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Chancellor · Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2009 5:37 pm Post subject: Don't Do The CELTA!

The article linked here was in the TEFL.net online newsletter. Its author sounds like he really didn't think about what he'd be getting himself into.

http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/teaching/dont-do-the-celta/

POSTING THIS ARTICLE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE ENDORSEMENT!

Thankfully, it's a short article but there are comments from various readers below it.

hollysuel · Joined: 07 Oct 2007 Posts: 225 Location: Connecticut, USA

Thanks for posting this...

MDDude · Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2009 7:52 pm Post subject: Re: Don't Do The CELTA!

Chancellor · Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2009 8:00 pm Post subject: Re: Don't Do The CELTA!

MDDude · Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2009 8:14 pm Post subject: Re: Don't Do The CELTA!

SueH · Joined: 01 Feb 2003 Posts: 1022 Location: Northern Italy

"I found it really stressful to stand up in front of a class of people and teach them. Why can�t they make it easier? Why don�t they give us Advanced students we can actually chat to at the beginning of the course- that�s got to be an easier way into it? Or, we could get our students watching a video for one of the lessons to give us a break. Or maybe start our lessons with just one student and then work our way up."

Thank you MDDude, it really couldn't be more obvious... maybe doing an MA or PGCE takes away your critical faculties and sense of humour!

Actually, the comments are funnier than the original article, but for different reasons...

SueH · Joined: 01 Feb 2003 Posts: 1022 Location: Northern Italy

Maybe it was the last glass of wine, but now I've got the giggles thinking about it!

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

I think a lot of the people who left comments on that blog post are probably dead on with respect to what the blog guest writer said. Let's not pick at the article itself without reading those. No sense in beating a dead horse, either.

Personally, I thought the article was not so much satire as a complainer who hadn't been in the business a long time and who had just come off a job that didn't fare well (for any number of reasons), so they blamed their certification.

Snippets like these are probably important for the newbies:

1. No certification is perfect, but they are probably better than none at all if you are serious about learning how to teach.

2. Any certification has its limits, and one has to learn (sadly, by experience) by trial and error what works and doesn't.

3. Age, motivation, and nationality of students will also be factors to consider in designing any lesson plan.

4. If you are serious about teaching EFL/ESL, you will constantly look for methods & techniques & lesson plans, plus professional training, to make yourself better.

SueH · Joined: 01 Feb 2003 Posts: 1022 Location: Northern Italy

Hmm, I've read Alex Case before, and he's obviously been in the business a while, knows his stuff and normally writes humorous material, so although he may be a tad cynical I think this was a satirical article. I don't think I've ever seen him write unreasonable criticism of the business!

fluffyhamster · Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:16 pm Post subject:

Well, if it is satire, it's not particularly sharp/could be funnier. The main thing that came to my mind from reading it is that the CELTA might provide a few pointers (but only a few) that might be useful for teaching intermediate-level multilingual classes in the UK say, but that's about all; lower-level students would probably be better with a bilingual teach-yourself-style course if not a bilingual teacher, whilst higher-level students start to have more specific needs that a plain CELTA-programmed teacher-droid won't be able to satisfy.

SueH · Joined: 01 Feb 2003 Posts: 1022 Location: Northern Italy

Just been wandering, das wandern, das wandern...so:
http://www.tefl.net/alexcase/about/my-tefltastic-life/

You may be right FH, but I refuse to use L1 in my elementary school class (although I cheat by doing the odd discipline and instruction in the local L2)..

Incidentally, I may be a CELTA-droid, but the college where I did it made it very plain (including in the transcripts) that the CELTA was only a beginning.

fluffyhamster · Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:54 pm Post subject:

Heh, not the "Should we use the students' L1 (in monolingual-class setting)?" question again! (But seriously, I've posted more than enough comments over the years - usually in connection with mention of 'Direct' ( ~ Method), if you really really fancy searching and digging 'em out).

It's not so much the CELTA programming/brainwashing in itself, but the fact that a lot of people seem to have no more space on their internal "drives" for anything besides and beyond it (not that this apparent criticism applies to you, SueH, or anyone else with lots of posts to their name! Wink

).

Mr. Kalgukshi · Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 3:14 am Post subject:

An off-topic posting has just been deleted. Please stay on topic and avoid personal asides and comments that have little or no relationship to the topic of the thread.

Yes Sir I Can Bogey · Joined: 23 Mar 2009 Posts: 201

SueH · Joined: 01 Feb 2003 Posts: 1022 Location: Northern Italy

Heh, heh, Fluffy, I'm not getting into that discussion either, but the context (ooh, do like that word, it can cover such a multitude of sins) of the classes in question is that I am an 'assistant' and legally there has to be a class teacher in attendance. (They trust me enough to leave me on my own quite often). Their own language teachers use L1, and I prefer not to let on that I speak L1 fairly well, otherwise the little blighters would all be talking nineteen to the dozen in L1 all the time and taking the lazy way out.

Other private classes for adults are a different matter: horses for courses and all that.