A Practical Introduction to Teacher Training in ELT by John Hughes – Author Review
John Hughes, UK
John Hughes is a teacher trainer, blogger and course book writer. He has trained teachers from all over the world both online and face-to-face. He regularly writes for two blogs at www.elteachertrainer.com and www.myetpedia.com
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Turning a blog into a book
Who is the book for?
The contents of the book
What next?
I’ve written many ELT books but this title took the longest. That’s because it started out as a blog. Some years ago I set up a blog called www.elteachertrainer.com as a way to share ideas for teacher trainers. There seemed to be a lack of blogs for people working in this particular area of ELT so I wanted to a place to post practical ideas for training sessions and tips for new trainers. Over time the site grew and has an archive of posts on a wide range of topics including interviews with different trainers. One of the satisfying things about blogging (rather than writing a book) is the organic nature of it – ideas emerge without too much planning and you get instant feedback from readers and comments. This allows you to reconsider what you have written and it crystalizes your own thinking. Blogs are more like a space for experimentation whereas a book has to be the finished work.
So after the long process of blogging about teacher training, I decided it was time to turn the contents of the blog into a book. The result is the book ‘A Practical Introduction to Teacher Training in ELT’. The book is exactly what it says in the title. It’s aimed primarily at people who are moving into the area of ELT teacher training and the first chapter of the book is titled ‘Teacher training for the first time’. So I expect readers to include someone who is going to run their first ever workshop, or someone who has just been made Director of Studies and has to mentor staff. When writing, I constantly asked myself, ‘what were the questions I asked myself when I first started teacher training?’ and I hope I’ve answered them in this book.
Of course, I think more experienced trainers will also find a lot them that interests them too. In particular, the book looks at how to integrate technology into training using tools such as moodle, webinars, and online video. So the second chapter titled ‘Training techniques’ addresses different approaches to both face-to-face and online training. There’s also help with the areas you’d expect to see in a book like this such as mentoring lesson planning, and observing and giving feedback on lessons. The final chapter will be of special interest to anyone who manages teacher training departments. It’s called ‘Managing teacher training’ and draws a lot on my own personal experience of running a training department and the related issues of trainer training and administrating internal and external training programmes.
Now that the book is out it feels like the natural ‘full stop’ to my blog for teacher trainers. I’ll take www.elteachertrainer.com in a new direction with a particular focus on materials writing and how to train teachers in this area. As for the book, unlike the blog, there is no second chance to get it right! So far, feedback has been very positive from the trainers who have applied its practical ideas to their training rooms. And - for me - knowing that your book is helping someone somewhere is always the most satisfying stage of the writing process.
A Practical Introduction to Teacher Training in ELT is published by Pavilion. For more details visit:
www.etprofessional.com/practical-introduction-to-teacher-training-in-elt/
Please check the How to be a Teacher Trainer course at Pilgrims website.
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