My name is Natalie Hughes and I'm Chair of the Conestoga Language Institute
and Manager of our IELTS center at Conestoga College
both programs TESL and TEFL focus on really the foundations of English
the structure and sound of english
and we also have a practicum as well, within each semester of the TESL program.
So my name is Sandra Rosenworth and I am one of the instructors in the TESL program at Conestoga College.
We get the theory and we get a chance to practice
but students also have that chance to observe live classrooms, as well as then teach within those classrooms.
So both parts of the program really does come together to give students that full scope
and learning to be a teacher to learners of English.
So a lot of it was lesson planning and then presentations that we kind of made into like almost a teaching lesson
and so they were considered a presentation but you were teaching to the class.
I think it was one of the best experiences so far I've had in the post-secondary world.
In this program we have a very short and intense semester of nine weeks
and then we're plunged into a two to three weeks practicum in an actual teaching classroom.
Yeah so I took three classes before I went to a practicum
and the first class was kind of a lot about linguistics and history of language
and then we moved into more presentation based classes where we did things like presenting about linguistics
grammar writing learned about different levels of English learning.
Our practicum really takes all of the foundations that folks are learning from English language teaching
for other learners and you put that into practice through observation first with experienced faculty
who are able to mentor you when you are teaching and when you're observing their classes
and then you actually get to take that and have a teaching experience yourself.
And during the program we encourage students to volunteer to start getting exposure and experience within the field
and we support them in getting a volunteer position within Conestoga through our English Conversation Partners Program
and again that just starts to give them that exposure to
start working with learners of English and get exposed to different cultures
and get in that environment.
The instructor was phenomenal,
she was really experienced, so it was helpful to get her feedback in terms of how do I improve,
but she still gave so much flexibility and independence to me to teach the way I want to.
Definitely I'd say go for it, it's such a great experience
and you get a lot of practical experience which is something that a lot of programs don't offer
so actually being able to go into a practicum and teach in person was really awesome.
Our faculties are really focused on supporting students to meet their academic goals but they're also focused on
understanding that their goal after the TESL or their TEFL program may be to gain employment
so they're wanting to help them through that process as well.
Being an elementary school teacher, so I really hope to do that one day with a focus on TELS
so Conestoga's program really equipped me to teach adults and go around the world and teach
so I hopefully will complete the rest
of the TEFL Program after I graduate and I'll be an elementary school teacher with a focus on ESL.
We have been a TESL program for a very long time and we have produced graduates that have found
employment in many many different sectors.
We have opportunities for our graduates to engage with
community programming to engage in post-secondary placement and observation opportunities
so it really it's a very strong program and I would really encourage you to look into it further.