Page 14 - ELG2104 Apr Issue 475

FEATURES & COMMENT

out there. Further, the company has just
launched a new 40-hour TEFL teaching exam
preparation class.
The 120-hour TEFL course normally costs
£319. A half-price promotion (£159.50) with
a special code on the website was available at
the time of writing.

i-to-i TEFL
®
I-to-i.com
i-to-i TEFL offers initial training courses
®
of three lengths: 120 hours, 180 hours
and 300 hours. This is a fun, upbeat site
with direct appeal to those beginning in
the profession. It may be for you if you’re
considering an internship, as support is offered
in finding a placement. Packages comprise
free accommodation, in-country support,
orientation and visa guidance. Some paid
positions are available.
The personal stories, such as what it’s Richmond Learning Platform
like teaching in China, are worth reading.
Covering areas such as what to pack, these
are enthusiastically written by teachers who which covered dictionary compilation, types Tracking tools provide useful data on
mention some of the mundane realities of of dictionary and the latest lexicographic individual students, displaying information
living and working abroad. research. Other areas include inter-cultural such as their first attempt, their final score and
This organisation is based in Leeds, UK, knowledge and artificial intelligence. the time spent on activities.
and was established in 1994. The cost of the You can download a 74-page report called This data can be used by teachers in blended
120-hour initial course is £245. The 300-hour The Future of Learning on how, what and why scenarios to inform their choice of (a) what to
course costs £855. At the time of writing, these people are continuing their education. Some of teach in class, either face-to-face or online,
were heavily discounted in a sale. the trends identified are unsurprising, such as and (b) what to suggest to students to study
online learning is becoming the norm; digital between classes. Students can develop their
Online learning learning is here to stay; younger generations own, personalised learning pathway.
You can take an online course in pretty well show the most interest in online learning. Online learning involves synchronous and
anything nowadays. Slogans include ‘Study Prices vary. Some courses offer a free trial asynchronous elements. Live online classes
any topic, anytime’ and this flexibility is the and then you pay £36 per month to keep are commonly delivered using Zoom, MS
main selling point. Udemy offers 130,000 learning online. You can upgrade specific Teams, Skype™, Cisco Webex and other
courses. Unsurprisingly, courses vary widely courses, paying £52 for permanent access as platforms devised initially for web meetings.
long as it’s on FutureLearn. You can opt for The asynchronous learning on the platform
Digital learning ‘Unlimited’ which is usually £199.99 (on offer consists of email exchanges and knowledge
building through the discussion forums. In
at £139 at the time of writing), with access to
is here to stay many short courses. a recent interesting development on the
Richmond Learning Platform, teachers can
Publisher platforms set up their online class from the publisher
in terms of cost, academic rigour, final One of the best-known online platforms, Moodle, platform by selecting Zoom or MS Teams from
qualification and course-type. Key to this is highly customisable and designed to be a drop-down menu.
explosion in online education opportunities populated with text, audio, video and interactive
is the concept of ‘self-paced’. A MOOC content for the courses offered by a particular To conclude….
(Massive Open Online Course) means you institution or training provider. This contrasts In the past few years, there has been an
study with a cohort of thousands. Here we loo with publisher-produced platforms, which house explosion in the number of online platforms
at well-known platform FutureLearn. digital materials that are generally written by offering an infinite variety of services, subjects
established ELT authors and accompany a to learn and ways to study them. We’ve only
FutureLearn print course book. Classroom teachers suddenly had room to touch on a few examples, but the
futurelearn.com/partners/british-council finding themselves teaching online due to the richness and variety of what’s out there for
FutureLearn is a commercial, digital edu- pandemic have certainly appreciated the wealth both students and teachers is set to increase.
cation platform which has partnered with of digital language-teaching material available
international universities and specialist on publisher platforms.
organisations to offer online courses and The typical grammar-practice exercise types Pete Sharma is
degrees. Launched in 2013, it has grown in found on a publisher-produced platform will a teacher trainer,
popularity and renown. Courses are designed be familiar to teachers and students alike, and consultant and
as MOOCs and cover a diverse range of topics. include multiple-choice exercises, type-in gap author. He works
To get a flavour of these, you could try an fill exercises, and reordering and matching as a pre-sessional
online language course, such as Chinese, activities. A constraint of such exercises is the lecturer in
English, Irish and Norwegian. Related topics need for clear, unambiguous answers which EAP (English
are IELTS and linguistics. I dabbled in a couple can be marked right or wrong, so grey areas of for Academic
of courses and was impressed. I learned about language are avoided. As such, these digital Purposes) at
EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction exercises have been criticised. Nevertheless, Warwick University, UK. Pete has a Masters
for Academics) from the University of they do provide guided practice which often in Educational Technology and ELT from
Southampton and did the Understanding complements the freer, communicative Manchester University. petesharma.com.
English Dictionaries from Coventry University, teaching that occurs in a classroom.
14 April 2021