Julie's story

Julie has been teaching English since she graduated in 2012, majoring in Business English.

“When I started as an English teacher, English language learning was quite popular among adult learners. I just like helping others, so I thought I could share my experience – it was an easy choice for me.”

After working for a few years teaching Chinese customers in an offline English training centre, Julie started working as an online English teacher for EF in Shanghai, where she has worked ever since.

After taking on more responsibilities in recent years, Julie decided she wanted to undertake more training, initially taking a Trinity Certificate in Online Teaching (CertOT) in 2021, and a Trinity Certificate for Practising Teachers (CertPT) with Language Point the following year.

We asked Julie why she was interested in CertPT in particular.

“At the beginning of last year, there were some new responsibilities at work that I took on, so I thought it might be a good chance for me to learn more and to develop myself.”

“I'm the quality assurance specialist, so what I do is lead a team of observers who usually observe lessons on EF online platform and provide some feedback on them.”

“My boss recommended this course to me because it talks about material design, so I took a look and I thought it looked interesting.”

“We need to train our teachers to supplement and do adaptations to make good use of the materials we use, but also to make it something personal to the students. So, I thought this course covered something that I wanted to know about.”

Julie has no regrets about signing up for CertPT.

“If I had the chance to do it again, I would - it is a really valuable, rewarding course”

“What impressed me the most is how this course put the learner's needs at the forefront – that's something I think every teacher would agree is important. The four assessed tasks at the beginning focus on how this can be done.”

“You really think about how the students are going to use the language and, based on that, look at the materials. So that is quite powerful.”

Julie was able to balance her full-time role with the demands of the self-study course.

“I really appreciate the fact it's quite flexible - the 30 hours guided study with 70 hours self-study is something quite different from my previous experience.”

“I've never studied abroad. So, all my previous education background is with the traditional Chinese public schools, where you just take whatever the teachers deliver, and the exams will be focused on what the teacher said.”

We asked Julie what her biggest takeaway from the course was.

“Before the course, I would focus more on the material itself – I would ask myself if the materials were being delivered effectively, or if the teacher is focusing on the target language of the lesson.”

“Now after CertPT, the first thing I ask myself is if I think the students might be interested in what the teacher has shared with them, and whether they will be able to apply it - to be honest, I don't think a lot of teachers realize that’s important.”

We asked Julie if she has any further plans for her continued professional development.

“I will definitely continue working in quality assurance because I love it, but I've been thinking about teaching more this year as well, so I can fully understand what I have learned and the impact of this knowledge.”

“If I had the chance to do CertPT again, I would - it is a really valuable, rewarding course.”

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