1. Specific Information

1.1 Tasks and competences of the program

The academic program of the Teaching English as a Foreign Language Program includes the realization of external internship on the part of the student. This internship consist of the development of teaching duties as a teacher of English as a foreign language in an authentic occupational context with responsibility for the planning and development of classes, and under the supervision of a tutor of the institution. The aim of the internship is that the trainee student mainly develops the following competencies:

• Capacity to analyze and identify the educational context, learning needs and preferences of the students and the available resources to properly carry out the assignments as an FL / SL English professor.
• Capacity to manage the classroom and the planning processes of teaching and learning FL / SL English according to the requirements of the analyzed context and in response to the methodological approach and the consistency of the didactic sequence, materials, resources and activities.
• Capacity to create and adapt didactic material in FL / SL English, adjusted to the students’ learning needs.
• Capacity to evaluate the learning and performance of students in FL / SL English.
• Capacity to observe, review and analyze the teaching task in the FL / SL English classroom.
• Capacity to properly comply with the given assignments within the given time.
• Capacity to resolve independently problems related to the professional exercise as an English teacher and with the support of the necessary resources or the suitable person within the institution.
• Capacity to adapt to the institution’s work system, as well as to assimilate concepts, processes, mechanics on the internal operation of the institution.
• Ability to become integrated into the institution’s teaching staff and work in a collaborative manner.
• Ability to behave in accordance with the social, organizational and ethical standards of the institution and the professio

1.2 SFI of FPMTFL characteristics

1.2.1. Previous requirements

The student must perform the internship during the fifth semester of the program (see the academic calendar) and for this, it is necessary:

1. First of all, the student must have passed the following subjects:

• Observation & Research / Reflective practice and professional development
• Curriculum & Course Design / The curriculum of English FL and the planning of courses and classes

Only in very exceptional cases, it will be permitted to carry them out at another time and in any case, the student must submit a formal request to the Department of Internship Coordination of the corresponding university. The letter has to be addressed to the program coordination and in this, the reasons why the student request to do the SFI before must be stated.

1. The student must have submitted obligatorily all the required documentation, both academic and administrative. Regarding the administrative requirements, please read the general information available in the “Internship development” section.

1.2.2. Total hours

In total, the student is required to carry out 25 hours of face-to-face internship at the educational institution, distributed in the following manner:

• 6 observation hours of the educational context in which the trainee teacher is to work, as well as the group of students of the assigned class.
• 10 hours of teaching (a teaching unit).
• 9 hours of tutorials with the tutor of the institution, as well as preparing the resources of observation and teaching phases.

The remaining hours will be earmarked for developing the syllabus; designing and adapting teaching materials; and writing the internship report.

1.2.3. SFI’s development context

Any kind of educational context will be accepted as long as the courses are of general LE English. In any case, the institution shall determine the level and the group in which the trainee teacher will perform the internship.

1.2.4. PPS development stage

This stage takes place during the fifth term of the program and corresponds to the development of the internship in the selected educational institution, under the supervision and with the support of a tutor of the same institution. In order to begin this stage the student has to meet the established academic and administrative requirements (see paragraph  “Internship development” section).

The institution’s tutor will usually be the holder teacher of the group of students assigned to the trainee teacher. This person will also be the one who subsequently must write the assessment report of the internship institution. This report is available in the “Internship development” section.

The development stage consists of the following stages:

1. Observation Phase:

During this stage, the trainee teacher will have to know, through observation processes, the educational context in which he/she is going to exercise and the group of students he has been assigned, with the objective of obtaining the necessary information to program the didactic unit that he/she is going to impart, plan the classes and prepare the materials. The didactic unit shall include 10 hours of class.

The observation period will last, at least, 6 hours so that the trainee teacher can be aware of the following aspects:

• Institutional Framework
• Space distribution
• Available resources in the institution and in the classroom
• Learning methodology
• Academic program
• Characteristics of the group in which he/she has to impart class, such as styles, preferences and learning needs, personality or role.
• Teacher’s role
• Standard practice in material utilization

During the observation processes, the trainee teacher will try not to interfere with the development of the teaching activity. If the student does the internship in his workplace, he must also take into account all these issues.

Once the trainee teacher ends the observation period, based on the collected data, he will have to develop the programming of the didactic unit and its corresponding materials, if required. The student will need to have, at least, one week for undertaking this work before imparting class.

Different formats can be used to plan the class The trainee teacher should choose the most convenient to the context in which he/she is going to do the internship. He/she will be able to carry out any class modifications or adjustments he/she considers most appropriate. In some cases, he/she may be able to negotiate the programming with their students, but in others he/she is going to be limited to the structure of the teaching institution or to the guidelines of the tutor that has relinquished the group in order to impart the unit.

As stated above, the didactic unit shall include 10 hours of class.

If it is necessary to develop complementary material, the following aspects must be taken into account:

• Include tasks that respond to the communication needs of the student in the real world.
• Engage students in activities of troubleshooting.
• Offer input of authentic or representative material.
• Set clear goals that set what the student will be able to do in the end.
• Require the use of more than one skill and integrate them in a natural way.
• Allow a coherent and meaningful presentation of formal aspects of the language.
• Offer occasions for the controlled practice.
• Involve the student for him/her to share information.
• Allow the student to participate in the planning and development of the task.
• Include the means for evaluating the success or other aspects of the task.

1. Teaching Phase:

At this stage, the trainee teacher must impart the didactic unit which has been planned along one or two weeks, depending on the distribution of the teaching hours (10). The tutor of the institution will observe the trainee teacher and will offer him/her feedback by using an evaluation report to be drawn up at the end of the internship. In the same way, at the end of the classes, the tutor may give the trainee teacher some advices to be taken into account for future classes.

During this stage, the student will have to record himself on video. It is necessary to record only some classes, since the student will have to choose 10 minutes to be included in the internship report. The student will have to select a video fragment that will be especially significant for his formative process and professional development, and argue about the reasons why it is so. Later on, there is more detailed information on this aspect.

At the time of registering the video, it is important to take into account the following issues:

• In principle, the best option is that another person records the classroom session. If possible, it should be with someone familiar to the students to minimize the risks of intimidation.
• It should not be forgotten that the video camera is not impartial, since it records what the person who handles it wants to record. Moreover, it can influence the development of the class if the person interferes with the intention to get a good recording of some aspect in particular. For this reason, it is advisable to the trainee teacher that before recording he/she addresses these issues with the person who will be in charge of recording.
• In case you do not have someone who can make the recording, you will need to fix the camera in some strategic place of the classroom so as to cover the maximum possible field of vision. However, it should be borne in mind that sometimes, you cannot cover the entire class. Nor is it very useful to have the camera too far in such a way that you cannot hear or see the action of the teacher. It should be avoided, for example, to place the camera in the middle of the class.
• It is advisable to enter the camera in the classroom at previous sessions for learners to gradually become accustomed to it because, in that way, the risk of a change their behavior, either by desire for visibility or modesty is minimized. You can also inform the students that the center of attention of the recordings is the trainee teacher and not themselves.
• Before recording, it is important to review the technical issues: Verify that your computer works correctly both with respect to the image as the audio, etc.
• Finally, the trainee teacher must also take into account that in some countries it is necessary to request permission from the students to make the recording and, if they are minors, ask for permission from their parents or guardians.

Also, during the teaching period, the trainee teacher must write a diary. It is recommended that you write the journal entry corresponding to each session as soon as possible to avoid forgetting important aspects and to better reflect the impressions you have. This diary must also be included in the internship report.

III. Intership Report Phase:

At this stage, the trainee teacher must write an internship final report, whose objective is to systematize and reflect on the professional experience lived in the institution. The document’s structure has to follow the Internship Report Template.

For more information, please read the “Internship development” section of the virtual campus (in the Internship icon).

2. Internship recognition/acknowledgment

In this program, for the internship recognition/acknowledgment, the student must certify, depending on the corresponding university, the following:

UNIVERSITY	REQUIRED EXPERIENCE
European University of the Atlantic	3 years of full-time experience
International University IberoamericanaUNINI Puerto Rico	18 months of full-time experience
18 months of full-time experience	18 months of full-time experience
Dual Degree	A certificate for each university complying with the time required in each one must be submitted.

Students must demonstrate previous experience in a recognized educational institution where they have developed the following tasks:

• Teaching English as a Foreign Language (FL) or Second Language (SL).
• Planning and evaluating teaching and learning English FL / SL processes.
• Creating and adapting English FL / SL teaching materials.
• Designing and administrating tests for the assessment of communicative competence in English FL / SL.
• Correcting specific activities of the field of teaching and learning English FL / SL.
• Analyzing and evaluating the own teaching and professional development for the detection of weak points.
• Coordinating with the teaching team.

Moreover, students must demonstrate that have the following competences:

• Capacity to analyze and identify the educational context, learning needs and preferences of the students and the available resources to properly carry out the assignments as an FL / SL English professor.
• Capacity to manage the classroom and the planning processes of teaching and learning FL / SL English according to the requirements of the analyzed context and in response to the methodological approach and the consistency of the didactic sequence, materials, resources and activities.
• Capacity to create and adapt didactic material in FL / SL English, adjusted to the students’ learning needs.
• Capacity to evaluate the learning and performance of students in FL / SL English.
• Capacity to observe, review and analyze the teaching task in the FL / SL English classroom.
• Capacity to properly comply with the given assignments within the given time.
• Capacity to resolve independently problems related to the professional exercise as an English teacher and with the support of the necessary resources or the suitable person within the institution.
• Capacity to adapt to the institution’s work system, as well as to assimilate concepts, processes, mechanics on the internal operation of the institution.
• Ability to become integrated into the institution’s teaching staff and work in a collaborative manner.
• Ability to behave in accordance with the social, organizational and ethical standards of the institution and the profession.

3. Internship development

Each university has internship collaboration agreements with institutions of its country. These institutions are at the student’s disposal. Nevertheless, taking into account the diverse locations and origins of the students, there is the possibility for them to contact with an institution near to the student’s residence and that meets all the criteria needed for the internship. The university in which the student is enrolled and the institution will have to sign a collaboration agreement as well as an annex so that the student is able to develop the internship in an institution that has been authorized by the university.

3.1 Structure and organization

The external internship is organized into the following stages:

3.2.1 Preliminary Stage

If the student is not able to benefit from the collaboration agreements that exist between the university and various institutions, the student will have to contact an institution in order to do the internship, with the assistance of the Internship’s Department. It is possible to do the internship at the current workplace, if at that time the student has a job which is related to the professional profile for which the academic program trains.

In order to establish a relationship with potential institutions in which the student is interested, the university facilitates the student a Cover Letter, in which the institution is informed on the contents of the internship and its characteristics, as well what the collaboration implies. The Cover Letter is available below:

IN ENGLISH:

• Letter of Introduction PPS European University of the Atlantic
• Letter of Introduction PPS Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico)
• Letter of Introduction PPS Universidad Iberoamericana (Puerto Rico)

IN SPANISH:

• Carta de Presentación Universidad Europea del Atlántico
• Carta de Presentación Universidad Internacional Iberoamericana (México)
• Carta de Presentación Universidad Internacional Iberoamericana (Puerto Rico)

IN PORTUGUESE:

• Carta de Apresentação PPS Universidade Europeia  Atlântico (España)
• Carta de Apresentação PPS Universidad Iberoamericana (México)
• Carta de Apresentação Universidad Iberoamericana PPS (Porto Rico)

IN FRENCH:

• Document du Présentation PPS Université européenne Charte Atlantique (España)
• Document du Présentation PPS Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexique)
• Document du Présentation PPS Universidad Iberoamericana PPS (Puerto Rico)