Job Discussion Forums

[spiral78]

VietCanada wrote (regarding CELTA and equivalent certs)

[VietCanada]

[Sashadroogie]

On meds because of the Celta? Sounds like they may have been off their meds to begin with.

Celta, and Trinity, seem to be in a no-win situation. On one side they are attacked for not being intellectually rigourous enough - "everybody passes!" On the other, there is a constant Greek chorus bewailing the fact that there are these people called trainers who didn't at all times re-enforce the trainees' over-inflated view of their own brilliance.

The truth is that the course is what it claims it is - a pre-service course which prepares people with next to no experience of teaching English for classroom life. It does it very well. Half-way psuedo-docs? What ever does that mean? Trainees ambushed? Were they asleep during the entrance interview - did they not fill in their own application forms?

Perceptions of self-esteem may be the real issue here. In fact, there is another thread which seems highly relevant to this topic.

[Sashadroogie]

Here it is:

http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=99868&highlight=

[spiral78]

[Sashadroogie]

Common sense, or at least one lesson in a classroom of foreigner language learners should tell us this.

[Sashadroogie]

BTW Spiral, I know many trainees who failed the Celta. Yet the insult abounds that Celta is 'so easy nobody fails'. Perhaps this is true of the online course of the topic thread, but it isn't true of the reputable on-site cert course, no matter how they are slighted.

[spiral78]

[TedZar]

The most consistent complaint I've heard from people on the CELTA course is that they are often given assignments on short notice that can take all night to do. That they could have easily been given the assignment over a weekend or with a couple days notice and it would not have been a problem. And - that if anyone complains or questions the efficacy of the poor planning, they are evaluated on a more rigorous basis.

[santi84]

I did a full year university TESL certificate (10 university courses at the 400-level) and it was the same, I spent 6-8 hours per night prepping course work and lesson plans. The only difference is that it was 3 academic semesters instead of one month

CELTA sounds like a pretty decent option for those willing to take their education seriously. I didn't even know about CELTA until I graduated. One month of intensive training to become an English teacher is really not that bad, is it?

[Denim-Maniac]

I did a Trinity Cert TESOL, and on the final day of the course was one of the two who passed from a class of 10. It was expected that the majority would go on to pass after re-submitting assignments, but it was also pretty clear that some people just weren't going to pass. I didnt stay in touch with everone, but some people clearly realised they werent cut out for EFL and didnt even re-submit their assignments.

On my course there were tears from three different people. There was a lot of talk of pressure and stress. One of the people who decided it wasnt for them was a state school music teacher, another was an older guy who had been an experienced trainer for estate agents.

I dont think the problem was the course trainers, or the nature of the course. I do tend to think that most of the trainees were under-prepared though, and they seriously under-estimated the very nature of TEFL. Just as people turn up at language schools around the world with their unrelated BA and expect to be English teachers, they turn up at CELTA training schools with cash to pay for the course and expect an automatic graduation. The idea of 'I can speak English so I can teach English' is often taken into the course I think. The music teacher and estate agent trainer both suffered, because I feel they thought their experience before the course trumped anything the course could teach them. Twas a rude awakening for some .. and you see this attitude with people teaching who say they dont need CELTA.

I also think people dont tend to organise themselves well, something that is compounded by doing the course away from home. Some of the people on my course were taking it away from home, which was a deliberate choice. They sometimes went out together in the evenings, and went out to party one weekend. Others did slightly silly things like print out 30 colour images and laminate them all for a 5 minute warmer activity in one 45 min observed class. Taking 2 hours to prepare a 5 minute warmer (or similar types of lesson planning) isnt a wise move IMO. My course trainers kept saying we didnt need to re-invent the wheel, but many of my peers spent more time making material than they did planning what to do with it.

Id been reading about the course on forums like this long before I did it, and as a result I was nervous, expected the worst, and had cleared my schedule meaning I could really focus on passing. As a result, I actually found it quite easy ... had all my assignments completed before week 4 started, and had quite a few half-days in the final week.

Approach the course in the right way and I think its actually an enjoyable experience, approach it with slight disdain and poor prep or organisation skills and its pretty tough.

[TedZar]

[Denim-Maniac]

[Coolguy123]

Question - on the CELTA website it says that an online certificate is no different than a certificate gotten in person (i.e. it's the same). So how would an employer know/care that you went to in-person class if you simply specify the cert on your resume with the school you got it form online?

[tttompatz]