Job Discussion Forums

Sashadroogie · Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 6:57 am Post subject:

Ermmm... Enlighten us, please....

paintyourtarget · Joined: 11 Apr 2014 Posts: 7 Location: United States

Sashadroogie · Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2014 1:54 pm Post subject:

Looks like this thread went out of date before there was time to find reasons why the Celta was 'old skool'. Pity. Had hoped there might be something useful to glean. But no. Nothing.

fluffyhamster · Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2014 2:33 pm Post subject:

<Prod prod>. The wheel is spinning but the hamster's dead! Surprised

(Celta Gabbler, by Henpeck Fibsome. Act 29 Scene 2).

Hod · Joined: 28 Apr 2003 Posts: 1613 Location: Home

I did a degree about twenty years ago so it too must be horrendously outdated, with a scroll no doubt scribed in Latin, which I’ll burn as soon as I find it. As most TEFLers have university degrees of varying value, I assume those who studied a decade or more ago will join me?

Back to CELTA, we’ve established unanimously that the whole thing’s outdated, and I’ll add mine to the pyre once found (as it’s also long since lost). Whilst I’m looking, were there any suggestions as to an improved 21st century entry-level certificate?

fat_chris · Joined: 10 Sep 2003 Posts: 3198 Location: Beijing

CELTA out-dated?

Sorry, I've got no time to study for my CELTA, I'm out dating.

Warm regards,
fat_chris

grahamb · Joined: 30 Apr 2003 Posts: 1945

Does that mean you're in the process of expiring, Chris? Wink

Sashadroogie · Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2014 3:22 pm Post subject:

..with any luck, perspiring...

grahamb · Joined: 30 Apr 2003 Posts: 1945

That depends on whether or not Chris is a gentleman:

"Horses sweat, gentlemen perspire, ladies glow." Wink

Trina Marlow · Joined: 28 Apr 2014 Posts: 50

Call me unintelligent or what you may but this CELTA you all speak of...is it something like the Myers-Briggs test like from here? https://www.cpp.com/products/mbti/index.aspx I was just having a discussion about it with my online professional studies group and I had not really known much about it prior to that until I was doing some research on the CELTA and came across this discussion.

nomad soul · Joined: 31 Jan 2010 Posts: 11454 Location: The real world

LongShiKong · Joined: 28 May 2007 Posts: 1082 Location: China

Sashadroogie · Posted: Tue May 27, 2014 11:44 pm Post subject:

Hodcarrying certainly is outdated. Was an honest day's work in its day though...

fluffyhamster · Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 3:28 pm Post subject:

Sasha has been blue for so long now I'm not sure the following will revive him, but here goes.

Lewis, one of the more influential critics of ITT, composed the following list (I'm just typing up the headings) in 1993, on pages 190-191 of the final chapter ('Teaching, Teacher Training and Methodological Implications') of The Lexical Approach, but I'm sure many of his points remain valid.

"Specific criticism of these initiation courses can be identified:

1. Method is valued above knowledge.
2. Lesson 'recipes' are valued above theory.
3. A single method dominates.
4. An outdated model often prevails.
5. Too much emphasis is placed on 'getting the students to talk'.
6. It is assumed students are not active if they are not speaking.
7. 'Reduce TTT' is assumed to be a self-evident maxim.
8. Language sensitivity is largely ignored.
9. 'The pink card syndrome' [i.e. improvised scissors card and glue replace useful study of the many resources already available - FH].
10. Survival is equated with competence. [Lewis then adds that 'This complaint underlines and summarises all the others' - FH]"
.

wangdaning · Joined: 22 Jan 2008 Posts: 3154

I started a thread on this forum before theorizing how I would have felt if my language teachers had used CELTA style teaching methods. Never done the CELTA, but work with many who have. I think it would have turned me off of language learning at my University.

The thing is, as a student it is your responsibility to know what you want out of a course. If you really want to learn, you will do all you can independently, then use the teacher as a person to help you out. This is the best method, but rarely possible.

People often have varying motives for studying, so there is no one size fits all method, and never will be. Does the CELTA, or DELTA even, teach anything about evaluating student motives for learning? For example, moving to an English speaking country for immigration purposes might be a better motive than the company/government mandates the class.

Number one thing about language acquisition is that the student has to have motivation to learn (the teacher might help foster that, but they are not responsible for creating it).