin the feedback session by asking the peers to present their findings.
This is especially useful as it presents a new angle on the lesson, and
reminds everyone that the feedback is not only about the teacher, but also
about the lesson as a whole. It shifts focus away from the teacher and gives
him or her time to relax after the lesson.
Roleplay
Ask a peer to take on the role of one of the students in the class and to
report back on what they — the student — thought of the lesson. This
roleplaying feedback should answer questions such as: Which part of the
lesson did he or she find useful? What did he or she learn today? What would
he or she have liked more of? What would he or she like less of?
Write it down
Ask the trainee to write down how they feel for 15 minutes before starting
oral feedback. You can provide the trainee with a form like the one on page
137 on which to make brief notes after the observation. It will help them
prepare their comments for the feedback discussion. Alternatively, if your
course has an online component, trainees can share their reflections or
email them to you for a response.
‘O90 — Apractical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing

Post-lesson reflection form
Post-lesson reflection form
Now that the lesson is over | feel...
| was surprised by...
| feel pleased about...
| don't feel so pleased about...
If |were approaching this lesson again I'd...
One question | have about the lesson for my trainer is...

5. Giving feedback
Time to think
After a lesson, it’s often valuable to allow time for reflection. This provides
space for the teacher(s) to reflect, as well as giving you time to consider
your feedback. It can be helpful therefore, before starting feedback, to ask
everyone (including peers who have been observing) to write down three
strengths of the lesson and one area they think might be done differently
next time.
It may be appropriate (or necessary) to give feedback the following day.

Seeing the lesson in the light of the next morning can be a useful way of
letting a trainee reflect more objectively. If there’s the possibility that the
trainee might stay awake worrying about the lesson, encourage them to
make notes on paper before going to bed. Alternatively, if your course has an
online component, the trainee could post notes online which you can respond
to later.
Examples of feedback situations

Every feedback session may require a combination of approaches. Consider
these case-study situations involving trainee teachers. Think about how you
would approach the feedback. Compare your ideas with the commentaries,
which give a suggested approach.
Case study 1
It's week three of a full-time course for new teachers. The trainee who has _
been teaching has had a good lesson and seems very happy at the end. Two
other trainees observed the lesson and have each taken a page ofnotes. The
group of trainees has been working well together as a team on the course. __
Commentary: ©
The trainer invites the two observing trainees to begin the feedback and
pick out any strengths and weaknesses. The teacher trainee is asked to
respond, and then the trainer concludes by summarising what has been
said
and adding in other points that need raising.
120 — Apractical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion

Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015.
5. Giving feedback
Case study 2
A trainee has failed an assessed lesson on a training course. This follows
a series of borderline lessons. One other trainee was observing. In other
sessions, this trainee has made one or two insensitive comments. The teacher
trainee is visibly nervous.
Commentary:
In this case, the trainer asks the observing trainee for brief feedback
on what they would include in the students’ next lesson, based on what
happened in this one. The observing trainee isn’t asked to comment on the
teacher’s performance. After ten minutes, the trainer asks the observing
trainee to leave, and concludes feedback with the teacher only.
Case study 3
Two trainees have taught with two peers observing. One trainee was strong
and taught the second half of the lesson with lots of production tasks. The
first trainee had to present an item of grammar, but failed to Los beyond
talking from the whiteboard.
Commentary:
The trainer asks everyone to list strengths and weaknesses of the whole
lesson on the board for ten minutes. Then the trainer asks the two observers
to talk through the lists on the board with some input from the teacher
trainees. The trainer then discusses the two lessons in chronological order.
Case study 4
A lesson has ended and the trainer is unsure of how to grade the teacher.
Although the students clearly enjoyed the lesson, the teacher failed to
include much of what has been worked on in the last few weeks. You need
some time to think about your response. No one else was observing.
Commentary:
The trainer asks the trainee to complete a form for post-lesson reflection.
This gives both trainer and trainee time to consider the lesson. The trainer
then reads the form before finally giving oral feedback.
5. Giving feedback
Written feedback
A written summary of the trainer’s feedback is a requirement on many
training courses, and may appear in any teaching practice log that the
trainee produces. With the increase in online training, writing feedback
down has also become a common way to communicate comments to trainees.
In particular, written feedback provides the trainee with a useful reference

point for any future lessons. That’s because a trainee cannot necessarily
take in all the ideas and information that comes up orally, straight after a
lesson. So, at the very minimum, written feedback needs to be a summary of
the key points raised. If other trainees have been observing and completing
observation tasks, the trainee may also want to receive copies of these forms.
Here are some general guidelines and ideas for written feedback:
1 Congratulate the teacher

Especially with new teachers, begin your feedback with phrases like Well
done, Great job, Good start! At the same time, pinpoint the reasons for the
success, for example:
Ml tt was a nice warmer to get students interested.

M You have a good welcoming manner tothe arriving students.
M You showed interest by asking students about their weekend.
2 Reflect oral feedback

Don’t include too many new points that didn’t come up during oral feedback,
as this can cause anxiety or confusion.
3 Use a visual code

Sometimes written feedback doesn’t make it clear to a trainee what is being
implied. For example, a comment might be a compliment, a demand for the
trainee to do something different or even simply a question — a point to
consider. Some trainers use a visual code to clarify their meaning. Here are
three examples:
4A Ries ,
140 a practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing
5. Giving feedback
| Two students are still talking to each other while you are explaining the
next task.
? What would have happened if you'd Let students compare their answers first?
© students are quietly working through the questions and you are
monitoring.
A visual code allows the trainer to simply describe what is happening, and
encourages the trainee to reflect on this in a certain way. The ! symbol tells
the trainee that something needs attention or needs to be changed. The ?
symbol indicates something to think about or a possible alternative — not
that something is wrong or right. The © symbol tells the trainee that what
was happening in the lesson was good, i.e. the trainee is doing well.
Say how as well as why

It’s easy to describe what was happening and to give some visual indication
of whether that was positive or not, but often, trainees also need strategies
for how to build on success or solve the problem. For example, consider this
written feedback:
|Time - Observation : |
| 46 minutes Be careful with your iwstructtons at this point. tt isw’t clear
what you want your students to do. i
The feedback given above highlights a problem at a certain point in the

lesson but it doesn’t offer a solution. It may be that a solution can be
brainstormed or discussed in the oral feedback, but we need to be sure that
the trainee is also provided with a strategy to solve the issue. The trainer
could add comments like:
BM when you plan your lesson next time, rehearse Your instructions with your
peers beforehand.
M Record your lesson next time and Listen to your instructions.
M@ Re-plan these instructions after the Lesson to make them clearer.
Sy
and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015. os

5. Giving feedback
Summing up
At the end, the feedback needs to be clear about areas to work on or develop,
and the list should be realistic (for example, not too many areas; one is
often enough for new teachers, two to three would be appropriate for more
experienced teachers). Also mention in the same list any successes from the
lesson which you want the trainee to continue using and developing.
Tasks to follow up feedback

The period directly after teaching has been described as ‘decompression’,
rather like a deep-sea diver coming back up to the surface. Therefore, it can
be helpful to give the trainee a post-practice task that may be completed
later, after the trainee has had time to reflect and think more clearly about
the experience. Here are some tasks that can be given to trainees as a
follow-up to a specific lesson.
Reading
Ask the trainee to read a specific article on a subject which relates to the
lesson taught, or to re-read a relevant chapter from a book on the pre-course
reading list.
Observe a lesson
Arrange for the trainee to observe a more experienced teacher. Provide an
observation task which focuses them on an issue which came up in their
own lesson.
Re-teach the lesson

Arrange for the teacher to teach the same (or a similar) lesson to another
group of students at the same level. This allows the teacher to re-think the
lesson and gain confidence by teaching it again. If this isn’t possible, the
trainee can select problematic parts of the lesson (e.g. giving instructions or
explaining a tricky language point) and re-create them with groups of peers
pretending to be students. This offers a forum for correcting problems or
discussing alternative approaches.
é Apractical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd
5. Giving feedback
Watch the video

If the lesson was recorded on video, it can be helpful to watch it a day or so
after the lesson so that it can be studied more objectively.
Keep a journal
Many training courses require trainees to keep a log of their lessons with
lesson plans and the trainer’s written feedback. It’s also helpful for the
trainee to write a page or so about the lesson in the light of his or her own
experience and all the feedback received (from both trainer and peers).
Before the next observation

If you are observing the same trainee, arrange a brief meeting beforehand in
which the trainee talks about the lesson they intend to teach but focuses on
how they are addressing any issues that emerged in the last feedback session.
Conclusions
We have seen that feedback is a useful process to follow an observation. The
term ‘feedback’ suggests it is a one-way process with the observer telling the
trainee what was observed. We have seen that this isn’t the case: feedback
should be a two-way process and it can even include more participants.
The way in which feedback is run or given may depend on how the lesson
went, the trainee’s stage of development, and his or her feelings about how
the lesson went. It may also be appropriate to offer follow-up tasks for the
trainee (or observers) as part of the feedback process.
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6. Managing teacher
training
the benefits of offering in-house training

designing a staff training programme
managing external training courses
assessment and feedback
managing the trainers.
This chapter will be of benefit to anyone who has management

responsibilities on a training programme. You might be the owner of a
school who understands the value of providing training and development
opportunities for your employees. Alternatively, you might be the senior
teacher who co-ordinates peer observation among teachers, the Director of
Studies who is in charge of staff development or the course leader on an
externally examined training course. In other words, your job title doesn’t
need to include the word ‘manager’ in order for you to find some help in
this chapter. Even if you are new to training, or if you are a trainer with no
administrative or managerial duties, you will also find that this chapter
provides you with an awareness of the key issues that impact on your work.
The chapter begins by looking at training and development that is taking

place within an education institution. The typical manager in this scenario
will be a Director of Studies or Academic Manager who runs an ELT
department. We'll address the reasons for offering training and look at ways
to design a training programme.
The next part of the chapter will be of interest to trainers working on

externally validated or examined courses as it looks at the day-to-day issues
of running such a course.
4A
6. Managing teacher training
This is followed by guidelines on assessing and evaluating the effectiveness

of training provision, which will be relevant to any kind of course. The
chapter will also summarise ways of assessing the performance of course
participants in addition to the ways already presented in previous chapters.
Further to considering such courses, we’ll briefly address the issues involved
in setting up a formal teacher training department which will offer external
training courses. We will conclude with suggestions for training the trainers.
The benefits of offering in-house training

When asked about training, many people’s reaction might be that training
is about taking a course in order to gain a recognised qualification which
will allow them to get a job. Having got the job, it might be argued that
a person should be allowed to get on with it. The idea of further training
may suggest extra (unpaid) hours on subjects which have no bearing on
real life in the classroom.
Your job as manager is to ensure that this is not the prevailing view when
offering in-house or in-service training to your teaching team. Clearly,
training needs to be made relevant to the teachers, and the benefits of
offering further staff development should be transparent.
Two good reasons for training in ELT

From a management perspective, there are two main reasons for holding
in-house training:
1 Responding to change
The English language is a global language and the ELT industry is global.
It is therefore subject to the effects of global change to a greater extent than
many other services. Equally, the needs and requirements of students (the
customers) change due to demands from employment or new qualification ©
requirements. Similarly, the demands on teachers in the classroom change,
most noticeably in recent years due to increased use of technology.
AAR 5 ‘ 4
i146 a practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and
2 Motivation
Training can motivate your staff. Training says to staff, ‘We care’, and shows
an investment in the internal customer. To provide ongoing training is to
treat teachers as professionals with a desire to learn more about what they
do and raise their level of consciousness beyond that of a technician.
Who are you training?

A teachers’ room is potentially a much healthier supportive working
environment when it includes members of staff with a wide range of experience
and knowledge. Consider the opposite situation: a staffroom that has only
very experienced teachers may become a disgruntled place with too many
experts becoming frustrated at the lack of outlets for their expertise. Similarly,
a school with lots of inexperienced teachers will inevitably suffer from a lack
of advanced skills or limited scope for mentoring and staff development. So,
making sure you have a healthy mix will allow for plenty of impromptu staff
development opportunities. However, it also means that you cannot offer a ‘one-
size-fits-all’ approach to training and staff development. Let us consider some of
the teachers you might be in charge of and their different needs. Note that these
are generalisations, but serve to illustrate the wide range of training needs.
Teacher A
A newly qualified teacher may come to the school with plenty of fresh
ideas. He or she will want to try out things learnt on the initial training
course and may well remind more experienced teachers of things they have
forgotten or taken for granted. Teacher A may have little understanding of
the theory, and even if they have completed a more theoretical course, they
will not have had the chance to put the theory into practice. This teacher
will appreciate plenty of tips and practical activities in any input session.
Before observations and during feedback, they may need a lot of reassurance
(as this is their first job) and expect your feedback to offer plenty of advice
which they can instantly implement in their lessons.
Teacher B
There are many teachers who complete initial teacher training and then,
a few years into their jobs, have still received no professional development.
For some teachers, the fact that they have received no further input may
and its licensors 2015. ie

be of no immediate importance, or they may be unaware that further

development is an option. These teachers might simply repeat what they did
in the first year of teaching from year to year. If you decide to implement a
staff development programme, don’t be surprised if everyone doesn’t rush
forward to thank you. Emotions will be mixed. New training initiatives can
challenge people, upset their routine or put them in a position in which
they feel threatened. However, the problem — if it exists at all — will often
be one of perception; making your intentions clear and setting out the
rationale will help. Note also that these teachers may still be doing much
of what they learnt years ago, but they are probably doing it very well with
far greater confidence than Teacher A. They are much more ready for more
consciousness-raising input or research-based peer observation.
Teacher C
If your school has the position of Senior Teacher, this teacher may be in
that category. He or she has acquired a variety of classroom skills over the
past few years, and is probably becoming more interested in the theoretical
side of teaching. This is the stage at which a teacher considers taking on
other challenges such as course writing, management and teacher training.
Academically, they might be taking a postgraduate qualification of some
kind (e.g. Diploma or MA in TESOL or Applied Linguistics). Training or
developing this teacher will be more a complex business and the training
programme may not follow the routes offered by earlier chapters in this
book. This is where the term ‘development’ tends to take over from ‘training’;
this teacher is like the advanced language learner who has already acquired
many of the strategies for autonomous learning and needs less formal
guidance. Training such a teacher may in fact take the form of asking him
or her to act as mentor to an inexperienced teacher (Teacher A) or to run a
workshop or in-house input session for the rest of the staff.
Designing a staff training programme

The three teacher profiles described above ignore many other types of profile
in our teachers’ room, but they serve to illustrate a range of needs and
expectations that a training programme will need to respond to. To design a
programme, we therefore need to follow three steps: establish needs, define
objectives and design the course.
148 A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors
2015.
Establishing needs
In its simplest terms, training is about bridging the gap between what is
known (the present) and the level of skills required (the future). The ‘learning
gap’ idea is simple to apply to certain aspects in teaching. For example, where
a teacher doesn’t know how to use timelines, they can be trained. However,
the ability to identify a good moment to correct a student is not quite as
easy to measure. We must, nevertheless, seek to identify and describe needs
in order to track progress and therefore ensure the success of a training
programme. The process of identifying needs should be a co-operative process
between all parties involved. (By ‘all parties’ we certainly mean the teacher
and the teacher’s line manager, but there may be other stakeholders in the
training process such as the owner of the school or fellow senior teachers.)
There are a number of tools we can use for establishing what teachers want
and need from a training programme.
1 A questionnaire
Finding out needs can be done informally through discussion and observation.
However, a formally produced questionnaire, given out to all members of staff,
has the benefit of making training accessible to all. It also provides you with
criteria by which the success of the course can be measured.
The needs analysis form on page 150 is taken from a school that wanted to
provide a series of fortnightly 45-minute workshops on pronunciation. The
Director of Studies drew up this form as a starting point to gauge the teachers’
own perception of their needs and the type of sessions they might want.
One danger of such a questionnaire is that the teachers circle everything

cost
as high priority and require more from the training than the time and
constraints will allow. A way to avoid this is to give each teacher a list of
award.
possible workshop titles and tell them they have 20 marks in total to
to the
This means that they may give 10 marks toa high-priority topic, 5
next, and 3 and 2 to lower-priority areas.
Son AAC
Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015. 149
A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion
Ons scale o 1to 5, where 1 = low priority and 5 = high priority, how |
_ important would each of the following promsnceto aa topics be to you |
in a training and development programme?
For each topic, circle a number from 1 to 5 and comment on your score in
_ the space.
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1QU Apractical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media
2 One-to-one discussion and observing the teacher

Meeting teachers individually works especially well where many of them
are at different stages of development. Discussing training needs may form
part of a wider staff appraisal scheme. However, it’s advisable to combine an
interview about their teaching with an observation of their lesson, as this
provides a focus for the discussion. In Chapter 4, the form on page 108 is one
way in which personal criteria might be set for the teacher, or needs identified.
3 Student complaints/feedback
In an ideal world, we would identify training needs before the customer
does. But mistakes are made, and sometimes a disgruntled student will
complain about the teacher. Before we assume that a teacher needs training,
we will, of course, need to find out what is happening; the problem may turn
out to be caused by problems with the student’s peers, the classroom, the
timing of the lesson or other factors. Nevertheless, student complaints are
sometimes justified, and may indicate that training is required. Quite often,
a meeting with the teacher in question can even result in their recognising
the need for further training.
4 The job description

In teaching terms, a change in job description will often mean that we are
asking teachers to work on courses that they have no experience in. They may
have been required to teach General English courses at lower levels for the
past three years and suddenly they are asked to prepare advanced students
for an examination. Your needs analysis will be to identify the change in the
job requirements and provide the means for training and development.
5 External assessment and validation

Many schools are subject to external assessment by validating bodies
or organisations that accredit schools. For example, British Council-
recognised schools are inspected, and this involves observing the teachers
and studying documentation, including their plans. The final report that
comes from these inspections will include comments on the work of the
staff and recommendations for improvement, which may indicate the type
of training required.
A A
Media Ltd and its licensors 2015. Od
Defining course objectives

Having carried out a needs analysis, you need to set objectives. The reasons
for setting these AND writing them down are as follows:
m™ You can only measure the outcome of learning and assess the success of
your training programme if you have objectives to measure.
@ Objectives are motivational for the teacher.
& Objectives make the process transparent and make the process public
(see earlier comments).
@ You will more easily be able to demonstrate to your line manager (perhaps
the owner of the school) the benefits of training to their organisation.
When setting objectives, it may be helpful to think of these in terms of

‘noticeable behaviour’, or what you will see once the training has taken
place. For example, if the objective is to ‘improve error correction’, this
doesn’t tell us what the outcome will be. If, on the other hand, we write ‘to
see greater use of error correction at the end of speaking activities’, the
teacher understands by what criteria he or she will be measured, and the
outcome is realistic and achievable.
Admittedly, objectives which are defined in terms of noticeable behaviour

can lend themselves to the ‘there-is-only-one-right-way-to do-something’
philosophy of teaching, and certainly with teachers at higher levels of
development, this may be counter-productive. However, they do, on the
whole, serve to provide the teacher with a tangible path to follow.
Designing a training plan

A training plan may take different forms. For example, the training plan
below takes the form of a timetable. The teachers in a school will have a
one-hour staff development session every two weeks. The format will be
a workshop led by the Director of Studies. Note that the objectives are
defined at the top of the timetable to remind everyone of the goal. It also
includes practical information such as room, times and dates. The Director
of Studies has also assigned different sessions to different members of
teaching staff. (This is a useful way to draw on the expertise of certain
teachers and offer them their own area of self-development.)
469 reer ; mee ae

is? Apractical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015.
Timetabled staff development training plan
_ Autumn term staff development sessions

_ Objectives:
& Io be able to target the pronunciation difficulties of specific learner groups.
_™@ To be better equipped to provide students with ways to improve their
_ pronunciation out of the classroom.
_™ To be capable of including at least one student-to-student activity when
_ an aspect of pronunciation is taught.
_ All sessions will be in room 8A, from 5.15-6.15.
October 18th
_L1 interference in Taiwanese speakers and how to help them. (Led by Peter)
November 1st
L1 interference in Korean speakers and how to help them. (Led by Karen)
_ November 15th
1 interference in Spanish speakers and how to help them. (Led by Ruth)
November 29th
_ Adapting pronunciation exercises for pairwork. (Led by Marek)
December 13th
Learner strategies for working on pronunciation — video/discussion.
(Led by Hanna)
The next example is a personalised training plan for an inexperienced

teacher who is about to take over a new class at the beginning of a term.
The Director of Studies combines the delivery techniques of observation and
mentoring with the help of an experienced teacher.

Personalised training plan
Teacher: Carole
_ Objectives:
_ ml To introduce you to your new class and this level.
_™® Toplan your lessons according to the school’s requirements.
_™@ To become familiar with the course materials at this level.
Monday 1510: Observe Asia teaching Class G2. Use observation

_form attached. .
|Monday 17.00: Meet with Asia and plan iemenous class together.
|Tuesday 15.15: Team-teach G2 with Asia.
|Tuesday 17.00: Meet with Asia and plan tomorrow's class together.
|Wednesday 15.15: Teach G2. Asia to observe.
Thursday 10.00: Attend level meeting with other teacher to discuss

~ new coursebook.
Monitoring and evaluating the course delivery

Having planned and set up the training programme, you will need to monitor
the effectiveness of the course, while it is taking place and afterwards. This
can be done in a number of ways, including observation of teaching practice,
receiving feedback from course participants and the assessment of the tutors.
For more detailed suggestions on this area, see the sections on assessment
in Chapters 3 and 4. The second half of this chapter gives suggestions for
assessing external training, and may be applicable to your context.
104 =A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and its licensors 2015.
Managing external training programmes

As well as (or instead of) managing training and development for staff in the
school, you might be in charge of running training courses that are offered
externally. Some training organisations offer taster courses, where members
of the public can find out more about teaching or try out teaching. Other
centres specialise in training new teachers to gain an initial qualification,
which will allow them to get their first job. Some teacher training
departments and university departments run courses for practising teachers
who are taking time out of teaching for further studies.
The benefits of setting up a training department and offering courses

externally include:
1 Profile raising
Schools with training departments increase their profile in the ELT
industry. Language students might be attracted to a school that offers
teacher training. If you train teachers, you are in turn letting more people
know about the school, and they may pass on your name to other teachers or
to their students.
2 Mutual benefits
Educational institutions with teacher training departments tend to have
more engaged staff. In itself, the fact that training takes place will often
affect the performance and interest of internal staff and their work.
3 Employee motivation
As well as being involved in internal staff training, a teacher training
department motivates employees in that it offers the prospect of working as
a teacher trainer, and therefore promotion opportunities and staff flexibility
within the organisation.
4 Income
Quite simply, training courses can increase the turnover of a school. If you
are in charge of such a department or the day-to-day running of externally
offered programmes, you will need to take into account some of the same
areas covered in the previous section on managing internal training. However,
external training also tends to present other responsibilities.

Applications and interviewing candidates

When delivering external training, you will need to implement an
application process including an interview. How this works will depend on
the demands of your course. An application process may include asking
for references from people who know the candidate’s personal abilities
and, if they are already teachers, have seen them teach. Some applications
also include the trainee teacher completing some kind of task — perhaps
commenting on their reasons for wanting to take the course or even
completing a series of tasks where they have to analyse language or suggest
ways they might teach certain words or structures.
Again, the level of questioning at the interview will depend on the course. Here
are some typical questions asked of pre-service and experienced teachers:
1 Pre-service
@ Think back to something you have learnt with a teacher. What made the
learning experience successful?
@ Can you tell me about an occasion when you had to teach something?
What did you do?
& What personal qualities do you think a teacher needs?

m@ Ifyou had to teach a class for the first time, what would you need to
find out?
m@ What previous experience or knowledge do you think might help you to
become a teacher?
@ What’s your biggest concern about taking a course like this?
m™ Have you ever studied a language? What did you like or dislike about
the experience?
2 Experienced/in-service
m@ Tell me about a coursebook you are familiar with. What are its strengths
and weaknesses?
@ Think about a successful lesson you taught recently. Why was it successful?

@ What is a particular area of your teaching you would like to work on

during this course? How do you think you might achieve this?
@ Can you tell me how you might present the topic of modals of deduction
to an upper-intermediate class of students?
m@ How often have you been observed in your teaching? How do you think
you will react to being observed and receiving feedback from both tutors
and peers?
@ When you are teaching a course, what steps do you take in order to
discover the needs of each student in the class?
Pastoral care
No trainee will work well on a course if there are problems outside of
the school environment. On training courses that are offered to external
candidates, problems may emerge if the trainee’s accommodation isn’t
suitable; for example, they may have nowhere to study in the evening
or they may be incompatible with their flatmates. This might be the
responsibility of your school’s accommodation officer, but such problems
quickly become the problem of the course director if they aren’t resolved.
Rooms and resources

The training room used for input should reflect a similar environment to
one that trainees are expected to teach in. Training rooms should be well
equipped, but if they contain more technology than the classroom trainees
are expected to teach in, a disparity of resources will be noted. Make it clear
on day one what the policy regarding resources is. For example:
m Can trainees take resource books home at night?

m How many photocopies can be made per class?
m How much access do they have to computers or self-access facilities?

@ Do all trainees have access to the school WiFi?
2015. ivi
Timetabling
On external courses where the content is driven by the syllabus (perhaps
one set by an exam board), you will need to timetable the course.
Below is an example of a timetable from week one of an intensive one-month

course design for pre-service teachers.
158 aA practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing

Students and teaching practice

Finding students who are willing to attend specially arranged lessons for
trainee teaching practice can be one of the biggest practical challenges
for many managers. Having found volunteer students, you then need to
ensure they continue to attend. One reason they will leave a course is if
the teachers in training offer what the students perceive as poor lessons.
However, don’t assume this is always the case. Many volunteer students will
have other commitments (family, jobs, etc.), so their availability during the
day may be affected.
Here are some strategies used by managers to attract and keep students for
teaching practice:
™ Students sign up and pay a nominal registration fee that is just enough
to ensure that they turn up regularly.
m Teachers take a register and make it known that absences will be noted
and followed up.
@ The course includes one-to-one tutorials in which trainee teachers work
with individuals.
m@ Students who attend a certain number of classes receive a reward such

as a free workbook or dictionary.
@ The teachers bring in refreshments or hold a course party at the end.
Monitoring trainee progress

Throughout a course, there are different ways to monitor the progress of
trainees, and therefore the effectiveness of the course. One way is to meet
with each trainee in a one-to-one tutorial and to elicit their comments on
their own performance and their feedback on the course. The other way is to
monitor a candidate’s success on the course, in which case you will need to
provide assessment criteria.
One-to-one tutorials
Schedule at least one tutorial with each participant during a training
course. This should be timetabled (see ‘Friday’ in the timetable above)
and offer a formal situation for the trainee to comment on their own
development and the course itself. It is often useful to give the trainee a copy
of a form with points to consider so the tutorial begins with a clear focus.
The form on page 161 might be issued to the trainee the day before the
tutorial. An account of the tutorial discussion would be written up on this
form and signed by both parties.
Course feedback
There are two main ways to receive feedback on an external course: the first
is from the trainees and the second is from an external observer.
Trainee feedback
Trainees can be issued with a course feedback form during and/or at the end
of a course. The same kind of form could also be used on an internal staff
training programme.
Feedback forms should address all issues of the course and include a mixture
of subjective and objective data collection with scores given and space for
comments. The form on page 162 is an extract from an end-of-course feedback
form where the participant ticks one of the five boxes to indicate the extent to
which the training was effective, and is invited to explain or comment below.
4n0y : 5 ,
)QU Apractical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing
Tutorial form
Tutorial form
How do feel you are progressing on the course overall?
Which areas do you feel you have most progressed in?
Which areas would you like to focus on or do you need tutor support for?
Is there anything you are particularly concerned about?
Is there anything you would like more of on the course?
Is there anything you would like less of?
Discuss these questions with your tutor, who will summarise the discussion below with any action
points to be taken.
rcnaanensy: (trainer)
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External feedback
Externally-validated courses may include a visit from a representative of
the validating body. This person may be required to observe an input session
and some teaching practice as well as meeting course participants. Usually,
a report on this inspection will follow; it should provide useful suggestions
for improvement as well as reassurance that you are running the course
successfully.
Assessing participant performance

The effectiveness of many externally-offered courses will be measured in
terms of how well your course participants do. If success is measured by
external assessment and certification, then your aim is to try and ensure all
your trainees pass. Assessment on training courses has been referred to in
previous chapters, but below is an overview of the different ways in which
performance might be measured.
1 62 A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and

Teaching practice
On courses which contain a teaching practice component, the largest
proportion of marks are normally allocated to this component.
Written work
On many courses, participants may have to keep written logs of their work.
This might be a teaching practice journal, summaries of observations of
other teachers or a project about the learning of an individual student or
class. At postgraduate level, the end result may be a dissertation or thesis.
Exams
Trainees may have to take a written exam at the end of the course, in
which case the programme may need to offer exam skills training and the
opportunity to take a mock exam beforehand. Exams could cover a wide
range of topics from knowledge and understanding of language through to
explanations of classroom practice and how to apply it to different situations.
Interviews
Some courses end with the participants being interviewed by an external
examiner. The interview might constitute a general discussion of teaching,
or it might focus on certain areas such as materials design or phonology.
The checklist on page 164 is typical of the type of form a manager might use
to ensure all areas of a course have been addressed before, during and after
the course.
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Course checklist A
Course checklist
Before the course...
All application forms have been received and CheCkKE ..........ccceccsecsescseteeseseseeeeeeeenetetensesnsesrenensnenesaenenns
The course participants have been intenvieWe ..2..i.2sosscc.sessesce

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nesceeeeees eeeeeeeea nent note men errant
The course participants have completed a needs analySis...........:cccccecceceseseseeseeeeteeteeseeeeseneescescssesesesseesees
The course programme/timetable has been prepared and distributed ............cceeete

ee eeeeeeeeeeeteeeeeeeees
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Reems equioment anc resources Mave; Dee MOO

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Students for teaching practice have been Enrolled ........c.ccccecceeceseccecsescseseeeceesesescsesevececsesesevscsesenscscsesceess
During the course...

Allicourse-participantsare attending oumetuially,.c.-:scesgesaacscnta
vee ee ee
Numbers of students for teaching practice are being Maintained ..........c..ccccccescesesessesessesessesesveeeevsveseeeens
Mid-course tutorial forms have been submitted
Action plans on mid-course tutorials are being implemented
Trainees and trainers have all the resources they require
Teachers to be observed by trainees have been informed
After the course... .

End of course feedback has been received
Managing the trainers

Many directors of studies, head trainers or managers of training departme
nts
will be directly involved in the delivery of training themselves. However,
they
will also be working with colleagues who train, and it may be your job
to
source and recruit trainers (either externally or from within the organisation).
Quality control
If you have assigned another trainer to give input sessions or mentor
teachers, then it may be necessary to observe training sessions in the same
way you would observe a teacher. Make it clear to the teacher trainer what
you are observing for and how feedback will be given.
Professional support
Trainers, like teachers, need ongoing professional support. This type of
colleague may need opportunities to develop in terms of being sponsored
to attend conferences or time for reading or research. Try to hold regular
meetings for trainers; these might take the form of a workshop or address
certain issues in training.
Involve trainers
As in any management situation, involve your staff in the decision-making
process. For example, after a course, hold a meeting with your training team
for any discussion relating to the course feedback. It should be a forum for
trainers to comment on the course and how things might be improved on
future programmes. This could also include suggestions from trainers for
possible areas of staff and personal development.
Training new trainers

When running a training course, use the opportunity to train up a member
of staff to become a teacher trainer on future courses. This will need you
to co-ordinate shadowing — in which the trainer in training will sit in on
input sessions and observe the teaching practice—observation—feedback
process. The novice trainer will need to understand the grade criteria and
standardise their own assessment alongside the experienced trainer. You
will probably also need to observe and give feedback to this trainer once
they take their own initial steps in the training room.
Standardisation and peer observation

Trainers will learn a great deal from observing each other in input sessions
and observing their peers giving feedback after teaching practice. This kind
of shadowing will also help to avoid situations where a trainee complains
that they are receiving contradictory feedback after teaching practice or
differing views on teaching. Regular sharing of ideas and good practice will
mean that your trainers are providing similar (though not necessarily the
same) content.
Conclusions
Managers of training courses may need to stress the importance of teacher
training in their school or educational institution. Management responsibility
will include planning, implementing, assessing and evaluating the course
delivery. You will also need to respond to the demands of your line manager
(perhaps the school owner), the course participants, the trainers and, if the
course includes teaching practice, the students. Maintain regular monitoring
of courses using techniques such as observation of input, administering
feedback forms and assessing results from courses with assessed
qualifications. Promote a culture of teamwork between your trainers.
»OO — Apractical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd and
its licensors 2015.
Further reading
and resources
Journals
The Teacher Trainer: www.tttjournal.co.uk
English Teaching Professional: www.etprofessional.com

Modern English Teacher: www.modernenglishteacher.com
ELT Journal: www.eltj.oxfordjournals.org
Books
Foord D (2009) The Developing Teacher. Delta Publishing.
Gower R D, Phillips D & Walter S (2005) Teaching Practice: Aguide for

teachers in training. Macmillan Education.
Harmer J (1998) How to teach English. Longman
Hockly N (2012) Webinars:A cookbook for educators. The Round.
Hockly N & Clandfield L (2010) Teaching Online. Delta Publishing.
Hughes J (2014) ETpedia. Pavilion Publishing.
Hughes J (2009) Business Result Teacher’s Books: Business English Teacher

Training Videos. OUP.
Malderez A and Bodéczky C (1999) Mentor Courses: A resource book for

trainer-trainers. CUP.
McDonough J & Shaw C (2012) Materials and Methods in ELT. Wiley-

Blackwell.
Further reading and resources
Parrott M (2010) Grammar for English Language Teachers. CUP.
Randall M & Thornton B (2001) Advising and Supporting Teachers. CUP.
Scrivener J (2011) Learning Teaching. Macmillan Education.
Spratt M & Pulverness A (2011) The TKT Course. CUP.
Thaine C (2010) Teacher Training Essentials: Workshops for professional

development (Cambridge Copy Collection). CUP.
Thornbury S (1997) About Language: Tasks for teachers of English. CUP.
Thornbury S (2006 )An A-Z of ELT: Macmillan Education.
Tripp D (2011) Critical Incidents in Language Teaching. Routledge.
Ur P (2012) A Course in English Language Teaching. CUP.
Wajnryb R (1993) Classroom Observation Tasks. CUP.
Watkins P (2014) Learning to Teach English:A practical introduction for

new teachers. Delta Publishing.
White R, Hockley A & Laughner M (2008) From Teacher to Manager:

Managing language teaching organizations. CUP.
Woodward T (1992) Ways of Training: Recipes for teacher training. Longman.
ARO
106 — Apractical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing and
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Teaching English
Seno ck gy TR
A Practical Introduction to
Teacher Training in ELT
If you work as a teacher trainer, intend to become a teacher trainer or do any staff
training as part of your role, this book is an invaluable support tool to help you
understand and shape your teacher training practice.
This is the ideal teacher training companion, covering all aspects of training, both face
to face and online:
e Find out how to get into teacher training.

e Discover techniques to use in input sessions.
e Develop ways to structure sessions.
e Integrate technology into your training.
e Understand common approaches for observing lessons and giving feedback.
e Gain insights into planning, managing and co-ordinating training programmes.
Each chapter includes an ‘Ask yourself’ section, to prompt you to stop and reflect on
what you have read and ask yourself questions about how it relates to you to enable
you to deepen your learning.
The book also includes access to pdf downloads and photocopiable pages with ideas for
training sessions and teaching practice observation forms.
From the publishers of MET and ETp

N 978-1-910366-99-
modern teacher B
YeOguSo
iUNnGel
ha |
| ||
9 "781910"3669
Pavilion Publishing and Media, Rayford House, Tel: 01273 43 49 43 Fax: 01273 22 73 08
School Road, Hove, BN3 5HX Email: info@pavpub.com Web: www.pavpub.com
E-226-08-15

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Teaching English

First published 2015.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in

Pavilion is the leading publisher of professional development products in

Author: John Hughes

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How the book is organised

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‘Ask yourself’ questions

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a the skills required.

Routes to becoming a teacher trainer

What is the typical profile of a teacher trainer?

14 A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing

an ideal way to develop your professional skills, while supporting a less

The Director of Studies as trainer

Ways of working towards being a trainer

Gain further qualifications

postgraduate qualifications such as an MA in Applied Linguistics or TESOL.

Key considerations when moving

Jumping in too soon

Time and rewards

Becoming the expert

Different training contexts

Pre-service (pre-experience) teachers

iO A practical introduction to teacher training in ELT © Pavilion Publishing

When it comes to observing classroom teaching practice and giving

Assessing and inspecting

The skills required

implementing discussions on topics about which you already have an opinion.

Similarly, badly designed materials or inept classroom management do not

gy) bie ore ;

Language awareness and presenting language

A still from a video of a teacher trainer presenting a timeline from

These three same elements can be present in a successful teacher training

| get up at 6am every day. I'm watching the TV at the moment.

We're meeting at 8pm this evening. | was born in 1983.

1. They were driving to a party at midnight.

2. They were driving to a party when the car broke down.

3. I've lived in this house for three years.

4. One day I’m going to be a footballer.

5. I'll see you next week.

Training plan on correcting spoken errors

1 Write the following on the board: To discuss error

2. discuss possible technique for correction (e.g. tell them

List of spoken errors to be handed out to trainees in O

1. I'm going to wok to work.

Listening skills and empathy

Similarly, listening skills are important for a trainer. Showing that