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If you ever wonder: What is the most practical and effective way to teach? Am I truly being helpful to my students? Then CELTA is just the right course for you.
Last December, I took the CELTA course in London. It was an incredibly intensive and, to be honest, quite a stressful one-month course, but I gained priceless experiences from it. Every other day, we observed experienced teachers in real classrooms, wrote observation reports, and discussed them in detail. Each day, we also listened to our fellow trainees' lessons together with our teacher trainers and evaluated them from different perspectives. Every day, we were required to prepare a detailed lesson plan, and the following day, we had teaching practice with real adult students from various nationalities.
Although I have years of teaching experience, I still had some lingering questions: Am I realy teaching? What are my strengths and weaknesses as an English teacher? These were my starting points when I decided to take CELTA.
One of the most valuable pieces of advice that I received during the course was that the teacher is not someone who teaches in the traditional sense. A teacher can only facilitate learning — she can never be fully certain that she has "taught" something. As we were told, “We need to facilitate learning rather than explain the language. This is not an easy task, but it is very gratifying when it works.” The idea is that students are capable enough to draw their own conclusions, and the teacher’s role is to guide and support that process. CELTA truly changed my perspective on the role of a teacher.
Another turning point for me came when one of my tutors advised: “Don't sell information to your students for free.” I realized that effective teaching isn’t about giving answers directly. Instead, I learned to include concept-checking questions (CCQs) in my lesson plans and use them to elicit answers from students. Nothing should come for free in the classroom. If a student asks a question, you should ask it back: “What do you think it is?” Then guide them to find the answer themselves. This is how meaningful and long-lasting learning can happen.
One of the many things I learned was the importance of having a clear purpose for each task. For example, students should not be asked to read a text aloud in class, as this can make them nervous. They may focus too much on pronunciation and overlook the meaning of the text. The aim of a reading activity is reading comprehension — not pronunciation.
There were 14 trainees in my course, 12 of whom were native speakers from different parts of the UK. It was a great opportunity to see a variety of accents and cultures. However, many of them were quite weak in language awareness and teaching techniques. I was asked questions like “Is this -ing or past participle?” by other trainees. So, my dear friends, we realy do know this job well!
There are 8 qualification levels in the UK. CELTA is at level 5. Considering that a bachelor's degree is level 6 and a master’s is level 7, CELTA is a highly valid and well-respected certificate — almost equivalent to a university degree. I strongly believe it is worth taking.