I took the CELTA in Bangkok in late 2009. 

It is a rigorous experience, but if you treat it like any other job, you'll be fine.  The problem some people have is that they are usually in a new and exciting city, and they fail to keep up with the work and don't take it seriously.  There can be serious information overload at times, especially if you are new to teaching (as I was).  My #1 piece of advice: stay on top of it.

The course is focused at adult learners.  It's excellent in that regard.  Some of what you learn isn't that applicable to children.  They just don't have the patience for it.  The center I took the course with (ECC) did have a free bonus week about teaching young learners.  I took that and found it helpful.

Re: pandering to the tutors.  I wouldn't call it *pandering*, but if you completely ignore everything they teach you and just do your own thing, you will have problems.  In fact, sometimes the people with the most problems are experienced teachers.  They find it hard to adapt to the CELTA teaching strategies.  The tutors love to see you take their advice.  That's the point of training, isn't it?

Overall, it was a beneficial experience.  It gave me the confidence to walk into a classroom and teach.  I think the teaching environment is great: 10 or 12 adult learners who want to be there.  My only frustration is that a lot of what I learned can't be used in a classroom with 40 kids. 

I'm happy to answer any specific questions you have. 

Thanks. What you both have said has reaffirmed what I've been thinking about the course. Perhaps pandering was the wrong word to use. What I meant is exactly what you said, that you are there to be taught a very useful method for tutoring and the trainers want to see you use and commit to it. I have heard that it's the older, more set in their ways teachers that struggle. I am young and fresh to teaching and yearn for this kind of experience to help me educate learners in the best possible way.

However, my main concern is about the grammar side of things.
I'd consider myself to have a low-intermediate knowledge. Would you recommend seriously brushing up before the course or is everything included at a reasonable enough pace to digest?

   

However, my main concern is about the grammar side of things.
I'd consider myself to have a low-intermediate knowledge. Would you recommend seriously brushing up before the course or is everything included at a reasonable enough pace to digest?

Grammar is what everyone worries the most about...and it's probably one of the least important things in the course.  I don't recommend studying grammar that much before the course.  In fact, in the CELTA, you will have sessions on grammar.  The major thing to practice is language awareness.  You will likely get a pre-course task that helps you with this.  If you want a small sample, check out ECC's CELTA packet and look at the pre-interview task (2009CELTA.doc).  It lists some things to think about re: language awareness.

After you teach, there is a feedback session.  Your tutor and the other students will give you advice: what you did well, what needs improvement, etc...  Rarely was grammar even mentioned with my group.  The big things were maximizing student talking time (this is Number #1 with all the tutors), using the concepts taught in the course, board work, and using simple language that students can understand.

I'm not saying grammar is unimportant.  But really, it's about #7 on the Top 10 list of things you should worry about in the CELTA course.

As far as grammar and the CELTA goes the best advice I can give is this: Concentrate more on getting your students talking in both controlled and free activities.  That's what gets you the merit/distinction grade.  I did my CELTA 6 years ago and I've learned that just focusing on grammar is not beneficial to the students.   

Familiarize yourself with the PPP/ESA lesson framework and it's fundamentals, then look at guided discovery frameworks.  If you do this then you will sail through the practical side of the CELTA. 

I'd also say an understanding of phonics and the IPA would serve you better than an in-depth knowledge of grammar. 

Lastly, forget the Swann book - "Practical English Usage" it's not user friendly.  Focus on Harmer - The practice of English language teaching,  M Parrot - Grammar for English teachers, Thornbury - How to teach grammar and The resourceful English teacher, can't remember the author. 

Those books will see you through the course no problem. 

I've been yearning to get over to Germany/Europe for a while so I am doing the CELTA course in Frankfurt this March.  After two years teaching elementary in Korea, I am stoked to work toward some serious teaching.  Finding a nice amount of work in Germany is going to be a bit of a challenge, from what I've heard, but I figure it's worth a shot.

:)

I did CELTA in the UK whilst working full time. It cost around £1000. It was not massively hard academically (if you coped with your degree you should cope with CELTA), but it was hard to juggle full time job commitments, social life and studying. my social life almost went out the window for those 6 months (had to do part time course cos of job).

there are written assignments to do as well as the practical teaching elements. everything is intense and thorough. the grammar part is hard, but you can easily cope with it with little pre-reading although i wish i had done some. Raymond Murphy is probably one of the best grammar Gurus on the market, try to get hold of one of his practical English usage books if you can. the tutors will give you a load of information, but it's all useful.

you have to submit lesson plans to the tutors for every practical session you do - and i found they liked detail. they also liked justification on why you have chosen a particular activity, for every activity. always think WHY, WHY, WHY when you are planning. at the beginning it took me ages to plan each lesson, even if i was only given a 15 minute slot to teach. this was because of the detail of the lesson plans. i had to produce the lesson plan, the aims of the lesson and anything i hope to improve upon, or pitfalls i might foresee. i had to produce a breakdown of all the grammar i was introducing and any new vocab - definitions written down and any pictures of necessary. i had to produce copies of all the worksheets i was giving the students, or any of the activities (e.g. flash cards, matching cards etc) for the tutors too. so anything you create for the students make one extra copy for the tutor.

there were 4 written assignments, one of which was in conjunction with a 45 minute teaching session based on authentic materials. it was my best lesson and one of the most detailed i produced, but i enjoyed it a lot. there was also an assignment based on common mistakes that students from certain countries make due to them thinking in their language - e.g. absence of 'a', 'an' and 'the' because their native language does not use articles. that involved interviewing and tape recording a student and then analysing it. i stupidly picked one of the best Japanese students the college had and she barely made any mistakes!!! difficult assignment.

i loved the course, but it was hard work. you have to be prepared to work at it. i liked the fact i was also working at the time because the course did not consume me as much as it could have done. the college tutors told me that some people doing the course full time get really consumed by it and can have a bit of a break down! i was lucky as i worked for the college at the time, in a different department and had access to lots of great resources and a bit of time during the working day for assignments and planning as i could call it 'professional development'!!

good luck to you all if you take it. i think you will enjoy it but it is hard work and you have to take it seriously.

I've heard many good things spoken about the celta course...the books are great but these days you can even see the authors speaking about teaching on youtube..for example:



Good luck to anybody who decides to do the celta!

Quote from: vitamin-d on January 05, 2011, 11:27:24 AM

The CELTA in Ecuador is a little more expensive, but I'll be in the area anyway.
The course is 5 weeks, rather than 4; is situated on a private beach/eco resort, and the $2250 cost covers the course plus five weeks of accommodation (in private cabañas :D) and all food.

Vitamin D, please post a link to some information on this course. Sounds amazing!

Certainly: http://www.celtaecuador.com/
Thanks for all this information, everyone.
I'm certain it will prove to be very useful...

I know that the CELTA certification is not required to teach in Korea but I have a few questions about it....

1)  Do you think CELTA should be required to teach in South Korea?
2)  I mostly want to take the CELTA to get experience before I am thrown into a class room.  Is there an alternate cheaper program that I could look into that allows me to gain experience?
3)  If the CELTA program is my best option, is it best to take it in the country where you will be teaching or is it best to go somewhere else (possibly where it is cheaper)?

Thanks so much for any input you can give.

KadinG

No x 3

CELTA is only a requirement when the company offers Cambridge exams.  It's a good certificate to have if you're planning to remain an ESL/EFL teacher but otherwise it's an expensive course that doesn't offer much in return.

This is absolutely wrong on so many accounts. CELTA is not only a requirement for companies that offer Cambridge exams. If in the future you were to try and work in West Europe a CELTA is more sought after than an MA TESOL. It's practically impossible to get a real job there with out it. The course isn't that expensive, $1600 for 1 month intensive training. It sounds reasonable to me. Doesn't offer much in return? Making you a significantly better teacher sounds like a good return to me, what kind of return did you want. You will also get paid, on the SMOE pay scale, $200 a month more for having it, but that is also true for other TEFL's, even th waste of time over the web ones.

O.P in answer to your questions:
1) No, although an extremely beneficial course there are other 120 hour in person TESOL certificates which I have also read are good courses.
2)Read reviews, but CELTA is considered the most prestigious entry level qualification and is accepted every where in the world.
3) Go anywhere you like, it makes no difference.