How will I be tested and certified if English is not my first language?

During practice sessions, we will ask that you teach segments of the SIY program in English. We may also ask you to teach short segments in your own language, which sometimes gives us a better feel for how you hold the room, how you embody the material and your facilitation skills. Occasionally we may ask existing certified teachers who speak your language to also review your materials and provide SIYLI with their feedback. The combination of the proceeding, along with program assignments, provides us with enough data to make an assessment of those participants for whom English is their second language.

For certification, we require that all materials be submitted in English. This includes written statements, but most crucially, recordings of you practice teaching SIY in English in front of an audience. We understand that you may only want to be certified to teach SIY in your native language (i.e. not English). The entire Teacher Training journey is taught in English and the best way for us to assess your knowledge of the materials is by seeing you teach it in English. It is for these reasons that we require all your Module 6 materials submitted to the certification panel to be in English.