Job Discussion Forums

[VladJR87]

So I am doing my CELTA next month in Moscow with BKC-IH. I was warned about my English proficiency during the interview, something I completely expected. I am from the generation and region where we do not learn any grammar anymore in school, and honestly without a little study I would not have been able to tell you what an article or pronoun were.

Knowing that, I obviously intended to do some studying before starting my CELTA. The problem is, I cannot figure out where to begin. I purchased three general books that BKC-IH recommended. The first was full of exercises, I was hoping exercises for me, turns out they are exercises for students while teaching, so useless for me at the moment. The second ended up being entirely methodology, not my concern at the moment. The third is grammar rules, but holy cow is it advanced! I just read a chapter on modifiers and was confused as possible, I know little of it I am retaining, and most of it were rules like when to use 'a' with 'few'... Very advanced stuff. I can see where this book will be very usefull teaching, but it seems for me at the moment... well I do not feel like it is doing what I need.

I am not going to remember all these advanced rules, and I suspect the teaching is not nearly so advanced... so where should I be starting? What should I be doing to build myself a good foundation in English... I obviously speak and write it quite well, it is the grammar rules, the "why" I need!

Thanks in advance .

[TeresaLopez]

It sounds like a student book is actually what you need. How can you teach it if you don�t understand it yourself? Otherwise, to learn grammar terms I would suggest a book called "English Grammar In Use" published by Cambridge University Press. Each Unit explains one grammar point, and it�s use and then has exercises. You might or might not want to do the exercises, but the explanations and examples will give you a leg up on grammar before you start the CELTA. However, if you think modifiers are advanced, you are in for a shock when you start teaching.

[Isla Guapa]

When you were warned about your English "proficiency", were they referring to your use of the language or your understanding of how it ticks? I�m guessing it was the latter.

[VladJR87]

They were referring to my knowledge, not use.

I will look for that book.

I have no problem understanding things in small chunks, if I make a lesson plan on modifiers, and study up on my modifiers the night before, I will have no problem teaching them the next day. But I need to be prepared with a really good foundation for questions students may have that may not be directly from the day's lesson plan .

If I have to pull out my book to explain when to use 'a' with 'few' I suspect that will be okay. But I need to be able to answer more basic things on the fly .

Thanks guys!

EDIT: These are the three books I purchased. Number three is the one I have been reading the most.

1) Grammar Practice Activities Paperback with CD-ROM: A Practical Guide for Teachers (Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers)

2) The Practice of English Language Teaching with DVD (4th Edition) (Longman Handbooks for Language Teachers)

3) Grammar for English Language Teachers

[VladJR87]

[Isla Guapa]

There are two levels, both by Murphy, one for beginners (Basic Grammar in Use) and the other for those at an intermediate level, which is the one you've found. Both come in British and North American English versions.

[VladJR87]

[Isla Guapa]

[TeresaLopez]

My thought was that if you are a native speaker the Intermediate book will probably be more useful to you. As Isla pointed out, it goes into more detail, so will be more useful to you. As you pointed out, you only have to be one day ahead of your students, and perhaps not knowing the grammar terms well will work to you student�s advantage, since you�ll have firsthand knowledge of how long it take to learn and absorb a point.

[Professor]

[Isla Guapa]

[smithrn1983]

Murphy texts are great with students, but I'm not sure I'd have a new teacher use them to study up on grammar. Michael Swan's 'How English Works' is a much better text for your purposes, and I'd also suggest getting a copy of 'Practical English Usage' by the same author. It answers pretty much any question a student can ever ask.

I have a degree in linguistics and over three years of teaching experience and I still get asked questions I can't answer off the top of my head from time to time. I've seen CELTA trainers with MAs get stumped by students' questions before, too. It's ok to tell a student, 'I'll get back to you on that' ONCE IN A WHILE. Study up on the target language the night before, and be sure you know it backwards and forwards. Plenty of good teachers learned grammar on the fly as they were teaching it their first six months. The trick is to know the language you plan to teach, and do your best answering questions that don't pertain to that day's lesson. If they ask you something random and you're not sure what the answer is, don't be afraid to admit you need to look it up, just be sure that you actually do. Students will respect you a lot more if you take the time to look up the right answer than if you try to make something up on the spot when you have no clue. You'll also remember that answer the next time someone asks that question, and you'll be a better teacher for having done the right thing the first time.

Some things I would recommend learning before the course starts are: parts of speech (noun, verb, preposition, adjective, adverb, etc.), verb tenses (present simple, present perfect, etc.), future aspect (will, going to, about to, etc), and modal verbs (may, might, should, could, can, will, shall, must, have to, etc.). These are, IMO, the things you get asked about most commonly, so it's good to know what they are, how they work, and be able to give a few examples of usage off the top of your head. For Moscow, specifically, I'd study up on articles, as Russian doesn't have them, and there are about fifty rules governing their use in English. Russian also has a tendency to use adverbs instead of modal verbs, and only has three verb tenses (past, present and future). Also, there's no set word order. 'Vladimir znayet Borisa', 'Vladimir Borisa znayet' and 'Borisa znayet Vladimir' all mean the same thing.

If I'm not mistaken, the CELTA contains a component called 'language awareness' or something similar, in which they teach you to analyse the language for yourself. This goes a long way in answering random student questions but takes some time and practice to do quickly.

Hope this helps

[TeresaLopez]

[nickpellatt]

Ill chip in with a suggestion too, although I feel guilty as I am also asking you to spend money on more books haha!

Anyway, I would say to ignore Swan's 'Practical English Usage'. I bought this prior to my course, and there was also a copy in my course classroom. It wasnt at all useful for either me, or my peers for the reason you mention with one of the books you have. Its just not accessible and defines grammatical terms with other grammatical terms you dont know...Just not any good for me, and so I ebayed my copy.

What I have used, and feel is the best learning tool, is actual course material. This tends to teach the student in graded language, and through experimentation and usage allows the formulation of rules. I like the 'face2face' series a lot, but to make the most of them, you need to buy both teacher and student books. The teachers book points out or confirms rules and typical errors etc. I find using these resources 100x more useful and more accessible than grammar guides and references books, which are pretty useless for grammar/teaching newbies IMO.

Using course material allows you to learn in the way students do, and whats more, to see how these rules can used in a lesson. After all, knowing what comparatives are and how they work is one thing, using that knowledge to make a decent lesson for students to learn it is another thing.

Dont forget, google is also your friend. A simple search on 'what is a second conditional statement' will lead to lots of results.

A final point. Dont worry too much...most of the people on your course will probably have exactly the same issues. Many teachers are still crap at grammar, so most trainee teachers are going to miles and miles off the pace. I found on my course, that just being familiar with a few things was enough. I also reckon that being able to recognise the English tense system, and to know IPA is more than enough and will put you ahead of the other students on your course.

[Isla Guapa]