A teacher praises her student

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.

Close up of a South Korean student

Personalisation

Personalisation happens when activities allow students to use language to express their own ideas, feelings, preferences and opinions.

Two people greeting each other with a handshake

Phatic communication

Phatic communication is verbal or non-verbal communication that has a social function, such as to start a conversation, greet someone, or say goodbye, rather than an informative function.

Woman at a desk speaking

Phonemes

Phonemes are the smallest units of sounds in a language.

Woman writing notes in a notebook

Phonemic script

Phonemic script is a transcription of the sounds of a word or phrase, using phonemic symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

Phonemic symbols

Phonemic symbols are the symbols used to represent individual phonemes in transcription, typically found next to a word in a dictionary.

South Korean young learner speaking

Phonetics

Phonetics is the study of human speech.

Child learning phonics with a teacher

Phonics

Phonics is a method of teaching young learners how to read which focuses on how letters make sounds, and how these sounds make words.

A student smiling outside

Phonology

Phonology, also known as phonemics, is the study of the particular sound units (phonemes) in languages.

Presenter speaking into a mic on Ghana radio station

Pitch movement

Pitch movement is the way the quality of the voice changes as a speaker communicates.

Pakistani students discussing something together in class

Plenum

A plenum in language teaching means the whole group, so an activity in plenum / plenary will involve all learners and the teacher.