DELTA

Delta involves three modules: the exam (Module One), the coursework portfolio (Module Two), and the extended assignment (Module Three). You can do one, two or all three of them. You will receive a certificate for any module you pass, but if an institution specifies that you should have the Delta, they usually require that you should have passed all three. If you aren't sure if you are ready to do Delta or not yet, then watch the webinar over on the right for some help.

ITI provides options to do all three Modules in Turkey or in your country of residence. The following links give more details and Robyn in the video below gives you a nice idea of how the three Modules fit together.

Module one

Module two

Doing Module two part time

Doing M2 on an intensive course

Module three

Module Three course design option or management?

You can submit Delta work (do the exam (Module One), submit your coursework portfolio (Module Two) or submit your extended assignment (Module Three)) on the first Wednesday of December or the first Wednesday of June every year.

Delta is a considerable commitment in terms of time and effort. Quite how much time or effort will vary according to your background (a first degree in education or an ELT Masters usually makes the academic research and writing aspects easier), your experience (the wider variety of situations you have taught in and the greater the range of different course books and resources you have used, the more ideas you will have to draw on in Module Two) and your developmental pathway (if you are in an institution that provides regular in service training and observation some elements will be more familiar). Having done a CELTA is a good idea, though not an absolute requirement.

You can do the modules in any order, though we recommend 1/2/3 or 1/3/2. Most people submit their work for each module as they finish it, though as all three modules feed into and support each other, you could do all three courses and only then submit work. It is possible to do different Modules at different centres (though we obviously think you should do them all with us).

We have had people doing Module One and Module Three fully online since 2009 and teachers from the Falkland Islands to Indonesia have succeeded (with our help) in the Delta Module One exam (coming up to 400 teachers and counting). We have supported over 400 teachers in successfully passing their Module Two both here in Istanbul and all over the world. And in Module Three we are very proud of the 300 plus teachers who have succeeded through doing a course with us. Information about tutors here.

Module one

Module One is a written exam that expects you to be able to look at authentic text, classroom tasks, coursebook materials and even assessments and comment on the language (that might be grammar, lexis, phonology or discourse) and the sub skills and strategies involved in the language itself, in the teaching of it or in what students are likely to do with it. Delta is a proficiency exam. There is not a fixed list of things to learn that you can then write down in the test, they intend to make you look at new things, analyse them using your background knowledge of systems, skills and methodology and say something about them. That is say something new - they do not repeat old tasks. While the shape of the task and the skills it requires will always be similar, the answers will always be new.

The exam consists of two 90 minute exam papers, with a 30 minute break between them. Through input, projects and exam tasks, we introduce you to the kinds of things that can come up in the exam and how you might deal with them so you can work out how much and what you need to study. This 'how much and what' will vary enormously from teacher to teacher depending on your background and learning history.

Input M1 -Sept 2021

The ITI Delta Module One exam preparation course consists of ten blocks. These are designed to be done over ten weeks while working full time on a spring or autumn course, over ten days while not working at all if you are on a summer F2F course or over five weeks while not working too many hours if you are on a summer fully online course.

Each of the ten blocks includes:

  • input on two or three areas that may come up in the exam. Sometimes this is about content areas (e.g. there are two slots on discourse analysis, one on teaching listening and thirty in total) and sometimes the focus is more fully on exam technique (e.g. there is one slot on exam technique to answer paper two task three). Input consists of self study notes with tasks and information in them. There are also two or three synchronous online sessions each week (in Zoom) - these revisit the same areas in different ways and add further information (recordings are uploaded if you can't join in live).

  • a group project to explore some areas further - these are completed online and then posted in the Moodle so you can use projects from other groups for revision purposes

  • individual exam practice consisting of one or two exam tasks for you to try. These are marked by tutors and returned to you with advice on technique and what to study.

  • links to reading and study advice because in order to succeed in the exam you will probably decide to make a plan of further study using the ideas from the course.

Screen Shots from the Module One Moodle
Group Project grammarEight groups 2019.pdf

Most people on the course are working fully online and interestingly since we have had to deliver input fully online the pass rate for our candidates has increased. The online live sessions are timed to try and make them accessible to a range of our participants. Usually these live sessions are a mix of weekday evening and weekend morning (Istanbul time).

Groups of teachers work together on the projects using shared documents and mail or whatever communication tools prove most effective for each group. Exam practice is done individually and uploaded for direct feedback from a tutor. There are also forums where you can ask for advice, share ideas and get further support from tutors. Everything is optional (you don't have to do any parts of the course you don't want to, though the more things you join in with, the more benefit you will see) and everything can be done asynchronously (you don't have to be online at a specific time unless you want to participate in the live version of the Zoom).

How much study time you will need will depend on your background knowledge, but it is likely to be a minimum of 10-15 hours a week. The online Moodle room we enroll you in stays open indefinitely and you can continue to use it for further self study (or to catch up with any tasks or activities you missed) until you have passed the exam.

The exam is always in the morning on the first Wednesday in December and the first Wednesday in June. You will need to be able to get to an exam centre to do it. If you are based outside Istanbul you should look for your nearest exam centre on the Cambridge web site where they have an exam centre search box. Because we are a distance centre you can do the exam at any Cambridge exam centre (you are not restricted to M1 centres). We will help you through the entry process with the centre you choose. We enter you as a distance candidate but they will also charge a local invigilation fee.

You do not have to enter the exam in the session immediately following your course. You can choose to take more time to prepare if you wish. When you do decide to enter you will be asked to pay an entry fee to Cambridge English and this is non-refundable (so if you have to enter the exam again you will need to pay the entry fee again). You can read more about how the course works and the thinking behind it in chapter 9 of this British Council teaching publication on Blended Learning.

If you want to apply to do Module One with us, dates of upcoming courses and links to do so are here.


Module two

Doing Module 2 part time

You need input (we deliver ideas and information to you).

We have three ways of delivering input to you:

1. F2F sessions in the office in Istanbul

OR

2. Self study tasks with ideas, questions and tasks which you upload into the Moodle. A tutor responds with a mix of dialogue, comment and answer keys also in writing

OR

3. Flipped input online - you do the self study task alone then come to a Zoom group with a tutor to discuss things and get answers (you will still get some written feedback too). We only run this option when enough people commit to the idea of attending the Zooms , but lots of people have passed using system 2.

All our part time Module Twos have a live Zoom two-hour Q&A slot each week where you can come informally with questions for a tutor (or just hang out and listen to other people’s questions if you find that helps).

And you need output (you write assignments and teach and we - and sometimes peers - watch).

There are currently several ways of doing your teaching practice. Cambridge announced in October 2022 that temporary adjustments for remote and online assessment of DELTA Module Two have been made permanent. Which means that we plan to continue delivering fully online part-time Delta Module two courses.

This means that we can offer the following options for teaching practice.

a) In Istanbul with an ITI Delta tutor in your classroom

b) Where you are based with a local mentor in your classroom (and sometimes with video back up as well) and an ITI Delta tutor works with the mentor. More information about what a mentor needs to be and do here.

c) Live stream your F2F lesson to an ITI Delta tutor (a ‘cameraman’ films and streams the lesson through Zoom, Teams or Skype)

d) Teach your class virtually in Zoom or Teams and an ITI Delta tutor watches you directly in the platform. If you do not have online classes we run classes for participants to use or if you have online classes in a different platform we can arrange slots for you to bring them into our Zoom.

If you are doing a part time course, you will usually be using input method 2 self study tasks ( if Zooms are running and you can make the times you can join in with Zoom follow up sessions as well). If you are in Istanbul, you can express interest in F2F input, but this will depend on enough people choosing this option. You can choose from teaching practice methods a) F2F, c) live streaming and d) online.

If you are outside Istanbul you will certainly be using input method 2 self study tasks ( if Zooms are running and you can make the times you can join in with 3 Zoom follow up sessions as well). You can choose from teaching practice methods b) local mentor, c) live streaming and d) online classes.

Doing Module Two Part time

Advantages

  • Time to absorb new ideas and try them out between assessed lessons.

  • Teaching students you know (so you are more confident about things like ability and familiarity).

Disadvantages

  • The impact on your free time / social life for six months not just six weeks

We start part time courses early in September, December, March and June. Over on the right you can see videos from past graduates talking about how to do to the course and what they gained from it.

Doing M2 on an intensive course

Come to Istanbul to do the intensive course over six weeks, when you will eat sleep and breathe Delta, completing the bulk of your assignments while you are here and teaching in volunteer classes.

Advantages

  • It is shorter (so while you give up six weeks, it gets it over and done with all in one).

  • You will be in a gloriously rich environment of experience and culture (courses have varied from 3 to 36 people - though in the case of the latter, split into various sub groups for different things so it doesn’t feel too ‘big’ and you still feel looked after) and you get to watch lots of people teach, work with them in input sessions and generally see a really interesting array of ideas, approaches and beliefs. Layered on top of up to 15-20 different nationalities on any given course is the fact that a lot of those teachers are also teaching in countries they are not natives of. Age also varies widely.

  • You become very focused.

Disadvantages

  • Most people say it is the single most intensive and stressful thing they have ever done (they also say it is the most useful and productive thing they have ever done, but they often don’t say that till later).

  • It is very difficult for us to be more flexible about a place on the intensive course (timing, postponing etc) if you really do find it is more than you can cope with.

Things that are exactly the same on a part time or on an intensive

  • assignments (in terms of what you have to write and teach to create a Module Two portfolio as these are set by Cambridge)

  • guidelines, forum responses and on line reading sources and links (the content in your Moodle).

  • access to tutors This is true in so far as much of the dialogue between course tutors on a part time course in a city as big as Istanbul is mail, forum, written feedback in assignments and occasionally Skype based, and what can be a surprising amount of support on the intensive (given evenings and weekends and when everyone is or isn’t in the building) is also conducted this way. Given that those who do an online part time Delta will have a local mentor for some live support and the online elements remain the same this is similar across all three formats.

To persuade you of how similar they are, see links below to the overview / assignment schedules for

December - June part time Istanbul June / July intensive Istanbul sessions assignments Part time December - June

We run an Istanbul module two part time course each year starting in mid December for June submission, the online part time module two course is designed to allow people to join at the monthly intervals (in early September, December, March or June) and there is an intensive module two course each June / July over six weeks (for end of September submission) and each February / March over six weeks (for June submission).

If you want to apply to do Module Two with us, dates of upcoming courses and links to do so are here.

You do not have to have passed the other two Modules, but we strongly recommend doing Module One before Module Two and if you are planning to do an intensive we recommend doing one and three first as it helps you a lot to deal with the pressure of writing an assignment every week.

If you want to apply to do Module Two with us, dates of upcoming courses and links to do so are here.

Module three

We run an Istanbul module two part time course each year starting in mid December for June submission, the online part time module two course is designed to allow people to join at the monthly intervals (in early September, December, March or June) and there is an intensive module two course each June / July over six weeks (for end of September submission) and each February / March over six weeks (for June submission).

If you want to apply to do Module Two with us, dates of upcoming courses and links to do so are here.

You do not have to have passed the other two Modules, but we strongly recommend doing Module One before Module Two and if you are planning to do an intensive we recommend doing one and three first as it helps you a lot to deal with the pressure of writing an assignment every week.

If you want to apply to do Module Two with us, dates of upcoming courses and links to do so are here.

Module Three course design option or management?

Module three course design

You identify what a group of learners need and design a course to meet those needs.

You must have access to a group. You don’t have to be teaching them, though you will need to collect data from them, so it is easier if you are.

You choose a specialism from a list (which includes things like EAP, business English, teaching monolingual classes and young learners) and read and write about that specialism

You work with a group that fits with that specialism and do a needs analysis to establish priorities for about 20 hours of a course (which might be standalone or 20 hours of a longer course).

You set goals for the course based on the priorities you have identified and design a course which should allow them to meet those goals.

You devise assessment tools that will help you establish whether the course has met its aims and also show how you will evaluate it.

You read about your specialism, but also about:

  • Needs analysis

  • Course design

  • Assessment



If you are not sure about whether you would enjoy this option or not, try reading

Graves 2000 Designing Language Courses Heinle and/or Richards 2001 Curriculum Development in Language Teaching CUP


Module Three management option

You identify a need in a language teaching organisation (LTO) and plan a change that would meet that need.

You must be able to access some organisational information (about staff or customers or things such as marketing). You don't have to be a 'manager'.

You choose a specialism from one of four management areas (academic management, human resource management, customer service, and marketing) and read and write about that specialism.

You focus on an aspect of the LTO and use situation analysis tools to identify key priorities for improvement in this aspect of the LTO.

You set out a change proposal to address a point for improvement. It will have aims and objectives that fit with the strategic goals of the LTO.

You show how the change will be put into practice, how the change process will be managed and how you will evaluate outcomes.

You read about your specialism, but also about

  • Management data analysis

  • Strategic management & organisational improvement

  • Change management

  • Project management

If you are not sure about whether you would enjoy this option or not, try reading

White, Hockley, Jansen & Laughner 2008 From Teacher to Manager CUP and/or Robbins & Judge 2010 Organizational Behaviour Harlow, Pearson.

Both courses run as a part time option each autumn and spring with December and June submission in mind. You don't have to pass other Modules to apply.

There are no face to face sessions for ELTM, only for the course design option. It is possible to attend a F2F version of the course design option in the summer (as part of the intensive courses), though you will go on to do the actual work over the following months.

See dates of upcoming courses and apply here.

Will the course I apply for definitely open?

Yes. We run all the courses that we schedule, regardless of the number of participants. You can be assured that any course you apply for will run on the dates indicated (though under Covid restrictions some elements of Module Two have to change slightly sometimes).

Does ITI help with finding accommodation?

Some accommodation options are available through Mr Üner Suner (accommodation@iti-istanbul.com for more detailed information).