Other Information

Course Overview

Literature offers learners meaningful, personal reading experiences and gives them a powerful sense of the expressive potential of the language they are learning. Drama is an effective way of helping students to activate that language and explore setting, character and story through cooperation, creativity and communication.
This 50-hour course will explore approaches to using literature in the language classroom and will introduce you to a wide range of drama games and activities. Sessions on the use of literature will focus on ways of promoting the habit of extensive reading and developing creative response strategies to encourage learners to become more active readers. Drama sessions are designed to boost confidence, creativity and spontaneity through role-play, drama games and improvisation. By the end of the course, you will have built up a repertoire of approaches to incorporating both literature and drama activities into your language teaching.

Course Details

The course will include content drawn from some or all of the following areas, depending on your contextual and personal needs and priorities:

• Recent developments and changes in English

• The role of the media, the internet and social networking

• Language and social class

• Current political and social issues

• Popular culture and subcultures

• Contemporary British literature

• Discourse analysis, with particular reference to contemporary spoken and written texts

• A look at regional dialects and accents

• International Englishes

• Developing language awareness

• Designing materials for language awareness

Time will be built into the course for reflection and for you to consider how to adapt ideas from the course to the classroom in your own professional context. 

As a course participant, you will receive a pre-course questionnaire, which should be returned prior to the course. This is to ensure that the areas of most relevance to you are integrated into the course content

All NILE’s courses involve a significant element of English language improvement and/or development of language awareness.

What does the course consist of? 

The 50-hour course provision includes intensive tuition by trainers who are experts in the fields of English language teaching and methodology, as well as opportunities for reading and research and a guest lecture from a well-known figure in the field of ELT.

Classes are held from Monday to Friday and take place as detailed in the course-specific timetable but within the hours 0915 – 1715.

What approach is used?

• Classes will be practical and ‘hands-on’, but with reference to relevant theory
• ​​Courses are participant-centred and entail involvement in tasks and activities which boost confidence and provide memorable learning contexts
• Tasks will be used to illustrate the key course objectives through procedure as well as content

Who should apply?

This course is aimed at teachers of English and other ELT professionals who wish to:

• introduce more active and interactive learning methods
• develop approaches to using literature in the classroom
• update their own knowledge and skills in working with drama
• Participants should have a minimum language level corresponding to B1/B2 on the Common European Framework

Facilities and resources

NILE course participants have free access to an extensive ELT library and a modern suite of
computers with a broadband Internet link. The NILE course venues have a wireless (Wi-Fi)
environment. Each course has a Moodle online learning environment where course materials
and views of course participants can be shared digitally. This is kept active for at least six
months beyond the course so you can keep in touch with your fellow course participants.