EUROLTA - The European Certificate
in Language Teaching to Adults
by Mandy Jore
- 1

EUROLTA - The European Certificate in Language Teaching to Adults - was developed by the ICC.

The ICC - International Certificate Conference - is a Network. The ICC reflects and embodies a spirit of international understanding and cross-cultural co-operation. They bring together people actively involved in foreign language teaching and provide them with a forum for exchange. They share expertise, services and experience. The ICC has thirty members from thirteen countries

A key element in the delivery of quality language teaching is the qualification of teachers.

The ICC has recognised that many teachers of languages engaged in the field of adult education

• look for opportunities to advance in their profession
• often do not have the possibility to gain certification for the tasks they are fulfilling.

The ICC has therefore developed a European wide framework for teacher development with training schemes that lead to certification: Eurolta - The European Certificate in Language Teaching to Adults - is a teacher training framework and a certification scheme. It is a qualification for those who wish to teach modern languages to adults.

Eurolta

• is recognised by all member organisations of the ICC
• guarantees that the holder of the qualification has received specific training in language teaching to adults
• sets minimum standards for quality teacher training for language teachers

The ICC is responsible for maintaining these standards through

• the accreditation of tested institutions
• the training of auditors and assessors.

Eurolta is European: the following organisations were responsible for writing the framework:

• Association de Gestion du Réseau des Centres d'Etude des Langues des Chambres de Commerce et d'Industrie (France)
• Comune di Milano (Italy)
• Deutsches Institut für Erwachsenenbildung (Germany)
• Deutscher Volkshochschul-Verband (Germany) represented by Rheinland-Pfalz and Hamburg
• Folkeuniversitetet Norway
• Folkuniversitetet Sweden
• Coordination Office of the Club Schools (Switzerland)
• Royal Society of Arts (Great Britain)
• Verband Österreichischer Volkshochschulen (Austria)
• Verband Wiener Volksbildung (Austria)
• Universität Gesamthochschule Kassel (Germany)
  

The Framework

The ICC Teacher Training Framework is a comprehensive system of guidelines regarding overall aims, methodology, contents and objectives for teacher training programmes as well as criteria for assessment and certification of trainees.

The Framework also defines quality standards for training institutions and establishes a system of quality assurance and development through the accreditation of institutions and the training of auditors and assessors.

There are five content areas:

• language learning,
• language and culture,
• language teaching,
• planning and evaluation
• self-assessment.

Trainees document their competence by producing a dossier of tasks. The dossier should document all five content areas and should include:

• the documentation of at least one task carried out in the area of Language and Culture,
• the documentation of at least one task carried out in the area of Language Learning Processes,
• the documentation of at least two tasks carried out in the area of Language Teaching,
• the documentation of at least one task carried out in the area of Planning and Evaluation,
• the records of a lesson observed by the trainer for the area of Self-Assessment and Development.

Further requirements are:

• At least one of the tasks should have involved learner observation.
• At least one of the tasks should have involved a focused lesson observation (of a colleague, or done on the basis of a video recording).
• At least one of the tasks should have involved focused self-observation (preferably on the basis of an audio- or video-recording).
• Up to two tasks may have been carried out jointly with one or two colleagues, in which case the individual trainee's contribution towards the group project should be clearly evident in the documentation. The other tasks should represent the trainee's individual work.

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