Dublin, Ireland 21st - 26th April, 2025
Refresher Course for Already Practicing English Language Teachers (ESL, EFL, ESOL)
English teachers from Germany, Hungary, Spain and Finland were studying EU standards on teaching 21st century skills to the students, the focus being on getting the students involved.
We were taught how to use CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) methods and make use of task-based learning to get the students to work more efficiently (- even in a fun way :) in pairs or groups. Our trainer, Helen Callanan, gave us many exercises through which we practiced using authentic material when teaching e.g. reading comprehension techniques, writing and speaking skills or grammar through content.
A learner-centered teacher makes students do the job and makes them responsible for their own learning. Thus, students become more engaged and acquire tools to learn languages even better.
In addition to attending the lessons, we also had an opportunity to take part in interesting cultural activities in the afternoons. On Monday a European Food Fair was arranged in the premises of St Mary’s Church nearby. All teachers attending the course brought some typical dishes from their home countries. And all of us had a chance to taste those delicacies. We Finns had brought e.g. Fazer chocolate and biscuits, rye chips, salty liquorice and a blueberry pie.
A walking tour through the heart of Dublin on Tuesday gave us a very broad and varied view of Irish history, culture, literature and society. We visited, for instance, Oscar Wilde’s park and learned that “two-legged” means ‘very fast’ in Irish English. We already knew that green is the colour of Ireland, but now we also became aware of the fact that there are 40 different shades of green in the country.
On Thursday we explored EPIC (the Irish Emigration Museum). It was an awesome, modern museum with a gorgeous exhibition about Irish history.
It was truly amazing to visit the Powerscourt House and Gardens although the weather was cloudy and a bit rainy, too. The place is like a paradise to a person who likes flowers, plants and trees - and photography. 🙂 Time just flew when we were wandering around and admiring the beauty of nature in the garden which has been ranked as the third most beautiful one in the world by National Geographic.
Luckily, we also had some time to explore the city and the surroundings by ourselves, taking a train to Howth which is a lovely, idyllic fishing village and a small trading port from the 14th century. It's situated about 10 km east of Dublin.
It’s always pleasant to relax by watching skillfully made works of art, which could be done in the National Gallery of Ireland. It was a bit of a pity we didn’t see Caravaggio’s famous painting which had been taken to Italy for a few months.
Our first Erasmus course and the trip to Dublin itself was most enjoyable and we would love to do it again.
