Job Discussion Forums

[Impala]

Hi there. I am a certified teacher in Canada. I have my BEd, but a lot of the ESL obs that I am interested in require a CELTA. It is costly ($2400.00). I am told that it is intensive and hard. Is this the case? I was also told that my BEd was hard and intensive, but I breezed through that.

[spiral78]

http://forums.eslcafe.com/job/viewtopic.php?t=87886

[tttompatz]

[nickpellatt]

Hopefully some teacher trainers may come along and chip in with some of their observations on this thread. Based on my limited experience of one course with one other state school teacher, I believe that the course can be tricky for certified teachers. Methodology can be quite different I believe, (as a non state certified teacher I can only comment from my perspective of course) so you may have to 'unlearn' many of the things that have become embedded in your teaching style and start from scratch.

The certified teacher I did my course with was lovely, and I am sure she was a wonderful teacher in her setting, but she floundered and struggled in the EFL classroom. I dont even know if she passed to be honest, as she had to resubmit assignments after the course and we didnt keep in touch.

Without a doubt, your qualification do trump a simple CELTA certificate, BUT whilst they might be higher qualifications, they arent directly related to teaching EFL so they are no indicator of your ability to teach EFL. I have worked in China, and in the UK, with state certified teachers, and whilst they often had great classroom management etc, they didnt come over as great EFL teachers IMO. This is a comment I have seen from other people on the forums too.

Anyway, I do think CELTA courses and the like are very manageable, and my experience is that they arent as intensive as often suggested. They do require quite a bit of commitment in those four weeks and good organisational skills but with I think almost anyone who understands that can complete the course without too many problems. Its kinda important to leave you ego at the door too, and accept somethings have to be learnt from scratch.

Prior to the course, I would always suggest learning the English tense system, and getting familiar with IPA is a good idea too. Very few people on my course had much knowledge in that area, and some familiarity with such things would give any trainee a good headstart IMO.

[JonnyBBad]

I am doing my CELTA in two weeks time, so will let you know just how hard/intensive it is. Reading various sources I have come to the conclusion that it will be more stressful than any four weeks within a degree (my degree anyway). But if you're committed, good at managing your time and are able to take criticism and build upon it, the certificate should be yours. The general advice seems to be to start your assignments straight away, liaise within your group of teachers, use simple/proven lesson plans from the internet, accept the CELTA way of teaching, read Jeremy Harmer's "How To Teach English" before you start, get to know the verb tenses and be prepared to only have either Saturday or Sunday free.


A good read, that should definitely be taken with a pinch of salt, are the comments on this page:
http://www.teflwatch.org/failing-the-celta-200618.html
It contains all sorts of nightmare comments from teachers with 25 years experience failing and the like, but there are more positive insights too.

Jonny

[riverboat]

For what it's worth, I did my CELTA with two certified teachers (from the UK) who did very well on the course. I don't recall either of them ever mentioning that they had to unlearn a lot of what they already knew, I'd imagine because teaching adults is very different to teaching children, and teaching English language is very different to teaching a traditional school subject.

For me, CELTA wasn't exactly hard in terms of the amount it taxed my brain or abilities. I never felt overwhelmed, or like I didn't know what I was doing or wouldn't be able to cope. But it was intensive in terms of the sheer amount of hours it required me (or anyone) to put in over a four week period. First of all the course itself is basically 9-5, then outside of that you have lesson planning to do basically every evening- and the lesson plans have to be pretty elaborate which takes a lot of time, it's not really possible to short-cut. As well as preparing your daily lesson plan, there are four other assignments to be fit in over the four weeks, and also materials to prepare for lessons (tapes / flashcards, whatever) and other little random tasks you might be given. The work isn't difficult compared to degree level work (IMO) but that doesn't mean that if you breezed through a degree you'll be able to whizz through CELTA - because there just is a *lot* of work to be done in four weeks, and there's no getting around that.

[mozzar]

I'd agree about the time issue. But just get some lesson plans off the internet and adapt them - that'll save you so much time. Wish I'd thought of it at the time.

A funny story from my course was a girl staying up til 4am trying to find the just perfect picture to express anger. Moral of the story: don't be too anal.

[maastricht]

[s10czar]

I recently did my CELTA in Vietnam (which is where I presume you'll be taking yours as you are on this post?)

In my opinion YES it's difficult, and certainly very intensive on your time.

But so much of the experience depends upon your unique situation...

For instance, will you also be new to Vietnam? Most of my classmates were new to the country as was I. In my case I was brand new with just two days "in country" before begining the course. Much of my struggle was thus a struggle WITH VIETNAM and not strictly a CELTA thing. It takes time to adapt to this place, especially the traffic and the weather.

Also, in Vietnam you can expect an extreme shortage of resources and almost unbelievably archaic technology to work with. As in overhead projectors, caset players, and copy machines (make that "machine" as in only one) which continuously jam.

Next, do you have experience with teaching or are you just starting out? Experienced teachers struggle the most up front but quickly adapt and by the end of the course are far far ahead of the newbies in terms of what they can actually apply from the course.

Finally, do you need to find a job right away? Is money tight? This added pressure will increase your stress quite a bit in the last week.

I don't want to give you the wrong idea as I absolutely LOVED my time in Vietnam taking the CELTA course. It was actually my vacation for 2010 and one of the best times in my life. But I wasn't worried about finding a job and money wasn't tight as I was drawing a paycheck the whole time.

The best student we had was a girl who had been in Vietnam teaching for two years, had some money in the bank, and a job lined up in Saudi immiediately following the course. She just surfed through the whole thing, collected her "A", and was on her way.

The rest of us struggled to one degree or another based on our circumstances.

[the_otter]

Mine experience sounds like s10czar.

I took my CELTA last year. Only one of us got an A - he had been doing EFL for years in Japan, and seemed to find the whole thing rather easy. Apart from him, all of us struggled in one way or another. Some lived too far from the centre, so their days became ridiculously long. Others had been teaching in state schools for years, and found it very hard to do things a different way. A couple weren't native speakers, and so may have felt a little insecure. I am very shy: the teaching practice was hell.

The trick, as someone else said, is not to be too anal-retentive. Make notes on what they tell you in lessons and base your assignments on those notes. Don't worry about the validity of the methodology you're taught - just make sure that your assignments are on message and your teaching likewise. Be appreciative of criticism. The course is not difficult on the head, but it's wearing on the body. At my centre, they favoured long lessons: often, I'd find myself zoning out about half way through and using fizzy drinks to stay awake and interested.

[1st Sgt Welsh]

[JonnyBBad]

[the_otter]

[DMcK]

I'd agree with the fact that it isn't too difficult but the sheer amount of work you have to do creates the problem. That being said, it's really about the individual as it isn't that much work if you are great at organising your time.

When I did it I was new to even thinking about grammar and am not the best at organising myself so I was one of those who had regular 4/5am nights. I think I even did 2 or 3 all nighters.

On the other hand there was a non native PHD student on the course who was incredibly well organised and seemed to be finished her work by 8 or 9pm every night at the latest.

[s10czar]

no Top, I was at ILA in HCMC

I like ILA by the way, so I'm not bashing them. Their CELTA instructors were top-shelf and great people.

In the CELTA you have to set a rythm that works for you. For me, I ABSOLUTELY HAD to have a few Saigon Greens after class. So on lesson planning nights, I would get up at 1:30am and do it all before class.

Others would go straight to work after class and not get to bed until 1:30am.

Here's the most important thing...do the work and YOU WILL PASS. My final lesson was an absolute catastrophe but I still passed.

and have some fun...I drank a lot of Saigon Green but truth is, I should have drank even more