Sunday, December 6, 2020

English as a Medium of Instruction: an OPEN Online Teacher Training Course

 


Growing exponentially in professional EMI course design, lesson planning, materials creation, and interactive activities with a perfect score 

The U.S. Department of State sponsored this eight-week online course as part of the Online Professional English Network Program, or OPEN, to offer foreign English teaching professionals the opportunity to take university-level courses through FHI360. 

I was lucky enough to get accepted into three AE E-Teacher courses and two exchange programs to Seoul, Detroit, and SanDiego. My professional growth with awarding-winning programs, English teaching workshops, and innovative lesson planning is possible because of programs like this. 

Each module contains five tasks that I would have to spend eight to ten hours to complete each week:

  • Three video lectures
  • Three readings
  • Check for Understanding Quiz
  • Discussion
  • Assignment

There are EMIFinal Portfolio and EMI Training Plan assignments in the last week to help you put together what you learned from the whole course into an organized final report. 

Three weeks into the course, I knew there would be a good chance for me to get a perfect score out of every quiz, discussion, and assignment. Teaching in English has been my longstanding goal because I get to show off my English skills and create an authentic and motivating environment for my students to use English in various international exchange projects. I felt more and more comfortable doing the tasks each week. Positive feedback and constructive suggestions from Dr. Park and Robert had given me great confidence in sharing my EMI strategies and practices with teachers in other EFL countries. 

"Mini lecture and interactive activity combined is the key to engagement, with interconnected tasks building up to the end product."

I cannot emphasize "I learned a lot from this course" enough. But if I have to pick one that immediately reinforced my professional skills in teaching and sharing, it is the principle above. I've been adopting it in recent workshops, and based on how the participants reacted to this structure, I've found the secret formula for an engaging workshop.  

 

 

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