Job Discussion Forums

[nickpellatt]

Wow - I never worked later than 8pm at night, and I always had at least a full day each weekend to myself. I also had an afternoon off during week 4 as I didnt have an observed lesson scheduled so just went home at 12.30 lunchtime. My peer trainees did have a different experience though.

It would seem my experience is NOT the typical one, but I think it can be. Its all about being organised, and I am quite good at that. I'll add a few other tips, based on my experience.

One of my modules was called 'Unknown Language', and this is a module in which all trainees are taught a new language from scratch. The idea is you start to understand things from a learners perspective, and see some methods used to teach language too. DO NOT TRY TO LEARN THE LANGUAGE, use this time to observe the teacher and how he works. When I had to submit an assignment on this I was not asked to show my competence in the new language, but to comment on how it was taught. A lot of my peers struggled with this as they spent their time concentrating on learning the language, not observing the methods.

Also ... I had to do a 1-1 teaching assignment. Part of this involved interviewing a student, assessing their language needs, writing a plan and a summary etc. I did one 30 minute interview, and worked with what I had, some of my peers did interview, then a 2nd, and decided they still needed more information and arranged a 3rd interview. This assignment wasnt time consuming for me, but took ages for others.

Final note...the 'language awareness' assignment was given out quite early on my course, (first week) and had to be submitted at the end of the third week. If you have the same experience, start the assignment when they give it to you...none of my peers did this.

[Mrs McClusky]

Mine was intense, took motivation, a couple of people flapped it and went home half way through and 2 failed........ But they were on the piss every single night, me never more than 5 nights a week

To be honest I really enjoyed it so the tough elements of it were great.
I loved getting a distinction at the end and the highest grammar test score too.

I have found it useful numerous times and still from time to time look back into it during intense periods of depression.

Mrs M.

[JonnyBBad]

Out of interest, can I just ask which countries/cities Mrs McClusky and nickpellatt did their courses in? Obviously it's standardised, but I'm just curious. Thanks.

[spiral78]

If you're interested in locations, I can vouch that the CELTA and all the generic on-site courses offered in Prague (where there are five or six very active coures providers) are approximately the same in terms of demands and intensity. Ditto those I know of in other European countries.

It's really the standard - I very much doubt any particular location would (or should) be substantially different.

There have been suggestions for some time that newbie-level courses (CELTA and equivalent courses) should really last five weeks, to give trainees more time to internalise, consolidate, and sleep:-).
The problem with the idea is mostly logistics and costs - a 30 day course fits more easily in terms of accomodation for people coming from abroad. Adding a week would obviously boost the costs overall, and the current price of such a course is already a major consideration for many.

I've taught on 30-day courses and wished myself for another week, but it's not really feasible, I guess.

[JonnyBBad]

@spiral78

I am doing my CELTA in Hungary. I can see where you're coming from regarding the length. Incidentally, The April CELTA at IH Budapest is actually 5 weeks. It's not exactly spread over the extra week though I think it's just a week off in the middle (I assume for Easter) but it was enough to persuade me to do it that particular month. When looking at locations, I think somewhere in Barcelona offered a 5 week course too.

I'm looking forward to rising to the challenge now and am confident that I'll come out of it with a sense of satisfaction.

[spiral78]

Yeah, I think that break in the middle could make a nice difference in terms of giving time to catch up and consolidate.

Enjoy your course, and good luck:-)

[nickpellatt]

I did my course at my home town in the UK. As Spiral says, I dont think courses are vastly different between training providers. There will be some differences though, as I believe course providers must follow a core structure, but have some freedom around other modules and delivery methods. I had a friend who did her course at the exact same time as me, and quite a few parts of our courses were different.

One thing I often suggest, which I dont think I have here, is that if possible, students should give careful consideration to course location and consider doing it at home rather than abroad. Lots of people disagree with this, but one possible reason for the course being quite easy for me, is that I was able to take it in familiar surroundings with a good support network around me. I didnt have to return to a hotel room, find a place to eat, and then do coursework. I went back to my own home each night and ate homecooked food provided by my family before sleeping in my own bed. The value of that cant be overestimated IMO. I found the workload to be less than I expected, and whilst challenging, the course was easier than I expected.

How much of this is due to taking the course in familiar surroundings? I dont know, and can only guess...but I know from travelling and teaching in other countries that settling in and finding your feet in a new place can be tough...adding a CELTA course to that experience isnt something I would like!

Good luck with your course though! Come back and let us know when you pass it!

[spiral78]

I think one serious consideration on the doing a course at home or abroad is exactly where one is going to start working.

If (like Nick, I think) you are aiming for a country like most of Asia where jobs are found from abroad and some local assistance will be offered by an employer, it's probably easiest to do a course at home. If you're going to a place where an employer will meet you at the airport and arrange for your housing and local orientation, then I agree that the advantages of doing a course at home are great.

If you're targeting a country (like most of the European region) where you have to be there to do a job-search in person, then doing the course in the target country can be a nice bridge into the country/culture. Most training centres deal with airport pickup and local orientation, you can form your first social group with other trainees, and a school can give you useful info regarding reputable local employers.

[s10czar]

do the course abroad

ESL happens abroad, so study abroad

"train as you fight"

...when you look into those asian or hispanic or Turkish faces and realize that YOU must provide value NOW, it's a growing experience

[Mrs McClusky]

[JonnyBBad]

There is definitely some good sound reasoning behind doing it at home. Familiarity with the location, makes things easier no doubt. But for a lot of prospect TEFLers who are thinking of doing a course while still high on the thought of going somewhere cool to teach English for year, doing it abroad trumps doing it at home. Money-wise, it can also work out.

Financially, for the OP it's restraining, Canada tends to be a pricey flight to somewhere "foreign". Not sure how much $2400 Canadian dollars is, but unless you head to the actual country where your desired ESL jobs are and do it there (and gain employment there afterwards), its probably more economical to do it at home.

In Europe however, with flights that can cost as little as �0.01 plus tax, and the currency disparities, it's actually cheaper to go to the other side of the continent to study. Considering my EasyJet fare was only �17.00 each way and a weekly travelcard just up the road to London (30 mins away) is �42.00 (+�22.00 weekly parking), it's hard to resist. The price of the course is also about �400 (give or take a little) more expensive in London than in Eastern Europe.

[Nemodot]

Hi perversely I think/observed that you are best to do a CELTA with no prior teaching experience as you may have developed bad habits. Same as learning to drive with your dad then taking lessons.

I taught for two years and like others just passed. Those that had no experience did better as they listened more to the tutors! It is a delivery method and quite rigid BUT like most courses you jump through the hoops. Don't ask why wag you tail and jump through the hoop!

My trainers in uk were nice and I would recruits them - hammersmith, Ealing and west London college - and they said bet to do the celta before a pgce. I agree with that as I can see why English teachers that do a celta suffer.

Btw it might not seem obvious at the time but the celta is very good training. At my school an English teacher looks after EALnstudents and doesn't really understand how to teach it.

[darkcity]

I am a stingy *beep* but the CELTA was the best $3000 I ever spent.

I believe they will tell you to buy Practical English Usage by Swan -- don't, it's expensive, cryptic, and we hardly ever referred to it.

The other book, Learning Teaching, is worth more than I paid for it. There are lots of useful exercises and example lesson plans in there.

I'd had about a year and a half of teaching prior, but after taking the CELTA, I realized that there were a lot of elements from my teaching that were missing. The CELTA gives you the confidence to do a lot of things that you might feel kinda goofy doing (modelling/drilling, checking understanding).

What the others are saying about prior experience possibly being a hindrance is true. Some of my fellow classmates with no experience got a high mark. I started out strong but slowly deteriorated as more methodology came in and I was forced to change my teaching style. Ultimately it was for the best, but a bit embarrassing as many of the other students hailed me as the Second Coming since I was the only one with experience.

Also, while I've never taught history or math, ESL is a totally different method. All in all, I could not imagine myself teaching effectively without having done the CELTA.

Oh, and the course is not as bad as they make you think. It is hard, challenging, and highly practical, yes. But if you budget your time well, prepare, and don't get all stressed and worked up like most perfectionists do, then you should be fine. I think only one person in my class of 12 failed, and that was because she was not a native speaker.

[HLJHLJ]

We'd already decided to do a CELTA in latin america because we wanted to work there, but we eventually chose the one in Ecuador because it was run over 5 weeks.

I already had quite a lot of teaching experience beforehand, but in unrelated subjects. I'm glad I did the CELTA though, because as darkcity says, it's a different ball game really. It IS only a basic/starter qualification, but I think I'd have struggled to get started without it.

[Kirkpatrick]

I just have to jump in on this. I have been teaching ESL for over 12 years, since around 1994. All I have is a Geography degree. 6 plus countries. Anyways, I learned through trial by fire. Been a head teacher, designed curriculum and all that shit. Ans now I am going through a teacher training program for the Callan method. Beleive me it goes against my grain big time. I was taught to make the students speak at least 60% of the time not lecture the students. What's the profession coming to?