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Language Links, Spring 2003

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I am grateful to Berenice Hunter for the wealth of links to teacher-training sites she has provided for this issue of the Newsletter.

If you are interested in reviewing links for this page, could you please contact the page editor (see below). I would appreciate, in particular, hearing from anyone interested in taking a closer look at commercial sites or on-line dictionaries, although I am open to other suggestions.

Dr Anne Stokes, The University of Strathclyde
E-mail: a.stokes@strath.ac.uk
http://www.strath.ac.uk/Departments/ELTD/links.htm

 

Teacher Training Links

There seem to be fewer sites specifically for teacher trainers with ideas for materials and tasks in the way that there are for teachers. I suppose that is only to be expected. What we can access are sites that discuss teacher training issues.

For teacher trainers

http://www.ihes.com/ttsig/index2.asp: This is the site for the IATEFL Special Interest Group(SIG) on teacher training. There are some interesting articles from issues of The Teacher Trainer and reports of conference presentations.

http://www.tttjournal.co.uk/: This is a site based on the journal The Teacher Trainer which is produced by Pilgrims. Pilgrims have a web-site too which may be of interest:

http://www.pilgrims.co.uk/

http://www.btinternet.com/~ted.power/teflindex.htm: As the address suggests, this site was set up by Ted Power. It’s main focus is methodology but there are many other features.

http://www.simonbarne.com/tefl: This is a really fun site - but possibly not one to pass on to trainees, particularly the article 'CELTA without Tears'.

http://home.delfi.lv/thinking-approach/Methodological_Basis/OTSM-TRIZ_Skills.htm: You could give this to trainees - everything afterwards will seem so simple.

For Trainees

Once the seeds of reflection and development have been sown, it might be useful to direct trainees to EFL sites.

This one is particularly useful for trainees before embarking on a CELTA course:

http://www.english-international.com

Most of our CELTA trainees are concerned about getting a job so I usually give them this list of addresses before the course starts:

Links Pages and Resources

These would be useful to give to trainees on or post-course. They provide links to other sites for jobs, journals, teaching ideas etc:

Using the Internet for Teacher Training

One way to ensure that trainees are aware of the quantity and focus of material available on the web is to devote an input session to it. This is an outline of what I have done in a self-access centre:

  1. Prepare a task sheet which asks trainees to look for suitable alternative material for lessons they have taught recently. You could use some or all of the headings - Vocabulary, Grammar, Pronunciation, Reading, Listening, Speaking, Writing. Where there is no task available, trainees have to devise their own.

  2. Provide a short list of dedicated and non-dedicated sites to start them off.

  3. Set a time limit and put trainees in pairs - this encourages them to use each other as sounding boards. Ensure that both take notes of ideas and any other visited sites.

  4. Re-organise pairings to share findings.

  5. Vote for best ideas.

Berenice Hunter (Basil Paterson Edinburgh)
E-mail: celta@basilpaterson.co.uk

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