SDSU's American Language Institute has been training teachers of ESL/EFL since 1981. Teacher training programs include the amTEFL Certificate and the TEFL/TESL Seminar.

The ALI has significant experience in the area of teacher training. The TEFL/TESL Seminar, established in 1981 as the Seminar for International Teachers of English (SITE) program is offered twice a year, in January and August. This intensive three-week program provides a forum for EFL instructors from the U.S. and around the world to discuss and practice the most recent TEFL methods and techniques while they improve their fluency in English.

The ALI also has offered special teacher training programs, such as the CIEE Summer Cultural Seminars for Japanese EFL instructors in 1987 and 1988, and the USIA/LASPUA TEFL Training Institute in 1987 and 1989 for Paraguayan and Uruguayan Binational Center EFL instructors. In the summer of 1990, the ALI conducted a three-week American Studies Seminar for German instructors of English through the German-American Institute of Tubingen; this program addressed a wide range of American social, political, and cultural issues.

In 1992, the ALI was selected by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to host its annual four-week intensive Summer Institute for Chinese secondary instructors of EFL. Since 1993, the ALI conducted intensive eight-week academic orientation and training programs for groups of Japanese high school instructors, sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Education and organized through CIEE.

In 1995 and 1996, the ALI conducted a ten-day overseas version of the SITE Program in Obihiro, Japan, in connection with JOY International Inc. In the summers of 1995, 1996 and 1997, the ALI conducted a successful USIS/Brazilian BI-National Center (BNC) Teacher-Training Seminar for participants from all over Brazil. In April/May 1997, ALI conducted a Teacher Training Seminar in Jordan to assist trainers of English teachers in methodology and the implementation of a new curriculum.

In January of both 1998 and 1999, the ALI conducted teacher training for high-level teachers of English from ICBNA, Porto Alegre, Brazil. For a semester in 1999 the ALI hosted a Professional Development Program for East Timorese Teachers of English as a Foreign Language, sponsored by the United States Information Agency. In 2001 the ALI welcomed a group of high-level teachers of English from Germany to the TEFL program through a new agreement with the German-American Institute (DAI) in Tubingen, Germany, and the program was repeated in 2002. Also in 2001, the ALI began an ongoing cooperative venture with NCB/ICC in Tokyo to provide curriculum and instruction in Japan for Japanese teachers of English.

In March 2002, the ALI conducted a three-week TEFL Seminar for senior officials from universities throughout China. This tailor-made program was arranged between the ALI and the Chinese Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE). In January 2003, the ALI trained a group of teachers from the Instituto Chileno Norteamericano (Santiago, Chile). Additionally, the ALI was honored to host the 2002 SD CATESOL Conference.

In 2003, the ALI launched the amTEFL program, a comprehensive teaching certificate program for native speakers as well as non-natives with extremely high-level English proficiency. The program provides instruction in ESL/EFL methodology, second-language acquisition, and provides job placement assistance. Trainees work daily in ALI classes and have the opportunity to facilitate and co-teach these classes, under the supervision of a mentor teacher. The post-program job placement assistance has helped amTEFL grads to find work in 28 different countries.

In 2004, the ALI was awarded a $50,000 grant from the Fred J. Hansen Institute for World Peace to collaborate with Nangarhar University (Jalalabad, Afghanistan) in promoting English language training with full integration of technology resources.

Most recently, in the winter of 2005, the ALI completed a highly successful four-week training program with middle school teachers from the Gyeonggi Provincial of Education (GPOE) in Korea. This program combined language training with methodology and a wide variety of cultural experiences.

ALI Faculty

The ALI teaching staff has a broad base of experience in teacher training, ranging from Fulbright assignments in Costa Rica, Romania, Japan, and Yugoslavia, to USIA and other seminars in the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand. ALI guest lecturers and presenters from SDSU, other California universities and teacher-training institutes, and San Diego community organizations are chosen for the contributions that they can make to teacher training seminars and for their cross-cultural sensitivity.