Ladies and gentleman, this guide to the CELTA certificate is based on my twenty years in the TEFL industry and the personal experiences of co-workers and family who have completed it. I’m going to jump into this in a question and answer format to keep it succinct. Here goes…
What is a CELTA?
CELTA stands for Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. It is an entry level teaching qualification that provides graduates with the practical skills, techniques and confidence to teach English using a proven format and strategies that revolve around student centered teaching.
The CELTA name and brand is highly respected worldwide and the owners Cambridge Assessment ensure that standards of the course providers and of graduates remains at a high level.
This means that the 4 week intensive courses have become known for their rigor and level of difficulty.
What does CELTA teach you?
The CELTA covers 5 distinct topic areas which include: Learners and teachers, and the teaching and learning context, Language analysis and awareness, language skills: reading, listening, speaking and writing, planning and resources for different teaching contexts, and developing teaching skills and professionalism.
- Learners and teachers, and the teaching and learning context – This module focuses on the learner and understanding their cultural and language background and how this might impact on how they learn English and the methods they may prefer.
- Language analysis and awareness – This module teaches you the key words and terminology that are commonly used in the ESL profession. You can expect to be able to name and understand the different parts of the English language in terms of its grammatical, phonological and lexis system.
- Language skills: reading, listening, speaking and writing – This module teaches you the underlying principles used to describe reading, listening, speaking and writing skills and how this relates to teaching. Understand the text type that you are teaching may affect the method you use to teach it.
- Planning and resources for different teaching contexts – Get the low down on how to plan effective lessons and how to tailor them to specific groups of learners. Also, get a feel for evaluating the lesson planning process in order to plan more effective lessons in the future.
- Developing teaching skills and professionalism – In this module you’ll learn the basics of classroom organization as regards suitable room layouts and how this might change for pair/group work. How to make use of a range of different materials and how to differentiate your lessons for higher and lower level students.
You will teach at least 6 hours of observed lessons and receive feedback on those, and you will have to submit a portfolio of coursework based on the above topics.
What can I do with a CELTA certificate?
Attaining a CELTA allows you to enter the worldwide job market for TEFL/ESL teachers with a strong degree of confidence that you will secure a job and that you will actually be able to do the job effectively.
Typical job openings for CELTA graduates include: language school center teaching positions in centers such as:
ECC, Inlingua, Wall Street Language Institute and so on, TEFL teaching positions in schools at both primary and secondary school levels.
These can be both public or private schools, university TEFL teaching, Business English teaching in private companies, and finally, freelance teaching is also an option as is the ever growing online teaching market.
Personally, I would recommend getting some solid face to face teaching experience in a real school first before progressing onto any of the easier options.
This will give you the opportunity to really embed into your teaching practice the skills that you have recently learnt and give you decent sized classes to work with.
Furthermore, working in schools provides that extra level of fulfillment where you get to know students that bit more and it also helps you integrate into a different culture more and so is just generally a more interesting and insightful experience.
Employers are well aware of the rigorous and high quality nature of the CELTA course and of the standard of graduates that the course produces; therefore graduates are in high demand around the world.
If you are still on the fence about TEFL teaching in general though you can read my guide to what TEFL teaching is really like, here.
Is a CELTA worth it?
CELTA certificates are worth completing because recent research suggests that 71.5% of TEFL/ESL teacher recruiters openly prefer applicants with a CELTA. In contrast, only 23.6% of teacher recruiters requested teachers have the Trinity Cert TESOL, the CELTA’s main rival. Source
Furthermore, if you end up wanting to transition from being a pure TEFL teacher into being a ‘real’ teacher and work in government schools in your home country.
You will need to gain a teachers license in your home country, a PGCE/NQT status in the UK for example, having a recognized name such as a Cambridge CELTA on your CV is a nice bonus.
This is a mistake I personally made. I did a TEFL certificate from an independent operation which was a very enjoyable and worthy course.
However, years later the name of the operating company offers nowhere near the gravitas and prestige that the Cambridge owned CELTA course does.
Another reason for doing a CELTA is that if you disappear out of the workforce of your country of origin for a period of time and you end up teaching around the world for a while, it is very tempting for future employers to think that you have just been ‘having a jolly up/gap year’.
But if you have completed a CELTA, either at home or abroad, it does kind of legitimize what you were doing somewhat, i.e. it makes your time seem as though it was well spent and that you weren’t just bumming around on beaches somewhere!
Although that is something I do highly recommend also.
Keep in mind, also, that the next logical qualification up from a CELTA is a DELTA and having completed a CELTA helps your application go more smoothly for the DELTA.
People do get turned down when applying to do a DELTA course if it is thought that their current qualifications and experience have not suitably equipped them for the DELTA challenge ahead of them.
Incidentally, if you want to do a TEFL certificate but are not quite sure whether the CELTA is for you then other TEFL certificates I recommend are discussed here.
Is CELTA enough to teach English?
Gaining a CELTA is enough to teach English. Passing the course successfully will leave you with the practical hands on skills and confidence to be able to walk into a classroom and teach a quality lesson to English language learners.
I can absolutely attest to this, whilst I did not actually do a CELTA initially, I did recommend to my sister that she do a CELTA.
She was looking to take a career break from her stressful big city lifestyle and wanted to give teaching a go, after all, her brother and parents were all making a living out of it and seemed to enjoy their work.
In my opinion, I did not really think my sister was really cut out for teaching and she certainly had no knowledge of how to teach before starting the course.
However, after applying herself to the course which she took full time in London, she was indeed able to run a successful lesson.
Whatsmore, she was able to have sensible discussions with me using the correct terminology related to second language learning and the underpinning theory and pedagogy of ESL teaching.
Although she eventually stopped teaching after having achieved what she had set out too, the CELTA had definitely lived up to her expectations and delivered on the claims they make.
So, yeah, I would definitely say that completing a CELTA successfully is worth it and more than enough to start teaching English successfully.
You might also be interested in the article: Can you make a career out of TEFL, here.
Is CELTA difficult?
The four week intensive CELTA course is difficult and is an intense and challenging experience, even for well prepared and credible course attendees. Candidates complete 120 contact hours over 20 days averaging 6 hours of work per day which often turns into more.
Again, I can offer the experience of my sister here, she is a straight ‘A’ student at anything she does, academically she is very strong and always has been, hence her successful career in banking.
She was used to working under pressure with tight deadlines and she is very determined, however, even she had to admit that it was a tough 4 weeks for her doing the CELTA.
She found the lesson planning a particularly time consuming process and she called me many a time for advice and I could feel her agonising over every decision she had to make.
Also try: What is the best value for money TEFL certificate?
By the way, this is perfectly normal it is quite nerve wracking when you first start teaching and you are very aware that everyone is looking at you and they can sense your nerves and are watching you every move!
The good news is I can assure you, that this level of agonizing over lesson plans and long preparation times soon becomes a thing of the past when you finally get started in a teaching job.
Your prep time will come down dramatically out of necessity and due to your growing confidence in your new profession.
In fact, I’ll let you into a secret grizzled veterans of the TEFL teaching trenches such as myself have, a secret called ‘door handle planning’. When you have taught so many lessons so many times you can literally plan your lesson as you turn the handle of the door to your classroom.
That does not mean that the lessons are boring to teach though, every lesson is different, every group of students has different needs and us as teachers are learning more and more each day, but it is pretty cool to be able to ‘door handle plan‘ – just don’t tell your director of studies!
Anyway, I digress, apologies. Back to the CELTA, one of the good things of going through the intensive training is that it does quickly make you bond with a new group of people with a shared interest.
This new group of fellow graduates can often provide you with the new contacts to get jobs in the future.
In addition, the bonds that are created during this time often mean you will have made long lasting friends, the type of friends that you will call on for help with whilst adapting to a new country together, for teaching ideas, and for job contacts in the future – make the most of them!
Can I fail the CELTA?
It is possible to fail the CELTA, in fact, 0.7% of candidates in the UK fail the CELTA course and 1.06% fail in the US. Moreover, the percentage of candidates that withdraw, for whatever reason, is much higher at 4.09% and 3.18% for the same countries respectively (source).
You can fail the CELTA course if you do not meet the designated standards in the two forms of assessment. These are the 6 hours of observed teaching practice of adult classes at two different ability levels, and the four 750-1000 word written assignments surrounding teaching pedagogy.
Here is a link to official course pdf detailing it all.
How do you survive CELTA? Tips and advice
You can survive a CELTA course by preparing yourself physically and mentally for the intensity, scrutiny and level of knowledge required for the course and entering the course with a positive attitude ready to listen and learn.
Read ahead
Typically, this will mean exploring the CELTA reading list in detail beforehand, preparing to dedicate all of your time to the course so deal with other issues beforehand or be prepared to put them off, and making sure you are well rested and healthy at the start of the course.
But that’s just the start of it! Let’s take a look at why people fail/withdraw from CELTAs and some advice to overcome these issues. Here are some of the common reasons for failing/withdrawal and some associated advice:
Get enough sleep
Not getting enough sleep and not being able to function properly throughout the entirety of the course. This is a common one with many students staying up until the wee hours of the morning preparing for a lesson early the next day.
Do not fall into this habit, your performances will suffer greatly. Be organized and start your lesson prep as soon as you can.
Get ideas from other course, students, the teacher, and ESL books so that you always have something to run with, don’t try to reinvent the wheel by coming up with new games and exercises – go with what has been proven to work by others in the past! This will save you time and keep your sanity levels in the ‘safe’ zone.
Manage your time effectively
Not managing your time efficiently so that all the requirements of the course are met in a timely fashion, i.e. deadlines not hit. Again this is linked in with time management. As boring as it sounds make a list of what needs doing and prioritize your list, don’t cherry pick the things that you are good at, just do things according to when they need to be handed in/produce by – simples!
Accept your status
Not coping well with the scrutiny from course leaders and peers. Undoubtedly this is a big one. If you are transitioning from a career where you were well respected and knew what you were doing it can be difficult to accept your new found lowly status.
You need to mentally prepare yourself to be ready to accept criticism from others; including people younger and not as ‘successful’ in life as you might think you are.
During the course, I highly recommend you do more listening than speaking, be humble and don’t take anything personally! People are critiquing your teaching and not you as a person – they are two different things entirely!
Make an effort with classmates
Not getting on with course mates. It would be a shame if this happened to you as it is generally a fertile ground for making new friends in an exciting new career, however, it does happen that personalities clash and people fall out.
As far as humanly possible, bite your tongue it is only four weeks and you never have to see any of them again.
If you feel you need to then speak to the course leader and request that if at all possible you not be required to work with certain individuals. To be honest though, if it reaches that stage then the course leader will already have noticed the friction and will likely be doing what they can.
On a similar note though, when you start working in schools you will no doubt be forced to share a staffroom with all sorts of people, some of whom you simply won’t like.
Use the CELTA as a learning curve in this regard, be polite with everyone, state your case where necessary but don’t get drawn into any protracted heated discussions, life’s too short.
Respect your course leaders
Not getting on with the course leader and course teachers. Suck it up, they know more than you, they have strict rules to abide by and follow, they aren’t going to deviate for you.
You are there to learn from them, speak to them respectfully regardless of whether you agree with them or not. By all means question them but listen to their responses and try and act on their advice.
Remember that you are all in the same boat. Your classmates are going through the same stresses and challenges as you are, so use each other for information, advice and as a support network. It will make your life so much easier.
It is note a competition between course attendees, in fact, far from it, the better the group gel together the better they all tend to do, so make the effort and don’t be a dick!
Keep calm and carry on
Surviving the CELTA requires you to do a lot in a short space of time, develop new skills and remain calm and organised. Get on top and stay on top of the workload from the beginning, and be respectful of fellow classmates and course leaders/tutors.
If you can follow this advice you will have a very worthwhile experience, learn lots and hopefully make some decent new friends to help you launch your TEFL/ESL teaching career with!
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