Job Discussion Forums

[jimi1999uk]

I've applied to do an intensive Trinity Tesol course today and was hoping i could pick some brains about it on this forum.

Firstly, the main one i can't seem to figure out is this. The course advertises "a virtually 100% pass rate for the cert course" but from what i can make out the intensive course seems very hard and very full on. How can it have such a high pass rate? It's most definitely a legit school btw.

Are you able to resubmit failed assignments once the course has ended on most of them?

What level of knowledge should you be able to show to pass the course?
Seems a huge amount to squeeze into 4 weeks and expect you to retain most of it. Or should i view passing the course as like passing my driving test, it just makes sure your safe and avoid too many car crashes in the classroom. Sorry couldn't resist.

What sort of preparation would be most useful for someone getting ready to do a cert? I'm planning on taking it in either March or the summer but i'm pretty nervous about my abilities and study skills as it's been a decade since i've had to do anything like this. I'm not a graduate either. Oh paranoid is me! Meh, i'm going to be fine. It is my mission to pass this.

Thanks.

[Chris_Crossley]

[nickpellatt]

I completed a Trinity Cert TESOL in September last year.

Are you able to resubmit once the course has ended?

Some people did on mine. Generally my course was split up so assignments were handed in on week 2, week 3 and week 4. This did mean if you failed weeks 2's assignment, you could resubmit during the course itself rather than after. In fact, on my course of 12 students, only 2 of us had successfully completed the assignments with passing grades by the final day. The other 10 had to resubmit and so didnt pass until sometime after the course had finished. One thing with resubmissions ... if you do have to resubmit, the highest grade you can acheive is a C on that assignment.

I was one of the lucky two who passed without having to resubmit anything.

What level of knowledge do you need to pass? Mainly ... it isnt so much a level of knowledge, but rather you need to be able to show some progression during the course. I feel that tutors like to see some development, growth and an increase in confidence during the course duration. You are not expected to be a grammarian, or an expert teacher. In fairness ... I think most tutors expect you to be a total newbie with minimal knowledge to start with ... at the end of the course, they want to see an improvement, and see a graduate who, with training and mentoring, could be a competent EFL instructor. These certs are generally regarded as entry level only, and are designed to start you on the path to becoming a competent teacher ... no one expects a 4 week course to produce the finished article.

What prep do I need to do?

I will disagree with Chris slightly. I dont think cramming complicated grammar resource books is the way to go. In my recent course experience, people had bought the recommended reading material, but mostly found it hard to understand and relate to. This is especially true of books like Swann (which everyone raves about).

The issue is most native speakers have no idea about grammar at all. Leaping in at reference book level is too much for most people (although said book does provide and excellent resource for those familiar with grammar already).

What I would recommend is using very simple resources to learn some grammar in the way a student of English would.

http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_sys.htm

This is a link to tenses on English Club, I think looking through this and other links on the same site is going to introduce you to grammar items in a simple and easy to understand manner. Using this type of site to become familiar with the tense system, conditionals, phrasal verbs etc etc would put you in a stronger position than some of your fellow trainees. It would also be worth looking up the IPA system as this was used a lot on my course. I feel this is more useful than spending money on expensive grammar books that may be difficult for you to understand.

I would recommend 'Learning teaching' by Scrivener though ... this is quite accessible and useful pre course IMO.

Very useful point by Chris about not having a Uni degree though. It may well harm you in finding jobs. I actually first enquired about a trinity course around 5 years ago. the first thing I asked them was if I could work within the school offering the course assuming I had passed the trinity. The answer was no, not without a degree. Do bear than in mind ... the course they are offering isnt enough to work within the organisation that offers it, UNLESS you have other suitable qualifications first.

I went on and decided to complete a degree (my results are due this week actually) and if you are in the UK, I would recommend looking at a program of distance learning with the OU. At the time of writing there are grants available meaning you may be able to take an OU degree FREE OF CHARGE!

Any other points please ask ... I really enjoyed my trinity course and cant recommend it enough

[jimi1999uk]

[nickpellatt]

I also looked at the OU a number of years ago and thought it just looked too time consuming ... and now I wish I had started when I first looked at it! I have actually completed my degree in around 2.5 years ... much quicker than I thought, although this was mainly because I pretty much quit work to study full time for part of it. Do look into it.

Pitfalls - Pre-course, I think some trainees try to cram too much, and get their noses stuck into inaccessible books. The result being all of my peers arrived scared of grammar and generally confused by the reference books they had read. This is why I suggested a link with simple grammar points on English Club. If you have never learnt grammar before, you need to approach it as a language learner does, this website does that. Learning grammar takes years, so pre-course, just learning some basics, and learning them well, is far better than trying to do too much with advanced level books.

Another hurdle/pitfall people seemed to face is the grading of speech. If you have done any public speaking or had to chair/host meetings etc in a professional capacity, you probably fall into a set pattern of speech. For most of us, this would be formal, with perhaps complicated vocabulary. Many of my peer trainees, perhaps due to nerves when speaking infront of their class, fell straight into this trap and addressed their classes in this way .. its like a manner that is deeply inbedded or ingrained as habit.

Now the reason this is a pitfall, is that when speaking to language learners, we need to use speech patterns that are simple, clear and concise ... easy for them to understand. Let me give you a GENUINE example that I witnessed on my course.

Trainee Teacher (holding up flashcards) - 'Welcome to my convenience store, which items do you wish to purchase today?'

Students - (stare blankly at teacher in silence.)

Thats a perfect example of the teacher not grading his speech to a suitable level for his students. He doesnt need to impress them with a formal manner and long sentences and complicated clauses. A simple 'Here is a shop, what do you want?' is far more likely to be understood.

If you want to prepare yourself for that ... it is just worth striking up conversations with language students or foreigners that you meet locally. Look at how you speak to them, and note when they struggle to understand. Its really important to be aware of your speech patterns and vocabulary when speaking to non-native speakers. Think how much harder 'ecstatic' or 'over the moon' is to understand compared to 'happy'. Grading speech was the hardest thing for most people during teaching practice I would say.

Stage fright wasnt something I had in honesty. I had taught before (quite badly though!) but I think my lack of stage fright was mainly due to the fact I knew full well I wasnt expected to be a perfect teacher, and I went there to learn, to have people point out my mistakes, and to be corrected. You need to leave your ego at the classdoor and kind welcome people watching and correcting you. I knew from the start that people were watching to help me, not to destroy me ... and I was also aware the environment was a very safe one to practise in. By safe I mean the students werent paying for tuition, and I couldnt get fired or given a written warning etc. It was just 'training' and was there for my benefit.

Toughest assignment. Bear in mind Trinity course providers do have different assignments ... what I did may differ. My assignments were as follows;

Unknown language - write reports after 4 lessons of learning a language from the perspective of a language learner.
Language Awareness - write a report/project on a language point as given to you by course tutors. Mine was 3rd conditionals, and the difference between 3rd and 2nd conditionals. (you can google this to see what it means)
Learner Profile - Interview a student, prepare a lesson based on their needs, deliver lesson, write a report and follow up plan for future lessons.
Teaching Observation - Observe 4 lessons by qualified teachers and write reports on them.

I wouldnt say any one of them was especially difficult .. the language awareness was probably the toughest for me. Some of my peers found the unknown language module hard ... but this was because they sat in class and tried really hard to learn the language being taught rather than trying really hard to note the methods used ... which was kinda more important.

The most important thing is the time management ... the people that struggled with the assignments, struggled in time management. I didnt actually think the course was that bad ... and I really enjoyed it, but I managed my time well, and made the course my 100% focus for the month. When I was given an assignment at the end of the first week, I did 90% of the work for it on the first weekend. When I had a lesson plan to complete, I did it before evening dinner, not after it at 10pm after I had sunk a few pints. As a consequence, I had all my work finished by 8pm each night, and by the 3rd week I was ahead of all my coursework and lesson plans, and I even had two afternoons off in the 4th week.

My peers didnt do this, and struggled as a result. I also didnt struggle with lesson plans as I stuck to the simple stuff. My peers spent hours and hours dreaming up new ideas, and I pretty much trusted the EFL professionals who wrote the course book, and followed their plans in the course books provided. You dont need to re-invent the wheel after all.

Go for it! It is great fun ... Id even like to do the course again!