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The trainers' index

There is, as yet, no internationally recognised qualification for English language teacher trainers.  This section of the site does not pretend to establish one, of course, but it is here to help those who find themselves training other English language teachers.
The section is intended for:

  1. People new to training at any level who find that simply watching other trainers in action has not properly prepared them for their role and responsibilities.
  2. People transitioning from initial training of novice teachers to in-service training at diploma level and above who need to re-examine their roles and responsibilities.
  3. People already experienced in teacher training who may want a different way at looking at some areas of what they do or are faced with training in an area new to them.

Training online

Currently, because of the Covid-19 outbreak, many trainers are moving their face-to-face work to online and virtual classrooms.
ELT Concourse is an online resource, of course, and help is at hand.
In particular, it is now the case as a permanent measure that CELTA courses can be delivered fully online, face to face or as a blend of online and face-to-face contact.
There is a guide you can access here to how to train online, what facilities you will need, how to plan online teaching and how to find materials on this site to help you.


On the left the black menu has links to other areas of this site of interest to teacher trainers.
The link to Training to Train )also linked below) takes you to the index page of a six-unit course intended to help people convert themselves from language teachers to language teacher trainers.
You may, of course, already have accomplished that conversion but you may also find some ideas there when you have time to look.
In addition, here's a menu of more choices.  Other sections and guides will appear from time to time.

Introductory guides
Getting into training If you are a teacher with ambitions to become a trainer of other teachers, this short guide may help.
Initial vs. in-service training A short guide to the similarities and crucial differences.  It also contains some comments on the dangers of trickle-down training of trainers.
Training to Train This is a six-unit course in converting yourself from a masterful teacher to a decent teacher trainer.
Language analysis This is a 10-unit course covering the elements of pronunciation, word class, content and function words, subjects and objects, tenses and aspects, modality, sentences, phrases, clauses and text structures.  Each part comes with a test which you may find helpful for initial training courses or as pre-session revision on in-service courses.
The guides in this section This is an overview that you only need to look at once of how the guides in this section of ELT Concourse are structured.
Copyright This is a short explanation of how you may and may not use the materials you find here on your own training courses.  Please follow the guidelines.
Mythologies in ELT This is a short guide to some prevalent mythologies in the profession which should be treated with care.
About language This is an index of guides unlinked to the practicalities of teaching but concerning matters you should know about.

Topic area Initial training In-service training
Grammar and lexis Sentence elements Types of modality
Tense and aspect Adverbials
Modal auxiliary verbs Determiners
Word class Deixis
Meaning and lexical relationships Complex sentences
Collocation Multi-word verbs
Word formation Lexical relationships
Transcription Worksheet #1 only (probably) Use worksheets #1 and #2
Skills An introduction in three parts  
Methodology Background and understanding Methodology refined

There is also a guide (click here to open it in a new tab) to doing useful and usable classroom-based research which you may find helpful if you are involved in training courses which require the skills.

Other sets of worksheets will appear here from time to time.
If there is something in particular that you need, contact ELT Concourse and it may be prioritised.