Professional development

Professional development is vital for all. TeachingEnglish supports your growth in English language teaching, whether you are a teacher, teacher educator, academic manager, researcher or materials writer.

Here you will find free, self-access, online training and resources designed to develop the skills and knowledge you need as an English language professional.

Our professional development resources are organised by audience (teachers or teacher educators), professional practices and professional development level. The professional practices and professional development levels align with the British Council’s Continuing Professional Development Frameworks for teachers and teacher educators. These two unique frameworks, and the professional practices within them, address the skills and knowledge English language professionals need in their day-to-day working lives and throughout their careers.

Female teacher helping a boy with special educational needs

David Crabtree: Developing a whole school approach to Special Educational Needs, from policy to practice

Given the breadth of learning needs in any classroom, how can schools best develop policies and practice to respond to this diversity? This webinar demonstrates how to develop a whole school approach to SEN, from policy to practice.

A person writing in a notebook over a laptop

Duncan Foord: Letting go

In this practical webinar we consider some of the psychological blocks and beliefs that stop us delegating in the first place and some tools for supporting successful delegation once you are committed to it.

What to teach before you teach sounds

The British Council sponsored the live-streaming of the IATEFL Pronunciation SIG - NATECLA London conference 'Accentuate: bringing pronunciation to the fore’. Here we have the session given by Piers Messum on 'What to teach before you teach sounds'.

Six young learners sitting on a mat in front of their teacher, who is presenting an alphabet book

Integrating English into pre-primary education: the use of learning areas

This webinar looks at the teaching of English as a Foreign language in pre-primary education and shares the results of a project which investigated the effectiveness of incorporating an English learning area into the children’s play options.

A creative approach to language teaching. A way to recognise, encourage and appreciate students' contributions to language classes

In this extract, Libor Stepanek presents 'The creative approach to language teaching’, which has been developed, tested and successfully implemented at Masaryk University Language Centre.

How to develop a more creative climate in your classroom

Alan Maley suggests some excellent ideas for how to set up the conditions in the classroom in order to enhance creativity.

Ideas for using the coursebook creatively

In this extract, Brian Tomlinson looks at why we should be creative with our coursebook and suggests some interesting ideas for teachers to experiment with in class.

Creative ways to teach vocabulary

In this extract Judit Fehér gives tips to teachers on how to integrate creativity into everyday classroom practice.

Diana Lea: Why use an EAP dictionary?

Diana Lea, Editor of the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary of Academic English, shows how the award-winning Dictionary of Academic English can support learners in reading academic texts and in using core academic vocabulary accurately and appropriately in their writing.

Judit Kormos and Joanna Nijakowska: Successful inclusion for dyslexic students in the English language classroom

Dyslexic language learners have been long neglected in the field of language teaching despite the fact they constitute about ten percent of the student population. This webinar shares practical ideas from the award-winning DysTEFL project.

Teaching resources