CELTA & CL

Just to put the following posts into perspective, I’ll just give a quick overview of the Cambridge CELTA course.

CELTA is an absurd shorthand for “The Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages” (formerly known as “Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults” hence CELTA). It is an initial credential for teachers of English as a foreign language.

CELTA is aimed at people with little or no teaching experience and makes a solid attempt at packing core EFL theory and six hours of reviewed teaching practice into a four week course – a Swiss army knife which should just allow trainees  to land on their feet in most TESOL environments around the world.

Topics include all the four skills and four functions, lesson planning, classroom management,  specific learner groups, language clarification issues, the lot. But to me, the real power of CELTA – the blade of  Swiss army knife – are the handful of Lesson Plan Outlines (LPO). They are to the English lesson what shells are to cooperative learning: A pre-fabricated re-usable container that will allow an effective delivery of various content with minimal teacher preparation.

In these modern times, the pre-fab aspect fascinates, especially to any roving supplementary teacher. But what I really want to explore is the potential of the clear goals of the delineated stages, combined with the student-centeredness of carefully picked shells for each stage to turn students into teachers … and turn the teacher into a ghost.

Home page of Cambridge CELTA