Training for your career, not just one lesson

The perfect blend of principles and practice

If you're teaching languages and looking to get more from your professional life, then Lexical Lab's CPD courses can give you the route to develop your career. Unlike other teacher training, we're not going to give you one-off tricks and games. And we're not going to give you endless (and sometimes contradictory) theory which leaves you feeling inadequate or unsure where to go. Lexical Lab teacher development provides you with clear, proven principles and practical techniques that will be of use every day of your career. Our training will gives you the mindset and tools to confidently take you forward. Want to show students why your lessons are worth more? Want to become a director of studies and shape your school's direction? Want to start creating materials that offer something unique to your clients? That's what you'll be able to do with Lexical Lab's training behind you.

Course curriculum

  • 1

    Important information and course introduction

  • 2

    Lesson 1: Core principles and beliefs

    • What do you currently believe about teaching listening? (10 minutes)

    • Activating schema . . . and an experiment (20 minutes)

    • Top-down versus bottom-up processing . . . and some core principles (30 minutes)

    • A task – and some points for discussion (20 minutes)
  • 3

    Lesson 2: understanding the stream of speech

    • Accents ... and embracing plurality. (20 minutes)

    • Features of connected speech quiz (15 minutes)

    • Features of connected speech . . . and a complication! (30 minutes)

    • The greenhouse, the garden and the jungle: from saying to hearing (10 minutes)

    • A task – and some points for discussion (20 minutes)
  • 4

    Lesson 3: pre-listening tasks

    • Right structure, wrong focus (20 minutes)

    • Deciding what language to focus on in the pre-listening stages (15 minutes)

    • Planning your pre-cycling (10 minutes)

    • Pre-cycling . . . and feeding forwards (20 minutes)

    • A task . . . and some points for discussion (30 minutes)
  • 5

    Lesson 4: listening tasks and how best to deal with them

  • 6

    Lesson 5: diving into the stream of speech . . . and much more

    • Gapping audioscripts: why, how and what to do with them (35 minutes)

    • Other tasks that focus on the stream of speech (25 minutes)

    • A task . . . and some points for discussion (30 minutes)
  • 7

    Lesson 6: helping students listen . . . beyond the listening lesson

    • A quick survey of attitudes towards pronunciation (5 minutes)

    • There's more to pronunciation than ship and sheep! (10 minutes)

    • Integrating a more listener-centred approach to pronunciation into your lessons (20 minutes)

    • Grammar and beyond (25 minutes)

    • The last few odds and ends . . . and some further reading (10 minutes)

    • A task . . . and some points for discussion (20 minutes)

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Make a difference to your teaching and enable your students to hear language better

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Our participants love our courses

5 star rating

Bottom-up processing

sophie west

Very interesting course that will help me decode(!) Cauldwell's theories and use them in a practical way with learners.

Very interesting course that will help me decode(!) Cauldwell's theories and use them in a practical way with learners.

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5 star rating

Absolutely enriching!

Milba Benlliure

I really loved this course. It helped me crystalize Cauldwell's botanical metaphor. Besides, hands-on tasks were relevant and raised awareness about how I c...

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I really loved this course. It helped me crystalize Cauldwell's botanical metaphor. Besides, hands-on tasks were relevant and raised awareness about how I can expand my listening classes and take them to the next level. I'd love a second edition focused on designing activities and/or materials for our listening classes though!

Read Less

What's included

You get 8-12 hours of carefully structured self-study material that explains the theory and clear principles of learning which inform our highly practical ideas for all classes and settings..

  • Monitored discussion board to share your ideas and ask questions

  • Certificate on completing each course

  • Discounts on future Lexical Lab training, including lesson observation and coaching