Professional development for teachers
Here you’ll find a wide range of free, self-access training and resources designed to help you build the skills and knowledge you need as an English teacher.
All TeachingEnglish professional development resources are aligned with the British Council Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Framework for teachers, to help you plan your learning and develop the areas most relevant to your professional growth.
You can explore resources in a way that suits your goals:
- by professional practices – to focus on specific areas of teaching where you want to deepen your skills and expertise
- by professional development levels – to find resources matched to your training and experience and see how they can help you progress within each area.
Each resource includes a timer icon to show how much time you’ll need, helping you plan your learning effectively.
Understanding my learners
Creativity in the language classroom
Before we set out and look at some theories and practice for introducing creativity into the language classroom, let’s see why it is worth making all this effort.
Knowing the subject
Listening: Top-down and bottom-up
Top-down or bottom-up listening skills are two processes used in understanding and processing what learners hear. In this article, we explore how they both work and how you can practise them in class.
Managing the lesson
Pros and cons of teacher talking time
The development of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) brought with it a methodology which emphasised communication in the classroom, pair and group activities and student involvement in the learning process.
Managing the lesson
Teaching one-to-one
Most teachers at some time in their career have to teach one-to-one classes. They find a very different, challenging and special learning context, with unique possibilities and unique problems.
Using inclusive practices
Art in the classroom
As the saying goes, ‘Art is all around us’. In its many forms it presents fantastic opportunities for discussion, focused language work and skills-based activities.
Knowing the subject
Rhythm
Rhythm is both a feature of and product of the phonological structure of English.
Knowing the subject
Teaching exam-based writing skills
Getting students to participate in writing activities in class can be an arduous task. Despite our best efforts as teachers to make the prospect of writing a fun and collaborative activity, it is often met with groans of reluctance.
Using inclusive practices
NLP in our classes
Every teacher – actually everybody – uses NLP. They use it knowingly or unknowingly! Maybe some would think that NLP is not useful and others would say it creates miracles.
Knowing the subject
Making reading communicative
Explore methods for transforming reading into a communicative activity by integrating it with other skills work in the classroom.
Knowing the subject
Taboo in the classroom
In this article I will review the arguments for and against teaching taboo language and using taboo subjects, then look at some practical ideas for teachers who decide to use this area of language.