The TEFL Course
Teaching English in Guatemala

GVI operate programmes in many parts of the world where English is not the first language. Generally in these places when we discuss community development and capacity building programmes with the local population one of the requests is for some level of English language instruction or interaction.

We quickly began to realise that even activities like playing games with children, soccer against the local team or some casual “intercambios” with local park rangers, teachers or police could be more productive if GVI’s programme members had some basic instruction in language teaching. GVI have developed and run successfully 50 and 100 hour TEFL programmes however we were aware that on many busy projects there just wasn’t the time to fit this into participants training. Hence the “GVI INTRO TO TEFL” was developed. A flexible 20 hour course involving theory, planning and hands on language instruction in less formal situations than a traditional classroom.

The theory components of the GVI Intro to TEFL course include; Intro to learning and teaching; error correction; learning and teaching language; lesson planning; lesson staging; teaching children; teaching pronunciation; teaching vocabulary and classroom management.

When working with students in real teaching situations participants are encouraged to team teach for support and confidence building, to provide evaluation and feedback to fellow participants and to provide lessons that are fun both for themselves and the learners by using games and activities.

Not all parts of the GVI Intro to TEFL curriculum are applicable to every programme so you may only go through some modules that are relevant to the degree of contact and style of language instruction you will be involved in. We hope you enjoy the programme and realise it is a great way to maximise the benefits the local communities obtain through interaction with GVI programme participants as well as giving you the confidence to “have a go”.