Korean Job Discussion Forums

EMKAYES · Joined: 04 Dec 2006

Hi there.

I'm due to take the CELTA course early next year. I've heard it is a pretty intense course and I was hoping to get a heads up on the kind of assignments they give you.

What kind of questions are on the written assignments and what is the word count on these assignments? 500?-5000?

Any information from those who have completed the course will be much appreciated.

Thanks again.

mrsquirrel · Joined: 13 Dec 2006

Three assignments each no more than 10,000 words.

Tough doesn't describe it, prepare for hell, teachers crying, tutors shouting, people storming out of the room and quitting on their final assessment.

Dome Vans · Guest

Hmm. Not too sure about that Mrsquirrel.

Be prepared for hectic. No time to do anything for four weeks. Beware of competitiveness between teachers. Highly rewarding, learn a lot. The assignments are easy. Not too sure about them being 10 000 words long.the four assignment I think were max 1500 x 4. And even if you don't pass first go you can resubmit them. It's no problem.

I failed three of mine and then resubmitted. Passed no prob.

One assignment is about 'The classroom and teaching methods.' Another about tenses, past perfect etc, with timelines. Your strengths and weaknesses that you noticed during the course and how you can improve, this is the important one. And another which I can't quite remember. Sorry.

Be ready for 10-16 pages of lesson planning. Phonemics etc.

Really really fun. Especially if you're doing it abroad.

EMKAYES, whereabouts and who are you doing it with?

mrsquirrel · Joined: 13 Dec 2006

I may have been telling fibs.

It was easy for me but then I had experience.

No experience it takes it's toll.

LateBloomer · Joined: 06 May 2006

It's no walk in the park but it's not that bad. (Our tutors didn't yell and no one stormed out of the room or quit on their last assignment.) I did well on all my assignments but several people got a chance to re-do them.

I can't remember all the assignments (didn't bring that disc to Korea with me) but I can give you an example. After teaching a class of pre-intermediate students several times: we were asked to identify the common mistakes they made in speaking English, to give examples of a particular mistake, and to make suggestions about how to help students correct that mistake.

In our CELTA class, how you taught was more important than the assignments. Those who were good teachers had ample opportunities to improve on their assignments and got help if they needed it.

EMKAYES · Joined: 04 Dec 2006

Hey,

Thanks for the info Dome Vans.

I'm doing it in Manchester England through the Manchester Academy of English.

Have a couple of years teaching here in Korean under my belt and plan to return after the course.

LateBloomer · Joined: 06 May 2006

How could I have forgotten the strengths and weaknesses assignment? Probably because I wanted to! The one good thing about it is that you can write it directly from your assessment sheets.

Incidentally, it was the experienced teachers who had the most difficult time in my course. The one person who failed it was an experienced teacher. In a CELTA, they try to teach you a particular method of teaching and some people who are set in their ways have trouble with that. Be prepared to have every movement critiqued by your tutor and your peers.

Dome Vans · Guest

Latebloomer wrote:

widespread123 · Joined: 12 Jun 2007

I am taking my CELTA course sometime during March in Southeast Asia, either Thailand or Vietnam. I must say that I am pretty nervous because I have heard the stories about the difficulty, the price for the course is EXPENSIVE and many people say that it's a waste of time. we'll see i guess.....

Dome Vans · Guest

mrsquirrel · Joined: 13 Dec 2006

My course we had two rather strange Americans - an ex-Wall Street lawyer who was rather highly strung and a strange lad whose whole existance depended upon getting a B (which he didn'). One of our trainers was Russian, an excellent teacher/trainer.

Americans had difficulties with her. I think her shooting from the hip style of critque upset them a lot. They did storm out and have tantrums. Bloody pests they were.

The others on the course weren't bad, one UK lad who couldn't hack it and had a red face a lot of the time, others were sound though.

I'm sure the Rusky Yanky verbal war was more to do with the Cold War than anything else.

Classic moment in the after class session - Rusky woman has just watched the American lad crash and burn again.

R "Did you listen to my guidance from the last lesson"?
A Yes.
R You obviously didn't because you didn't teach one of the aims that you proposed to or even followed your lesson plan.
A Yes I did, I followed what you said
R So why didn't you teach what you were meant to teach then?
A Yes I did, why do you always have a go at me? You never have a go at the others, why is it that you feel that I don't do things proprely? What have you got against me?
R Why have you paid to come on a course if you aren't going to listen to your tutor?
A (ginger btw) sits there getting redder and redder and redder until it looks like he is about to explode.

Tutor has to then ask us what we thought of his lesson. Razz

oh it was fun.

Dome Vans · Guest

aarontendo · Joined: 08 Feb 2006 Location: Daegu-ish

When I did my CELTA the trainers were very helpful and honest with us. In all fairness, I was told on the phone that they weren't going to pull any punches, and not to get defensive. I felt it was a worthwhile trip all in all, plus hell I was in Thailand it was great ;p

People make it sound like you're not going to enjoy yourself or anything during the course. The course is intensive but not THAT intensive. I was able to still get away and have fun on the weekends. But definately during the week I would say you've got 4 hours of homework minimum.

On the subject of the papers, they're not bad. I had only one returned for re-submit (The grammar one). Since I knew I was terrible with grammar that was no surprise, think all but one in my group had to re-submit it.

Might have helped that I did mine straight out of university though. One of the guys who finished university 10 years before had a few rough spots but he pulled through just fine.

On a side note, been looking at the DELTA (yeah I know its worthless here in Korea). Anyone else surprised by how damn expensive it is? I suppose since it's taken in lieu of a Master's degree in some countries it's not so bad, but still...

mrsquirrel · Joined: 13 Dec 2006

Never held back at the sessions, always asked them if they wanted the good or the bad first.

I was lucky though the three in my group were ok, the other group had the neurotic mental lawyer wench.

She spent in excess of 15 hours on each LP, really! She even got to the school early to get help from the tutors and she still was shiite.

aarontendo · Joined: 08 Feb 2006 Location: Daegu-ish

Yeah I remember also that they asked us for good or bad first. First week they focused a lot on the positive stuff, by the 2nd week basically they said ok we know what you're doing right we're not going to mention it so much. Was a bit more depressing after that. Luckily, I had a nice small group and we all knew that there wasn't any harm in critiquing each other.

Ah, and don't lose your CELTA. They won't replace em I guess heh ;p