Page 7 - ELG1601 Apr Issue 435

ELmanagement
April 2016 Page 7
common for people to be A taste of language teaching

t is unfortunately still quite
Ioffered an English language
teaching post simply because
they are a native speaker or Monica Poulter describes the new Cambridge English ‘massive open online course’ in
because they have an academic
degree. To raise awareness of partnership with FutureLearn which aims to raise awareness of what ELT is all about
the demands of the profession
and how best to prepare for a
first teaching post, we’ve been puts a big responsibility on the
working with FutureLearn – a teacher. This can only achieved About FutureLearn
social learning platform based with good-quality teaching, and FutureLearn is a social learning platform based in the
in the UK owned by the Open Exploring the World of English UK providing free online courses from the world’s
University – to launch Exploring Language Teaching is a really leading educators. The partnership consists of UK and
the World of English Language good starting point. international universities, alongside specialist educa-
Teaching, a free ‘massive open The core audience is probably tion institutions and centres of research excellence
online course’ which will give young graduates but it’s suitable from around the world. All these offer high-quality
people a taste of what English for anyone with C1-level Eng- courses to anyone with an internet connection, any-
language teaching is about. lish who is genuinely interested where in the world.
The course will help raise in being an effective English The FutureLearn course experience centres on
awareness in four areas: what’s language teacher. We’ve opened social interaction, whereby people learn by engaging
involved in English language enrolment for the June start date in conversations around the learning material. Future-
teaching; the skills and knowl- and we’ve had thousands sign Learn is wholly owned by the Open University (UK),
edge required; the different up in the first two weeks, from which has over forty years of expertise in distance and
training options to choose from; gap-year students, mainstream online learning.
and the range of teaching oppor- teachers wishing to add teach-
tunities available. ing English to their skills set For more information, visit www.futurelearn.com
Online courses are changing and people looking for a career
the education landscape but peo- change.
Ultimately, whichever route
ple often wrongly assume there people choose, it’s important Advice for assessment
is little or no interaction. This
is certainly not the case. Peo- not to underestimate how chal-
ple taking part in the six-week lenging and rewarding English onstruct validity, reli- the Cambridge English approach
course will be able to ask ques- teaching can be as a career. So ability and positive to language testing and explored
tions at live events with experts Courtesy Monica Poulter our hope is that those following Cimpact are the three key concepts that help teachers
from different parts of the world this course will know what steps key ingredients to a good test, to make better use of tests in the
and there will be videos, articles, they need to take to prepare for according to two research- classroom. The viewing figures
quizzes and an interactive users’ their first teaching post so that ers from Cambridge English. showed there is a huge appetite
forum. GO FOR I.T. Monica Poulter says the course is part of a wider it will be a positive experience Evelina Galaczi and Nahal for this kind of information, with
Why are we dipping our toe initiative by Cambridge English to produce more digital resources both for themselves and their Khabbazbashi from Cambridge over 4,000 people registering to
into the waters of massive online learners. n English recently presented a take part in the seminar. n
courses? For a start it’s part of set up in Cambridge English. before taking up their first teach- webinar for teachers which was
our wider initiative to produce We’re also hoping the course ing position. Students expect a Visit www.futurelearn.com/ called ‘Understanding assess- Watch the webinar here:
more digital resources, which is will encourage more people to solid foundation for their lan- courses/explore-elt/1/ ment – what every teacher www.youtube.com/
being led by a new team we’ve undertake appropriate training guage learning, which ultimately for more information should know’. They focused on watch?v=WeC_ j3AhbZU