Teaching with Unlock Level 1: Free Course

About this course

Help early-level learners take part in academic English lessons with clearer instructions, manageable tasks and purposeful practice. This short teacher-training course brings together Cambridge’s introduction and eight numbered teaching-tip videos for Unlock Third Edition Level 1. The videos are free to watch. The student books, teacher materials and digital packs are separate resources and are not included with this video course.

Course at a glance

What you’ll learn

• Identify a teaching idea from each short clip and relate it to a specific classroom purpose rather than copying an activity without understanding why it is used.
• Adapt the amount of language, the task instructions and the support offered to learners working with early-level academic English material.
• Connect a lesson activity with evidence of learner participation, understanding or language use that you can observe during the lesson.
• Create a small follow-up plan for trying an approach, reflecting on the result and adjusting the task for your learners.

Skills you’ll gain

• Level-appropriate teaching
• Activity adaptation
• Clear instructions
• Academic English teaching
• Classroom reflection
• Learner support

Course Overview

Unlock is an academic English series that combines language development with skills practice and critical thinking. This playlist focuses on the teacher’s use of Level 1, rather than providing the complete learner textbook course. Cambridge describes the teaching-tip collection as short demonstrations of activities for reading, writing, speaking, language development and thinking skills. Use the numbered clips as prompts for adapting your own teaching, paying attention to what learners can understand, what support they need and what they should do with the language. The shared introduction is followed by Videos 1–8 in numerical order.

How the course develops

• Watch the introduction first to establish the context, then follow the eight numbered teaching clips. The original video titles are retained so that you can match your notes to the source resources.
• After each clip, note the activity’s purpose and the language demands it places on learners. A useful adaptation changes the support without losing the aim.
• Keep one manageable change for your next lesson, then review what learners actually did. The short format makes it easy to revisit an explanation before planning.

Use the searchable lesson list to revisit an explanation while planning or practising. Keep a short note of the idea you want to apply and return to it after trying it in your own context.

Who is this for?

This course is for teachers using Unlock Level 1, teachers beginning to work with academic English materials and educators looking for small, practical changes to early-level lessons. It can also help teacher trainees discuss how instructions and scaffolding affect learner participation. Level 1 refers to the coursebook materials; the course is teacher training, not a test of the teacher’s own English level.

Before you start

Basic familiarity with teaching English is helpful. Having the relevant Unlock materials will make it easier to connect an example to a real unit, but you can watch the public videos without buying a book. Use your own lesson notes for the independent practice if you do not have the materials.

Put the lessons into practice

Choose one short activity from your next lesson. Write its aim in a single sentence, then list the words and instructions learners must understand to begin. Remove unnecessary wording and prepare one clear model. Decide what you will look or listen for during the activity, such as a relevant response, a useful phrase or a successful exchange. After teaching, record whether the support helped and which part still caused difficulty. Use one idea from the videos to revise the activity, then compare the two versions. This keeps your reflection tied to learner behaviour rather than a general impression that the lesson went well.

This optional activity is provided by WikiFree for independent study. It is not a graded assignment from the instructor. Keep your working notes and separate evidence from assumptions so that you can review your reasoning as you progress.

Certificate / Assessment

The public video training is free to watch. Completing this WikiFree course does not include a Cambridge English exam, a qualification, academic credit or instructor assessment.

Use your notes and the optional practice to reflect on how you would apply the ideas. Completion tracking records study progress; it is not a marked assessment.

Frequently asked questions

Provider: Cambridge English. Videos play from the English with Cambridge channel on YouTube.