Learning the Communicative Approach

As I was working full time, I couldn’t afford the full 4 weeks of a standard In-Class course at Vantage full time. So I opted for their Combined Class, where I did the course book online and then came to Bangkok for a fortnight to do my observed practice teaching sessions.

I worked my way through the 20 modules over about a 7 week period. I had no difficulty doing the work online and the programme was well organized and everything worked effectively. I also got support from an online tutor and I received prompt replies within a day or so.

After I completed the online portion, I came to Bangkok for my practicum where I taught six classes over two weeks. I first thought it would be pretty easy to do that over two weeks but I soon realized that the formulation of lesson plans—and many revisions—did take significantly more time than I originally planned.

The feedback I got from Vantage’s trainers was focused, highly targeted and very useful. Even though I was an experienced educator, I was relatively new to teaching non-English speaking students and I found the communicative approach I was now using highly effective. I saw myself getting better at it with each practice session. We also had to observe the trainers do their ‘expert demonstration” session as well as other trainees practice classes and learn from their experiences as part of our overall practicum experience.

I have thoroughly enjoyed doing my TEFL at Vantage and I would recommend these guys without hesitation. They go the extra mile to ensure you come out ready to teach