• British Council

Learning and Learners

Understand learners, policy and practice with this CPD course for English language teachers.

95,948 enrolled on this course

An English language teacher shows a colourful card to a group of young children around her
  • Duration

    4 weeks
  • Weekly study

    3 hours

Learn with English language teachers worldwide

This continued professional development course is for EFL teachers around the world who are interested in improving their understanding of their students and creating genuinely inclusive teaching practices.

The course specifically builds four professional practices that will improve your skills and knowledge based on the British Council’s teacher development framework. It is focused on improving:

Understanding of learners
Knowledge of the subject Use of inclusive practices Learning assessment

Foster student engagement through better understanding

For the best learning outcomes, it’s important to understand what motivates your students and build rapport based on that understanding. This course allows you to watch experienced teachers interact with their students and see how they build rapport, offer praise, and encourage them to speak up in class.

Create a genuinely inclusive EFL classroom

Successful teaching offers students a way to achieve their learning outcomes using a range of processes. This shows you how you can differentiate texts, tasks, and media to support all of your students. You’ll also consider different ways to produce evidence of understanding and evaluate your own inclusive teaching practices.

Learn with EFL teachers around the world

You’ll spend a week focusing on each of these different practices. The course material is supported by video interviews with experienced teachers and classroom films from around the world. You’ll also receive downloadable teaching resources at every stage to give you the best chance of turning your learning into practice.

What topics will you cover?

Understanding Learners

  • Learner motivation
  • Building rapport
  • Getting learners talking

Subject knowledge

  • What should a teacher know?
  • Different kinds of knowledge
  • Language analysis for learners
  • Practising new language

Inclusive practices

  • What is diversity?
  • Differentiating content
  • Differentiating process
  • Differentiating product

Assessing Learning

  • Why do we assess learners?
  • Types of assessment
  • Assessing speaking
  • Assessing writing

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Compare teaching approaches and experience with others from around the world.
  • Reflect on the factors involved in learner motivation and consider the implications for our teaching practice.
  • Discuss different types of knowledge and what a teacher needs to know.
  • Evaluate ways to check understanding and practice language.
  • Identify and value diversity, and apply strategies to promote inclusive education.
  • Evaluate different types of assessment and reflect on assessment criteria and activities for speaking and writing.

Who is the course for?

This course is aimed at English language teachers at all levels. You will need an intermediate level English (around B1 on the CEFR) in order to engage with the course materials.

Who developed the course?

British Council

The British Council builds connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and other countries through arts and culture, education and the English language.

We work on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2019-20 we connected with 80 million people directly and with 791 million people overall, including online and through our broadcasts and publications.

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

Want to know more about learning on FutureLearn? Using FutureLearn

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Get a taste of this course

Find out what this course is like by previewing some of the course steps before you join:

Join the conversation on social media

You can use the hashtag #FLsuccessfulLearning to talk about this course on social media.