Incorporating a language improvement component in teacher training programmes

Most training programmes for teachers of English as a foreign language, at both in-service and pre-service levels, offer a fairly traditional blend of ELT skills training on the one hand, and language awareness, e.g. grammar and phonology, on the other. Although there is no doubt that these two components should form an important part of any ELT training programme, the fact remains that for a substantial number of non-native English teachers, especially those in primary and secondary schools, the overwhelming desire is to improve their command of the language itself. With the propagation and increasing acceptance around the world of the principles of communicative language teaching, there is arguably more pressure on teachers than in the past to be fluent in English so that they can use it naturally and spontaneously in the classroom. Yet training courses in ELT rarely take into account the language demands which the communicative approach makes on teachers. This paper discusses a model for an in-service training course in which language improvement is the central element. In this model, the experience of language learning provides the input for the other components of the programme: Skills training and language awareness.