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.
De-contextualised
De-contextualised language is a term that describes language that is presented as an isolated item rather than with a meaningful and real context.
De-lexicalised verbs
De-lexicalised verbs are verbs that have little meaning alone but that can be joined together with many other words, so generating a wide variety of new meanings.
Deductive approach
A deductive approach to teaching language starts by giving learners rules, then examples, then practice. It is a teacher-centred approach to presenting new content.
Delayed correction
Delayed correction techniques are corrections a teacher uses some time after a learner has made an error.
Descriptive grammar
A descriptive grammar is a set of rules about language based on how it is actually used. In a descriptive grammar there is no right or wrong language.
Determiner
A determiner is a word that goes before a noun and describes how we are referring to it in the sentence.
Diagnostic
A diagnostic is an activity that a teacher carries out with learners in order to identify problem areas they may have.
Diagnostic test
A diagnostic test is a test that helps the teacher and learners identify problems that they have with the language
Dictogloss
Dictogloss is a classroom dictation activity where learners are required to reconstruct a short text by listening and noting down key words, which are then used as a base for reconstruction.
Diglossia
Diglossia is a situation where a language that has two forms, one a ‘higher’ and more prestigious form used by educated speakers in formal situations, and the other a ‘lower’, vernacular form used more commonly.