Introducing Oxford TEFL’s Teaching Teens Development Course!

It is with great excitement that we are able to announce our new Teaching Teens Development Course! Getting the course just right has taken time, but the finishing touches are complete and we are delighted to be able to share it with you all.

Why did we decide to create this course?

Teenage students have become the bread and butter of many TEFL teachers and institutions. Many countries require a certain level of English to graduate from high school or university, and easy access to English-language media have made many young people keener than ever to learn. All of this means that there are more and more employment opportunities for specialised teens teachers. For this reason, we have decided that the time is right for us to launch a course to help you become an expert at working with learners aged 12 – 17 years old.

Why specialise in Teaching Teens?

The challenges of working with this age group will be familiar to many teachers. Firstly, the teenage years are tough. Teens are undergoing changes in their personal, social and academic lives which can affect motivation and attention. They may also be under a lot of pressure and have competing demands on their time. Teenagers may still be recovering from the isolation brought on by Covid. Your style of teaching may differ substantially from what they have experienced in the past… the list goes on.

So, why specialise in working with a group which can be such a challenge? Well, as anyone who has taught teens will know, they are among the most rewarding students to work with. The classroom dynamic is often livelier than with adults, and teenagers can be very energetic (admittedly, not always…) Teens are more used to studying and taking exams so may have better study habits. This age group often has a fresh perspective which makes classroom discussion much more interesting for all involved. Teenagers are fun! They are often more receptive to games, and are able to make good use of modern techonology, which can really help with the learning process. What’s more, nobody was happier than teenagers to reconnect after the lockdown, and this is something that TEFL teachers can exploit.

In a nutshell then, many teachers choose to work primarily or exclusively with learners of this age because rewards far outweigh the challenges. This is especially true if you are in possession of a range of strategies to really make a success of your teen classes.

So, could you benefit from some expert instruction in this area? Might Teaching Teens be the right specialism for you? Read on and learn about how our latest development course can help you to improve your employability, prospects and – importantly! – salary.

What is the Teaching Teens course?

Who is this course for?

If you’ve read our latest blog post, you will already know that a 30-hour Teacher Development Course is a great way to begin specialising in your chosen field. Oxford TEFL has a suite of ten such courses, and has been providing teacher training since 1998. But who can benefit from our latest offering?

Newer TEFL teachers

Some of our Teaching Teens trainees are likely to be recent graduates of the CELTA or an equivalent course. These applicants often want to stand out from the crowd in the competitive job market. Most good TEFL courses will include some content about teaching teens, but of course this is not their main focus. Perhaps the course whet your appetite and now you would like to build on what you learnt? Maybe you’ve always loved working with young people? Are there more Teaching Teens jobs in your area? If you answered yes to any of these, the course is well worth a look.

More experienced TEFL teachers

It’s not only new graduates who can benefit from the Teaching Teens course. It would be just as suitable for teachers who have been working with teens for a while and feel that they have lost their proverbial mojo. After several years, teachers sometimes begin to feel that it’s impossible to make any real changes to their teaching style. Have you ever feared that your teenagers find your classes boring? Are you struggling to get them to do their homework? Short on ideas for games? Perhaps our Teaching Teens course is just what you need to make a fresh start and rediscover the passion that made you take on the job in the first place!

In short then, our Teaching Teens course helps you to become a specialist at working with this age group. We want our graduates to leave the course feeling that they have the theoretical knowledge, practical skills, and professional confidence to plan and deliver high-quality lessons for teenagers. Sounds good, right? Let’s give some thought now to the specifics of what to expect.

Justin McCarty, our Careers Advisor, tells us:

“If you’re thinking of taking a Development Course, my advice is GO FOR IT! I generally find that employers consider candidates with a specialism more favourably. This is because it demonstrates that they are working on their professional development and shows initiative. There’s certainly plenty of demand for teens classes at the moment, so the new course could be a great choice for a lot of teachers.“

Justin McCarty, Oxford TEFL Careers Advisor

Content

We have carefully designed our Teaching Teens course to include all the most relevant material with none of the ‘filler’ some comparable courses contain. Topics covered include the following:

• Understanding the characteristics of teenagers
• The skills of a teens teacher
• Classroom management
• Engagement and Motivation
• Planning a lesson
• Differentiation and Special Educational Needs
• Teacher-Parent Communication 
• Selecting Coursebooks and Resources
• Activities, Games and integrating technology 
• Methods and Approaches: PBL, TBL and CLIL

It’s possible that some of these are areas which you haven’t considered much before. Have you ever received training about liaising with parents for example? Do you know much about Special Educational Needs? If not, our Teaching Teens course will serve you well. As you can see, the course content is comprehensive without being fussy. We feel we have the recipe just about right, but as with all our other courses, it will be reviewed and refined in response to graduate feedback.

The certificate

Remember too that a summary of this content will also be included on your digital certificate of course completion. This is something you can show to current or prospective employers to demonstrate that you have the skills they are looking for. Especially if your CV is a little light on TEFL teaching experience, this may be just what you need to avoid relegation to the ‘no’ pile.

Format

Schedule

All our Tutors and Course Designers are or have been working TEFL teachers for many years. This means that we understand the importance of flexibility in professional development activities. Many of our Development Course trainees work full-time or have family commitments at the same time as studying. For this reason, the course is offered in a three- or six-week format. This allows you to work on the course for five or ten hours per week, depending on your availability. 

In addition to this, you can start the course any Friday of the year. It can be so frustrating having to wait for the next session when you’d like to get started straight away. With our Teaching Teens course, there is no need to hang around. This doesn’t mean that you need to be available on Fridays, naturally. It is just the date that your tutor will be in contact to get you connected and explain what to expect. The tutor will also use this opportunity to schedule your live tutorials.

These tutorials are another area that we have made as flexible as possible. Our Teaching Teens course is for teachers around the world, and it is suitable for teachers in any time zone. There are three tutorials in total, each lasting around 30-40 minutes. You can schedule them at a mutually convenient time, and they provide a great opportunity for you to ask questions, receive feedback and discuss assignments. It is this one-on-one tutor time from a Trinity DipTESOL or DELTA qualified TEFL teacher that makes the Teaching Teens course more personalised and complete than other similar ones on the market.

Assessment

Your three tutorials will correspond with the three modules of the course. These are designed to present all the relevant material in a clear, logical order. As outlined in the Cambridge White Paper on Effective Professional Development, it is crucial that trainees be evaluated in order for the training to be worthwhile. You will be assessed via an assignment at the end of each module. Naturally your tutor is available by email if you need support in between tutorials. Not only that – our online learning platform also contains a wealth of obligatory and optional reading material to help you broaden your knowledge both during and after the course.

This format is used for our other nine Teacher Development Courses, all of which typically receive very good feedback. We are confident that our Teaching Teens course participants will be equally satisfied with the flexibility and personalised nature of the training on offer.

Who’s the Tutor?

Your tutor will be the highly experienced and very charming Charlotte Giller. With over 15 years’ experience working in ELT, including many as a teacher traine, Charlotte is the ideal professional to guide our trainees through the Teaching Teens course. An Oxford University graduate and Trinity DipTESOL holder, she is already a tutor on our highly-rated Teaching Young Learners and Teaching Business English courses. You may also have heard her speaking at EFL conferences or met through her volunteer work with the Alliance for International Women’s Rights.

Discounts on further development

As a graduate of any of our courses, you are entitled to a €50 graduate discount off your next teacher development course or a €100 graduate discount off our Trinity DipTESOL course with us. Maybe you would like to branch out and begin teaching exam classes? We have a course for you. Perhaps you’re enjoying the teens classes and want a related challenge? Try Teaching Young Learners. Or you may even feel that you’re ready to take the leap and apply for our Trinity DipTESOL course.

Hopefully this post has given you some food for thought. Our existing development courses have already demonstrated that finding your niche within the world of TEFL is a great way to get more job satisfaction and make more money – Teaching Teens will be no exception. Contact us now at [email protected] for any other information you need!

To apply for our Teaching Teens course, click here.

If your focus is more on Teaching Young Learners (age 3 – 12), this Development Course may be more suitable for you.

If you want to teach content subjects such as Maths, Science, History etc. in English, consider our Teaching CLIL course.

For information about our other Development Courses, click here.