Consultancy and CPD

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT
Courses provided by CA Institute
Introduction to teaching pronunciation 6 hours Min 3 Max 10 2,800 CZK
Introduction to teaching vocabulary 6 hours Min 3 Max 10 2,800 CZK
Introduction to in-class assessment 6 hours Min 3 Max 10 2,800 CZK
Teaching Advanced Grammar Seminar 6 hours Min 3 Max 10 2,800 CZK
Teaching Business English Seminar 6 hours Min 3 Max 10 2,800 CZK
Teaching Young Learners English Seminar 6 hours Min 3 Max 10 2,800 CZK
/ saʊndz/ One Step Beyond: The Future is Here – Teaching pronunciation using a text-based approach 5 teaching hours per day, 5 days Min 3 Max 10

Course fee: 7,850 CZK per week.

Registration fee – 2,900 CZK

Erasmus+ funding available

Discovering Vocabulary and the Company it Keeps 5 teaching hours per day, 5 days Min 3 Max 10

Course fee: 7,850 CZK per week.

Registration fee – 2,900 CZK

Erasmus+ funding available

CPD – Intensive course 1

Discovering Vocabulary and the Company it Keeps

ABOUT THE COURSE

This one-week course is intended for English language teachers in secondary schools, universities, independent language schools and for private teachers. It teaches the use of a number of freely available online tools that are used in the study and teaching of vocabulary.

Given that many language students have computers, tablets and smartphones, they have the resources for intelligent vocabulary learning at their fingertips. However, most of these are relatively unknown and not all of them are user-friendly. For this reason, this course helps teachers to easily ascend the sometimes steep learning curve.

The issues of what counts as vocabulary and how it can be studied is central to this course. This embraces content and function words, collocation, multi-word units, chunks, written and spoken discourse markers. Other issues related to errors, modes of study and learner autonomy are also addressed in the process of working with these tools.

It should be noted that the resources that this course teaches do not facilitate communication, nor create games or quizzes. Rather, the focus is on linguistic tools that teachers and students can benefit from. To the best of our knowledge, no other courses with this focus exist.

By the end of the course, the participant should have assembled a portfolio of resources to try out on their students. Note also that this course includes language development.

Language requirement: B2 CEFR and beyond

Learner Outcomes: By the end of this course, participants will be able to

  • Use online language tools with a view to studying and teaching vocabulary and grammar and the interface between these two language systems

  • Assess the these tools’ practical applications to supplementing course books

  • Approach the fostering of learner autonomy in language focussed ways

  • Develop a portfolio of resources to pilot on students with a view to improving their comprehension of input and their generation of output.

ABOUT THE TRAINER

This course will be taught by James Thomas, (M.A. Applied Linguistics).

From 1997 to 2016, James was a lecturer at Masaryk University, most recently the head of teacher training in the English department of the Faculty of Arts. He specialised in Language Acquisition, Linguistics for Language Teachers, a range of practical methodology courses and the design of courses and resources.

Since 2002, James has taught summer and winter short courses at the Norwich Institute of Language Education that mostly focussed on the use of ICT in ELT. During the same period, he has also been involved in over 25 intensive teacher training courses for the the British Council in China.

In the last 12 months, he has dedicated himself to the preparation of resources for teacher trainers, teachers, language students and English for academic purposes. These are gradually being published under his own imprint, Versatile.pub.

Organizational matters

DATES

The course will open when there are five enrollees. The dates on offer are listed in Doodle, where you can select all or any of the dates that suit you. See here. When you write your name into the Doodle, send an email to info@versatile.pub so that you can be notified when a group forms. Put DVCK in the email subject. Alternatively, if you have a group of five or more interested in this course, dates and venues can be negotiated accordingly including at your own venue.

TIMETABLE

The course typically runs Monday to Friday, with five teaching hours each day.

COST

Course fee: 7,850 CZK per week.

Registration fee – 2,900 CZK

The course is offered (a) in Brno at CA Institute or (b) at your place anywhere in the world if you have five or more participants.

We are Erasmus+ registered. ID: PIC: 911682437

Apply today

CPD – Intensive course 2

/saʊndz/ One Step Beyond: The Future Is Here – Teaching Pronunciation Using A Text-Based Approach

ABOUT THE COURSE

This one-week course is intended for English language teachers in secondary schools, universities, independent language schools and for private teachers. It teaches the study of and tools for teaching and assessment of pronunciation.

By the end of the course, the participant should have assembled a portfolio of resources to try out on their students. Note also that this course includes language development.

Language requirement: B2 CEFR and beyond

Learner Outcomes: By the end of this course, participants will be able to

  • Use online pronunciation tools with a view to studying and teaching pronunciation
  • How to give proper feedback (error correction)
  • Understand phonological control, sound articulation and prosodic features
  • Approach the fostering of learner autonomy in language focussed ways
  • Develop a portfolio of resources to pilot on students with a view to improving their pronunciation and their generation of output.
  • Understand the new CEFR phonological scale developed by the Council of Europe and be able to use it in the classroom.

ABOUT THE TRAINER

Erik Dostal is the founding director CA Institute, an EAQUALS accredited member, that was established in 1997. From its onset he has always managed to find time to stay connected with his students and still continues to teach all levels and ages experimenting with new ideas in applied linguistics and SLA . He organizes conferences and symposia. He is a teacher trainer. He designs websites and deals with marketing, management and international businesses. He set up an IDRAC International Business School offsite campus in 2014 offering bachelor and master degree programs all in English and will soon set up a foundation program for freshman university students providing them with 60 ECTS units. He opened a language assessment center and is also an advisor to the Czech Ministry of Education in the area of language development and he plays a supporting role in the development and expansion of EAQUALS. www.erikdostal.com

Organizational matters

DATES

The course will open when there are five enrollees. To enroll please complete our online application form here.

TIMETABLE

The course typically runs Monday to Friday, with five teaching hours each day.

COST

Course fee: 7,850 CZK per week.

Registration fee – 2,900 CZK

The course is offered (a) in Brno at CA Institute or (b) at your place anywhere in the world if you have five or more participants.

We are Erasmus+ registered. ID: PIC: 911682437