Professional development for teachers

Here you’ll find a wide range of free, self-access training and resources designed to help you build the skills and knowledge you need as an English teacher.

All TeachingEnglish professional development resources are aligned with the British Council Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Framework for teachers, to help you plan your learning and develop the areas most relevant to your professional growth.

You can explore resources in a way that suits your goals:
- by professional practices – to focus on specific areas of teaching where you want to deepen your skills and expertise
- by professional development levels – to find resources matched to your training and experience and see how they can help you progress within each area.

Each resource includes a timer icon to show how much time you’ll need, helping you plan your learning effectively.

A group of teachers around a big table, looking at different notebooks and tablets. There are teachers of different genders and ethnic backgrounds sitting at the same table.

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TeachingEnglish: Planning courses

Discover how to plan learner-centred courses based on your learners, their context and curriculum requirements. Explore techniques for analysing learner needs and involving them as active participants in the assessment process. Enrolment for Planning courses is closed. Find resources connected to the course contents on this page, and sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date on when our courses open.

A White primary-aged learner with Down’s Syndrome has his hand up in a classroom.

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TeachingEnglish: How to teach vocabulary

Help your learners notice, record, recycle and use new vocabulary more confidently with engaging classroom activities. Enrolment for How to teach vocabulary is closed. Find resources connected to the course contents on this page, and sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date on when our courses open.

Course closed

TeachingEnglish: How to teach writing

Improve your learners' writing skills by exploring the subskills that make good writers, and ways of developing them in the classroom. Enrolment for How to teach writing is closed. Find resources connected to the course contents on this page, and sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date on when our courses open.

A Black teacher and a gender-neutral learner writing something on a classroom board.

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TeachingEnglish: Managing learning

Learn how to evaluate and write engaging lesson plans, and explore techniques for effective transitions, signalling, task-setting and checking instructions. Enrolment for Managing learning is closed. Find resources connected to the course contents on this page, and sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date on when our courses open.

A multilingual primary group with five students

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English in the multilingual classroom

This course will introduce you to multilingualism and what it means. Learn how to make your classroom and teaching multilingual so that your learners can learn to celebrate and use many languages in the real world. Enrolment for English in the multilingual classroom is closed. Find resources connected to the course contents on this page, and sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date on when our courses open.

A group of primary-aged learners in a classroom sitting at desks. A White teacher is giving a Black learner a high-five.

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TeachingEnglish: Managing learners and resources

Learn how to manage resources, groupings and differentiation effectively to help build positive relationships with learners in your classroom. Enrolment for Managing learners and resources is closed. Find resources connected to the course contents on this page, and sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date on when our courses open.

A group of primary-aged learners sitting at a table, working together on something. The photo is taken from above. The learners are of different genders and ethnic backgrounds.

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TeachingEnglish: Organising the classroom

Learn how to use boards and other classroom resources effectively. Develop strategies for promoting social language, starting and finishing lessons and managing different interaction patterns in class. Enrolment for Organising the classroom is closed. Find resources connected to the course contents on this page, and sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date on when our courses open.

A Black teacher sitting at a desk, typing something on a laptop.

Course closed

TeachingEnglish: Planning lessons

Learn how to plan engaging language and topic-based lessons by identifying and applying commonly used lesson models. Explore techniques for introducing new language, writing achievable learning outcomes, and planning warmers and lead-ins. Enrolment for Planning lessons is closed. Find resources connected to the course contents on this page, and sign up for our newsletter to keep up to date on when our courses open.

A group of diverse teenagers standing around a desk working together on a project

Inclusive assessment – webinars

Watch the recordings of three practical webinars on how to make assessment more inclusive and creative.

Teaching the schwa

If you only learn or teach one phoneme, make sure it's the most common English sound – the schwa.

Teaching resources