What do you learn?
In this post I want to share some of the details of the CELTA course. These aspects should form the basis of any good English language teaching course.
Grammar
If you have grown up speaking English, you may not have a working knowledge of grammar. Of course you can speak the language correctly, but you might not be able to explain why one choice is better than another. My CELTA course was a crash course in English grammar. The course couldn't teach everything in such a short time, but it outlined the key aspects, and importantly gave me the resources to find the information I needed. From there experience was my best teacher.
Attitude
English is not owned by English people. This introduction to the concept of language ownership gave me an understanding of how to approach teaching English. Later, I would learn about World Englishes in depth, but the CELTA opened my mind to how English is used in different contexts around the world.
Lesson Paradigms
A language teaching course must provide a few good methods for structuring a lesson. There is great debate about the best way to teach a language, and ultimately it will be decided by the context, institution, students and teacher, but beginner teachers need to have a framework to follow. My CELTA course equipped me with three different lesson structures to use for various lesson types: Present, Practice, Produce (PPP), task-based learning and test, teach, test.
Skills
Language is not just grammar. CELTA taught me about how to teach the four skills of reading, listening, writing and speaking. It also taught me a little about teaching pronunciation and vocabulary, although I wouldn't really become confident in these skills until later courses.
Creativity
The CELTA course provided me with an amazing opportunity to learn from the creativity of other teachers. As well as seeing our trainers teach, we watched our fellow students teach every day. Working with teachers, or want-to-be-teachers, from all over the world gave me the chance to see how varied, exciting and fun lessons could be. I quickly saw that English language teaching materials were everywhere and could be made from almost anything. This understanding formed the basis of my own teaching style.
Assignments
The course consists of practical learning in lessons where you are the students, application of this learning where you are the teacher, and a fair amount of written work. Lesson plans must be extremely detailed, and 4 written assignments are required to demonstrate your own learning. Lessons are graded by a trainer and your final Pass A, Pass, B, Pass, or Fail grade is a combination of your 4 written assignments and 6 hours of observed practical teaching of 2 or more different levels of learners.
Practicalities
The CELTA course, like others, can be taken face to face or online. You can study full or part time. And, you can take the course in a huge variety of countries. Therefore, everyone's experience will be different. It's not a course to undertake without careful consideration, but it's a life-changing experience. The course set me on my English teaching career and I still use my learning on a daily basis.
You can find more details about the course here: https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/teaching-english/teaching-qualifications/celta/