Our 4-week intensive course will provide you with the tools and guidance to become a qualified TEFL/ESL teacher and seek out competitive jobs. Here we give you a better idea of what our TEFL course contains.
Presentation is where the teacher presents students new information, a list of new vocabulary or a grammar point, and offers examples and real-life usage of the new language. This must be detailed and may be presented in many ways until the student can fully grasp what it means.
Practice is where students will be given an activity to practice the new aspect of language – this could be a reading exercise, fill in the gap or games.
Production is where the students will use the language in context, in an activity set up by the teacher, maybe by writing a letter or role-playing with other students.
The most important aspect of our course is the teaching experience you will gain. Each trainee teaches 6 classes which are observed by a member of the TtMadrid team. As part of the course, you are also required to watch 6 of your peers teach, an invaluable experience in allowing you to refine your skills. We offer free English classes at the school and have many Spanish-speaking students that sign up for them with the objective of improving their English. They are a wonderful group of people, and we will give you the experience of teaching all levels from A1 to C1, with both group and one-to-one classes. You may also have the opportunity to teach a telephone class during the course too!
During the first week of the course, you will watch 4 model classes given by the TtMadrid team. We will show you how to design a class, how to give it, what techniques to use and how to control the members of your class. This week of “observing” will ensure that you find the transition into the second week of “doing” much smoother.
The process is simple. We plan a class together using the PPP methodology – Presentation (“I do it”), Practice (“We do it”), Production (“You do it”). Once your plan is complete, you then teach your class. One of the TtMadrid trained observers will be sat at the back observing your class from start to finish, writing a detailed feedback form at the same time. Once your class is over, we will sit down together to discuss how the class went, what you did well and what you need to work on for your following class. By giving such structured and supportive feedback, the quality of your teaching improves incredibly quickly.
Planning a lesson is one of the things that new teachers find very daunting. During the first week of the course, you will be given example lesson plans to follow as you observe the TtMadrid team teach. You will then, over two lessons, dissect the components of a good lesson plan to understand its composition and the rationale behind it. In addition, you will learn how to write excellent objectives that give you a clear focus of what you are trying to achieve. You will also be introduced to the PPP lesson planning methodology (presentation, practice, production) that will ensure you are capable of writing a thorough and effective lesson plan, regardless of your level of experience. You will be required to produce six lesson plans whilst on the course.
During this input, you will analyze a range of real-life scenarios–things that we know (based on our extensive experience) will happen to you as a teacher within weeks, if not days, of starting work. We are committed to ensuring that you complete the course confident in your ability to deal with a range of students: the dominant student, the quiet and painfully shy student who hides in the back of the classroom and the busy business person who can’t be disconnected from their mobile phone. Regardless of the situation, you will be able to handle yourself with both grace and professionalism, leaving the student in no doubt that they are in the capable hands of a trained practitioner.
Many teachers use the same materials year in, year out, which is both uninspiring and demotivating for students. Finding up-to-date and interesting material in books, newspapers and websites, as well as designing your own materials and creating games, is essential to keeping your students captivated and motivated. Teaching business English can be even more of a challenge and we will put you on the right track by providing you with a wide range of materials and skills, to keep your teaching material portfolio up-to-date.
Once your TEFL course is over, our door always remains open to you. TtMadrid grads are welcome to come back to use our extensive library, our computers and materials or even just for a chat and a cup of tea!
This project requires you to work in a group to do an in-depth analysis of the needs and abilities of an English student. This project is very extensive and will really test, through the application, the things you have learned on the course. After collecting a range of data through testing your student’s listening, reading, writing and speaking skills, you will use this data to develop a telephone class, needs analysis and course plan. You will also be required to use the knowledge you’ve gained of grammar, phonetics, word stress, sentence stress and intonation to dissect the data collected in order to determine your student’s strengths, weaknesses and level in accordance with the Common European Framework.
Learning how to identify mistakes and correct them is crucial to a student’s development. Moving from one level to the next in English is often very difficult and is greatly reliant on thorough correction from a consistent teacher. However, effective correction is not an easy skill to master. What to correct? When to correct? How to correct? Are all important questions that will be answered in this two-part input. You will see a student and teacher work together so you can see live examples of error and correction.
To ensure that you know how to develop a course tailored to your students’ needs.
We call our TEFL course the TEFL Plus course! The reason being is that we do all the subjects of a regular TEFL course as well as some additional units that we believe make you very marketable and extremely employable. We are determined to ensure that our graduates have an edge over other teachers. Two units that will give you this edge are Needs Analysis and Oral Level Testing. Many companies will employ a team of teachers for a few weeks before the start of the teaching year to do comprehensive Needs Analysis and Level Testing within companies. This is a great opportunity to earn extra cash outside the teaching year. Knowing how to design and conduct both these things just gives you an extra string to your bow.
There is a huge demand for one-to-one classes here in Madrid and as a result, all trainees will receive training on this type of class. Many of the resources you will find in books and on the internet suit groups–not one-to-one classes. We will show you how to adapt your material and style to meet the different objectives of one-to-one teaching. Many senior executives take this type of class in order to meet specific objectives such as a new project with an English-speaking company, a job promotion, or because it is expected within the company. We will teach you how to identify their motivation and needs and how to teach them effectively.
This is the new phenomenon that is sweeping Spain and most of Europe! With business people finding it increasingly difficult to attend group classes due to their busy schedules, many are turning to telephone classes. You call the student at a pre-arranged time and work through agreed themes and topics. These are fun and interesting, but you need different skills and materials in order to teach this type of class. All of our trainers are experienced telephone teachers who have designed and prepared extensive lessons and role plays. We will pass on our knowledge to you and, best of all, you don’t even have to get out of bed to teach these classes!
This is a core element of the course and taught over three inputs (Reading/Writing, Listening and Speaking). We will comprehensively look at the things you need to consider when teaching these skills and explore varied and interesting ways of helping your students develop in these areas.
This is the module that students fear the most before signing up to do a TEFL course. We are well aware that many of us don’t formally learn about the grammatical characteristics of our own language at school any more. Therefore, we have created our entire grammar inputs with this in mind. We will take you back to the very basics and slowly build upon this. Within a very short period of time, you will not only be able to understand grammar, tenses and parts of speech, but you will be able to teach them effectively too.
Understanding the English phonemic alphabet is a very important tool that will be invaluable as you help your students with their pronunciation. Being able to use the phonemic alphabet will also set you apart from many teachers who underutilize it as a teaching tool. Being able to demonstrate to students how to correctly make a “bilabial plosive sound” and what exercises they can do in order to make these sounds with greater ease in the future will not only impress your students, but it will also result in improved pronunciation in a short amount of time.
Pronunciation is an area that all students of English worry about. As a result they will greatly appreciate your knowledge in this area that is fraught with confusions such as ‘ate’ and ‘eight’ and ‘meet’ and ‘meat’. We will send you the phonemic chart so you can become familiar with it before the course starts.
YOU get to be the student learning a foreign language!
Something all great English teachers have in common is the ability to empathize and relate to what their students are going through. Learning another language requires courage, patience, persistence and hard work, and as a teacher you need to understand the myriad of emotions your students feel whilst in the classroom. Putting yourself in their shoes will make you a better teacher and help you design more successful classes.
With this in mind we get you to undertake two lessons in another language whilst on the course. You will receive lessons using the TEFL methodology. This is not only to ensure you experience what your students experience, but it is also to ensure you gain confidence using a system whereby you are only taught in the language you are learning. We want you to be able to work anywhere in the world regardless of the language you speak. TEFL is a methodology that will expand your teaching opportunities—a qualification that is effective and recognized everywhere. The TtMadrid team has a variety of talents and is home to two fabulous Russian and Croatian teachers!
During the classes you will be required to take notes in order to complete a journal about your thoughts and feelings and identify the skills and styles that the teacher is using to help you learn the language. This really is a fun element of the course and, without exception, students find this an invaluable experience.
You will receive two Teaching Children inputs over the duration of the course, focusing on both the theoretical and practical elements involved. During the first session, you will explore forms of effective classroom management as well as finding useful sites to source materials for children of all ages. In the second input, we will show you how PPP can be applied to a young learner’s environment in a fun and dynamic manner.
Whether you are planning to look for a TEFL/ESL job in Spain, return home, or go to another country to teach English, we will help you work out the best career path for you. We will spend time with you to work out the next stage to ensure your teaching career gets off to a flying start. If you are planning on working in Spain, we will give you all the information you need from housing, taxes and finding a doctor to helping you get your NIE appointment, bank account and mobile phone.
We also have fantastic contacts with some of the best-paying teaching agencies in Madrid. We will help you tailor your CV to the teaching market and send it to over 350 schools, academies and agencies in Madrid. If you are planning to go to work in other countries, we have a wide range of information, resources and contacts.
We also offer full support after the course and you can come back with any queries, questions or just to tell us how you’re doing. We are always pleased to keep in contact with our former trainees and offer them whatever guidance and support they may need.
Many TEFL courses in Madrid and beyond also employ you as they run their own in-company classes. Whilst we know this seems like a plus, TtMadrid specifically chose not to have its own English classes from day one. We chose to do this because, for us, it is simple: we are a teacher training organization and we put all our focus into this. We also knew that you can only offer some of your graduates some hours, so what happens to the rest? You then need to find them jobs with your competitors, which is never easy.
TtMadrid works with so many schools, academies and agencies because we do not compete with them–so they play nicely with us. We generally receive about 20 job offers a week from them and work with quite a few agencies that like to interview you before the course is even finished so they can employ you with an empty schedule.
ALL our graduates get good quality work straight after the course because we are well-connected and are relentless in our support to ensure you get what you came here for.