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TeachingEnglish: How to teach speaking

Enrolment for 'TeachingEnglish: How to teach speaking' is now closed. Find resources connected to the course contents on this page, and sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date on when our courses open.

Two young adults - male and female - talking and smiling in an outdoor cafe
© Matt Wright

Welcome to 'TeachingEnglish: How to teach speaking'

How will the course help you?

Develop your understanding of speaking skills and explore teaching techniques and activities which promote oral communication in the classroom for a range of ages and levels.

What does the course include?

How to teach speaking is a free self-study training course, which is divided into three hour modules. It also includes:

  • A dedicated Facebook community of course participants with up-to-date insight, resources and innovative ideas for you to try out.
  • Engaging discussions taking place in the Facebook community
  • A free workbook with extra learning content and resources.

What will you learn?

Module 1: Understanding speaking – key terms and issues

The aim of this module is to explore key terms and issues in the teaching of speaking. You'll look at how to evaluate and modify activities in terms of communicative quality, and consider how to get your learners using 'real speaking', not just completing grammar tasks. 

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

- recognise issues related to accuracy and fluency in speaking practice
- distinguish between oral activities which practise grammar and oral activities which are communicative
- evaluate a range of speaking activities
- modify activities to make them more effective in developing oral communication skills.

Module 2: Understanding speaking – maximising interaction

The aim of this module is to introduce you to a range of techniques and activities which promote speaking in your classroom. You'll look at the benefits of pair and group work and adapt tasks to maximise student interaction.

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

- distinguish between oral activities which practise grammar and oral activities which are communicative
- adapt reading tasks to make them more communicative.

Module 3: Understanding language practice activities

The aim of this module is to explore and evaluate a range of practice activities. The module also looks at flexible activities that can be adapted for different ages and levels. You have the opportunity to select appropriate activities which match with lesson aims, and justify your choices.

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

- identify the skills and language that different activities practise and address some common concerns about practice activities
- use songs, stories and mobile phones in a variety of ways for classroom language practice
- choose language practice activities which correspond to your lesson aims and learners' needs.

When is the course?

Enrolment for 'TeachingEnglish: How to teach speaking' is now closed. Sign up to the free newsletter to keep up to date on when our courses open.

How much does the course cost?

The course is free.

How can you get a certificate?

You will receive a certificate if you successfully complete all self-study modules.

What level of English do you need?

Minimum CEFR B1

What can you do now?

If you're interested in learning more about teaching speaking, you can:

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Comments

Submitted by cxepali on Mon, 06/12/2023 - 14:11

I click on the bottom and see Google's page, "The connection is not confidential." It says that access to the server has expired 3 days ago, and the Google server can't confirm that it's BC page..

Hi cxepali

This issue is now resolved - can you try again? You should be able to access the courses without any problems.

Thanks,

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by sherihanAzazi on Sun, 06/11/2023 - 20:40

I can’t resume my teaching speaking course each time I try to open my courses to continue my course a strange page pop out saying that there is something wrong and we can’t open this page I tried to log out and log in again the same problem

Hello

Apologies for this - there is a technical issue with the site which we are working to resolve as soon as possible. Thanks for letting us know, and sorry for the inconvenience. We hope to have this sorted out very soon so you can access your course again.

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by Cath McLellan on Mon, 06/12/2023 - 10:51

Hello kholoud,

Thank you for contacting us. We are aware that there are currently security issues affecting your access to the training courses.

We are working hard to resolve the issues and we hope to have a solution in the next 24-28 hours so that you can access your courses again normally,

Thanks,

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

 

Submitted by Cath McLellan on Wed, 06/21/2023 - 07:36

Hi Nadine

Are you having problems accessing the course? There are no issues affecting the site at the moment, so you should be able to access it without problems. Can you check the troubleshooting steps above?

Let us know if you are having problems.

Thanks,

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by Gaby Riv on Sun, 06/11/2023 - 19:22

I can't connect this weekend (the 10th and 11th of June) because Google blocks the link and says that the credentials are not the usual ones and that your site may be hacked when I log in again. Can you solve this link problem?

Hi Gaby

Apologies for this - there is a technical issue with the site which we are working to resolve as soon as possible. Thanks for letting us know, and sorry for the inconvenience. We hope to have everything resolved very soon so you can access your course again.

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by Leyla Mustafa on Sun, 06/11/2023 - 08:47

Hi
I'm unable to access my courses.. it appears i have been locked out of the access area. Please advice, Thank you.

Submitted by Tinara on Sat, 06/10/2023 - 15:28

Hello!
Is the site working correctly?
I can't continue doing the course.

Thank you.
Tinara.

Hi Tinara

Apologies for this - there is a technical issue with the site which we are working to resolve as soon as possible. Thanks for letting us know, and sorry for the inconvenience.

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by Samidha on Thu, 06/08/2023 - 05:17

I want to thank British Council to arrange online courses which truly benefit trainers like me.
I teach students online, and I am happy and proud to get certified by the British Council.These courses have given me numerous paths and opened many doors of success.
There is a date of 'validity' on the certificate, does that mean after that date the certificate is of no use and I cannot display it in my portfolio or CV? Please guide.

Hi Samidha

Glad to hear you find the courses useful. Our certificates are really just to show that you have successfully completed our professional development courses, there is not a "validity" date as such. 

Thanks,

Cath
TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by waoody on Mon, 05/29/2023 - 22:06

Hello there,
I really would like to enroll this course to develop my skills in english speaking.
How can i enroll for it please .

Hi,

To enrol in the course, you need to follow the two steps above under the instructions "How to sign up for the course". If you have problems, please let us know.

Thanks,

Cath
TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by FarahOmar85 on Wed, 05/24/2023 - 18:29

Hello everyone

I really would love to take the course but I can't see the register link or button.
Even the instructions say that there is a troubleshoot corner ( I couldn't find it as well)

Kindly Advise

Submitted by Cath McLellan on Thu, 05/25/2023 - 07:57

Hi 

If you go to where it says "How to sign up for the course", you will see there are two steps. Each step has a drop-down menu with an arrow next to it. You need to click on the arrow, which will give you the instructions. Step 1 is how to set up an account. Once you have an account, you need to be logged in. Then click on the arrow next to step 2, where you will see the Enrol button.

If you are still having problems, please send a message to TeachingEnglish@britishcouncil.org

Thanks,

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Hi Ha Pham

This is a self-access course. To enrol, you need to follow the instructions on this page "How do I sign up for the course?" and follow the two steps to enrol.

Hope you enjoy it!

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Hi Kerly

You need to look at the instructions on this page under "How do I sign up for the course?" - There are 2 steps - if you click on these steps and follow the instructions you will be able to enrol. If you are still having problems, please send us an e-mail to TeachingEnglish@britishcouncil.org

Thanks,

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Hi Yoon Waddy

Sorry to hear you are having problems. To find the "Enrol in activity" button, you need to be on the courses website. Once you have logged in to your TeachingEnglish account, you need to click this link:  https://open.teachingenglish.org.uk/Home/ExploreProgrammes

You will find all of our courses that are currently available here. Each one has an "Enrol in activity" button. I've just checked the courses site and it is working fine. 

Please let us know if you are still having problems.

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by KBLH on Sun, 04/23/2023 - 19:05

Hi, I would love to enroll in several of your training courses, BUT there really are no enrollment-buttons shown on your website. As you can read in the comments, several people are having this problem and it's not because they are not seeing the button, but because there really is no enrollment-button shown. It's the same for all of the available courses. I am logged in and I followed your instructions. I tried on several days. I also tried to enroll both with safari and firefox , so there must be a technical error. Please fix that, so people can enroll. Thank you.

Hello KBLH

Sorry to hear you are having problems. To find the "Enrol in activity" button, you need to be on the courses website. Once you have logged in to your TeachingEnglish account, you need to click this link:  https://open.teachingenglish.org.uk/Home/ExploreProgrammes

You will find all of our courses that are currently available here. Each one has an "Enrol in activity" button. I've just checked the courses site and it is working fine. 

Please let us know if you are still having problems.

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by rafaeldona on Sat, 04/22/2023 - 09:25

Hello!

Please, will the content be available after completing the course so we can consult it in the future? Or can it be downloaded?

Thank you!

Hi rafaeldona

You will have access to the course until it closes on 29th September. However, remember you can also download the participant workbook - the link is above or here: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/2023-03/Workbook_for_How_to_teach_speaking.pdf

Hope that helps and that you enjoy the course!

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by Elizabeth Gome… on Wed, 04/19/2023 - 00:40

Hi
Enrolling its always a bit confussing on this courses. I've follow all the steps:
STEP 1: Click or tap Create a free account or log in to your existing account. You need to be logged in to visit the course website.
STEP 2: After you have logged in, click or tap to visit our course website to see all available courses.
...
But I dont see how can I enroll in the page of the course. I see there are a lot of comments like mine so I think it would be great if you could provide a screenshot or further instructions on how to enroll.

Thank you for your attention

Submitted by Cath McLellan on Wed, 04/19/2023 - 07:21

Hi Elizabeth

If you have logged in and can access the course website, you need to click on the "Explore all courses" tab - there you can see all courses currently available (including this one!). Then you just need to click on the "Enrol in activity" button.

Please let us know if you are still having problems.

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by Elizabeth Gome… on Sun, 05/07/2023 - 05:04

Hi Cath
Thank you for your guidance
Now I can see the button "Enroll on this free course" but after clicking on it nothing happens.
I go to My portfolio and there's nothing there

I'll really appreciate some help to solve this inconvenience

Submitted by Cath McLellan on Mon, 05/08/2023 - 08:53

Hi Elizabeth

You need to be logged in to the website to enrol. If you are logged in, when you click on the "Enrol in this free course" button you will be taken to the courses page. 

If you are still having problems, can you try logging out of your account, clearing the cache on your web browser, and then logging in again. This should resolve any issues. If not, please send us an e-mail at teachingenglish@britishcouncil.org

Thanks,

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Hi mohamedwahban

This is a self access course. To enrol, you need to follow these steps:

How do I sign up for the course?

Let us know if you have any problems.

Thanks,
Cath
TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by Cath McLellan on Mon, 04/17/2023 - 07:45

Hi Pedro

This is a self access course. To enrol, you need to follow these steps:

How do I sign up for the course?

Let us know if you have any problems.

Thanks,
Cath
TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by mohamedwahban on Wed, 04/19/2023 - 17:40

Hi,
I have already hed an account, I logged in and clicked on the course website, but I couldn't enrol to start ...
Regards

Submitted by Lorena Morales on Tue, 04/11/2023 - 16:41

Hello! I Enroll to this program, I alredy received the booklet, but yesterday April 10th I was waiting for a link or something to start the course.... or how this is gone a be? thanks

Submitted by Cath McLellan on Wed, 04/12/2023 - 07:44

Hi Lorena

There are instructions above on how to start the course. It's a self access course which you need to access through the courses website. Here are the instructions again:

  1. Log in to your free TeachingEnglish account.
  2. If you have enrolled in the course, you will see 'MY PORTFOLIO' in the menu bar at the top of the page next to the Home button.
  3. Move your mouse over MY PORTFOLIO to see the drop-down menu.
  4. Click on ‘My courses’ to access your training.

I would also recommend joining the Facebook group for the course (there's a link on the course homepage). It's a good way to interact with other course members and to ask any questions, make comments etc.

Hope you enjoy the course!

Cath

TeachingEnglish team

Submitted by Jorge Alberto … on Mon, 04/10/2023 - 14:10

Happy Monday,

I have not received the link I was supposed to get after registering some days ago. My portafolio does not appear either.

Could you tell me what to do, please?

I only got this email.

Thank you for registering at TeachingEnglish.

Welcome to TeachingEnglish, a website dedicated to supporting your work as an
English language teacher.

As a registered user, you can access all of our free online training
opportunities - just log in to your account and visit our 'Training courses'
pages to enrol on of our courses.

Why not sign up to our newsletter for teachers or teacher educators to
receive news and information about our upcoming events, classroom materials
and professional development opportunities.

I am looking forward to hearing from you,

Jorge Alberto

Dear Jorge Alberto

To enrol on the course, please do the following:
 

If you are logged in to your account, please log out and log back in again.

Go to the following link: https://open.teachingenglish.org.uk/Home/ExploreProgrammes.

Enrol on the course you want to study.

When you have finished, please make sure to log out of your account

The next time you log in you should see 'MY PORTFOLIO' in the menu at the top. Click or tap MY PORTFOLIO > My Courses to go to your training course.

Thanks

Paul (TeachingEnglish team)

 

Submitted by MahnazB on Sat, 04/08/2023 - 06:49

Dear TeachingEnglish team,
Thank you so much for all these wonderful and useful courses. Is there a "certificate" provided for the course?

Mahnaz

Submitted by Dian.Jiang on Fri, 04/07/2023 - 14:16

Hi TeachingEnglish team,

I have been enrolled in several courses of yours. The training resources truly benefits my career as well as personal learning of English. However, I do have one question about ending dates of the courses. Sometimes I forgot when a course would end and I failed to find this information on the dashboard. As for this course, How to Teach Speaking, specifically, if I understand correctly, it will stop enrollment until September, right? Does that mean I could have nearly 5 months from now to complete the training? Thank you in advance for the clarification.

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