The CELTA Ten Commandments
Say what you like about the Ten Commandments (unrealistic, need a scary fake God to make people pay attention, etc), I think we all must admit that we’d improve our lives and the world by keeping it in mind not to lust after our neighbours’ donkey and the other nine. Ditto with the CELTA Ten Commandments- unrealistic maybe, limited certainly, but almost certain to improve the world of English teaching and our own classrooms if we just convince people that Jeremy Harmer will banish them to eternal damnation if they disobey. And here they are:
1) Thou shalt elicit rather than explain
2) Thou shalt not speak any more than is absolutely necessary
3) Thou shalt keep thy grammar presentations as short as possible
4) Thou shalt use as many combinations of pairs and groups as thou cannest
5) Thou shalt not start the lesson by asking them to open their books
6) Thou shalt collect errors and correct them on the board
7) Though shalt use at least one photocopy in each class
8) Thou shalt use whatever teaching methodology your tutor has told you to, keeping your doubts to yourself till you do your DELTA at the earliest
9) Thou shalt take as many positions as possible in the classroom, including but not limited to: monitoring from the corner, crouching in front of your students and writing on the whiteboard while keeping out of their way and keeping eye contact
Amazingly, could only come up with 9, and you could probably pass with just 5 of them, so why on earth did I make such a drama out of passing the thing??? Any theories on that or candidates for number 10, comments below please:
June 12th, 2010 at 7:17 am
Did you make a drama out of passing the thing? I always assumed you would have waltzed through it…..
June 12th, 2010 at 8:55 am
Does anyone waltz through it?? I got a B in the end, but only by doing away with sleep during the course and reading every book on the list before it. And there started 15 years of making up for lack of talent with sheer slog…
June 12th, 2010 at 9:21 am
Cynically I’d say number 10 is thou should jump through the correct and required hoops
June 12th, 2010 at 9:31 am
Oh, the 10th is easy!
Thou shalt pay an exorbitant fee!
David
June 12th, 2010 at 9:36 am
Thou shalt remember to concept check for understanding…
I certainly I had that one drummed into me when I did my CELTA!
I made a drama out of passing the thing too, as I was juggling family commitments at the time which meant that the doing away with sleep bit was already pretty much boxed off ;-)
Most demanding course I’ve ever done, but I enjoyed it immensely & would recommend it highly to anyone who is planning to work in ELT.
June 12th, 2010 at 10:35 am
I think I might have broken my candidate for number 10, which is “Thou shalt not take Harmer’s name in vain”
June 13th, 2010 at 7:19 am
“thou shalt not disagree with a single utterance from thy tutors, nor question their wisdom, as the the wrath of heaven shall rain down on thee for eternity” – that was my experience. Seen and not heard, whilst depositing a nice wad of cash at the reception upon arrival was the type of trainee that was most valued. As you can imagine, my questioning was not very welcome!!!
June 13th, 2010 at 7:57 am
Is it as important as it’s made out to be? I’ve worked with plenty of people who never did one…. I did it after a year of teaching to find out where I was (and I hate to say this, but I didn’t find it especially difficult – the DELTA, on the other hand…). My next employer had very little idea what it was…
Glad I did it, but in its current form is it just a big, fat cash cow?
Another blog post, perhaps ;)
June 13th, 2010 at 8:48 am
In Eikaiwa, I’d say a CELTA or equivalent means an 80% chance of a teacher meeting a certain minimum level, whereas no training means an 80% chance of noting being that good (yet, but maybe never)
June 13th, 2010 at 8:56 am
Can you rewrite that in English, Alex?
June 13th, 2010 at 9:27 am
Bloody ‘ell, can’t an English teacher be incomprehensible on ‘is day off!
If I was recruiting in Japan, I’d still look for CELTA or equivalent. It isn’t an absolute guarantee, but most people with a CELTA can just about manage in the classroom, and so avoid student complaints and too many students leaving. Most people with no qualifications or experience cannot
June 13th, 2010 at 9:20 pm
I’d agree with that. But that’s assuming the language schools want teachers rather than ‘foreigners who look nice, don’t cause any trouble and don’t outstay their welcome’.
June 14th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
“Though shalt respect thy PPP and thy HLT”??
June 21st, 2010 at 1:20 am
Having suffered in a variety of language classrooms learning languages other than English, these commandments don’t look so bad at all. My teachers, past and present, could pay attention to No.2 in particular and in some cases its less strict version ‘Thou shalt include some time in which you are not speaking or the centre of attention’, and the less strict version of 4 ‘Thou shalt include some pair or group work other than open pairwork’. (With the honourable exceptions of most of my teachers at secondary school).
January 26th, 2011 at 9:20 am
I agree with Sara 100%. Anyone with a critical mind will find CELTA absolutely infuriating. As many people say, you have to jump through hoops, and the tutor is only slightly less perfect than God. I loathe it with a passion (I’m currently doing it now), and I never want to teach for a minute after I finish my course.
The three teachers I’ve spoken to who did CELTA and are now teaching all say they hardly ever use any of the techniques they learned, and see the only advantage in CELTA as being the name. The course is designed for the students with least ability, so if you learn quickly, you’re going to be very bored after the first week when they use 50% of the classes to repeat what they’ve already said. The amount of material they teach could be given the first day in a little book, you could read it comprehensively in a day, and then do the teaching practice (which IS helpful) over the two weeks. Four weeks is wasting everyone’s time.
January 26th, 2011 at 2:03 pm
I think all those things depend on the trainers, to be honest. The problem being, of course, that you have no way of judging your trainers before you pay your money. The other relevant factor is the other trainees, as the trainers will need to go the pace of the majority.
“I never use any of the techniques on my CELTA” is a typical exaggeration that I have probably been guilty of too. What, you never elicit, explain activities or use pairwork??