International House Certificate in teaching Young Learners, November 2003 - February 2004
The course was held in a part time format to enable current BKC teachers combine work and study.
"I started teaching eight years ago and from the very beginning I have spent about one third of my teaching life with young learners. Although I considered myself to be reasonably competent in this area, I always recognized that the quality of teaching in my children's classes was inferior to my adult classes. I noticed that what worked wonderfully with adults would often fail in a teenager or kid's class. I think the course enabled me to understand the fundamental differences between teaching young learners and adults, and also showed me how to apply this theoretical knowledge. While my teaching experience gave me plenty of hands-on experience, I have come to realize that I was still quite ignorant of the theoretical background to teaching young learners and the implications of this learning theory on my everyday classroom management. By providing me with this information, the course enabled to not only exploit more fully the materials I was using in my young learner classes, but also helped me to understand the rationale behind these materials. In other words, it not only taught me what to do in class but also taught me why I was doing it.
One other thing which I found very useful in the course was the large amount of observations it entailed. The course tutor was able to analyse my teaching and highlight its strong and weak points. The course was also long enough to enable me to work on these weak areas, and by the end of the course I feel there were significant improvement in these areas. Moreover, there was also a great deal of useful feedback from the course participants themselves, most of whom was also experienced teachers of younger learners. Furthermore, observing my colleagues lessons also allowed me to learn from their classes and apply what I had learnt in my own teaching.
On a more practical level, the International House certificate I was awarded upon completing the course has improved my CV considerably. Although most teachers nowadays have a CELTA or equivalent teaching qualification, few teachers have obtained a qualification specifically designed for teaching young learners. This is unfortunate as approximately one third of a teachers' schedule is normally spent teaching young learners. I feel that having this young learner certificate will make me more employable in the future.
To sum up, I can honestly say that I probably learned more during the course than I had done in the previous seven years of teaching. This may seem like an unreasonable claim, but so often in class our teaching becomes ritualized and we stop asking ourselves if our teaching is as good as it could be. The course is almost like a full length mirror that provides you with a 'warts and all' image of your teaching performance. However, unlike a mirror, the course also allows you to change for the better. I recommend all teachers do this course as it will improve your teaching of young learners immensely."
Phillip Donnelly
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