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spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

I know folks with Master's in TESOL who say that Celta certficates are worthless. They believe that you need two years in training at a qualified university to be an effective TESOL instructor.

This doesn't recognise that there are different teaching contexts. For that very large pool of students who can only afford/who only need basically-qualified teachers, a CELTA is certainly valid.

More specialised and demanding teaching/learning contexts (should) require higher-level quals.

At the uni LC where I work, we have (for now) a core group of MA Ed/TESL/TEFL qualified teachers, and a pool of CELTA-level freelancers. The mix works fine - not all of our work is specialised or demanding, though much of it is.

Sashadroogie · Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 9:42 am Post subject:

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

s for MATESOLs - no guarantee of success, though this seems counter-intuitive. Depends on the MA itself. An MA which gives you a solid grounding in EMT or syllabus design is of huge value, but it depends on what job you are applying for. If it doesn't provide any practical training in language teaching itself, then a CELTA or equivalent would in fact be 'superior' if you want a job teaching language learners,

Good point. the MA holders on our team mostly also have CELTAS, which they earned earlier in their careers, and the 5 or 6 MA programmes we graduated from all include practical training (and critique:))

Iceman33 · Joined: 08 Nov 2009 Posts: 91

carl_00 · Joined: 05 Jul 2008 Posts: 82

Sashadroogie · Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 9:25 am Post subject:

All the best to you Carl. If you already have a job lined up, then I wouldn't waste your cash on an on-line TEFL course. Buy a book instead:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Books/s?ie=UTF8&rh=n:266239,p_27:Jeremy%20Harmer&field-author=Jeremy%20Harmer&page=1

Harmer will teach you as much as any on-line course, but for much much less moolah.

Good luck.

Sashadroogie · Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 9:37 am Post subject:

I never heard of an MA in TESOL that is not heavily focused on practical training. I could be wrong, but I never say anything with much certainty these days.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that. Indeed I used to myself. And to be fair, I am certain that the vast majority of reputable MAs are focused practical teacher training. However, I have also had to work with a few MA qualled colleagues who would probably have excelled in compiling a test battery, planning a 'culture course' or 'cross-cultural communication' etc., yet they were hopelessly out of their depth when confronted by elementary students struggling with auxiliary verbs. When asked why, they responded that it wasn't on their course, and seemed genuinely aggrieved that they had been given classes with students who 'knew nothing'.

Dunno. Maybe it was one of those on-line mickey mouse MA TESOL. But at the very least, with a CELTA or equivalent, you know what you are dealing with: an pre-service certificate which prepares newbies for further guidance on the job. Nothing more, but nothing less either.

carl_00 · Joined: 05 Jul 2008 Posts: 82