During each Via Lingua TEFL Certificate Course trainees are asked to keep—and keep up-to-date—a Personal and Professional Portfolio; this tracks their learning progress and identifies areas for future effort. Here are some recent comments:
Pedagogy/Theory: “The 1-to-1 project allowed me to hone my needs analysis skills; I was able to identify areas of interest and need in my student’s use of English, and now I am confident I could reproduce the experience.”
Language Awareness: “I have definitely consolidated my knowledge of grammar and the practicalities of language. I feel much more confident in my abilities to use and explain the language to non-native speakers. Learning phonology was very useful to this end, as if forced me to think about how I made sounds and how it compared to the mechanics of other languages.”
Teaching Skills: “I have definitely massively improved! I feel that I was given the chance to increase my effectiveness both in a team and as an individual teacher. Mostly, I have obtained the tools to understand just how much I still have to learn in order to become the most effective version of myself in the classroom environment.”
Cultural Awareness: “Our TEFL classroom, itself, was quite multicultural, so bridges were definitely built there, and we all interacted with the local community either individually or in groups—we made friends!”
Life Skills: “I have been able to communicate and make decisions maturely. I didn’t realize how important this was going to be until all the feedback started, feedback which needed to be given and received with maturity.”
Final Comments: “The intensity of this course meant that I had to accept certain aspects of myself. In university I was in the habit of finishing assignments two weeks before they were due, any later and I got anxious. In this 4-week course it was impossible, but I was able to not tailspin! I think gaining this self-control was really important to me, not only for class but within myself, to be adaptable, flexible and maybe let things go a wee little bit.”