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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Teach English Now! Foundational Principles by Arizona State University

4.9
stars
14,344 ratings

About the Course

Through a series of engaging metaphors and stories, prospective and current EFL/ESL teachers will identify, summarize, and evaluate 7 basic language learning paradigms. Learners will be presented information on such foundational principles as motivation, risk taking, two different modes of learning, and balancing the teacher profession. Learners are also given an understanding of basic techniques founded on those principles, such as teacher talk, looking “ridiculous” in order to lower the affective filter, and networking. With these foundational principles in mind, ESL/EFL teachers will scrutinize common assumptions about language learning by comparing how they stack up to research-based core principles....
Highlights
Engaging instructors

(331 Reviews)

Interactive content

(104 Reviews)

Top reviews

MT

Mar 12, 2021

I had fun enrolling on this course and it's very insightful. And Keep the great work, Dr Shane Dixon. I can't wait to complete the rest of the courses so that I get my professional certificate. Thanks

VM

Apr 9, 2020

Great course! Nice content and great presentation of the material. Useful not only for ESL teachers, but for all language teachers and even for teachers in general. Thank you for creating this course!

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26 - 50 of 4,960 Reviews for Teach English Now! Foundational Principles

By camps c

Aug 24, 2022

First of all , i really liked this course they way they taught and made it simple to understand i loved it . throughout course i enjoyed learning i highly recommende this course to all TESOL teachers.

By Yadira B

Oct 18, 2018

This course was exciting, insightful, and extremely helpful. The instructor broke down the material using metaphors to help learn the proper techniques for teaching second language learners. After taking this course, I feel more confident about my techniques to deliver content and practice to my students.

By Lawrence W

Feb 18, 2020

The video format is excellent: I could listen and follow along in text. The course material was engaging, and elicited a wide range of responses from me. I found, however, that the material was at times too simplistically presented. The complex and nuanced issues of teaching language could have been emphasized more fully. I very much enjoyed thinking about the issues the lessons raised, and very much enjoyed writing about those issues. I will say that the assignment guidelines were rather broad. For instance, writing one to four paragraphs strikes me as not being a meaningful bar to reach. Some peers wrote very little, despite the richness of the essential question. I was interested to see non-native English speakers in the group of peers. For some, understandably, this meant their writing needed more attention. Yet, I was interested to hear about their educational context--Erbil, Iraq, for instance! If the guidelines were more robust than they are, it might be that class participants would respond to essential questions in truly perspective-opening ways for the rest of us. It might be, for instance, that we could see the social dynamics of learning in play, and how at least one person might respond to those educational conditions. I would have welcomed that!

By Patricia T

Sep 18, 2020

Very interesting class. I've taught for decades and learned principles I've never heard before. I enjoyed the professors enthusiasm and straightforwardness. Very key skills learned including the 80/20 rule, being myself, how to avoid burnout, how to make the meaning of words clear. I'm looking forward to digging in to the next course!

By Tracie H

Jul 21, 2016

Content is too basic, seems unresearched. Instructor is distracting in manner in which he presents information - overemphasizes acting over content.

By Sandy A

Oct 13, 2017

I want to say a huge thank you to Dr. Shane for making this course so fun and engaging. Also thanks to everyone else involved who put in endless hours to put this amazing course together - if I ever had any doubts about teaching, you certainly reassured me what a fantastic profession this is. My step father completed Tesol a few years back and tells me it was nothing like this and that I'm very lucky to have found this course!

By Jedd C

Feb 13, 2017

low-level content for people with no teaching background

By Angelica S B

Dec 2, 2015

Oh my goodness! I can't say enough about how great this course was for me. Dr. Shane Dixon did an excellent job of sharing the concepts in ways that were easily digested (more cake please). The course was set up better than any course I've taken online. The use of the metaphors truly helped me to easily recall what the class was about and I believe it will always be part of my teaching future. Thank you all for such a great course.

By ALAMURI S N

May 15, 2020

I am Sri Nidhi and I am from India. I am very happy with the course and the instructors - Dr. Shane and his partner. I am very new to the teaching profession and to be frank, I never gave a thought about the principles that I have been using since my first day in teaching language. I am so glad that I came across this course and definitely this course already started making difference in my performace in all zones. Much obliged !

By Gladys L

Nov 28, 2018

I highly recommend this course! It highlights teaching techniques language educators can use to ensure successful language teaching and learning in their classroom. Moreover, the modules are interesting and easy to understand. Every language teachers, novice and seasoned alike, must take this course. Kudos to Dr. Shane Dixon, Dr. Justin Shewell, Ms. Andrea Haraway from Arizona State University for such a wonderful online course!

By Kendria R J

Mar 26, 2023

I really liked the casual yet professional set up of this course. Being a teacher coach in my private life, I understand ALL the information was good. I especially liked the part on Teacher Burnout (it's my specialty niche with mentoring teachers.) I understand WHY you put in as a module. I get that YOU GET IT!!! and thank you for your contribution. If you need any help or more testimonials I am available. www.iamkendria.com

By Sofia B

Feb 7, 2016

Amazing teachers, valuable information and top-quality materials! Thanks so much for making this course - I gained a lot from it, especially from giving and receiving feedback from fellow students. The only thing I didn't enjoy much are some questions in the tests because sometimes they seem a bit irrelevant. I would recommend making the tests a bit more to the point and reducing the amount of questions:) Thanks for your work!!!

By Andy A

Jul 6, 2021

I am totally impressed with this course in so many ways. The simple yet effective similes are what I will bring with me in my teaching because it summarizes so concisely the key knowledge. Moreover, Dr Dixon is so wonderful a teacher in imparting his knowledge in the most straightforward way possible. I highly recommend this course because it helps you envision your roles in a classroom in such a thoughtful and considerate way.

By Md. D I

Mar 30, 2020

Taking this course, as a trainee teacher, I feel that more confident than ever before. Besides, based on the gained knowledge from the course, I have started writing about Teaching English in my local language Bangla using contextual references. I post them on my social media account, and I am receiving positive feedback. Many of the readers have even expressed their interest to pursue Professional TESOL certification.

By Dariana D

May 5, 2020

This is a very helpful course. I had already gotten a TESOL certificate, but this one taught things that the other course I studied didn't. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I would definitely recommend this course to anyone who wants to learn more about teaching or is new to the whole concept!

By Suba S

Nov 1, 2017

Fantastic course. We learn a lot without feeling overwhelmed in any way because the course has been structured beautifully to convey information in a clear and concise manner.

Highly recommend!

By Sayli T

Nov 29, 2018

The course is really helping me with strategies I can use in a diverse community. It is helping me understand my students better and encouraging me to take risks.

By Joshimar E d l R

Dec 22, 2018

Excelente curso aprendi mucho mas de lo que esperaba y perfeccione muchas tecnicas, muy recomendable para extender tu habilidades como maestro de ingles

By Jesús R S

Jul 25, 2020

very helpful and well explained

By Karen S

Apr 12, 2022

For a university class there are some things missing: the Leitner vocabulary learning method is only once briefly mentioned. That has to get properly referenced since it continues to be the most important vocabularly learning method as of today. If it is taught later then that should be said. If not, it has to get taught. There is no emphazis that at first for a while vocabularly learning is part of school style language learning. There is too much emphazise on being the fool and the clown for students. That is over-done & over-dramatic. Parents / students pay good money for language learning classes. They want a sophisticated good teacher and not clowns & fools. He also gives a wrong picture of the French language prof Francois Gouin who learnt German in Germany for one year without speaking to people. Dr. Dixon portrays him as a loser. The truth is that he successfully translated German literature during that year and then developed new language learning methods that continue to be foundational for all new language learning curriculum development around the world. I just had the priviledge to experience that with a special development of Hebrew Level A where I became so proficient after 4 months that I was able to actively do research in Hebrew with the on-line environment. These methods should be taught and not dismissed. Some of the students only paraphrazed his wrong views about all of that in the assignments without having learnt the real achievements of this language professor. In one exam, it gives a wrong when one marks text books for the on-line enviroment. That was years ago when textbooks were not available on-line. That has changed now. There are a lot of text books on-line now. Dr. Dixon puts language learning down at the beginning of this class and claims that only language acquisition is good. In the summary, both presenters say that learning and acquisition must be balanced. I agree with that. That should be taught right from the beginning. He leaves out language learning for translators, for ancient languages and for those who want to become language researchers. They have to study far more structure, form and grammar for years. Since this is a university level, things like that should be mentioned. There is a lot of room in this class to add these things. The lengthy film credits after each lecture are annoying and should be cut out. One placement at the end of this class is sufficient and use that time for the above mentioned information. I will research it myself in order to receive the correct information. The candle diagram at the end of the class is really good. I agree with that a language teacher is a candle and language is fire. Be careful not to give out wrong information since it can burn one somewhere down the line since teaching language is a cake. Dr. Dixon should make sure that he gets his cake receipe up-dated. There are linguists around the world who know about these contributions of these two linguistic experts who have made siginificant contributions to language learning that continue to be highly valid and would look at him as a fool.

By Katherine A K

Sep 16, 2016

This class is very easy. It is a decent introduction, but has very little content. It is clearly made to be accessible to people from all around the world, and takes the content very slowly. The test questions ask you to recite information from the video lectures and reading, rather than thinking critically. It seems like they are just trying to make sure you watched/read the content and understood it, rather than making sure you acquired the knowledge. I guess it would be hard to grade essay questions in a class this big, but the content could go a little faster.

By Jeff M

Dec 4, 2015

This class felt a bit elementary . . . but it had some good material as well. I would appreciate a bit less overacting and goofiness (which actually praised in the course) and have a bit more academic material. In one of the videos, the professor suggested that teaching should be slightly above the student's level but not too high. This course seemed to be a bit lower than my level (but I have taken education courses in the past).

By Chana T

Mar 17, 2017

Although the information provided by the course is good, I do find it a bit difficult to listen to the videos. In truth, I typically read through the transcripts instead of watching them. I understand the the professor is attempting to provide an interesting and engaging experience, but I end up feeling as though I'm being talked to like I'm a child.

By Brooke D

May 8, 2018

Over animated professor makes it a little difficult to take things seriously. Also the caliber of content leaves much to be desired. The homework was in no way challenging and though is was intended to be thought provoking I just found is demeaning.

Why are college professors acting like tv hosts? No clue.

By Kristine K

Mar 14, 2016

I would give it 5 stars but , staff really needs to start reviewing assignments because there are a couple of bad apples copying the work of other students. We work hard and should not have our work plagiarized, but since it is peer review and not teacher graded, they get away with it.