Julie Oakford - International student coordinator
The Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching Linguistically Diverse Leaners has been an enormous help for Julie in encouraging her to try out new teaching strategies with her students.
"Working as the International Student Coordinator at a primary school in Auckland alongside the ESOL team led me to realise that there were gaps in my knowledge that I needed to fill in order to provide the best possible experience to my international students. The Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching Linguistically Diverse Learners seemed to be tailor made for me, I was attracted to a higher level of academic study and the wide range of topics covered by the course curriculum.
“I have most enjoyed the face-to-face sessions with inspiring lecturers, and the opportunity to meet with other teachers from a wide variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds, at all levels of our education system. All the course material is online and is easy to follow, there is a higher academic level in terms of readings, assignments and theories in postgraduates studies, however, the support I have received from lecturers has been outstanding.
The programme has been an enormous help in encouraging me to try out new teaching strategies with my students
“I would recommend this programme to all teachers; it is relevant to anyone who has students with a second language. The programme has been an enormous help in encouraging me to try out new teaching strategies with my students, the theory behind second language acquisition has helped me to understand the difficulties faced by my students and find ways to overcome these.
“Through this qualification, I hope to be able to better understand the language needs of my international students and to take up a part-time ESOL teaching role in the future alongside my international student responsibilities.”