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Learning a new language and reflecting on the process of doing so can be an
extremely useful component of a teacher development course. Of course, the new
language could be learned online but this experience would have less value in
terms of professional development. I act as moderator for an initial teacher training
certificate and trainees on its courses all over the world are very appreciative of
the insights learning a new language face-to-face gave them about such human
attributes of the good language teacher as empathy, a sense of humour, patience
and the ability to interact informally with the learners. It is appreciation of these
human attributes (Tomlinson, 2008) that is a pre-requisite for the personal and
professional development of the trainees and I think they can only be truly
appreciated through reflection on live experience.

References
Tomlinson, B (2008) The good language teacher. Folio 12/2: 20–23.

Tomlinson, B (2013a) Second language acquisition, in Tomlinson, B (ed) Applied
Linguistics and Materials Development. London: Bloomsbury, 11–30.

Tomlinson, B (2013b) ‘Materials development courses’, in Tomlinson, B (ed)
Developing Materials for Language Teaching. Second edition. London: Bloomsbury.

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