Although much of the content seems common sense it is probably necessary to build a common foundation here for later courses. The peer assessments are potentially interesting but, in practice, the majority are so trivial--3 or 4 sentences repeating back material from the lectures--as to be hardly worth reading. Since there is no real qualitative assessment in the peer grading, the work put in by a minority is not acknowledged nor the shortcomings of many highlighted.

The instructor is unbelievably upbeat and animated which some will love and others. . . not. I tend to be in the latter camp but recognise this may be due to cultural differences or simply that I'm a boring old sod!

I think it's a really good opportunity to be able to obtain a TESOL certificate online and this course seems to be able to do it very efficiently. However, I have found the approach of the style of the lessons a little bit slow and too dramatic- and somewhat even childish. I'm sure the planning of this certificate program is to ensure that people who take it will remember it so that they can really make use of it in their profession- so they probably avoided long and boring lectures. But still, I must admit that the lessons look a little bit annoying sometimes :) Still, thank you for the opportunity.

Excellent and 'delicious slice of cake' of an introductory course - couldn't be happier to embark on my teaching journey (I'm switching careers to the teaching profession & become an English language instructor) with this group of brilliant passionate, no-doubt hardworking instructors, whom I wish all the best in everything in their lives as well as all course classmates & takers, & readers of this review - looking forward to course 2 out of 8! Can hardly wait (rhyme) all good I anticipate ;) PS. I gave a 4-star rating; I never give full-ratings because there's always room for improvement.

The course is helpful in providing the right mindset for becoming a language teacher. I learned a lot of techniques that I have started using with some of my students. I think the course can improve on its exercises and activities. It would be nice to have more essay activities instead of just objective quizzes (although they're very helpful in remembering). A good exercise would be interactive essay responses; instead of just providing a review for someone else's response to the essential assumption, you can provide a "response to the response," in order to start a dialogue or discussion.

This course was and still is a great start for individuals who want to start their teaching carriers. It contains amazing videos, readings and assignments. The missing 'STAR" was for the peer graded assignments. Even though my assignments were graded in a short time by my friends and peers, others really had to wait a bit longer. But their assignments were graded finally. To sum up, I recommend you to enroll in this course as well as to the other five courses by AZU.

The course is good enough--a means to an end. The 4-part, six weeks apart format is kind of bothersome because the wait period sort of dampens the momentum and enthusiasm created during the first course (especially if you complete the whole thing in a week-end). The course is well put together and infused with a little humor. The visuals are good and if you're in the right mood, the course is enjoyable and ifun to interact with folks from around the world.

This is a fun, informative and helpful class for anyone wanting to become an effective language teacher. It's a nice mix of best practices and proven techniques that really work. I'm more confident and encouraged by this constructive approach toward teaching teachers how to most effectively help and motivate adult students to learn a new language. The ASU presenters and content team are very knowledgeable and passionate about teaching.

For a neophyte to online learning, I feel lucky to undergo a course where the instructor/ course presenter made the lessons easy to understand, the lectures were presented as if the instructor and the learner are in the same room and not just the presenter talking to the camera. It became easy for me to finish up the segment of the specialization and was driven to push through with the entire course because of it. Kudos to you all!

Excellent teaching but not as amazingly easy to access as the linguistics course or the Mandarin courses I took, probably because of the demand. I had to complain several times because I was sometimes directed to a module I had already completed. I was charged twice in September, once on the 2nd and again on the 10th. I supposedly began for free, so I think my first charge should have been on the 10th.

The course is very inspiring and educational. I do appreciate that coursera and ASU can put this course on site. It synthesizes education theories and actual teaching experiences. However, I do think this course would improve a lot if teaching practices could be incorporated because for teaching professionals the teaching itself is the most important thing.

The course is really great. The pace is good, the instructions are clear and easy to understand and learn. But I believe there could be more materials for us to study, more discussions propositions so we could develop more on our understanding, and the tests and quizzes could be a little bit more complex. The final one only took me five minutes.

As a holder of MA degree in ELT, this course has brought back,

in a more interactive and effortless way, the old theories techniques and methods of English language teaching I learnt in my study. So grateful to the SYA organisation sponsoring this course. Last but not least, this was my first coursera course, yet it will never be the last.

well organized, user friendly, brief but informative, based on videos (nevertheless, a transcription is always provided), if you are fond of metaphors you will definitely enjoy it. you have a choice to prepare a video clip (if you prefer the spoken language) or an essay (if you prefer the written language) for each assignment

This is the first time I am taking any course online and I enjoyed this course. I felt that it was a good introduction to how to establish the steps for a good foundation for ESL teachers. I am now taking the second course to further my progress toward my certification through ASU. Thank you for this opportunity!

Estuvo muy bueno, de pronto sería bueno incluir más videos en los que se pone en práctica los distintos principios. De todas maneras, debo reconocer que es una muy buena alternativa para aquellos que se inician en la enseñanza y quieren tener una idea más clara sobre lo que implica enseñar. Felicitaciones!!!

The content is clear and the instructors are engaging. However, I was expecting the course to focus more onto how to teach English like how to teach grammars etc. Nonetheless, I learnt a great deal. It helped me to revise some of the things I had learnt in teaching college. I enjoyed the course thoroughly.

The content of the course is really good, it has been really clear, well structured and made with the best information. I grade it with 4 starts because I think the peer reviewed assigntments needs some development and of course everything can be improved. anyway, this is a great course and I recomend it.

First and foremost, many thanks to Arizona State University, Dr. Shane Dixon, Andrea Haraway, and many others for the opportunity to learn. Teach English Now has paved the way and taught several strategies for teaching, learning, and acquiring a language. I learned so many things in this course.

I liked the more practical view on teaching English rather than being too theoretical. I do not deny the need for a theoretical foundation but here and there some examples and stories from "the real world" is nice. Thank you, Dr. Dixon and Team. Enjoyed learning from you and learning with you.

I have been teaching for a while, and I am familiar with most of the information presented in this course. Nevertheless, I took it because I would like to complete the entire set to receive the TESOL certificate. It might be useful for those considering to become teachers in the near future.

Overall, I am satisfied with the course. Although I find the Quiz a bit unchallenging. I hope they don't just recycle questions at the end of the module but really ask deeper or more complex questions so that fellow students will really think more and analyze how to answer these questions.

This is an amazing course. All teachers, especially Dr. Shane Dixon, is so charismatic and passionate about teaching! The content is also well designed. But to some extent the lesson is too easy and few people are like to give constructive peer feedback. I would still recommend it though!

Although it is an introductory course I would have preferred to have a hard course in this first part. However it is an excellent course and it sheds light on many topics in the teaching area. I strongly recommend it to everybody interested in learning more about English teaching.

The course portrays the general overview of being an English teacher, the main reflections on classroom language instruction and mainly focusing on the students language acquisition, opening our eyes to understand the opportunities us teachers have every single class we teach at.

I know that it would be near impossible to do this on a website like Coursera where thousands of people are probably enrolled in your course, but it would be great if there was some real evaluation (teachers or experienced alums to comment on the quality) of our essays/responses.