Job Discussion Forums

[ecubyrd94]

Would it make one more qualified and what kinds of jobs would it lead to? I always saw people in the Han Republic post about having this "special" certification and now I'm seeing similar posts here.

What would the benefit of that be for someone that was a certified teacher back home, has a simple TEFL cert, and has many years of classroom experience both home and in teaching ESL in Asia?

I'm always looking to better my craft, but would this lead to better jobs and be cost effective?

At my current school there is no difference in the pay grade for a CELTA from the TEFL cert that I have.

[Denim-Maniac]

Ill just begin my post by stating this is based on my experiences only, and of course, people can be free to disagree.

I would guess I have worked with and alongside around 150 teachers in my EFL 'career'. I have worked with good CELTA/DELTA types, bad CELTA holders, but I can only ever remember one good non-CELTA holder and that includes people who are certified teachers in their home countries. I dont expect that to be a popular view...but it is true based on my experience. (Ill add the one good non-CELTA guy was a history teacher from the US, who was also the first to admit he was perhaps only good in the EFL context we were teaching in.)

It is often mentioned in the general and newbie forum that the skill set for teaching EFL is often different to the approach used in mainstream teaching. I dont have experience of mainstream teaching but based on what I have seen in three places in China, and around 100 summer EFL courses in the UK, I can believe this to be true.

Im not so sure a CELTA/DELTA would always equate to more money in China, but I do believe it should give the opportunity to improving your teaching practice...and this in turn should/could lead to better job opportunities.

I think some employers (Wall Street) as an example, only accept CELTA/Trinity qualified teachers.

[Shroob]

When I was in my home country, I was trying to decide between an EFL or 'state' school career. In the end I decided to try the EFL route, for a few years at least. I had been accepted onto a PGCE course in the UK, however turned it down. From my experience I will tell you that EFL experience counts for very, very little (if anything). The course provider basically ignored any experience that wasn't in a state school. Rightly or wrongly this is the approach they took.

CELTA in China seems to be unkown to most employers. A basic 'TEFL' certificate will suffice for most positions. Though, I'm still very glad I spent the money on the CELTA. Not only does it keep my options open for teachign elsewhere but, importantly, it gave me the confidence to walk into a classroom and know I could deliver a lesson to a professional standard (at least that's what I tell myself!). It's by no means the end of your teacher training (you learn so much 'in the field'), but it's a very good start in my opinion.

[TechTeacher]

Everyone is talking about CELTA/DELTA TOEFL etc....
I am assuming American State teaching certificates are more recognized than those...

[Denim-Maniac]

Yeah .... I think any state teaching certification is highly valued, and its often a pre-requisite for entry to teach at International schools, where salaries are higher.

As I mentioned above though, being a qualified teacher in your home country can mean very little in terms of actual ability, knowledge or the skill set required to teach English as a foreign language. X years experience teaching *insert subject here* to native speakers at home doesnt always have much bearing on teaching English, using L2 as the language of instruction.

Id be more interested in a CELTA holder with one years teaching experience than a certified teacher with 5 years experience of teaching geography in the UK. The original post mentioned 'wanting to become a better teacher', IMO job specific qualifications (even at entry-level like CELTA) are likely to help achieve that goal....at the moment maybe a few employers recognise that....and perhaps more will in the future.

Im the course tutor on a CELTA-esque course at the moment, and I took my trainee to observe a very experienced teacher of English, who holds US certification to teach English back in America...and even my trainee (who is struggling on the course BTW) came out thinking he was better than she was, and wondering why she didnt follow any 'rule' of ESL instruction that we have been discussing for the last two weeks.

[ecubyrd94]

[Denim-Maniac]

Yeah, Ive also seen some bad CELTA trained people so it is an individual thing. Doing the course is expensive but I think its worthwhile for most people and I dont think you can fail to learn something, but its value is also dependent on what type of teaching you do too. I teach small classes of adult students and in my setting, its extremely useful.

The course itself (or mine at least) was structured to include a lot of input sessions to discuss and practice methodology with a number of EFL specific assignments to complete. Observation was also a large part of it, and I think I observed 6 lessons from the trainers and countless more from my peers...which were subject to heavy scrutiny and feedback. The teaching practice was also observed with lots of feedback and subsequent goals and aims set as a result of that.

In China, I think its just Wall Street English that insist upon it .... I know its a pre-requisite for almost all jobs in the EU though.

[RalphReggin]

from what i can tell teofl and cetla certification is a waste of money, you can get jobs in china w/o it . dont see the point ,,,